Visiting the classroom of the future

Sixth grade. Wow, those were the days. Two of the best years of my life. No, not really, it only seemed like it was that long.

My teacher back then at Pleasanton Elementary School in Northern California was Mrs. Shaw. I remember her being so old that when she told us kids about Abe Lincoln, I figured she new him personally.

Heck, for all I knew, she probably even corrected his spelling on the Gettysburg Address.

And, I’m sure, if Mrs. Shaw were still alive today, she’d certainly remember me. And not necessarily in a good way, if you know what I mean.

Does class clown mean anything to anyone?

Anyway, this week I decided to go back to school.

You see, each year in the early fall, a group of community folk gather at the Newport-Mesa Unified School District offices to read and evaluate grant requests from local teachers. It’s quite a successful program that’s organized and implemented by the Newport-Mesa Schools Foundation.

And very popular among our educators, I might add.

The foundation has been in existence since 1981 and this year alone will present $189,000 in grants at a dinner on Feb. 9 at the Hilton Costa Mesa.

One of the educators’ most sought-after requests this year and in recent years past has been for a Smart Board.

And, if you’re like me, you probably have no idea what a Smart Board is.

So I asked former teacher, former principal and current foundation board member Scott Paulsen if I could see one.

We met at Newport Heights Elementary School. “We” is my yearly grant reading group, including community volunteers Lynda Adams and Judy Gielow.

Scott met us out front and first took us to meet Principal Kurt Suhr. Suhr was once a student of Paulsen’s. Did I mention old earlier?

Together we all headed off to Mrs. (Jennifer) Stevenson’s room.

As best I can remember, we didn’t have teachers like Mrs. Stevenson when I was a kid. She was 80 years younger and much cuter than old Mrs. Shaw.

Forget the Smart Board, I was suddenly interested in school after all these years.

But let’s not digress.

The Smart Board. It’s virtually an interactive whiteboard that measures some 4-feet-by-5-feet and operates off a Macintosh projected on the board.

Kids can sit around it and view as the teacher instructions using the board’s many components.

You can write on the board, with magic pens, and erase. You can connect to the Internet by simply using your finger as the mouse to click on the appropriate icon.

Your can import graphics or lesson plans. Create math problems big enough for everyone to see. You can even do a science project, adding a camera component that would allow everyone to view as you, say, dissect a frog.

OK, maybe that’s a little advanced for sixth-graders, but you catch my drift.

You can save any or all of your ideas in files for later. It uses PowerPoint, Word, Excel.

It’s good for accelerated math and reading programs. Students can write stories on it and even make pictures.

It seemed like you could do everything. And, most importantly, it was fun and interactive!

We viewed a program called “Welcome to Seussville.” It, of course, was targeted to the younger child. The program was almost like entering a magical, interactive land of Dr. Seuss characters. Once there, the characters and special programming offered a multitude of options.

Mrs. Stevenson seems to be the epitome of where schools seem to be headed. Her title is teacher on special assignment for technology, which is a slot specially funded by Newport Heights Elementary School’s foundation.

Each student in the school cycles through a short-term program, four to five weeks, in her class. The sixth-graders are now working on a project about India. The fifth-graders are studying the Colonies.

Her vision of the classroom for the future includes a Smart Board and a mounted projector in each one. Additionally, she would like to see a rack of 30 laptops in all classrooms that would allow each student the opportunity to sync with the teacher working the board and, of course, the document camera, which she says will eventually replace the overhead projector.

The cost of setting up this equipment per classroom is about $6,000.

I can tell from first-hand experience it’s worth it.

Heck, even Mrs. Shaw would have had my full attention. And then I wouldn’t have had to come back after class and bang erasers together. Sure, some of you know the drill.

Right now at Newport Heights Elementary, they have five Smart Boards for their 26 classrooms. So you can see we have a ways to go.

And that’s only one school.

The foundation is doing great things and is always looking for individuals or companies to get involved for more support and, hence, more grant money.

Education, it’s a great thing. Can you hear me, Mrs. Shaw?

* TOM JOHNSON is the publisher. Readers may leave a message for him on the Daily Pilot hotline at (714) 966-4664 or send story ideas to dailypilot@latimes.com.

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