-
The Great Meadows School District is committed to providing the tools needed for our students to be productive members of the 21st Century. Our district includes two schools.
Central Elementary: This is the district school for grades Pre-K through third.Central Elementary school has wireless connectivity throughout each classroom. All classrooms have interactive boards for teacher instruction and student use. This school also has a computer lab with twenty-five computers. All students grades Kindergarten through third have chromebooks at a one to one ratio. Pre-school students have iPads available in their classrooms. Network printing and file storage is provided for each student and teacher. Additional peripheral devices are available including Elmo digital document cameras, projectors, scanners, and digital cameras. The computer lab also has two 3D printers.
Software in this building includes Type to Learn, ABC World and Top Readers Club available in school only. Lexia, Study Island and IXL math software is available to all students using an internet hosted option available both in school and from home.
Great Meadows Middle School: The district school for grades four through eight.
In the Middle School, with our one to one initiative, each student is supplied a Chromebook at the beginning of the year. Students are also given a Gmail account with access to Google Drive (Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc.). The newly redesigned middle school media center also contains five computers for small group instruction and research purposes, an instructional area with mobile seating and Epson Interactive Projector. All instructional areas have added interactive projectors or Smartboards to enhance teaching and learning. The school also provides additional peripheral devices including Elmo digital document cameras, projectors, scanners, 3D printers, digital cameras and camcorders. The technology/STEM course provides students with a trimester based cycle in technology education, coding, robotics, digital citizenship, engineering and fun. This room contains 24 desktops, a Makerspace design center and storage area for devices, bots and drones as well as two three dimensional printers. The Middle School also provides both a wireless network throughout the building.
The Great Meadows Middle School continues to expand its blended learning environment and now has 3 classrooms and a media center with mobile seating and expanded technology and resources. The middle school also contains a television studio used by the students to broadcast a daily, live morning show with announcements and weather.
District Technology:
The Central Elementary and Middle School share a 600Mbps fiber connection to the internet with content filtering. The network consists of two file servers and approximately 1,000 clients. We have over 600 chromebooks for a 1 to 1 student to chromebook ratio for grades Kindergarten through 8th. The district also has a web based library server used by all schools for cataloging and to provide searchable online book engine. Our district is also providing online grade books for parents and student access. The online grade books provide parents with a way to monitor their students' grades daily and provide a way for parents and students to check on daily homework assignments.
All teachers in the district have email accounts and a website. Every school is equipped with a voice mail telephone system providing voice mailbox service to every teacher and administrator.The district maintains communications with parents using our group email listing utilizing our Realtime Student Information System which is also used for sending phone, text, and email messages to parents as needed.
Every classroom in both schools also contains a 27 inch television. Each television is connected to the centralized school TV studio.
Both schools are equipped with an electronic point of sale cafeteria system. These systems provide parents the ability to track their students' spending and electronically add money when needed to their accounts via the internet.
In an effort to provide the best educational use of the available technology, teacher training is offered. Both schools have a teacher designated as a technology specialist whose role is to assist the other teachers in technology implementation. A full time technician/network administrator is responsible for purchasing, setup, configuration changes, repairs, maintenance, and upkeep as well as general troubleshooting.
The district also takes an active part in the county technological planning and implementation. Teachers and administrators serve on various county committees and work to coordinate the use of technology with other local school districts.