Thomas Jefferson Middle School
3500 Sally Kirk Road
Winston-Salem, NC 27106
(336) 774-4630
Technology at Jefferson...Our Vision of 21st Century Learners
During a recent meeting, we had the purpose of helping develop a vision for our school where we aim to prepare our student population to become 21st century learners. Research supports our unified aim of transforming classrooms from a single dry erase board where students’ attention is directed on the instructor, to an interactive playground that excites and motivates even the most reluctant learner. While developing 21st century classrooms has proven results, we lack the funding to purchase this much needed technology, which interferes with our goal of meeting the needs of our children. In last year's teacher survey, there was a 21% drop in the number of teachers who feel like they have adequate access to instructional technology. For the past several years we have been saving money to put towards a technology campaign and we are finally in the position where we can move forward.
History
Back in 1999, when many members of the staff of Cook Middle School came to start a new middle school at Jefferson, our school was provided very few new resources. In contrast, new schools today such as Flat Rock Middle are provided a new "classroom solution" for every classroom. In some cases The Cook staff literally had to pack up all the old stuff they had to move into the new facility. Not much of anything new was provided. He had to "make do".
Over the years since 1999, Jefferson focused on academic achievement and was wildly successful! For the majority of our 11 year history, Jefferson was a "School of Excellence", a "School of Distinction", an "Honor School of Excellence", and a school of "High Growth" according to the NC ABC test results . Our School report card has always shown that our computer skills test results were among the highest in Forsyth County and for that matter in the entire state of North Carolina. But along the way, our focus on academic excellence left us drifting further and further behind in technology tools.
Other factors that left us in "limbo" include our lack of distinction with regard to the demographic and socio-economic status of our student population. We have a diverse population (2009-2010) by state-wide and national standards, but compared with the some schools in Forsyth County, Jefferson may not "stand-out". For this reason, Jefferson has never qualified for federal funds under the Title 1 provision of No Child Left Behind.
Where does Jefferson stand now?
Each year the state of North Carolina compiles an Annual Media and Technology Report (AMTR) for every school in the state. The results from this survey show that the ratio of students to computers at Jefferson is much higher than the average for the county (2.36 students for every computer in Forsyth County) and the state average of 2.37. At Jefferson our ratio is 4.03--we have four students for every instruction computer What does that mean? And what is an instructional computer?
An instructional computer includes any computer that a student has access to--4.03 might suggest that a class of 25 would have (25 divided by 4.03) about 8 computers. That is clearly not the case! On the contrary, most classrooms have about two working computers. The computers on our one working laptop cart, in our three Career and Technical Education labs, and our one and only sign up lab skew that ratio figure.
What do the 1200 students have access to with regard to technology?
We have one flexible sign up lab with a mix-matched set of computers including ten newer Dells (Four years old), about 8 IBM's (older than 5 years), and 10 laptops (3 years old). In our Media Center we house one laptop cart with 22 Lenovo laptops that have taken a beating the last three years with over 1200 students using them at various times. In classrooms, most of the computers are 5 years or older and in poor condition. Many only have 256 MB of RAM and processor speeds that can barely handle many instructional Internet applications.
Beyond that, instructional technology resources are at a bare minimum. Until recently, most teachers had used their ~ 7 year old Wake Forest laptops as their main instructional computer. Some have LCD projectors but many are aging and have dim pictures because of low lumen's. Instructional carts vary from old rolling media carts that came from Cook Middle School, to old AV/overhead carts, to cafeteria type tables.
The electrical and Ethernet cord situation is down-right dangerous. Teachers run long electrical & Ethernet cords to outlets in the front or side of the room. Many tape them down with duct tape or cover them with throw rugs. This is often pointed to by the fire-marshal as a possible hazard in our rooms, but what other choice do we have?
Last year alone, we had several incidents of students tripping over cords, pulling laptops off their carts crashing into the floor and damaging them beyond repair. Several ethernet jacks were ripped out of the wall by tripping cords, and several expensive ethernet cords were damaged or destroyed in the process. The "cord situation" is simply unacceptable.
For our staff of almost 80 teachers and 65 classrooms, we have only about 5 document cameras, 1 student response system (CPS) , and no sound amplification systems (other than in the gym). We have about 10 interactive tablets (several of which were won by teachers who applied for Donor's Choose grants).
At this point we recognize our deficiencies and are moving forward with a plan to bring significant new technology to our school. Our action plan is outlined below and posted on our blog: http://tjmstechtips.blogspot.com/2010/10/classroom-solution-at-tjms.html
Action Plan for 2010-2011:
Overall Goal:
120 Dell mini notebooks @ $500.00 each
6 Mobile Laptop Carts @ $2,900.00 each
20 Classroom Solutions @ $7,500.00 each
each including:
55” LCD TV
Document Camera
Wireless Interactive Tablet
Wireless Teacher Microphones (2 per set)
Surround Sound System
Student Individual Response Systems (30 per set)
AV Cart (storage)
Wiring and Installation
Funding within the School:
$50,000.00 School Contributions (fundraisers, etc)
$11,000.00 PTA Contributions
40 Dell Mini Laptops @ $20,000.00
4 Laptop Carts @ $11,600.00
5 Partial Classroom Solutions plus 1 Student Response System @ $29,500.00
Total $61,100.00
Still Need Funding for:
80 Dell Mini Laptops @ $40,000.00
2 Laptop Carts @ $5,800.00
15 Classroom Solutions @ $112,500.00
Total $158,300.00
Miscellaneous:
Training – Covered by the WS/FCS
Students Impacted – 1,200 students per year
Check out our pledge brochure
