Star-W gets a big star for its first year in Hoboken school
HOBOKEN, N.J. - Within just one school
year, a group of Hoboken elementary teachers and their
students have combined online technology with their reading
and writing lessons, thanks to a new program that pairs
Stevens Institute of Technology's Internet education expertise
with Wallace Primary School's third and fourth grades.
The program is already getting high marks from teachers in its first year. The teachers are now using the Internet as part of their daily classroom literacy lessons, and each class has its own website where student writing and lessons are posted.
The state-funded program, known as Star-W (Students Using Technology to Achieve Reading/Writing), uses Web-based projects to support New Jersey's language arts literacy curriculum standards. The standards are associated with the federal "No Child Left Behind" legislation to improve literacy in America.
Stevens and the school district worked together to apply for the New Jersey Department of Education grant and to implement the program this year. Now they are working together to continue it for two more years. Star-W is one aspect of a partnership between Stevens and Hoboken schools that helps enhance public school education.
For the teachers, as well as the students, Star-W is opening up a whole new world.
"The training I've received as part of this grant has far exceeded my expectations," said fourth grade teacher and former Hoboken mayor Pat Pasculli, who had never used the Internet in his classroom until Star-W began.
"It has opened up a vast universe of educational opportunities and added a new dimension to my teaching," the veteran teacher said. "The use of technology will clearly be an important component of teaching in this century.
"My students are enthusiastic about using the computers, and they love to see their work published online."
Parents are also engaged, Pasculli said: "They visit my website to view their children's work and to check on homework assignments."
Carol Shields, an Internet Training Specialist from Stevens, provides the training at Wallace Primary School. She works for Stevens' Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) and is a former elementary teacher herself.
"This program is having several exciting, positive effects," said the Hoboken school project director Mary Lou Kane.
The teachers are embracing technology and finding new ways of organizing activities and lesson plans. The parents are able to see their students' work online and communicate with the teachers. And students are feeling pride in their work and a purpose for writing, according to Shields.
Teachers receive online support from CIESE and a list of suggested curriculum websites to use each week.
The Star-W program is renewable for a maximum of three years. Stevens and Hoboken applied for a grant and received $200,000 for the first year, 2003-04. They are currently applying for the second year of funding. The program includes the computer equipment and software for the classrooms and the training services provided by Stevens.
The Star-W program at Wallace Primary School uses "Savvy Cyber Teacher " approaches developed at Stevens to teach teachers how to incorporate interactive Internet lessons into their classrooms. These approaches were developed by CIESE, which has conducted teacher training for more than 100 teachers in the Hoboken School District over the last 16 years.
This year's Star-W program has involved eight teachers in the third and fourth grades at Wallace Primary School. Next year, the program will expand to include Wallace's fifth grade.
"This successful collaboration between Stevens and Hoboken at the elementary school level clearly shows what can be accomplished through partnering," said Hoboken Schools Superintendent Patrick Gagliardi.
Another aspect of the partnership activities between Stevens and Hoboken's public schools is CIESE's Hoboken Summer Institutes, which bring teachers from across the grade spectrum to Stevens, where they learn how they can best use the Internet in their classrooms. The office of Stevens' President, Dr. Harold J. Raveche, provides sponsorship for the institutes. The Mayor of Hoboken, the Hon. David Roberts, has attended the institutes and has praised the partnership's success and the teachers' participation.
CIESE has conducted two Summer Institutes for Hoboken teachers (2002 and 2003), and it is planning a third this summer. Afterward, during the regular school year, Stevens' training professionals make follow-up classroom visits to the former institute participants, helping them make progress even after the Summer Institute is over.
Like Star-W, the Summer Institutes have also garnered considerable praise from teachers in Hoboken, both at the elementary and high school levels. In last year's institute evaluations, many teachers indicated they had gained a sense of empowerment.
"I never thought I would be able to publish a web page so easily," said one teacher. "I belong to a first-grade listserv and had always been amazed at what other teachers were putting up on the web - now I can do it myself."
Class websites are only part of the picture, however. CIESE also develops and provides Web-based learning materials, particularly in the sciences, that teachers can use with their classes.
More than 8,000 of teachers nationwide have been trained using CIESE approaches and curriculum materials thanks to a multi-year U.S. Department of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grant. Worldwide, CIESE materials have impacted more than half a million students in grades K-12. For more information about CIESE, please visit ciese.org .
To view teacher websites mentioned in this release go to: http://www.hoboken.k12.nj.us/facultySites/facultysites_hmpg.htm (faculty websites at Wallace School - Star-W participants noted in red)
About Stevens Institute of Technology
Founded in 1870, Stevens Institute of Technology is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.
Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,150 undergraduate and 3,500 graduate students, with about 250 full-time faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.
For the latest news about Stevens, please visit StevensNewsService.com.
