North New Summit School has made some major technological upgrades in preparation for the new year.
With the help of a $20,000 Junior Auxiliary grant, the school will be incorporating iPads into its classwork. The grant helped buy 40 of the devices and two mobile charging carts.
Assistant Principal Keith Davis said the iPads will give more options for instruction.
“For a class like anatomy and physiology, they can actually do a hands-on look at the human body,” he said. “They can actually scroll and follow the teacher as he or she makes comments in the class.”
The iPads also will be used for tests and other assessments, including virtual dissections in biology and speed drills in math and languages.
With the help of an app called Quizlet, teachers will ask questions, students will answer them using the iPads and the results are recorded.
“We’ll use them in a lot of different areas in a lot of different ways,” Davis said.
New Summit also will have new Apple computers in every classroom, purchased with the school’s own money.
Students start class Aug. 8. Faculty members will return Aug. 3 and will be trained on the new equipment during their in-service time. They also will be able to transfer documents from their old devices to the new ones.
Davis said the school didn’t have its own iPads before, although some teachers had put their own devices to use in class sometimes. The students were told about the planned upgrades, and the school has conducted some previews that have made everyone eager, he said.
“We started doing a little bit of the stuff last spring as we could, with just what equipment we had, just so they would get a taste of what this year might be like,” he said. “So there’s a lot of excitement about that particular upgrade and to be able to do that much at one time.”
The Junior Auxiliary money made a big difference, he said: “We would not have been able to do that much without that grant, so that really means a lot to us.”
Information technology people from the school’s headquarters in Jackson have handled the installation, but he will have some responsibilities, too.
“I guess if there’s an IT person here, I’m it,” he said with a laugh. “I’m not IT-trained, but I do all the troubleshooting and all that sort of stuff, and if there’s something I can’t handle, we call them.”
Other high-tech projects are in the works.
Davis, who will teach chemistry and physics this year and also has taught biology, said he has been working on incorporating class materials into an e-book that can be pushed to an iPad using iBooks software. This will enable students to download handouts and transparencies using their cellphones or home computers.
Davis said he is about 70 percent done with the e-book for chemistry and plans to roll it out as a pilot this year. Then, other teachers will be selected to do the same for their classes.
In addition, some textbooks and software have been updated. One example is a new program that will help students who are struggling in math.
“We have a teacher that’ll be assigned to that room, and she’ll work with those students one on one on the computer program,” Davis said. “In the past, that’s been very difficult to achieve.”
New Summit has added a music program this year and has hired Marla McClellan to teach that subject. Also joining the faculty will be math teacher Mandy Randall.
The school has added therapist Darlene Cole, who will work with dyslexic students. She joins another such therapist already on staff.
“They see children for so many minutes a week, so you double what you’re able to do,” Davis said.
New Summit will continue to offer basketball, cheerleading and archery as part of its extracurricular activities.
Davis said he expected enrollment to be about the same as it was last year, which was about 160 at the start of classes.
As of Monday, the school had 136 on-site students signed up.
•Contact David Monroe at 581-7236 or dmonroe@gwcommonwealth.com.
