Technology

[ Success Maker | Equipment & Facilities | Peripherals | Software ]

SuccessMaker

One of the major focuses at McKinley Elementary School over the past two years has been the implementation of Success Maker.  Success Maker, a software program that was purchased with funds from a Comprehensive School Reform grant, uses innovative strategies to assist teachers in improving students’ reading and math skills.

The Success Maker program provides individualized, self-paced instruction for each student in reading and math.  After the student completes 300 questions in math and 250 questions in reading, Success Maker places the student at the appropriate grade equivalent based on data gathered during this time.  After this initial placement, the Management System tracks each student’s progress and automatically provides the level of instruction appropriate to each student’s needs.  Additionally, it mixes the content, skills, and strategies taught and provides additional practice in areas in which performance is weak.  Because each student proceeds at his or her pace, this allows the student to take on greater academic challenges while building new skills, knowledge and strategies.  Success Maker has proven to be extremely effective in motivating students.                       

Immediate access to on-demand assessment tools is another innovative strategy employed by Success Maker.  Teachers have access to numerous reports which provide immediate and accurate information detailing student performance.  Examples of the information available from the reports include:

·        Number of correct problems out of the total number attempted and the length of the session.

·        Cumulative number of problems, percent correct and total time on the system.

·        Grade level equivalent gains in reading and/or math to date.

·        Specific objectives with which a student or group of students is struggling.

·        Projection of the time needed to achieve a certain gain or to reach a particular grade level goal.

These reports are used on a daily and weekly basis by the teachers to monitor growth and to prescribe any needed intervention.

Each student in grades 1-6 spends 1/2 hour per day in the lab working with the math and reading components of Success Maker. Students who have been identified as scoring more than 1.5 years below grade level in math and/or reading receive compensatory time on Success Maker using classroom computers, extra computers in the lab, the learning centers and during the Kidscope after-school program.       

The key to the success McKinley students have experienced lies in the effort put forth by the classroom teachers.  Faculty and staff members have actively contributed to and participated in the successful implementation of this program. Each teacher accompanies his/her class to the lab and along with learning center teachers, teacher aides and the Success Maker facilitator provides one-on-one tutoring as students work with Success Maker. In addition to this on-the-spot intervention, teachers also carry the responsibility of reviewing reports and prescribing any needed intervention while motivating students to achieve.

We are excited to see the growth that has already taken place in math and reading.  Community members and parents are welcome to come and visit the Success Maker Lab.

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Equipment & Facilities

McKinley Elementary School houses over 128 networked computers with CD-ROM capabilities.  The network provides access to building and district servers.  Teachers and students have the ability to print to any one of over 10 networked printers in the building.  A T1 line allows easy and fast networking while using Internet and email. Email is allowed for staff only. Internet is allowed for students, but only under teacher strict teacher supervision.

Technology is dispersed throughout the building as follows:

• iMac (Success Maker) Lab – a lab of 27 iMacs used primarily for daily Success Maker sessions.  The computers in the Success Maker lab are also used for the STAR Reading and Math on-line tests given to grades 2-6 three times a year and the DACS assessment administered to grades 3 & 6 twice yearly.
• Classroom Mini-Labs – Each classroom Kindergarten through sixth grade as well as the Learning Centers have mini-labs. Kindergarten has a mini-lab of three computers and the first grade labs contain at least 4 computers. Grades 2-6 have labs of 5 computers.
• Wireless iBook Computer Lab – McKinley School has a mobile wireless computer lab consisting of 18 iBooks available for classroom use. This lab allows teachers to take the iBook computers to the classroom or anywhere in the school to work on a variety of projects.
• Gateway Lab – McKinley school has recently added a lab of 14 Gateway computers in the library.  These computers allow students to utilize the Internet or Appleworks to complete technology projects.
• eMate Mobile Lab – eMates are used in 3rd grade classrooms  for teaching keyboarding skills. McKinley School has access to an eMate Lab during one semester each school year to instruct third graders on keyboarding skills using the Type to Learn program

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Peripherals
 

• LCD  Projector – McKinley School has a LCD projector available for classroom teachers to check-out and use for classroom presentations when instructing children. The LCD projector is a mobile unit that can be hooked to any computer for presentations. 
• Classroom Presentation Systems – Every classroom teacher at McKinley Elementary has access to a television presentation system.  This system connects one computer in the classroom to a mounted TV system and is used for large group presentations.
• Digital Cameras – Three digital cameras are available for teachers to check out to use to enhance the curriculum in the classroom.
• Digital Video Camera – Teachers also have access to a digital video camera which they can use in a variety of ways to enhance the curriculum.  Each iMac in the school also has software designed to create and edit digital video.

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Software
 

• STAR Reading Program – McKinley School uses the STAR  Reading program up to three times per year to measure children’s reading to show growth and determine ways to assist children.
• Accelerated Reading (AR) Program – McKinley School has adopted and utilizes the Accelerated Reading Program. Children check-out library books from our school or Watertown Regional Library and can then take a computerized comprehension test over the book they read. Children can see their reading growth and earn points for each book they read.
• Library Circulation System –  The McKinley Library circulation system allows for easy checkout of material and for classroom children and teachers to use their classroom computers to gain access to information about materials that are available in the library. The library also has computers available to use for accessing the electronic card catalog or taking Accelerated Reading (AR) tests.
• Success Maker – Success Maker is a program comprised of many different software programs.  The programs can be categorized as Foundation Software, the programs students use during their daily sessions, and ExploreWare, software used for enrichment and/or remediation.
  • Foundation Programs-Reading Readiness (K), Initial Reading (Grades 1-2), Reader’s Workshop (grades 3-6), Math Concepts and Skills (grades K-6)
  • ExploreWare Programs –  Discover English, First Adventures Bookshelf, Reading Adventures Primary, Reading Adventures, Reading Investigations, Math Corner, Math Investigations, Spelling Skills.

·        Specific Software for Teacher and Student Use – McKinley School uses specific district software for teacher and student use.  Software and hardware updates are handled on a cycle approach outlined in the District Technology Plan.

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