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- Hanna is here
- Hanna is here
- GOP Convention Delay Is Being Considered
- Will GOP Convention Go On As Scheduled?
- Long Lines Waiting To Get Into Invesco Field
- Two More Floridians On Podium Tonight, Including Final Benediction
- Business Licenses, August 11–15, 2008
- Business Licenses, August 4–8, 2008
- You Don’t See This Often (Thankfully)
- Business Licenses, July 28 – August 1, 2008
- Business Licenses, July 21-25, 2008
- Still No Floor Credentials, But Did See J-Lo
- Wednesday Was Historic
- We’ve Got Our Tropical Conga Line
- Breakfast Speaker Foulup Nixes McCaskill
The morning started with a few frayed nerves at Southside Elementary School in Sarasota when a mom parked her car in the bus loop less than half an hour before school started, and no one on campus could find her.
She moved just in the nick of time, and soon anxious children shuttled by eager parents started pouring in. One disoriented dad questioned by staff in the hall explained he had become separated from his wife and child. He was quickly comforted and sent toward the library with the rest of parents who arrived many minutes before the bell.
Just off campus, Sarasota police officers on motorcycles kept a close eye on drivers blowing through speed zones at the school crosswalk stretching across seven lanes of U.S. 41. We recorded as officers rolled and the Orkin man pulled over.
Southside has just finished a $12 million renovation. It’s one of the district’s few truly historic campuses, with the original building dating to 1926.
Principal Sharon Marks exuded infectious excitement, and, always the gracious host, she stopped her multitasking to escort my partner Jim Hockett and me to JoAnn Doane’s classroom. Doane has helped take the reigns at Southside learning the Activboard. And since this is a blog and I can speak casually, let me just say it is so COOL.
The Activboard is the blackboard of the future. It’s a 70-plus-inch screen with a built-in computer that talks to a laptop. The whole system can flip from a lesson plan to the Internet in a matter seconds. It takes learning to a whole new level, finally enabling teachers weighed down for years by the confines of the FCAT to explore unplanned subject matters or follow a child’s curiosity down an unexpected path. The FCAT still plays a central role, but the speed and ease of the Activboard creates time for opportunity.
The Activboard is interactive, with students able to move words and numbers around using a kind of pen. They can create their own colors and put sounds with their stories with a few taps here and there. Doane says these children are the “light generation.” She says everything they use—their gaming systems, cell phones, iPods—all use a lighted screen. The Activboard speaks to their brains in a way a traditional piece of chalk or marker never could.
I would say the first day of school at Southside was a success, but I think few doubted that!
(By the way, high-tech is high-dollar. Sarasota plans to spend $13 million outfitting more than 3,000 classrooms with the Activboard. But, then again, you get what you pay for!)
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