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Ask the Superintendent - May 30, 2007
Since late winter, this column has primarily
focused on providing the community with as much
information as possible on the 2007/08 school
budget. In my next few articles, I would like to
catch up on some of the “happenings” in our schools
during the past few months.
In my many conversations with parents, I often hear
how much they believe schools have changed in the
years since they were students. Nothing illustrates
this point more than the following two examples:
On March 7th, I was invited to participate in an
interactive videoconference with Mrs. Jan Besaw’s
third grade class at the Goshen Intermediate School.
The videoconference was between her class and a
fifteen-year-old boy from Alaska who last year had
won the Junior Iditarod Race. The Iditarod is a
world famous dog sled race that is run 1,100 miles
between the Alaskan cities of Fairbanks and Nome.
Mrs. Besaw uses the Iditarod Race as an academic
vehicle to promote learning in her class. The
conference was held in the computer lab at the
Intermediate School and was made possible using the
skills of Dr. Sandra Giunta, the District’s
Technology Coordinator and Jim Sterett, our Network
Administrator.
The videoconference lasted approximately one hour.
During the time there was an animated conversation
with the children interspersed with the young musher
showing film clips of his Iditarod victory and
explaining how he raises his many racing dogs.
The students asked wonderful indepth questions and
it was obvious from the onset that they had put in a
great deal of effort preparing for this experience.
The exchanges were astonishing and I was pleased to
see how interested the students were during the
entire time. Toward the end of the hour the young
man asked the students if they would like to go on a
sled ride with his dog team. Excitedly, they
collectively yelled “YES!!!” He strapped a small
television camera over his hat and went outside to
harness his dog team to his sled. He then proceeded
to take the students on a “sled ride.” The students
were absolutely thrilled. The clarity of the picture
and the jostling of the camera made them feel they
were actually on the sled with him.
When the session was over, we all returned to Mrs.
Besaw’s classroom. Waiting in the room to greet the
children was my five-month old Siberian Husky puppy,
named Maddy. The students had an added experience to
touch and see firsthand a real “sled dog.” This
provided additional relevance to the morning and it
was hard to tell who was happier, the children or
Maddy.
On April 27th, Jane Unhjem, the Assistant
Superintendent for Curriculum, and I visited Mrs.
Beth D’Addio’s first grade class, in the Scotchtown
Avenue computer lab for an interactive
videoconference with an elementary class from a
school in Hong Kong/ China. Once again this was made
possible through the expertise of Dr. Sandra Giunta
and Jim Sterett. This opportunity required a little
more planning, but no less preparation since there
is a 12-hour time difference between Hong Kong and
Goshen. Our students had to arrive at SAS more than
one-hour early to prepare for the 8:00 a.m.
telecast, while the students in Hong Kong had to
return to their building at 8:00 p.m. to be ready.
The hour started with both of the teachers from the
respective schools talking with their classes as
well as the class half way around the world. The
morning progressed with students talking with their
counterparts and sharing such things as pictures of
their school, pop music, favorite foods, and a
multitude of other activities. The Chinese students
demonstrated and helped our “kids” learn martial
arts moves, and our students tried to teach their
new friends from Hong Kong the “Macarena.” It was
fun to watch the parents from each of these schools
as they moved throughout the two classrooms taking
pictures of their children interacting with other
students halfway around the world. It was more
important for the parents to get a good photo and it
mattered little to them if they stood in front of
the television camera in an effort to get that
perfect picture. This was certainly a remarkable
activity for all involved.
How fortunate we are to be able to share this
technology as a learning tool with our students. As
I watched each teleconference, I was amazed by how
matter-of-fact the students were both participating
in and embracing this technology. I was the one in
awe –not the students. They very adeptly used the
technology as a vehicle to learn.
I reflected after each of these sessions how lucky I
too was to participate in this experience. When I
was their age, there was no television, we simply
had a big radio…..a very big radio… in our living
room. In these two teleconferences I proudly
observed our students talking live with a musher in
Alaska and sharing with students their own age in
Hong Kong, and marveled as they used this new medium
to gather information and to make new friends.
Roy Reese
Superintendent of Schools
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