Winnetka Public Schools Foundation

Technology used to purchase, play, organize and store music has been dramatically transformed with the creation of the iPod. Exciting and innovative possibilities abound using the iPod to play music, and to create and share it. Additionally, iPods will be used across the district to enhance, record and assess student learning.

One to four service projects that focus on environmental issues will be implemented. Each project will begin with the identification of an interesting environmental topic within a current unit of study. Students and teachers will research ways in which the topic is reflected in a nearby area. They will then explore ideas for relevant service projects. Children will do projects based on their own capabilities and actions.

This project will integrate an engineering unit into the 3rd grade science curriculum that will complement the current design challenges, Electric Circuits and Waterwheels units. The Kids Wind Weightlifter Wind Turbine is a wind energy kit that explores the use of wind as a power source.

Responding to parent requests to help reinforce math skills, these online games will allow all Greeley students to have access to their favorite games from home. Games are an integral part of Everyday Mathematics, one of our core sets of math materials. Students enjoy playing games so this makes the learning fun. Also games help students develop the ability to think critically and solve problems. Math games provide an alternative to repetitive drills, reduces the use of worksheets, and offers an almost unlimited source of practice materials.

A natural link to the Froebel Gifts (blocks) is to use Legos for instruction of perimeter, area, scale and design in the 4th grade. The Legos will also be used to teach problem solving and creative thinking with children of all ages. Working with Lego materials will be integrated into the Resource Center, Math Lab curricula, and homerooms so that all children at HW will develop an appreciation for Legos as tools for learning.

Staff will support the writing and implementation of new skills to be shared within the classrooms, school and with colleagues. Two teachers will attend a summer institute (funded by the District) that focuses on the training of a supportive, dynamic learning community based in the consciousness and practices of Nonviolent Communication, based on the work of Marshall Rosenberg. Through curriculum writing, they will develop and organize the skills learned and experienced to create an implementation plan at the classroom, school and perhaps, district level.

A Graphic Tablet will be purchased and used as an affordable and mobile interactive whiteboard for student presentations and teacher lessons. The Tablet will serve as a brainstorming and collaborative tool that students can pass around to add ideas which will be immediately saved on the computer and projected on the screen for the entire class (group) to view. In addition, students will have a tool to create images for their projects reducing the need to get them from the internet.

This will enhance the final 6th grade inquiry unit in which students work in teams or as individuals to challenge advertisers’ claims of products that are available to consumers. They will test to discover if the claims are truthful. Students will choose a product and devise a fair test that would verify advertisers’ claims. Funds will be used to purchase lab equipment.

5th grade students will build inventions inspired by Pulitzer Prize winner Rube Goldberg as part of the unit connecting energy concepts. Mr. Goldberg was the inventor of complex contraptions that complete a simple task. Students’ reflection of their invention process is one of the most important aspects of this project. They will show progress with drawings, digital pictures, by writing observational narratives, inputting data, as well as making digital movies. Students will create an electronic document of their project. Such documentation of the project is crucial to capture the spirit of a true inventor.

Writing programs for Washburne students will be enhanced by providing regular and flexible access to technology as well as supporting a multi-tiered (differentiation) approach to teaching via the addition of computers specifically for the Language Arts classrooms.

Playaways are self-contained players, smaller than an iPod, each with a complete audiobook inside. To use the device, one merely plugs in a pair of headphones or into a car audio jack to listen. Students who are familiar with books on CDs will find this device easier to use. It will benefit reluctant readers as well as advanced readers. The selection of playaways purchased will enhance the curriculum as well as provide excellent outside reading choices.

Themed sets of books will be purchased by the Reading Specialist and Social Studies teachers to give students a choice of 5-8 titles that fit with the unit currently being studied. Students will choose up to 3 titles and will be grouped by choice and reading level. As a group, the students will read and discuss their book choice. The titles purchased will help the students build on what they have learned from a textbook to gain a deeper understanding of the era being studied.