Wyoming Elementary School, Wyoming, Minnesota 55092, Technology

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Technology

Technology Specialist, Kathy Wright

All classrooms at Wyoming Elementary are equipped with a fully networked multimedia computer workstation, a VCR, and a 32-inch television monitor on which a student-produced live news show is broadcast each morning.

Each week, students have a scheduled 40 minute time in a computer lab complete with 33 5400 Power Macintosh computers. Another “Mini lab” of 4 iMacs and 2 eMacs is located in the Media Center for small groups of students to use. Technology at Wyoming Elementary is integrated to enhance existing curriculum. Students are taught formal keyboarding skills beginning in fourth grade, and use word-processing, spreadsheets, databases and the Internet in all grade levels. Interactive software programs are used to reinforce skills taught in the classroom.

The Wyoming Elementary Parent Teacher Association has generously donated 26 Macintosh iBooks on two mobile carts. These, along with 40 iBooks purchased by the school district, are wirelessly networked and available for teachers to use with their students in their classrooms. During the 2004-2005 school year, these wireless laptops were used almost every day for activities ranging from Internet research, to creating iMovies and Power Point presentations.

Windows on Wyoming (WOW TV) is a live news broadcast produced each morning by a group of fifth or sixth grade students. We have two news anchors, two camera operators, a sound technician, a computer technician, and a director. The anchors are responsible for writing a script, which includes announcements, lunch menus and birthdays. There are special guests each day who lead us in the pledge, and do commercials for the school store. Ms. Gookins, our Media Specialist, does a book talk every Tuesday, and everyone looks forward to the days when our school counselor, Mrs. Maser demonstrates a new recipe on her “Tasty Cooking” segment.

Since 2002, fifth and sixth grade students have been offered the opportunity to participate in Photo Club. Two parent volunteers meet with the students once a week, teaching them digital photography and editing skills. The fifth grade students take all of the pictures and do the layout for the yearly memory book, while the sixth grade students create a DVD of their sixth grade year combining both still photos and video.

"Why did this picture turn out so dark?" asks Todd Proulx. Todd is a parent volunteer who along with his wife, Clare, have been instrumental in facilitating a photography club for a select group of fifth and sixth grade students at Wyoming Elementary. "Because I took the picture facing the window. I should have used flash or used a different setting on the camera." pipes up one of the students.
	Discussion like this occurs frequently for the students who are involved in the Photography Club that meets during recess time. They are learning the fundamentals of both digital and 35mm photography. The "Photo Club", in it's second year, started meeting in October. After being trained on the cameras, students are assigned to go out into the school community to capture "Wyoming Elementary happenings" on film.
They meet about twice a month to evaluate the pictures they took and receive additional training on specific settings of the cameras. When teachers have questions about how to use the cameras, they often ask the photography club students or make appointments with them to capture specific classroom events. The sixth grade photographers focus on taking pictures that represent their 6th grade year. The pictures are combined into a slideshow that is shown at their graduation in June. " It teaches you responsibility. You have to be responsible for the cameras and also be responsible for taking pictures. "It's pretty cool!" comments a sixth grade photographer.
	"It's also fun to see how you can change the entire look and feel of a photograph when you edit it on the computer." Says Todd Proulx about the Photography Club, " I most enjoy seeing the group start to understand not what is a good photograph, but why, and then see them utilize what they have learned. These kids are amazingly creative."
The fifth graders work closely with Clare Proulx who has completed Wyoming Elementary's yearbook for the last 4 years. "I had a much more rewarding yearbook experience this year because it is their yearbook. They took the pictures, selected the pictures to be used and laid out each page. It's their finished product." Clare said the experience is all worth it when she hears comments like this from photography members. " I didn't know putting together a yearbook was so hard. It's like putting a puzzle together" or "I don't care if I'm in the yearbook, I know I took the pictures."

Like several of the programs that are provided for Wyoming Elementary students, community businesses and organizations have played a key role in providing financial support. A big thank you to Target, Wal-Mart, Wyoming PTA, Casey's, Wildcat Warehouse and Photo World. Thank you for putting kids first and allowing these students to have this real world experience.


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