Mayo teachers and parents talk tech
Principal Arlene Wallace, center, with Jill Knight at Mayo’s Tech Savvy Night. Photo by Samantha Lyles
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
Teachers and parents met at Mayo High School for Math, Science, and Technology last week for a “Tech Savvy Parent’s Night” where instructors discussed the growing role of technology in the classroom. Attendees learned how several new online access programs and mobile apps can make keeping up with their student’s grades, attendance, and schedules easier than ever.
“Since our district has gone one-to-one in the high schools with technologies – all of our high school students have Macbooks – we thought it would be good to show the parents what we’re using them for. It should also help the parents understand some of the terminology involved,” said Jill Knight, Mayo’s social studies department chair.
Highlighted programs included useful tracking applications like PowerSchool, which allows students and parents real-time access to grades, attendance, assignments, and teacher comments. English instructor Jennifer Blankenship explained how PowerSchool can deliver detailed information like the student’s most recent calculated GPA and individual graduation plan are available through PowerSchool, and the app makes it easy to get in touch with teachers by providing up-to-date email and contact information. PowerSchool is also available as a free smart phone app so parents can keep tabs on their kids even while on the go.
English department chair Lizabeth Thompson outlined the uses of the Schoology Learning Management System, a virtual classroom system for managing lessons, sharing content, and connecting with other educators. Schoology integrates useful applications like Google Drive and YouTube to share work and facilitate collaboration, and it allows students to keep all their work – past and current assignments included – in one convenient location. Schoology also offers tablet and smart phone apps for easy access to grades, calendars, and assignments – anytime and anywhere.
Technology specialist Charissa Lannan explained how the Darlington County School District uses various Google applications, ranging from Gmail addresses for students to cloud storage on Google Drive, and online office suite programs for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.
Music instructor Cole Davis gave attendees a crash course in social media usage and outlined the various ways students are using programs like Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook to connect, communicate, and collaborate on projects.
Mayo’s Tech Team also discussed how using computers to create multimedia projects encourages students to develop marketable skills needed to succeed in today’s tech-reliant world – skills like critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication.