Students at SMS begin learning with Chromebooks

Beginning the first day of school, students at Saluda Middle School began learning in all content areas using digital devices. All teachers in the 7th grade have set the personal goal of using Chromebooks at least one time per class period consistently each day.

Teachers and students have been making use of PearDeck, Google Classroom, and the collaborative tools in Google Docs. Mrs. Mears' and Ms. Corbett's 7th grade English Language Arts classes have been using their Chromebooks to write "Where I am from" poems. Students have been sharing them via Google classroom and providing feedback to each other via the commenting features of Google docs. "I can type much faster than I can handwrite," said one student. Ms. Corbett, his teacher, agreed saying, "It's also erasing the barrier of messy/sloppy handwriting that can often prevent students from performing as well as they could otherwise."

These two ELA teachers are taking 1:1 computing a step beyond the classroom, however, by facilitating their students making positive online digital footprints. Using a class Weebly site, they are allowing students to publish their poetry. Creating an authentic learning experience like this not only increases student motivation but it also leaves a positive academic mark on each student's online profile. Check out the students' work here.

The talented SMS teachers have found ways to incorporate this technology beyond word processing. Math teachers, Mrs. Harmon and Mrs. Taylor, have students submit daily formative assessments via a Google form. This way they can easily track student progress over a long term time period.

Students and teachers at SMS agree that the launch of #powerOn has been a success. In the upcoming weeks we are looking forward to meeting with the parents in preparation for the take-home phase of this 1:1 initiative.