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With New Technology, Heritage Academy
Enriches Curriculum
By
Tracy Hudak
Published: Friday, February 9, 2007 6:55 PM EST
LONGMEADOW - With some of the funds raised from its
annual dinner last year, Heritage Academy Jewish
Community Day School in Longmeadow upgraded its
technology in time for the start of the 2006-2007
school year.
The school invested $60,000 for new computers in all
of its classrooms as well as the computer lab.
“We knew we had to upgrade the technology in the
school,” said Dr. Deborah R. Starr, Heritage
Academy’s head of school, who explained that it had
been more than five years since the school made a
major investment in technology.
Before the upgrades, every classroom had two
computers, and the school was fully wired with
Internet connections in all of the classrooms. But
not all of the computers were as functional as they
should have been.
“They didn’t have the capability of doing the things
we wanted them to do,” said Starr, adding that the
computers weren’t properly protected.
“Now all classrooms have a minimum of two
computers,” Starr said. “Some classrooms have four.
And the lab has 16 computers, which is enough for a
whole class to go in and work at the same time.”
In addition to installing nanny controls to keep the
students safe, the school has also installed XP
Professional software, which allows students to work
with digital cameras and video.
The new technology has even been incorporated into
the school’s curriculum. Every class in the school
goes to the computer lab once a week and works with
the technology teacher on a technology curriculum.
“Besides learning the obvious, like opening and
closing files and keyboarding,” Starr said, “they
learn how to make PowerPoint presentations; they
learn spreadsheets; they learn data entry.”
This year, middle school students worked on a
project that required them to design their own
company and create spreadsheets outlining their
companies’ revenue and expenses.
“The level of sophistication is just unbelievable,”
marveled Lara Temkin-Pisani, admissions director at
Heritage Academy and the mother of two Heritage
students.
Middle school students also have a double block of
English each week, and that longer class, which
focuses on writing, is now held in the computer lab.
“This way all the children can be working at the
same time with the teacher on the writing
assignment,” Starr said.
With computers in the classrooms, students can take
what they learned in the computer lab and apply it
to their classroom work, Starr explained. And
students can use the computers to write in both
English and Hebrew.
In addition to the weekly computer classes, teachers
can also reserve the computer lab for their students
to use. For example, when the fifth graders were
studying global warming with their general studies
teacher and science teacher, the teachers could
reserve the computer lab to allow their students to
do research together using the computers in the lab
at the same time.
Online enrichment
The new technology has enabled the school to take
full advantage of its enrichment program, including
a computerized online program the school purchased
called the Renzulli Learning System.
“If your computers don’t have the capability of all
that is offered through [the Renzulli Learning
System], you’re not getting the full advantage of
it,” Starr said.
Developed by experts at the University of
Connecticut, the Renzulli Learning System utilizes
virtual field trips, real field trips, creativity
training, critical thinking projects, contests and
competitions, as well as other educational
opportunities. Students can access the program in
school or at home. Parents are taught how to access
the program to view their children’s progress and to
see what their kids are learning. The Renzulli
Learning System is available to every Heritage
Academy student in third through eighth grade.
Alternative enrichment
Heritage Academy was able to institute its
enrichment program with funds it received, including
$50,000 that came from a grandparent of a Heritage
student who was a first-time donor and another
$50,000 came from a matching grant from the Avi Chai
Foundation.
In addition to purchasing the Renzulli Learning
System, the school has hired a part-time enrichment,
Claire Sholes.
Through the second part of the enrichment program,
identified children in first through fifth grade
that have mastered all or parts of the curriculum in
math, reading or writing can receive alternative
instruction by the enrichment coordinator.
“She works in tandem with the classroom teacher to
identify children, and she creates a program for
them,” Starr explained.
Some programs might include word problems, logic
puzzles — “mental ballet,” as Starr calls it — that
teach children how to manipulate information
mentally.
Heritage Academy is also instituting another
pull-out program for identified children where
students work on self-initiated projects.
“It will be the child’s interest that will drive the
project,” Starr said.
Destination ImagiNation
Heritage Academy is also participating in
Destination ImagiNation, a program for kids that
emphasizes creativity, problem solving and teamwork.
Any student in kindergarten through fifth grade can
take part in Destination ImagiNation, which has
regional, state-wide and global competitions. Under
the direction of a team manager, teams of five to
seven members work together to tackle challenges
given to them by Destination ImagiNation. The
students meet once a week after school for three
months prior to the competition, then, while at the
competition the teams are given an instant
challenge. Team challenges vary in theme and may
require skills such as mechanics, theater arts,
science, architecture and design.
Arts enrichment
Another component of the school’s enrichment program
is arts enrichment, which has been made possible
through the Jewish Arts & Culture Initiative of the
Harold Grinspoon Foundation and many private donors.
“We are trying to really bring the arts as much as
possible into the school,” Starr said, adding that
the arts programming includes field trips to
Symphony Hall and to the Higgins Armory Museum in
Worcester.
The school has seen performances and participated in
arts programs offered by Shakespeare & Company,
Traveling Lantern Theater Company, Paper Bag Players
and the Springfield Symphony. Students have met
authors like Jacqueline Dembar Green, a Sydney
Taylor Book Award winner and author of “Out of Many
Waters,” and Tami Lehman-Wilzig, author of “Tasty
Bible Stories: A Menu of Tales & Matching Recipes.”
This year, the art, music and science teachers and
the librarian worked together to create a whole
school-wide unit on Italian Renaissance artist and
thinker Leonardo DaVinci, culminating with
performance of “The Life and Times of DaVinci” by
the Traveling Lantern Theater. Last year, in honor
of the 250th birthday of Mozart, the school did a
similar integrated unit on Mozart created by the
music and social studies teacher, and the Traveling
Lantern Theater performed “The Life and Times of
Mozart” for the students.
The art teacher has also created an
artist-of-the-month program where students
school-wide learn about a new artist each month,
with each grade doing a different, age-appropriate
project.
Temkin-Pisani said, “My 6-year-old daughter can tell
me how Mozart lived and died. She can identify
Mozart’s music. She goes to the museum in New York
with her grandmother and is able to point out a
Picasso, a Van Gogh, a Matisse and a Keith Herring.” |
