The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG – Waitsburg school board members enjoyed playing with Chromebooks and checking out online accelerated readers at the district's March board meeting. First-grade teacher Dinah Lindsey handed out the laptops as part of a demonstration on how the district is using Chromebooks in the classroom.

The elementary school applied for and received a grant for $30,000 in Title 1 Priority School funds last year, the bulk of which was used for professional development. Lindsey said the elementary staff met last fall to discuss the best use of the remainder of the funds.

Because the district's newly purchased "Journeys" ELA curriculum includes access to a "Think Central" program, the staff chose to use the funds to purchase 10 Chromebook computers, with headsets, for each classroom. Each computer/headset combo cost less than $300.

"It's deceiving, because even though they are inexpensive, Chromebooks are fully functioning computers. They just use the Internet to process everything," said fifth grade teacher Gabe Kiefel.

Lindsey said each classroom uses the technology differently. In her first-grade classroom, students use the leveled readers, geared to each child's instructional level, the most. She said the audio feature is especially helpful for non-readers who can push the speaker button and follow along with their headsets.

Lindsey admitted that she was "less than thrilled" when she first learned that the district was adopting a new curriculum the year before she retired.

"In all honesty, my heart sank, because I know how much time and effort goes into starting something new. I was dragging my feet at first, but when I started using the Chromebooks and seeing the excitement and improvement with the children, I got excited. I truly love what we picked. I feel the children are getting a well-rounded education, and if you came to our staff meetings you would see the excitement as we talk about how we can do better and what we can do," Lindsey said.

Kindergarten teacher Pam Beasley uses the Chromebooks mainly for guided reading in small groups. She said the program includes options such as alphabet songs, videos and free apps.

"The newest thing is that Carolina Biological has online access that matches the science kits that we use in our classroom, and I think we'll be able to get that for free. We're currently working on getting that set up," she said.

Kiefel said that even though each classroom has 10 Chromebooks, classes often share so that an entire class can use them at once. He said each of his students has a school Google account. He can share a document, such as a science project, and the entire class can simultaneously add bits and pieces to it through Google Docs.

"It's really fun to see all the students interacting wirelessly on the same document," he said. "The Chromebooks give elementary students more access to the Internet in a safe place. And it's been fun to see the excitement of the kids," he added.