Officials at St. Pius X School in Loudonville recently received a $33,965 grant from the John E. Sackett Foundation.
The funds have allowed the school to purchase a mobile technology lab featuring 30 state-of-the-art Dell laptop computers with wireless Internet access, a SMART Board interactive whiteboard, a laptop cart for docking and recharging the laptops, an LCD projector, a stylus pen and printers.
I was thrilled when I learned we had received such a generous grant, said St. Pius X School Principal Dennis Mullahy. `Although our 600 students already have access to an outstanding technology department, this donation is a beautiful addition for both students and teachers and enables technology to be integrated into all subjects in all grade levels on a daily basis.`
Theresa Reid, St. Pius X School technology director, said the mobile lab essentially adds a third technology lab to the school and gives St. Pius students in pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade even more access to computers and the world around them.
`If a social studies teacher wants his class to simultaneously conduct research on the Civil War, he can now have the mobile lab wheeled into the classroom during that period,` she said. `Students and teachers can use the laptops in the classroom for writing, planning, drafting, and editing presentations, Internet research and accessing educational software.
`There are so many other useful applications from this grant,` stressed Reid. `The stylus pen can draw diagrams for kids who prefer a more visual learning approach, while the SMART Board can also be used to show different positions on a basketball court or even draw musical notes and rests and their values.`
Reid, who won the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce’s Tech Valley Innovative Educator Award in 2006, noted that several studies suggest educational benefits related to laptop use such as increased student motivation and a higher level of student academic achievement.
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, an attorney for the John E. Sackett Foundation, said the mobile lab will be a `wonderful addition` to the school’s existing technology labs.
`It will open up so many doors for students in so many fields of study,` he said. `Opportunities that will be made available by this grant will also help to further the legacy of John Sackett, a former superintendent of the Rensselaer-Columbia-Greene County BOCES, who was an incredibly dedicated and inspired educational leader in New York state.“