A  note  from  the  Vice  PrincipalThis year the staff and students at Greenfield Elementary School made amazing growth in their knowledge of how to use technology in the classroom. By working as a team, teachers supported each other with concrete examples of how to successfully use technology with all students. The staff also worked hard to ensure that every child had equal access to technology, and as a result we were able to provide one-to-one iPads and computers to all our students.

In the fall, we held a Technology Showcase. We opened our doors to parents and community members with student-led centers. This was a very positive experience. People went away feeling they had learned something new to improve their own use of technology. This has been a learning curve for all of us and next year will continue to be so as well as technology changes all the time. Our team continues to be devoted and excited about using technology as a tool to learn.

Our dedicated volunteers who run our after school sports program have also been extremely helpful in helping our students develop skills and knowledge for a healthy and active lifestyle. Thank you.

Sincerely, Dawn Uhlman

Annual  Report  to  the  Community

September  2013  -­‐  June  2014

Greenfield  Elementary  School

Professional  Learning  Last summer, our teachers went to iPad conferences and seminars to gain a better understanding of how to use this new tool in their classrooms. Various apps were examined and tested by teachers during our embedded time and on their own.

Teachers also read articles and often talked about what was working and what wasn’t working. We also worked with assistive technology to match apps with individual students to better meet their needs. We also started a technology committee that will continue to meet during the new school year.

ConFnuous  School  ImprovementOur school improvement goals focus on technology to improve student learning and promote organized sports to address our school performance and whole child development.

Dawn Uhlman, Jenna Kilfoil and Linda MacPhee worked together to combine everything they have learned to the use of technology in the classroom. By increasing access to technology, we have been able to provide support to all students to better meet their individual needs. We were able to see improvements in the work and habits of all our students.

We were also able to provide our students with an after school sports program. Throughout the year volunteers coached a variety of sports. Our students now feel better prepared to participate in the same sports when they move to North Queens Community School in Grade 7.

School  GoalsTechnology is changing our lives at a rapid pace. In order to help our students with this ongoing change, we must devote ourselves to adapt to new ideas and methods. Using technology to meet the needs of all students will continue to be a focus area at our school. This can allow us to work more closely with individual strengths and weaknesses of each student. Finding the right tool and applications for every child will be examined on an ongoing basis. We know there can always be room for improvement when it comes to working with technology.

Greenfield  Elementary  School                    hIp://greenfieldele.ednet.ns.ca5060  Highway  210          Greenfield,  NS          B0T  1E0          (902)  685-­‐5400

Data  and  ResultsBefore we settled on this goal, we surveyed with our students to ask them a variety of questions about their use of technology in the classroom. Overall, we found that there was improvement that could be made in every aspect of learning, organization and free time at school. Students are now telling us that they know a lot more about using technology in school than they did in the past.

The chart to right, shows that growth was made in every school subject, organizational skills and free time. On average, our student population went from using technology 41% of the time in 2013 to 72% of the time in 2014. That is an increase of 31 percentage points (see graph - bottom right).

Some people may think this is is a lot of “screen time”. But, by using applications that allow students to create products using technology, as well as with paper and pencil and hands-on approaches, offers the added variety we were looking for and is very motivating for students. We view this as a win-win situation.

We will continue working in 2014-2015 with the same Continuous School Improvement Plan as there is always room for growth in working with technology.

2013 2014Reading 44% 57%Writing 44% 91%Math 78% 94%Science 31% 83%Social Studies 50% 74%French 34% 51%Music 31% 83%Art 44% 91%Physical Education 30% 40%Organization 13% 29%Extra Help 16% 71%Free Time 78% 97%

Use  of  Technology  at  GES

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

72%

41%

Growth from 2013 to 2014