For Thursday, September 14, 2000                            Drummer Column, Gibbs, 701 words

 

 

Grant's Pass

 

 

     Ah, back to school. Life seems normal again. Summer vacation, in all its splendor, is always a bit surreal.

     I have lots of good news. First off, the Digital Grant was approved in Sacramento last Friday, September 8. I attended the review and sat quietly in the audience as they read it over. When I got the nod around 10:30 a.m., I excused myself and ran straight to the nearest payphone. I called Bob, our principal. He knew it was me when he picked up the phone and opened with, "I was wondering when I'd get this call."

     "We passed," I said. "They liked it."

     He was glad to hear it, of course, congratulated me, notified Joanne, our superintendent, and a few passing teachers, but he said he'd let me make the big announcement. So, here it is, to everyone at once, the big announcement:

     Our Digital High Grant application has been approved. We will soon receive funds totaling $582,000 to be spent on improving the technical proficiency of our students and staff, providing on-going tech support, and increasing the number of computers, electronic devices, and software applications for classroom use.

     The other good news: We started going digital long before the grant passed. We wired our school for the Internet last year, if you recall, thanks to the East Bay Community Foundation. This year, we're already aggressive pursuing our three-year objectives to double the technical proficiency of our students and staff. I'm teaching a freshman orientation class in our computer lab and enjoying it immensely.

     We're doing a unit called Technology Through Mythology. It incorporates the stories of Uranus and Gaia, Cronos and Rhea, Zeus and Hera, and all the gang into different multimedia variations across a bundle of software applications. We're making Word documents, Web portals, desktop publishing newsletters, spreadsheets, and all kinds of digital things. The students are enjoying it and so am I. On Friday, I'll do a friendly quiz-like survey to see what they learned and how they liked the program.

     I'm taking 22 sections of freshman English through this over a four-week period. A couple of good teachers are helping me by covering my two regular classes -- journalism and computer repair.

     As a follow-up most all of our freshmen are enrolled in our brand new Introduction to Computers class, which is our Flagship Training Program for our new Digital High School. It will be taught by Polly Farina, Victor Lopez, and Susan Huddleston. In ITC class freshmen will learn all sorts of cool, advanced features of the operating system and various Office Suite programs.

     Once the freshmen are off to a good start, the Faculty Technology Support committee and I will shift our attention to seniors, juniors, and sophomores. Training classes and team-teaching activities will assure that everyone gets an extra dose of digits.

     Teachers will get four training sessions a year. We will offer over 100 hours of annual training. We will pay the teacher-pupils for forty of those hours each year, and offer Professional Growth Credits toward a salary increase for the rest. 

     Other good news: We have a new district technician, Tom Souza. He's energetic and friendly and out in the field every day meeting his people and machines. His assistant technician, old-timer Patty Hogan, is out there with him, fixing, testing, updating, and configuring. As fast as our network goes down, they get it up again, and it goes down again, and their hands are full, but we're getting closer to stability every day.

     We have student technicians on payroll, and returning graduates stopping by to volunteer their services. Dylan Thomas graduated last year, but he still maintains my journalism network. Bryan Baeta graduated two years ago, but he still maintains our surround-sound multimedia theater.

     Ryno Computers and Signal Solutions generously send technicians over to offer advice when the going gets real tough. The parents have formed the Parent Technology Support committee to bring in outside know-how. Together, we're all pitching in to make this transition to Digital High status a reality.

     Our kids are going to thrive. The year is going to be full of progress, surprises, and new ways of doing things. God, how I love this job.