MFL MarMac BLAST off
(Bulldog Laptops Accelerating Student Computing)
Why are we doing this? Two years ago, there were 17 schools in Iowa with a 1to1 laptop initiative. Last year, there were 44 schools in Iowa with 1to1 at some level. This school year, over 100 Iowa schools will have a 1to1 laptop initiative and MFL MarMac HS is one of them.
Do we have to do this? The first answer is, “No!” Our students are doing well. About 85% every year go on to some form of post high school education. We are meeting our NCLB requirements and are staying off the list of Schools In Need Of Assistance. Our students have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, mathematicians, engineers, nurses and many other rewarding professions. We do not NEED to change, but.....
Whether for good or not, the world is rapidly changing around us. Social networking is used in many ways to communicate, sell products, conduct business, deliver the news and to even revolt against oppressive governments. You can not watch a TV news program without seeing Facebook and Twitter. Real estate guides are using QR codes to convey information to people to read with their cell phones. From this perspective, we owe it to our students to move forward with technology. They must be prepared to live in this world. Their daily lives now include technology constantly. We need to apply this to education. So YES, we do need to do this.
If you are not moving forward, you are falling behind.
Our teachers have prepared for this. Two years ago, we started discussing this concept in out High School Leadership Team. We started off asking, “Should we do this?” After much research, discussion and visiting 1to1 schools, we decided that the question is not IF we should do this but, “HOW SOON can we do this?
Last year we prepared by visiting more schools. We had training and used Google applications in our classrooms. When school was out in June, we put MacBooks into the teachers’ hands and had two days of training on iLife and iWork which are the Apple application packages. We had two days of Apple training before school started on integrating this technology into our curriculum. I have retired as HS Principal and have been hired back as a private contractor part time to help teachers with this initiative. Teachers are ready to implement this and we are ready to help them in any way.
Thirteen years ago we implemented the block schedule. The main idea is to lecture less and have more hands on, project based learning. People learn more by doing than by listening. The 1to1 project is an extension of this idea. The days of the “Sage on the Stage” are over. The idea that the teacher holds the knowledge and will pass it on to the students is unrealistic any longer. If you need a fact, you can look it up in Google in 10 seconds or less. We need to teach critical thinking and how to use these facts. Our staff is committed to make the 1to1 initiative help us teach these concepts.
Steven Covey preaches, “Start with the end in mind.” Technology is not the end product. Technology is a very powerful tool to reach the end product of student achievement.
Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid. Humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant. Together, they are powerful beyond imagination.
The MFL MarMac HS Mission statement is to engage and challenge students to Communicate, Collaborate, Investigate, Evaluate and Create through a rigorous and relevant curriculum.
