8th Grade at Koppen Academy
Fall 2015 Technology Initiative
To the parents of the upcoming 8th grade class,
OUR WORLD IS CHANGING. Technology is taking over the classroom but this is a great thing! My name is Brittany Koppen and I am the head technology specialist at Koppen Academy. Koppen Academy will be starting an exciting new 1:1 trial program with the 8th grade class. A 1:1 program is where each student in the entire 8th grade and their teachers are given a mobile device to take to and from school everyday.
In the past few years research has been conducted to see how effective bringing in technology to the classroom actually is. We believe that this will give teachers more one-on-one time with students, give students the opportunity to be creative and work on problem solving, and learn the real-world skills they need to have in order to succeed in not only further education, but the technology filled world as we know it to be.
You may be wondering what exactly your student will be doing on this mobile device in and outside of the classroom. The answer to that is almost everything.
- We have decided to use an online instruction program for math. Bigideasmath.com, will provide your student videos, practice problems, homework assignments, quizzes, and their tests.
- Google Drive will also be used to help students keep up with all of their work instead of having loose sheets of paper in their notebooks.
- A wide variety of highly rated learning apps such as Nearpod, Socrative, ExplainEverything, and many more will be used.
By using all of this technology in the classroom this upcoming year we hope to give your students the opportunity to get more excited and involved in their learning. Below I have provided many different resources on 1:1 classrooms, apps your students will be using for learning, and fun summer learning apps your students can use at home to get familiar with technology before the fall.
I am so excited to work with all of your students this upcoming year! Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.
Thank you for your time,
Brittany Koppen
Technology Specialist, Koppen Academy
(987)654-3210
Defining the 1:1 Classroom to Parents
Here is one of our main resources for information. If you don't have time to read the entire article, feel free to check out the video below for more answers on the 1:1 classroom.
http://incare-k12.com/clearing-things-up-how-to-best-define-the-11-classroom/Big Ideas: Math
Here is the link to the math program we will be using. Please feel free to explore the resources you will be provided as a parent by clicking "Parent" on the homepage.
https://www.bigideasmath.com/