Dear Parents,
As a school situated in the heart of Silicon Valley, in a district focused on what it means to be a 21st Century Learner, the role of technology is top of mind. Technology is everywhere around us, and we want our students to know how to participate responsibly in the digital world, behave safely, and think critically. Given how different the world is for our students, we are now teaching Digital Citizenship, using a program developed by Common Sense Media, to our K-5 students. We are so grateful to have Jonathan Coldoff in his new role as Technology Coach, working to support teachers and help instruct students, because it is imperative that we teach this Digital Citizenship, as well as work to find the best technological tools to not just supplement, but augment, our curriculum.
At Oak Knoll, we have an abundance of technology: 6 iPads in every K-2 classroom, a Technology Lab containing 30 MacBook Pro computers, 8 laptop carts with a class set, 4 iPad carts with a class set, 1 Chromebook cart with a class set, and our 1:1 iPad program for 5th grade. And this is just at school! Today's school children have greater access to the internet than ever before, and it seems that every app or website has a social component. Our children need to learn how to be safe in this digital world, just as they learn how to be safe in the physical world. At our most recent Coffee Talk, Mr. Coldoff shared more about the comprehensive curriculum that we are using, based on eight categorical skills. Over the course of their Oak Knoll career, students will be exposed to new Digital Citizenship concepts each year.
There are many other technology initiatives happening at Oak Knoll in addition to Digital Citizenship. Oak Knoll adopted a new typing program this school year called Keyboarding Without Tears (KWT) for grades 2-4. This program is an award-winning, web-based curriculum that teaches the keyboarding and pre-keyboarding skills students need to succeed in today's classroom. KWT teaches more than just typing. It helps prepare students for the digital world with general computer readiness. Feature of the program are: developmentally appropriate grade specific curriculum, game-based lessons and activities, continuous and meaningful review, and cross-curricular connections.
Mr. Coldoff is also teaching a hugely popular Minecraft lunchtime club. Students in grades 3-5 were invited to join this club that uses a special version of the popular Minecraft game called MinecraftEDU. This version gives the teachers much greater control over the Minecraft world. MinecraftEDU is a version of the original game that was created by educators. It uses the same controls as the original, has the same physical rules and it can be played in single or multiplayer. There are several safeguards in place help to ensure that only the children and the teacher are able to access and interact with the MinecraftEDU world. The MinecraftEDU club has gotten other teachers at Oak Knoll, interested in using this platform to leverage student engagement and expand their ability to demonstrate content understanding. One use of the Minecraft world is with respect to the fourth grade California Mission curriculum. Many teachers this year are giving their students the option to build their mission model in the Minecraft world. This building processes forces students into constructing "working missions" that can be experienced from the inside and out. Missions that are laid out with adherence to real world geometry and practical use. Once again the level of engagement was through the roof for these students, and the missions they produced were beautifully and intricately detailed.
Oak Knoll believes that every child should be provided with the tools that will make them a productive, contributing member of the 21st century. Understanding how computers work is at the heart of that understanding, and so we believe in exposing all of our students to computer science and computer coding. This effort was kicked off in each classroom this year during the annual Hour of Code week. With assistance from Jonathan Coldoff, our Education Technology Innovation Coach, teachers set aside at least one hour of time during Computer Science Education Week (Dec.7-12) dedicated to learning computer code. Students completed self-paced tutorials found on the code.org website, learned coding on iPads using apps like The Foos, Kodable, or Lightbot, or particpated in detailed coding workshops using Scratch or other languages. Many classrooms took this even further by joining in 20-hour long self-paced Coding Courses from code.org. Two of Oak Knoll's teachers, Jane Bennion and Jonathan Coldoff, also participated in a special, 2-day in-depth training in the teaching of computer science by Embark Labs. Oak Knoll is exploring the possibilities for bringing this curriculum to the upper grade students as they get ready to make the transition to middle-school.
We are also excited to be using technology to support this year's Connected Theme. Oak Knoll's buddy school, Santa Maria Del Prado School in Talavera de la Reina, Spain has reached out to us with many questions about life and education in our country. To give them a taste of our culture, including the technology we infuse into education, many classrooms, including students in Pamela Cheek's World Language Class and Kristine McColloch's 3rd grade are collaborating on video answers. They will use the new iPad carts, the camera feature on those iPads, and some technical guidance from Jonathan Coldoff to record answers to the questions the students in Spain have asked of us. Teachers and students will then compile the video clips, edit them and produce a final video to send back to Spain using iMovie.
Technology is constantly evolving and changing, and so too is its role at Oak Knoll. We are looking forward to finding more ways to engage students, and give them the opportunity to demonstrate understanding differently using these tools, while leaning heavily on our talented teaching staff and support. On our most recent parent survey, parenting in the digital age came back as the top request for parent education. We are currently planning an evening parent education event to respond to this request, so stay tuned. Although student and teacher interaction with technology is a daily occurrence on our campus and spans much further than this update shares, I hope you now understand the range of learning that our students are experiencing during the school day, as well as our prioritization of keeping kids safe as they navigate their digital world.
Take care,
Kristen Gracia
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