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| Lauderdale County teachers and students can always be found using technology. |
What's New in Technology in Lauderdale County Schools
Upcoming Free Webinars:
Nov. 3- 6:00 p.m.- Streaming is Just the Beginning: 50 Ways to Use Discovery Education Streaming
Nov. 10- 6:00 p.m. - A Tangled Web of Content Untangled for Educators
1. Lauderdale County Technology Scope and Sequence with Resources All K-8 teachers are responsible for teaching the Technology Course of Study. The links provided in this resource will help you meet those objectives.
2. EducationCity- Fun educational games for K-6 Math, Reading, and Science. Available in any classroom of Title I schools. Contact your school's reading coach, lab contact person, or Cheri McCain for passwords.
3. Moodle is a course management system to help educators create effective online learning communities between educators or between educators and students. After a learning community called a "course" is created, the teacher may invite students to enter the course with a private key code. Within this established learning community, the teacher and students may interact with assignments, collaborative projects, discussions, and testing. Resources such as videos, documents, podcasts, picture galleries, and web links may be used in the created learning environment. Teachers may set up activities for the students such as wikis, forums, tests, lessons, projects, and research. Students may submit their work into this course for the teacher to review, offer feedback, or grade. Contact cheri.mccain@lcschools.org for training.
4. Interwrite Pads - Many classrooms in the Lauderdale County School System are using Interwrite Pads by eInstruction. " Interwrite Learning's Interwrite Pad was designed with the teacher in mind. This BluetoothTM wireless pad includes Interwrite Software and gives the teacher the ability to teach their interactive lessons from anywhere in the classroom. The Interwrite Pad revolutionizes how teachers interact with their class." Update- Check here to download the latest version of Workspace Tools for your Interwrite Pad. Uninstall the older version first.
Online Tutorials for Interwrite Pads
Interwrite Manual
Thank you for visiting the Technology portion of the Lauderdale County Schools Website. We currently have 3000 computers in 12 schools on a state of the art fiber-optic network. Every classroom, library media center, and lab has Internet access.
Every K-8 student goes to a computer lab each week for technology instruction, projects, and curriculum skills review. Students work on courseware that includes language arts, math, science, writing skills, social studies, and SAT10 and ARMT skills. Destination Reading is used in lower elementary grades at all schools and Destination Math is used in grades K-8 at all seven Title I schools. All labs are equipped with LCD projectors and screens. Students may use a variety of software programs while in the lab. Basic keyboarding skills are learned by using programs Read,Write, and Type in the lower elementary, JumpStart Typing in upper elementary, and Ultra Keys in middle school grades.Technology productivity tools such as Microsoft Word, Power Point, Excel, and Publisher are used to produce documents, spreadsheets, and multimedia presentations. Teachers and students may use Inspiration (6th grade and above) and Kidspiration (K-5) for organizing and developing ideas. This visual learning tool helps idea mapping in all curriculum areas. Kid Pix 4 can be used for drawing and writing projects in the K-8 grades. Many labs are equipped with digital cameras, scanners, and networked printers. Each elementary school has a set of one or two rolling computer labs with 30 AlphaSmart laptops that can be used in any classroom for writing activities and projects. Two to three times a year, students in grades 2-8 take an online predictive assessment series of tests in the computer lab called ThinkLink. The results provide the teachers with data regarding student learning. This data is then used to redirect learning paths in the classroom before high stakes testing in the spring.
Elementary schools are also equipped with with an early learning computer lab that is utilized by kindergarten and first grade students. These labs use a research based software program called Destination Reading by RiverDeep. They also use BrainPop and Education City. These labs are staffed by aides that work closely with the classroom teacher.
High schools have computer labs that complement the business education classes such as Keyboarding, Word Processing, Desktop Publishing, and others. Four high schools (Wilson, Waterloo, Lexington, and LCHS) have Distance Learning classes through ACCESS and/or Northwest Shoals Community College. Wilson High School has a rolling lab with 30 DANA laptop computers that may be used in any classroom. Several schools have also purchased handheld rapid response units . Teachers can ask a question and get immediate feedback as each student plugs in their answer on a "remote control type" device. These have brought excitement to many classrooms as students compete to quickly answer questions correctly. Our system has also provided each school with computer generated templates to make fun interactive learning games and flashcards using well known game show formats such as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Jeopardy. These games are used for test review and Alabama High School Graduation Exam remediation.
All library media centers have a circulation and electronic catalog system called InfoCentre. The Alabama Virtual Library (AVL) is used for quality online database searches.The AVL may be accessed by students at home by using a password provided by the library media specialist at each school. The Accelerated Reader program and STAR reading assessment program may be used in grades K-12 for reading comprehension practice at all schools. Some schools also use STAR Early Literacy and Accelerated Math programs.
Our system uses STI Education Data Management Solutions. This provides each teacher with an online gradebook and reporting system, attendance system, and lesson plan development system. Professional develoment hours and credits are also logged by each teacher into the STI portal of the Alabama State Department of Education website.
ApexLearning is used for the Lauderdale County Credit Recovery Program called TRAC. High school students are provided oppurtunities each trimester to recover any credits failed in many subjects. Contact Secondary Curriculum Supervisor Pam Tanner for information on enrolling.
Professional development for technology is provided twice a month after school at the Technology Training Trailer behind the Lauderdale County Central Office from 3:30-5:00. Topics are emailed to all employees each month. One-on-One training is also provided during planning times during the school day. After-school, onsite training may be scheduled by the principal or teacher. This training is free of charge and provided to all Lauderdale County school employees. Topics have included Microsoft Powerpoint, Publisher, Alabama Virtual Library databases, STI gradebook and professional development, digital cameras, Inspiration and Kidspiration, AlphaSmarts, Thinkfinity, Moviemaker, PhotoStory3, Kid Pix, ThinkLink, and others. Workshops are also planned and provided at the Central Office throughout the summer and school year.Technology Training is also provided free of charge by Technology in Motion.
This large network of computers and programs is maintained by a Technology Coordinator, Network Engineer and two technicians housed at the Lauderdale County Central Office. Teacher Helpdesk tickets are provided on the District Main Page to report any computer, email, or network problem.
