Dear Hendricks Families,

My name is Mark Meyers and I am the Technology Educator at Hendricks.
Dr. Johnson asked me to share with you some of the exciting things your children are doing in technology and the great new projects on the way.

I first want to say how much I enjoy teaching technology to your children.  Their enthusiasm and willingness to try new things when they come to the Tech Lab makes a world of difference.  As you know, our children are far more comfortable with technology than we are.  Even my preschooler at Hendricks teaches me technology things I never knew!

Technology in schools is not about the latest amazing gadget, it’s about the children and it always will be.  What makes technology great is how it can be used by our children to improve their learning.  With that in mind, we have created curriculum and purchased tools that directly affect student achievement.  This year, every technology lesson is developmentally appropriate and based on international standards. These standards are referred to as the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) created by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).  These standards are used worldwide to teach students creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, research and information, critical thinking, digital citizenship, and technology operations.  For more information, check out the ISTE site (http://www.iste.org).

All classroom teachers and students have access to two exciting programs in the classroom and at home:

BrainPOP (http://www.brainpop.com) creates animated, curricular content that engages students, supports educators, and bolsters achievement for grades K-8. Our subscription also includes the Spanish version.

ReflexMath (http://www.reflexmath.com) a revolutionary, game-based math system that helps students of all ability levels to develop instant recall of their basic math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division).

We realize the safety of your children is our first responsibility so our elementary technology lessons have focused on Internet safety/security and digital citizenship.  Students have learned about keeping information private, evaluating safe websites for themselves, and creating safe usernames online.  We are using age-appropriate lessons created by Common Sense Media.  We encourage you to visit their website and look at the many parent resources available:  (http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/parent-media-education).

Fifth grade is also embarking on a very exciting global project called A Week in the Life, a Flat Classroom® Project for elementary school students of approximately ages 8-10. The curriculum focus is interdisciplinary: how we live, how we communicate, cultural understanding, and awareness. The aim of the project is to join elementary school classrooms globally with a view to exploring what life is like in each country through discussion, sharing and collecting multimedia to create final products together.  For more information, click this link: (http://www.flatclassroomproject.net/a-week-in-the-life-project.html)

Elementary students (grades 4 & 5) are now in charge of producing our school morning show.  Tim Dougherty and Chelsea Weise are supervising them and teaching them the basics of television production including writing and editing of the show.  Check out the latest show: (http://bit.ly/V84Llt).

Middle school students are also learning about digital citizenship.  They contribute their thoughts on current technology topics in the class forum of our Moodle site.  They have evaluated and provided feedback on technology tools for their elementary peers.  Students who took Digiteen last year gave presentations to their classmates on cyberbullying.  For more information, please visit our wiki:  (http://digiteen12-1.flatclassroomproject.org/home).  Upcoming projects will include Internet research and social media awareness.

As you can see, your children have been very busy with technology this school year.  However, we realize that technology-life balance is very important to everyone, especially children.  We strive to emphasize that communication and collaboration skills are more important than technology skills.  We are educating your children for a future we cannot even imagine.  Their skills working with each other, either in the classroom or with students from another country, will benefit them for the rest of their lives.  We are thankful you have trusted us to educate them.

If you have any questions, please email me at markmeyers@hendricksdayschool.org.  For previous lessons or upcoming projects, visit my school website (http://www.hdsjax.com/classrooms/mr-mark-meyers-technology.aspx).

Sincerely,
Mark Meyers