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Elementary school engages students with technology

P.E. McGibbon Public School principal Ben Hazzard and Learning Commons/Grade 1 teacher Chantima Oliveira spoke about technology in the classroom during a presentation to the Golden K Kiwanis Club in Sarnia.
CARL HNATYSHYN/SARNIA THIS WEEK

Elementary school classrooms have come a long way since the days of slates, slide rules, blackboards and overhead projectors.

Gone are the film strips and pocket calculators of years past – today, students are getting engaged and educated by visiting classroom STEM centres (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), programming dash robots or finishing up multimedia presentations on their tablets.

At Sarnia's P.E. McGibbon Public School, not only do the school's 530 students receive a daily, dynamic and digital video announcement – created, filmed and produced entirely by students in the school's video announcement production crew – but kids from kindergarten to Grade 8 also have access to devices such as iPads, chrome books and Ozobots (miniature robots), which provide them with opportunities to anticipate careers in engineering, mathematics, science and media.

Principal Ben Hazzard and Learning Commons/Grade 1 teacher Chantima Oliveira spoke about their school's use of new technology in the classroom during a presentation to the Sarnia-Lambton Golden K Kiwanis Club on March 6.

Since P.E. McGibbon first opened its doors in 2010, the school has made great efforts to engage learners of all ages with the use of a variety of technology in the classroom, Hazzard said.

“Within the school, students are actively engaged (with the devices) in learning based on the curriculum,” he said. “I think it's important to give kids tools that are relevant and are going to be the ways of the future.”

Whether staff encourage students to teach each other character and develop an inclusive school community through the use of self-made videos, allow students with a passion for coding to delve deeper into the subject by programming robots or combine the old fashioned hands-on aspects of learning with iPads through the use of a new technology called Osmo Kits – which bridge the digital and physical world for students – the school has had tremendous buy-in from students as well as parents since they injected a large dose of technology into classrooms, Hazzard said.

“For instance, the school has small robots that allow students to program them and engage with them, all the while learning about coding and one-to-one skills, which are key for science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” he said.“We've hosted parent nights with Maker Space, where they are doing those STEM activities and we find those are attended by hundreds of community members,” he added. “Honestly, it's the most well-attended activity outside of our Christmas production. The parents and the community just love it.”

New educational technology hasn't only motivated the more tech savvy students in the school, Oliveira added, but has also lifted the game of learners who in the past may have struggled inside a more traditional classroom.

“I find that having a one-to-one device, we're able to hit all levels of learning,” she said. “Even for kids who are achieving, it allows me to push them higher while working with other students as well... I'm able to reach a lot more students that way.”

With all the success that P.E. McGibbon has achieved in recent years through the use of technology – and Hazzard reported to Kiwanis members that many newcomers to Sarnia have phoned the school asking if their children could attend the school – technology in and of itself is not the reason for student achievement. He said it still up to the classroom teacher and support staff to motivate, inspire and help students achieve their very best.

“What we try to do is embrace the community, embrace our opportunities but also try to embrace the ideas of a wide variety of staff talents,” he said. “So we have staff who are incredible artists, for instance and they make P.E. McGibbon projects that go into ArtWalk. We have teachers on staff who bring the students to Sarnia Farmer's Market to interact with the vendors there and of course we have teachers who have a passion for collaboration and technology and for showing students how to use technology.”

“I think the biggest thing at P.E. McGibbon is that people are really proud to be there, people are embracing their own talents as staff and when they do that, they inspire students to showcase their own talents in the same manner,” Hazzard continued.

“There's such a staff and student pride at P.E. McGibbon,” Oliveira added. “It's a school that people love because everyone wants to be there. We've created these hubs of knowledge and we all learn from one another. It's great to exchange that knowledge – the students benefit from it and so do we.”