Technology

Overview Benefits of a 1:1 Program Instruction Smartboards RenWeb

Overview

Technology is a vital part of our learning and administrative environment. From our online school enrollment to our MakerSpace Lab, St. Thomas makes constant technological improvements to better the ease of communication with parents and to imbed the technology seamlessly into our curriculum. St. Thomas School is diligent to keep pace with the ever-changing enhancements needed to keep our school technically progressive.

All classrooms are equipped with a Smartboard for interactive engagement.
Every student has access to a Chromebook. 5th through 8th grade students have their own leased device and Kindergarten through 4th grade classrooms each have a Chromebook cart for student use.
St. Thomas is a Google for Education school and utilizes Google Classroom for 4th-8th grade instruction.
All Kindergarten-3rd grade classrooms use Clever's single-sign on platform to access applications on the Chromebooks.
In 2022, we updated our iPads allowing students to create content across disciplines in apps such as iMovie and GarageBand.
In 2020, we added Virtual Reality headsets to our technology collection to allow hundreds of virtual expeditions for our students.
We also have a MakerSpace housed within the library. This lab increases student engagement and collaboration for projects across curriculums. It includes lots of electronics such as Spheros, Ozobots and Little Bits, as well as games, free-play manipulatives and making supplies.
Within our MakerSpace is a 3D printer that allows students to design and print their own creations from keychains to Greek columns.
Students are exposed to elements of Coding throughout the grade levels, such as CodeSpark Academy,and code.org.
Online learning continues when school is closed. During our long-term eLearning, each student Kindergarten through 8th grade student has a Chromebook at home to continue lessons and communicate with teachers.

Benefits of a 1:1 Program

A 1-to-1 computing program is a model in which every student uses a laptop during daily instruction.

Provides flexibility, customization, and personalization, which enhance student motivation, morale, performance, efficiency, and effectiveness.
Aligns with today’s mobile society where anytime, anywhere learning is a reality.
Supports collaborative learning.
Facilitates the use of E-books and textbooks.
Engages learners.
Support sophisticated electronic organization of all learning materials.
Offers powerful collaborative and in-class possibilities. The use of the Chromebook expands the number of available opportunities for students to collaborate and learn in ways that suit them best, giving them confidence and helping them achieve their full potential.
Improve interaction by allowing the easy exchange of information among students and with teachers.
Assignments can be exchanged electronically.
Students can create, highlight, categorize, and keep their course materials in a variety of multimedia formats that are immediately available and searchable.
Students with advanced skills are able to expand their skills and knowledge.
Students with learning differences are better able to keep pace with classmates because they can utilize the technology to meet their individual learning needs.

Instruction

A full-time Technology instructor provides all students 3rd through 8th grade with weekly technology training. This training is conducted in the St. Thomas Computer Lab situated within our Library. In addition, computer carts are available for student use in each classroom. Students have many opportunities to use these computers as a resource for keyboarding skills training, Google for Education work, research, apps, Accelerated Reading tests, educational games related to subject areas, and much more.

Smartboards

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