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Technology
and education are united in today's classrooms. At SMS we
provide each classroom with networked PCs to complement our
PC computer lab. In addition to the arts, music and
foreign language instruction, the students have
computer class weekly.
Technology
is becoming an integrated piece of all our learning.
We have a state of the art computer lab, equipped with PCs, all connected to the school's network and the
internet. The children are further protected by an
internet content filter.
Saint
Margaret's also utilizes Smart Board Technology.
Churchwerks
coming in 2009...Nine schools in the Diocese of
Camden are currently piloting a new student information
system, designed to streamline school information and
provide easy communication between teachers and parents.
The
California-based Churchwerks SIS (Student Information
System) is being tested in eight elementary schools in the
diocese (Our Lady Star of the Sea, Cape May; St. Vincent de
Paul, Mays Landing; Bishop McHugh, Cape May Courthouse; St.
Mary, Williamstown; Christ the King, Haddonfield; St .Rose
of Lima, Haddon Heights; St. Joseph, Hammonton; Assumption,
Galloway) and one high school (Gloucester Catholic).
The
Catholic Schools and Information Technology departments in
the diocese, along with a committee of principals and
teachers from the diocesan schools, selected the program
last summer after investigating about 20 vendors with
various capabilities for student information systems in
schools.
Sharon Schwalm,
with the diocese’s Information Technology department,
explained that the committee was “looking for something
that was integrated and web-based. The committee wanted
one system that will give all schools an easy mechanism
for NCEA (National Catholic Educational Association) and
diocesan reporting. We also recognized the benefit of
increased purchasing power by implementing the same system
across multiple schools. These
were our biggest criteria.”
With
Churchwerks, to be used in both elementary and high
schools, parents with children in more than one school
only have to familiarize themselves with one system.
The
site is easily accessible for any teacher or parent with
internet access, and they can log in with a personal,
secure password.
Teachers
can input students’ demographic data and/or attendance
record, up-to-date class assignments, grade books and
report cards. Parents can then log in whenever they want,
keeping track of their student’s progress, and seeing if
they have any homework before must-see TV.
If
students are sick at home, they do not have to rely on a
classmate or their parents to pick up their homework for
them; they can go to Churchwerks and check their
assignments.
Schwalm
has devoted most of her energies to the Churchwerks project,
implementing the program in the schools, and training
teachers and administrators how to use it. To her, the key
aspect of this project is the “improvement of
communication between teachers and parents.” Parents can
keep track of their children’s academic progress and
assess where help is needed before issues become large
enough to require an alert from the teacher.
Antonia
Taylor, principal at Assumption, said that Churchwerks
training for teachers began in the middle of October. As
well, select parents have been allowed to monitor their
student’s records. Teachers have also posted their grade
books on-line, allowing administrators to look at them over
the internet, instead of having to physically review them.
School
nurses have also been busy inputting into the system health
immunizations, and student visits to the nurse’s office.
The sacraments a student has received are also entered.
Taylor
says that parents and teachers are both “very pleased”
with the program. The fact that parents can monitor their
children’s work is just “another tool to open the lines
of communication between parents and their kids.”
For
the 17 teachers at Assumption currently using the program,
the new system means no weekend trips to school to input
grades on school computers; with an internet connection,
they can work right from the comfort of their own homes.
Judy
McBride, principal at St. Mary, likes the
“user-friendly” program, saying that it is “easy to
use. Very self-explanatory. The
program tells you how to do each step.”
As
a committee member on the search team, looking for an SIS
program, she volunteered her school to be one of the first
to use Churchwerks. Most of the
teachers have been using the program for attendance and
grading, but parents have not been given access yet. McBride
also hopes to use Churchwerks for the production of report
cards, as some schools have already done: “We’re doing
more and more” each day, she said
Mary
Boyle, assistant superintendent for the Office of Catholic
Schools, has said the diocese is taking the program “in
small steps so everyone knows what they’re doing.”
Over
300 teachers in the diocese are currently taking attendance
with this program, and entering grades and assignments
electronically for more than 3,400 students. Next year, 10
more schools will start using Churchwerks, and it is hoped
that by the fall of 2009, every school in the diocese will
be using the program.
Channel 1
has arrived in 2008 ...........We are Channel One
Network, the pre-eminent news and public affairs content
provider to teens. Our mission is to spark debate and
discussion among teens, and also discussion between young
people and their parents and educators, on the important
issues affecting young people in America.
Broadcasting
since 1990, Peabody Award-winning Channel One News is the
leading source of news and information for young people. The
12-minute news broadcasts are delivered daily to more than 6
million teens in middle schools and high schools across the
country.
Channel One News
has covered fast-breaking world events from regions such as
Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Thailand, Sudan, Sri Lanka,
Jordan, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Myanmar, Bolivia,
Australia, and Qatar. Channel One News programming has been
featured on leading networks and news programs, including
CNN, ABC News, the WB, "Nightline," and "The
Today Show."
Channel One News
and its three-time Webby Award-winning Web site,
ChannelOne.com, feature stories on breaking news and
in-depth issues that affect the world, the nation and
specifically, America's teenagers.
In April 2005,
Channel One News won a second George Foster Peabody Award
for its recent
news coverage of the Sudan humanitarian conflict.
The Peabody is a long-standing honor recognizing
distinguished achievement and meritorious public service by
stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals,
and are widely considered to be the most prestigious awards
in electronic media. The win represents the second time
Channel One News has received a Peabody, having won an Award
of Significant and Meritorious Achievement in 1993 for its
special, "A Decade of AIDS."
In 2006,
ChannelOne.com was nominated in two Webby Award categories,
Best Television Site on the Web and Best Lifestyle Site on
the Web. In 2005, it was awarded two Webbys -- the Webby
Award and the Webby People's Voice Award -- as Best Youth
Site on the Web. Presented by the International Academy of
Digital Arts and Sciences, the acclaimed Webby is a leading
award that honors excellence in Web design, creativity,
usability and functionality. ChannelOne.com previously won
the People's Voice Award in the 2002 Webby competition.
The network has a
long history of journalistic excellence. Honors include a
Gold Hugo from the Chicago International Television Awards
in March 2003 for "Secret Nation: Inside North
Korea." Channel One News has also received 23 awards
from The National Educational Media Network, 14 from the
National Educational Film and Video Festival, and numerous
awards from The American Women in Radio & Television.
The network has been honored by the Chicago International
Film Festival, WorldFest -- Houston International Film
Festival, the National Educational Film and Video Festival,
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the
National Association of Black Journalists, the National
Association for the Mentally Ill and many more. "The
Suffering of Sudan" also won a Bronze Telly Award, as
well as a Silver Hugo Award at the 42nd Chicago
International Television Awards.
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