Hello everyone! We have some exciting updates to our education department we are excited to share with you.

Technology in the classroom is a wonderful tool we utilize here at Maple Lake Academy. Research suggests that students are more engaged, curious, and motivated to learn when technology is appropriately utilized in the classroom. Our school serves a diverse group of students with different needs, and having technology available makes it not only possible but easy to individualize education. 

We are very excited to introduce the newest addition to our technology: New smart boards! These new boards provide a way for us to make our lessons far more interactive than they have been in the past. We have been able to add a kinesthetic element to our teaching by having students come up to the board to write answers, do math problems, or draw pictures. Here are some pictures of our students enjoying this new technology:

A student using the math software to visualize and solve a math problem.

Students in history class filling out a timeline of events for the Peloponnesian War.

You can see the annotation tool provides different colors, marker size, erase, and undo options.

We can have up to 20 points of contact on the screen at a time, meaning groups of students can be interacting with the technology at the same time.

An annotated PowerPoint presentation about the battles of WWII. 

The boards have some really great features. There is an infinite whiteboard space on which teachers and students can write notes, draw pictures, or use math tools. Teachers are able to annotate presentations and draw attention to the information we’d most like the students to focus on. We have built in timers and spinning wheels that allow us to engage the students in friendly competitions and group projects. On top of all of that, the new boards have a great sound system and wonderful clear screens. 

We have already seen an improvement in student engagement. The students are excited to come to class and learn and the new tools are engaging them exceptionally well. Research has shown that advanced technology in the classroom leads to more engaged and capable students, and we see no reason why our situation would be any different. We expect to continue to see the level of engagement increase, and as we do we know we will see the results reflected in the academic work of our students. 

Written by Social Studies teacher Stacey Medley