Thanks to a $40,000 grant from the Foundation for Saline Area Schools, the 360 fifth and sixth graders at Heritage School now have access to MacBook laptop computers. “The mandate for education is really quite simple - we must be relevant to students while giving them the latest skills to compete globally,” said Heather Kellstrom, Director of Instructional Technology for Saline Area Schools, who has degrees in both education and instructional technology. The computers are rotated between teams of teachers throughout the year. Fifth grade teacher Ms. Amy Robke and her students already miss the laptop computers they used last trimester.  “It changed how we taught,” Robke says. “And that opened up new avenues to do things. I just think they’re fantastic and wish more classes had the opportunity to use them, and for a longer term.”

Ms. Robke was amazed by how quickly they learned the programs. “After about five minutes, they were trying out things we hadn’t figured out ourselves,” she says. “It makes it more real for them. It’s more like what their work situation will be in the future.”  Ms. Kellstrom says schools must reassess current instructional delivery models to include a variety of technologies that will encourage inventive thinking; strong problem-solving and self-directed skills; collaboration and creativity. “We frontload our kids’ skills at a lower level to teach them how to use the software and all those particulars,” Heather Kellstrom says, referring to the media/technology specialists in the K-4 buildings. “So by the time they get to fifth grade, they’re really ready to do technology projects.”
   
A classroom laptop program helps address these needs, she says, adding that the goal is for teachers to use the laptops to introduce, reinforce and extend mastery of curricular targets in a 21st century learning framework. “Kids are digitally wired,” Kellstrom says. “It’s just unbelievable to see how motivated they are; to see how self-directed they get; how they can problem-solve through learning experiences; how they learn to communicate. It just really builds on those 21st Century skills that the world is requiring of us.”

During an average winter, the four-man Grounds Department goes through 1,200 bags of ice melter and 400 tons of road salt.

Any time it snows an inch or more, the four-man Grounds Department works from midnight to 6 a.m., clearing and salting nearly nine miles of sidewalk, plowing 33 acres of parking lots and four miles of entrance roads.  “These guys really take the job seriously,” said Doug Bacon, director of facilities, “because of the requirement to keep the grounds and facilities safe for our students. They’re really concerned about somebody slipping and sliding on a sidewalk, or being unsafe in a vehicle in a parking lot.”

After the snow is removed and the salt applied, the equipment must be washed and repaired as needed.  “We do all of our own repair work, and when we’re plowing all night long, something inevitably breaks,” he said. “We’re always maintaining, repairing, keeping the equipment going.”  Bacon said when he came to the district five years ago, he had to implement some significant cost-saving changes, which means they now do a lot with a little. One of the men does the entire district’s locksmithing and, if something has to be moved, these guys do it.   “People need to understand we are working round-the-clock typically if there’s a snowstorm, but there are only four guys,” he said. “So we’re doing the best we can to get things done by six in the morning for everyone.  “It’s typical for us to be up a good part of the night before a storm trying to understand and predict whether it’s going to affect us and how we’ll plan our strategies,” Bacon says.

Part of Bacon’s responsibility is to drive some of the back roads and then report back to superintendent Scot Graden with the road conditions, as well as a report on whether they’re prepared to open the buildings in the morning. Graden then compiles all that data and makes his decision as to whether or not to cancel school.          

And the work doesn’t end when the snow stops falling.

Soon enough, the men will need to have the athletic fields in perfect condition for the spring sports. And when school ends for the summer? There are still 400 acres of lawn to mow in addition to other maintenance work, which keeps the team busy year-round. “They spend a lot of time making things good for our students,” said Bacon of his crew. “They’re just an awesome group of guys.  They go above and beyond, and I never hear them complain.”

(Pictured l-r, Dave Robison, Rick Spicer, Brian Cuff and Jim Sodt)

Students in Mr. Foster’s 6th grade class at Heritage School have plenty to talk about, so in true 21st century-style, they blog about it.  This is the first year that Mr. Foster has used a blog as a classroom tool.  He developed the blog in an effort to support the integration of technology in the classroom at Heritage and is using it to replace a classroom newsletter that had been produced in the past.  Mr. Foster noted, “When the students sit at the computer it is like a switch flips and they quickly engage.  I do need to remind them that the same language arts rules apply – just like pencil and paper.” Recently students needed to log in and post about their favorite subject in school.  For the record, Social Studies seemed to be the most popular.  Click here to check out Mr. Foster’s Classroom blog.

Athletic Director Rob White explains the Saline Area Schools Athletic Department Budget.