001like to call the um excuse me curriculum committee of board meeting for uh March the 9th. Um is there any public comment on the agenda for Okay, having done it present. Thank you very much. Good evening everyone and welcome to March's CC meeting. Um we have a few things on our agenda this evening. We would like to update the board and the community uh regarding the final choice for a math resource at our K to3 level. Um we have done an extensive search. So Mr. Mark has a special guest here to explain about that. We are also going to be sharing with the board in the community uh CMS's schedule change. Um so Dr. Katherine is here as well as an amazing teacher that's going to talk to us a little about that and its
002benefits. We're going to talk about uh technology within our instructional world and the curriculum. And then the final thing we have this evening is to um view two conference requests. So without further ado, I am going to turn it over to Mr. Mark and Mrs. Bolasi who is a third grade teacher at school. >> Good evening. So, good evening everybody. Uh, my name is Ed Burke. I am the math curriculum supervisor for the school district. And, uh, as you're aware, we've been looking at math resources for the past couple of years. Uh, we've made some changes at the middle school, uh, California Elementary School, and now, uh, tonight I would like to recommend that for K for grades K to three that we adopt a luster math. Um and here with me is I believe
003Glass. She's going to talk a little bit about the experience they had. Uh but just to give you a summary, we did go through initial looked through resources, met them, had presentations on them, uh did some pilots, did uh you know, practiced with some of their units, looked at their supplemental materials, and uh we're here to give you that summary, let you know how we decided on the Russian map. So, Mrs. >> Hi, good evening everyone. Um, as Ed said, I am I a representative from the K to3 pilot team for the illustrative math curriculum. And just to give you a little bit of background about how the pilot unfolded for us. Uh, so we started to look at some different curriculums and then really started to educate ourselves on illustrative math last, excuse me,
004last school year, especially in the spring. we really started to sift through the different components of the resource and think about how this could really help kids that we see in front of us every day, especially at the K to3 level. So, as the school year got closer this year in the summer, we got together and we really took a look at how we can roll this out into our classrooms and we met not only as grade level but as a whole K to3 unit to talk about the different components and how it would look um living it day-to-day in our classrooms. uh as we progressed through the school year in the fall and were actually seeing how it looked day-to-day. We would meet not only as grade three level teams and debrief, but we
005also would have meetings with Ed to constantly communicate and share our feedback. And overall from K to 3, the feedback was extremely successful and positive. Uh and I'm just here to share some of the highlights that the teachers that were teaching in different grade levels that they saw happening live in their classroom. So the first the big one of the biggest things was the student engagement. Uh not only does illustrious math provide a lot of rich discussion questions and vocabulary but there's a lot of time for students to have that meaningful discourse about math. So not only to you know clarify their thinking but they have lots of opportunities in different modes to both revise and synthesize as well. The program is very high interest level for the kids. It not only connects different content
006areas in the curriculum but also to real life situations. Uh and when the material is presented there's a variety of representations and strategies given to the kids that provide a really nice blend of not only giving them conceptual understanding of the math but then that ability to procedurally practice their thinking which are the K to3 levels really important to build those foundational skills. uh the program illustrative math provided a lot of variety for differentiation not only in the teacher questioning but as the assessments as well. So there were a variety of assessment modes that you could use and that were kind of recommended uh that gave teachers the ability to really see uh and clarify students thinking and allowed us to meet all um all learners whether they needed extension or they needed a little
007remediation. Um there were a lot of great differentiated strategies that the teachers seem to really love to make learning accessible in all grades K 1, 2, and three. We thought it was really well aligned to the PA core standards for math as well as included the mathematical practices that Colonial has adopted for years in our math um best practice curriculum. And one of the final benefits that teachers loved was the multiple technology resources. So not only for teachers, but it was very accessible technology-wise for students and families, which was very important to us to build that homeschool connection for the learners. And it also provided the teachers the opportunity to use the slides that were created to kind of mostly spend our time figuring out how we can best study the content and deliver it
008to the students as opposed to spending that time creating that. So that was a huge game changer for the teachers as well. So overall based on the pilot team's experience they thought it was excellent um in the areas of increasing student engagement, math discourse. It really provided a clear and consistent routine for the lessons each day. So, not only did the students know what to expect, it was nice for the teachers, too, once you kind of got in the rhythm of, you know, seeing it and seeing your learners grow um in the dayto-day. So, it was a great pilot. Uh I know I speak on behalf of all the K3 pilot team was super excited to see this um unfold in our classroom the whole year instead of just for a a brief time. So
009I'm going to turn it over to Ed to talk a little bit more about how uh the cohesiveness will play into the curriculum implementation as well. So thank you. >> So one of the other benefits besides what Mrs. Blaski just mentioned is uh adopting is going to help us align our grades four and five program. It's going to establish a coherent gify progression because our CES here uses electric connect as well. Um, it'll it integrates with our supplemental programs for targeted practice that's uh connected to our core lessons and it's going to create that cohesive instructional uh a word I've been seeing a lot lately with some of these resources ecosystem. So that's uh you know making those connections between kit and then even more beneficial is uh CMS's core map resources uh resources amplified
010desmos and amplified desmos has its uh has its origins from a shift map. So, we're going to create a nice uh kidney pathway vertical alignment that will support the sustain the sustained growth going into. So, uh it's been a little bit in the making here, but you know, we have Kurtway line in the next couple years start to see those benefits. >> Any questions? Thank you for that and I apologize if this is a little off. Um I do have a couple quick questions. One is um uh in terms of game in terms of tiered instruction for tier two, tier three, what offerings does um IM have for our students who may need that extra uh remediation and then also can you talk a little bit about the technology component u related to um to
011this resource and what that looks like in in the classroom. >> So the tech not the technology component I'll answer first. It's actually just what their resource is. So it's not part of the daily instruction. Correct. There's no part of the daily instruction that the students will experience. >> Oh, >> the technology parts in class. It's mainly having as a resource uh available when they're outside class. >> So there's no tech part to it. uh in terms of in terms of gain yes it doesn't provide those supports for remediation but we do have supplemental resources that we use as well that help support people >> also for extension >> yeah for >> that's great so two other quick questions one is typically when especially with the littles we turn over a math curriculum families are
012very often like I'm not used to this this is different right so what proactive steps are we to support families um with rolling out the new K curriculum and um helping them become comfortable with it so they can support their K to3 students. >> So typically at the beginning of the school year all of our teachers have their open houses for all of our families. This will be a major component of that. They talk about the curriculum and how it's introduced. Um, we also sent home periodic parent resources about the curriculum that we use and we will continue to do that as well. >> Rosemary, you mentioned open house. So, I remember I'm going to age myself so my oldest was in third grade and that's when the curriculum the math curriculum had changed. um
013a work a parent workshop was offered um and I attended that workshop and so kind of to to Sharon's point I think more than just spoken house it would be great if we could offer something like that because that was extremely helpful I call it math because it was you know math and so it was very helpful that you know we weren't smarter than third graders and so it helped us to really grasp the concept and how our children were learning and then when they come home now we have some idea as opposed to coming in. >> And we have curriculum nights each year and we can ask for the focus to be more workshops as well. >> Thank you. >> Oh, sorry. Just out of curious, can you talk through the um whether it's
014the RFP process or solicitation process for getting some of these programs in general? >> Could you repeat that? How do you find >> search process? >> Oh, the piloting process. >> Yeah, the RV process. >> So, this kind of back from what we selected at the middle school. Um, so we didn't want to just say, okay, since middle school selected this resource, everybody else has to. We wanted to let them make their own decisions, you know, know what works best for their grade levels and buildings. So that's why we explored not just this program, we explored our existing resourcing area in addition to a couple others and we felt this was a nice fit and supports what what Colonial likes to see in that work. It's just the beginning of every pilot also looks at
015multiple resources. So we'll look at studies, we'll also look at locally what is going on in the county, the community. Um, and then we whittle that down and then the teachers pilot multiple resources based on that and they have rubrics uh and they have discussions amongst themselves and they decide ultimately what is going to be best beneficial for our district. >> Is that what you're looking for? >> Do you lead to what works through also see We do look at some but not solely. We use multiple resources to evaluate. Yep. Any other questions? Okay, great. Thank you very much, Mr. Burke. >> Thank you. >> All right. And now we have more guests here. We have Dr. Kaplan and Amanda Thornton, an amazing teacher of ELF Middle School. And again, we're going to discuss some
016proposed changes to the middle school schedule for next school year. >> Good evening everyone. Great to be here tonight to talk about our schedule change again. Miss Thornton is joining me from the middle school. She's a master teacher, our curriculum lean in the middle school, and a leader in sixth grade ELA for us. um she'll help me speak to the teacher side of what we're looking to do uh with our master schedule. Uh before talking about the changes things to paint a brief picture of what the schedule is now in sixth grade and currently we have three course in sixth grade uh overall English and math are all year long start to finish for 80 minutes. Science and history are semester based for 80 minutes. So some students have science and then switch to history
017and some students vice versa. Uh, and that's different from seventh and eighth grade where it's 460 minutes all year long. English, math, science, and history start to finish. Um, so there's a variety of reasons that we're looking to align uh sixth grade with seventh and eighth grade. And those are listed in bullet point fashion below. Um, but not really in any particular order among among many reasons. The first that we have listed here is the new amplified uh science resource that we move to which has been incredible and very well received by uh teachers and students is designed for 40minute lessons. So what we have going on right now is our teachers are becoming more and more familiar and comfortable with it, especially the second go around and the second semester here is we have
018these 40-minute lessons that we try and squeeze two into one period or do we do one and then try and uh add to it and emphasize certain content uh details with with other materials. So so it helps us out in that way. Uh, another big piece is the science and history classes being semester based right now creates some some pacing and continuity challenges. And what we mean by that is all the special events and details that we have in the beginning of the year. Even just getting used to the new school year uh and all that we have to teach about routines and expectations and uh different things that pop up throughout the school year make it a little choppy when those things aren't necessarily present in the second semester. Um and and an additional
019part of that is not every student is experiencing your science and history class at the same time which in sixth grade closes some opportunity for uh crosscurricular uh learning. Mrs. Thornne will speak in a few minutes to example of what she did in her classroom uh to help with that. I thought it would be much more uh efficient and open up a lot of opportunities for learning reading, writing and science and history if every student is having it year round. Uh stronger alignment with grade seven and eight schedules. Again, we have four coursees uh in seventh, eighth grade right now. So moving to this in sixth grade helps us in a few ways. Uh one is that it makes that transition from sixth grade to seventh and eighth grade a little bit easier. Uh adding
020that with classes uh can be a challenge. another another uh daily class to keep track of and be mindful of the teacher to work with every day. And we feel that it smooths that transition. And then the last bullet point, increase flexibility to schedule teachers efficiently across grade levels, especially when it comes to uh special education gifted uh some math details that we've been looking at right now with four course in seventh and eighth grade and three course in sixth grade. the combinations of pulling people across grade as we see fit are a little bit limited versus those schedules being a lot closer which they'll be in this model aside from the lunches we could have a teacher teach across all grade levels not necessarily would do that but the opportunities there to have someone
021in for instance half their day in sixth grade half their day in seventh grade where we really can't do that right now they're either all six or all the four course in seventh so we think that that would be a a big value ad for So some of some of the things that we considered when when looking at this change the instructional impact transitioning from 80 minutes to 60-minute work periods pacing engagement depth of learning I'll hand it off to M story in a moment but uh among men one of the big pieces that we thought a lot about was where our sixth graders are at developmentally and 80 minutes is just a long time. Um, and when you look at 60-minute classes in 17th grade and you have kids that are a little bit
022longer, a little bit younger with 80 minutes and then also thinking of the trade-off with additional opportunities to dig into history and science in ways that we can't year round right now. We felt that was another area that we' be adding value by splitting the schedule just a little bit further this way. And Mrs. Jordan, you can speak to that example from our classroom a little bit more concisely. >> Yeah. So from the teacher end of things, I think one of our biggest, you know, questions was will we have time to delve into our curriculum and really make sure that this can work within the sixth period and we've been reassured that. So other than that, we're actually very excited for this new schedule change. Um the example that Dr. Kathy was talking about where
023I at the beginning of the year we were doing foundational reading and writing skills for annotating and reading both in fiction and non-fiction and I took that as an opportunity to take some of the instructional materials from the amplify science but then having to go to history and grab some articles from them and it proved to be successful but a little more difficult when you have like threequarters of the class doing history one quarter of the class is science in one core and then the next core it's flip-flopped and then the next core it's like half and half. So, instructionally, it just proved to be a little bit more difficult as far as management was concerned. And then not being able to hit that when they switch again. So, that when they're looking at something
024with a history lens instead of science lens, you know, we're already in our, you know, full curriculum by that point. So, not being able to do that all at the beginning of the year, you know, prove to be a little bit tough. So, I'm excited for this. >> Thank you, Mrs. Sord. It it was a real really good example. I visited Amanda's room and she has a whiteboard where every student is assigned a number then that number is placed on the science side or history side but then the next class comes in and they all get shuffled up again and the next class and they all get shuffled up again and um you know it would help teachers like Mrs. and be more efficient. But when you also think about the learning opportunities where the
025learning for reading and writing and science doesn't stop in January, it it keeps going year round. Same thing in history. And we think that that trade-off is a really valuable one. Um Amanda spoke briefly to the feedback from teachers. We spoke with everyone uh pretty directly about, you know, how this would impact them and what they would be looking to do. And uh like like she mentioned, the the feedback was was overall very positive. and we work closely between PLT time and our team time during the school day to make sure that there's uh the space that we carve out those details of what this would look like uh over the course of the year. So the next piece is looking at ways um that increases flexibility and efficiency staffing. We spoke about that a
026little bit on the previous slide um primarily with special education and gifted again when core one and sixth grade is basically the same time as core one and seventh grade and eighth grade. we put our teachers in in all the spots across the board. And lastly, how a grade level seems to be structured uh to ensure that everyone's, you know, able to accomplish their goals um just like they are now just in a uh enhanced fashion. Uh it would be very similar. Um right now we have three teams with two English teachers, two math teachers, one science and one history. And with the way that we would restructure as a fourth team would be added and we look a lot more like what we had in seventh and eighth grade and that would make um
027our class size uh equable across all teams. We wouldn't have issues with special ed regular and gifted and it also in all honesty gives us space with that large fourth grade class coming up too um to you know keep uh extra seats in our class that we getting a little bit tighter than otherwise. Uh so we feel like it something that'll um add a lot to our program especially with the the full year science and history piece and something that we're excited to roll out next year. So in summary, um keeping class sizes smaller um as students transition from the four five to the middle school increases the amount of social studies and science that we get into the sixth grade curriculum without sacrificing the importance of reading text analysis that we offer in our
028current ELA program. uh and then aligning the bell schedule 67th grade which anybody who's ever been a middle school principal which I have been uh knows that that is the most complex schedule with all the different special areas. >> Yep. That's that's all correct. The special areas remain unchanged. Lunches remain unchanged. as far as uh the TDM literacy skills examples that you mentioned, it just opens the opportunity to support them in science and history year round where there's a lot of really good work taking place and it just unfortunately comes to an abrupt fold around January right now and uh we feel we keep the best of both worlds all year long and you you and your team the administrative team that included the curriculum advisers and your sixth grade uh faculty included them in
029conversation in In this proposal, >> we have and also the curriculum leazison which some are in seventh and eighth grade but we wanted their feedback from the curriculum perspective too and everyone's in support of this change as we've seen past three years we've definitely seen increases uh English is always our ELA scores and PSSAs and sixth grade have been higher traditionally uh but we've seen gains in math too so you make sure that everything's align there and we're still meeting all those benchmarks preparation for the PSC is a serious. >> That's right. Thank you. >> Thank you um for for having this um presentation, but thank you for making this adjustment. Obviously, literally last week talking to my daughter and her friend and we were talking about classes and she's like, "Oh, this is nothing
030like I'm so glad we don't have this eight minute course." So, I'm sure that the students will be happy um that this change. I had a couple of questions. um one we talked about um what the benefits are and um some of the feedback from the teachers. My question is what are some of the opportunity areas that were presented and then what obstacles do you see as part of the first year of of implementing this change >> opportunities? I think I think two of them in particular this the the new curriculum in science with Amplify just just fits the 60 minutes way better and it's it's added so much to students inquiry in science and what they're pursuing on their own and to be able to sustain that throughout the entirety of the period versus
031trying to uh make it fit right now into the 80s I think is a big one. Um, but even bigger than that is the reading and writing skills across science and history all year all all year long. And when students come back in their English classroom and they're all talking about the same science material at the same time and they're all talking about the same history material at the same time, that just opens up so many doors um doors that are being walked through with seventh and eighth grade right now too. Our ELA teachers are able to work closely with them uh in in seventh and eighth grade science and history that is already. So there's kind of the infrastructure in place, the conversations uh department meetings, so on. and so forth. So, um it's
032nice to duplicate that. And as far as um concerns or things to be aware of, I think it's just just the adjustment. Um the curriculum is very well uh fleshed out already. And um Mr. S and Mr. Si do a really good job uh developing that and adjusting as as things change and we look at benchmark that respond to what's in front of us. But uh just with anything it would just take a little bit of time to to tinker and make sure that we cover all that we want to and time that is impacted a little bit. >> Thank you. And then one last question um because you kind of alluded to in terms of the benchmark data is outside of benchmark data how are we measuring this change um in terms of the
033success? >> Yep. So we we love our benchmarks uh and spent a lot of time on them when we finished the beginning of February. I think for something like this though it's where we'd be a little bit more interested in day-to-day our formative assessments things that we do in like for instance the common there's midunit assessments and uh the assessments in amplified that we're learning more and more about each time we administer them and looking back and comparing there and really drilling down to the item analysis you know if this unit was condensed down to uh one week shorter to accommodate the time how do we perform on that unit and then how do we need to readjust based on that the next go around. So, we'll always lean on the data to guide it,
034but we're confident that we're able to uh to make it fit uh in this time frame. >> Will we need to um increase any of the resource amounts of resources that we have since all the students will be taking those classes instead of half of them? So, like in terms of textbooks or other things now, you have 400 kids taking I think so 200. >> Yeah, that that's a great question. When the biggest time that would be a challenge would be on, you know, hard copy resources. Um, but the good news is we have them for every kid anyway. They're just waiting until the second semester. Um, so that's that's a good question, but we have if we're ordering the same number of everything, it's just using it right away versus using it at the
035start of second semester. Just clarify, we're going the extra 40 minutes are coming off of PLA and math. So they're dropping from 80 to 60 as well. 40 or the other area for four 60s instead of three. >> Correct. That's exactly how we >> do we anticipate additional homework having to be assigned for the ELA math classes being shorter and not getting to as many things. >> I'll ask Mr. Sword in a moment. My answer is no. Uh truth be told our department. >> He's always like in class. >> The majority the majority of our homework I'd say is in math just for the repetition and and trying to automate those skills. And then you know most of most of the homework that we send home is you know if this is a big assignment
036that is kind of meant to show mastery that you finish something off and you didn't quite finish it in class. That's when we ask students to spend a little bit of time longer at home. But I don't see this being something where we're taking 20 minutes out of class during the school day so that we have to shift those at home. I think um our teachers do a good job of minding the balance of that and knowing how much our students have going on after the school day. So So Mrs. >> Yeah. Yeah. I'm confident in our core resources that we have, but that's not going to be an issue. I think that currently we're able to get to those things within a 60-minute period. I went to the class day. So that doesn't I
037don't mention that is there some crosscurricular things that are possible I know sort of the the disease project science and together myth project three street is that going to be more translate down to sixth grade now that everyone's taking the same courses in the same >> the that's a big part of what we're looking to do and we have a lot of that on seventh and eighth grade right now. Um because the English teacher knows it all. Students see the history teacher every single day and they have their common planning time too within their team. So uh the structure is already there in seventh and eighth grade and history knows that from their department meetings the same in science and life. So again this just opens the opportunity to bring that down to our sixth
038graders where they they can't quite do it uh as fully right now. No, we are we have been on a a modified block schedule at the middle school for before I was here. Um probably 12 13 years, right? So there are still some intermediate schools out there that offer on a traditional 8 period schedule where classes are you know 42 43 minutes you rotate through. Um most of the team concept so we're in schools within schools or intimate settings. So we still do have that 60-minute block uh which is longer than some traditional periods in some intervening schools. >> We feel like the 60s are the sweet spot for really for everybody six. uh it's working out very well for us since grade and again we just kind of think about some of the developmental
039needs of our sixth graders too that part >> one of the other areas of opportunity like you brought up that our team has spoken with Dr. that you've seen that is talking about those areas of integration and articulation across the different content areas possibly ping schedules being rewritten and we do have curriculum hours set aside specifically to accomplish those goals over the summer so that in the beginning of this school year the professional development can be aligned with that teachers involve any other questions for Dr. Thank you everyone. Is there I feel like teacher. Is there any push back from the science and history having to double their lesson? >> Uh that they're actually very excited about it. Uh which is question I was curious about. I don't know how excited Mr. They feel rushed
040in all honesty. They feel like they have to squeeze it in. You know, just as an example, we get close to winter break. We have the spring show coming in and everyone's excited about the holidays. That creates a little bumpiness in the schedule, which isn't necessarily the same as, you know, a week in March when we're hanging away without interruption. So, it feels it out a little bit and then the uh stretching out. I think also for the sense of community within a team that it's not one teacher only having kids for a certain amount of year and then not having anymore or not understanding students that we're talking about having concerns. So I think that across the board also >> yeah that that's a great point the way the teacher set up currently if
041you don't say I have science first and my history teacher is not my only room teacher that's a teacher on my schedule that I don't get to even meet until until January. So think about the relationships with your team and you know when we we do things as team field trips spirit rally so on and so forth it's another connection with you know an adult that's supporting you on your journey that you wouldn't have otherwise. uh right away and then Dr. one additional point there. Um the curriculum allows them now to do more depth and content that they otherwise had to skip. Right. So we have to make ancient civilizations is a really large concept for sixth grade. So now we have the opportunity to really dive it in and we've been doing curriculum writing
042and development over the past year and anticipation of making significant change moving into next year. So this allows for a lot of lab treatment. So teachers are excited about it. Wouldn't say it's doubling. Uh the work is definitely more focused. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next on our agenda, um we are going to talk about how the curriculum and the department of technology work collaboratively together to ensure that our instructional goals are supported by our digital tools. Um we're going to share some of the resources that we use in English language arts, math, and science. We use our major content areas to explain this to you. and we're going to talk about the times that we spend on digital resources. Um, our digital resources in our district function as tools that
043support our high quality instruction from our teachers. They are not separate tools uh operating independently but in conjunction with the high quality instruction. So um Mr. Mark, Mr. said and this will check because science has so much to discuss at the elementary level. >> Hello again. So um I have the honor of going first and then I'll discuss the resources that we have for elementary mathematics. You see for core resources K3 and four five are using different resources. It's not going to be the case study next school year. They'll both be illustrative math and then but we do have a number just like as Dr. credit. We have a number of supplemental resources from that. Um we use these for enrichment for remediation uh assessment uh you know both formative and in some cases summitative
044but you can you know the list that we have here Dreambox tagmath first math ISL reflex extra and double math. Each of those do serve a purpose in supporting our overall curriculum of the drug. And for ELA, we have something comparable. Well, at first blush, it looks like there's several things there. Um, it's important to recognize that these again are supplementing the core resources. Um, so effectively what you see there for Lexia, digital codes, vocabulary, etc. on that list. These are really used in rotation. They are not used on a daily basis. Um, and they're certainly not set and forget, so to speak, for students. So, we're not just having them go on to their Chromebooks and engage in this work. um and then not have them interact with the teacher anyway. And for each
045of those programs, we do get a lot of very robust data that we use to triangulate along with our benchmarks with our unit assessments to make better instructional choices for our students both as well as >> and then currently our core K through five science resource is mystery science which is not a resource that students directly access. more of a teacher resource. Um, so students interact with access by conducting the activities, watching the videos from the teachers screen, not their individual screens, um, and doing the worksheets for the, uh, writing components that are part of the resource. So, as mentioned, these supplemental resources could be used by your teacher um, during the math skills groups, during our game groups or skills groups in ELA. And the teacher may have a must do assignment in let's
046say Dreambox. Their child is working on that 15 20 minutes in their own independent group time. Then when they rotate back to the teacher, the teacher can check that assessment and children. Approximately 40 to 50 men minutes is maximum time spent for our elementary students. Some of our principles reported that depending on what sort of skills group or intervention a child is in, it could be as low as 20 to 30 minutes a day. >> I'm sorry. >> 40 to 50 minutes a day. >> A day with ELA, math, and science. >> Oh, sorry. All content areas. Yes. >> Total in the day. Now we're going to move on to our secondary resources as you could imagine and this is going to be a little bit more exciting because a lot of our resources are
047digital but there okay so for CMS we their core resource is amplified and then supplemental resource they have isl and at the high school integrated mathematics is the core resource and you can see they support that main uh resource with math excel by math lab couple classes used again it's the the purpose and the need um depends on which resource is used and that can change but the core resources are um but they primarily use every day amplified business integrating and the priority that we have in any of the humanities areas especially social studies and ELA is always going to be paper copy as much as possible um for all of our students. So at CMS for Common for example, they do have annotation tools available to them as well as embedded quizzes if they
048were to use that resource on the digital platform. But whenever possible and Dr. Kap attest to this, we are always making sure that we emphasize the actual written text and they have physical copies of those things. Um teachers can certainly model with it, but that is generally how that's experienced for them. Um and then at PW um several of our classes I think you know with the exception of possibly one elective course it's all physical copies of texts we have novels in canvas we have short stories in we have those print outs for that um and Canvas generally uses a landing page if there is a PDF of that resource or something of that nature that's where they'll access that and everything else is a supplement to that core instruction >> and then lastly in
049science if you've heard Dr. Catw speak at the middle school we are currently employing I mean by science um and that looks different on a daily basis as to how students access it it's integrated through canvas obviously but for the most part there's simulations that the students would access so that they can manipulate different variables for certain activities in real time to see what the results would be um but that resource also has a lot of hands on activities and articles that are annotated so we can claim evidence Um, so that is our core resource and because of the features of Amplify, we've eliminated a lot of the other online tools that were previously using in science because Amplify is so flexible. At the high school, it looks different based on content because for chemistry,
050for physics, for biology, and then all of the other electives that we teach, we have all different resources. They basically are our primary textbooks because textbooks are not what they were previously. So all of our textbooks are digitized and we do have classroom sets that stay in the classroom but students are able to access the textbooks at home from the digital tool. In addition to that we also have a subscription to Gizmos and Gizmos is an online resource for simulations similar to the ones that I said were available in Amplify and we use those mostly in biology but there are some that we use in both chemistry and physics as well. So on average um our secondary students could spend two and a half to three hours a day. However, you just heard about that
051resources are digital. Um building thinking classrooms is something that the board has heard about through Edward and work with lots of our teachers. Um, when we talk about the teachers and their use of technology, they may be on their homework for 15 minutes getting the introduction to the lesson and then they're up and back in small groups and working on whiteboards. So, it is not just this time. Um, they are up and about and they learn. >> Any questions so far? >> Yes. >> Oh, I'm sorry. or should we keep No, we're still talking about that question because I don't know if we're going to get to it. So maybe we are going to get to AI. Okay. >> Are we going to get to AI? >> Uh well, we are. Well, how about we
052finish? >> Okay. Good questions. >> Um so if you look at the next slide, we also have specials um and many electives that we also use technology. Um we have instructional technology at our elementary level and Mrs. Will check is going to talk about this as well as why we think it is so important to teach digital literacy at such a young age. Um technology is a part of how our students learn communicate. Uh therefore we need to have early instruction about how our students develop the safe skills that they need to use this technology um responsibly, critically and again safely as they grow. So, one of our specialist areas that we have K through five that we're very proud of here in Colonial School District is instructional technology. So, students as early as kindergarten
053go through the same four units and they will repeat that K through five. So, you can see they're listed up there. Every student will receive a special unit in intern technology, unit coding, a unit in robotics, and creating and design first with kindergarten through fifth grade and specialist typically clear about once a week we'll say depending on the building rotation about once a week and then class anywhere between 30 and 40 minutes long. Um the themes are similar. It's part of the vertical articulation so that they build upon from year to year. But that intro technology unit really helps them one understand the importance of passwords and logging in and making sure that they don't share certain information and things of that nature. So they do that every year and that also helps them prepare
054for things that they might do in other classes as well and things that they might do at home. Then we have a coding unit and that is gradually we start with um simp things as simple as codable which is a kindergarten and first grade app that we use as well as scratch and scratch junior and then we go into robotics where we have various robots that were fortunate to have in our school district that students will use and then create design is really actually more of a a paper and pencil kind of unit where kids can sketch and try to engineer and then try to put that into actual fruition. So on the whole in these classes kids really aren't on screens for more than 20 minutes even though this is solely a technology class
055in any case. In some units they actually don't really use the screens at all because it's more of a thinking and a process unit than anything else. Um but to that also in addition to what we offer in these classes we also have a digital citizenship curriculum that students they are engaged starting as early as kindergarten and that goes up until sixth grade. Typically this curriculum is accessed in the library. Um and so we have reoccurring units that the students will see every year but we support that in our instructional technology classes as well. And so you'll see that in the definition we have iOS as digital citizenship responsible for recent technology by anyone who uses computers internet and digital devices to engage in society on any level. We use primarily for that um both
056CS for all which is a a national resource that is aligned to both CSDA and is our standards from curriculum as well as common sense media um which is another website that we use for digital citizenship as well as across the country and sorry lastly which is part of the American association for school libraries and you're just going to continue right on the book. Yes, I am. >> Yes. So, also in addition to that, electives. So, when we talk about the elective areas, we have some electives that are designed specifically for technology. So, obviously the amount of time that they are going to be on screen is going to be much more than you would see in a regular classroom. At the high school, this is where we start to deviate. Kids get to choose
057their pathways as they prepare to go into the high school. So starting at the middle school we have computer science and all students are required to take intro courses. So all the intro courses students will take. So all students take interest to computer science um and there they are exposed to more scratch and more coding as well as um other components of robotics uh and even some intro to drones and things like that. Uh if they choose to go on beyond that there's computer science designer and computer science developer. So they can do things with more robotic dogs now and they can code those as well as drones and also have access design that nature and then tech again simultaneous with tech and and there they will have access um sorry because there's so many
058resources in this class that I actually have to go back and look at this one. use Tinkercad, SketchUp, Xcode, Bloxy, On Shape, Tinker, I'm sorry, Fusion 360, a lot of the resources that we introduce, what we do at our high school to help prepare them if they choose to take those electives. And then in art, believe it or not, we're also using digital tools because there's digital design in art and we want to prepare them for that. Um, we also have iPads that sit in our art classrooms. They stay there. They don't go anywhere. So for specific units um there we're using uh Procreate which is an app that we pay for on a daily basis as well as color slash Japoserive and RL and color theory. So these are often used sometimes as warm
059stationations for students. So they spend a good bit of time not all but in specific units on screens in art classes. And that I'll just speak for music even though it has absolutely nothing to do with music and not music but we do use make music as an app or as a as a resource to support many of our tests for band drama and guitar. >> Thank you. Uh and our final page you're not going to read to you. It just lists again all some of the electives at PW that have a large digital tool um sense to it. So our students choose these classes because they have that interest. >> Okay, great. >> Um my question I was going to ask was about AI. Um and I think the question is like how does
060AI play a part um in the supplemental resources um in terms of in the classroom and outside of the classroom? It's unrelated. >> Well, let's start with so as the board knows and our community knows we've talked a lot about our journey into AI last year. This year we are piloting um magic school at our secondary level. Um, so our students are engaged with it with the uh careful monitoring and the safety precautions of their teachers at both the middle school and the high school. We are now in the second semester where the AI series had agreed to pilot additional AI resources. Um, we are getting ready to start a pilot very soon at the high school. Um, Mr. Oakley had to go back and forth with data processing agreement and privacy as you can
061imagine a lot of those are you know our biggest concerns safety and security of our data and our students so we do have a process supplemental resources at the elementary level we're not using AI at all um are we adopting one of the standard AI frameworks um as our guide or temple for how we should introduce AI for government. >> We have already adapted that last year when we explained it all through the board about the introductory lessons and the safety lessons for our students and the color coding about who can use what on which assignment. Yes, we are all still using this. Uh my my next question I'm going to ask two questions to together. My one question question is the uh the impact to the teachers um from a technology perspective and specifically
062in terms of the level of time the amount of time that they have to spend to get up to speed with the technology in order for them to be able to support the students. Um, and then the second question I had is I think I know the answer to this, but I just want to confirm the goal of the uh requiring the intro classes at the middle school. Um, what is the the goal? >> You can speak to that one. I don't know. Go for it. >> Well, one, we want to make sure that all students have a sampling of each of the potential elected areas so that they can choose beyond that unified arts what their interests might be. So, we want to expose them to a little bit of everything. Um, also we
063do have certain standards that are required with those electives that have to be taught by eighth grade. And so we ensure that they're taught in that intro course because all students are taking it. >> The intro course is is seventh grade. >> It's sorry the intro courses are seventh grade. >> Sixth grade typically they're mostly sixth grade. There are some seventh graders that will take intro based upon scheduling in some other areas. Yeah. And when you talk about the resources, a lot of our supplemental resources, the ideas of them may come actually from our teachers and then they're embedded through our departments to see if they align with our standards and curriculum and our instructional best practices. Um, professional learning comes into play with all of those resources as well. So, we try to make
064sure that everybody does feel confident and secure in using resources. So I just from um from a parent we'll put my parent hat on now. Okay. So um and I just there's a a trend and everybody kind of notices the trend where kids spend more and more time on their phones and and computers and and things like that. So what I have noticed as a parent as the kids get older and I'm talking more like high school and beyond there's less and less of say interpersonal communication and collaboration speaking face to face and a lot of it is now kids hide behind their phones or their computers and they're just doing things via text and email and there's that component of voice inflection and and actual verbal communication. in that go it gets missing and
065people get more like kids get more and more uh less and less interested or less but or conditioned to not having these types of like face tof face um conversations and things like that. So, I'm just wondering because it's been a while since I've been in a high school, like watching a classroom, I I kind of get an idea of what happens all the way through till to middle school, but how much in in the classroom is there a lens where we're kind of making sure that kids are having that kind of interaction and it's not like necessarily collaborating on a screen or like a writing assignment. Kids are just typing, you know, they're staring at their screen. It's more like a actual communication happening, interactions happening with uh the the the teachers, the instructors,
066the adults, the teams. You know what I'm saying? Because it's just we're we're we're losing that. I'm I'm just seeing that more and more. And I I want to just I I'm sure we are mindful of what happens in our classrooms. It's just this trend that is kind of sad to see, you know, that the kids they're sitting in the same room with their family, you know, and they're texting each other. They don't have a, you know, saying I know that doesn't happen in the classroom, but I just um using kind of how mindful are the teachers and staff of keeping that going so the kids feel more comfortable having that face to face and not >> stick on their devices. So, so I get it when they're in the technology class, they might be
067on the computer, you know, but but I just I'm hoping I'm hopeful that like in our classrooms, it's a lot more face-toface verbal communication. >> It 100% is. Our teachers are very well um versed on all of the research. Um they do a lot of collaborative learning. They do a lot of project based learning here. You will not see our kids just sitting there staring at screens at the high school. um they don't want that either. >> No. >> Yeah. So, they appreciate and are very intentional about their plans like that. >> I was going to say also um having two high schoolers um we've had sort of these conversations and even sort of the cell phone at the lunch table and my senior said to me, "Mom, adults and people your age are way
068worse with their phones than we are." And those were his exact words. and he's like, "I don't know what you guys think here, but we're like sitting and we're talking like we're not just eating our lunch on our phones." And I thought hearing that from a faith schooler was like very refreshing. and and again seeing the assignments that they're doing, what they're doing in school. Um I mean I was like saving cardboard boxes the other day and felt and velcro and things like they're collaborating. They're working in groups doing projects. So, um I think just seeing it firsthand and talking to the high schoolers, um that was what was said, like you know what, you adults are sort of worse than >> which is probably kind of true. >> You know, one of the things
069I really enjoyed doing when Mr. Santiago came on to the board, as I've done with many of the board members, we take a tour of our schools. Um so, we toured Mr. Kleta's forensics class wherever Chromebooks are out but the students are interacting non-stop on an 8week problem based assignment. Um Mr. Ber's class in technology education yes they're composing uh they're whatever they're building on on a a device but then they're immediately building it together when they go across into the lab. Um Mr. Culp's history class, Mr. my fishing class filled with debating. Um, amazingly, my garden believe high schoolers love debating. Uh, including my own 18-year-old in my house, uh, as we debated and was going to shove in the driveway a couple weeks ago. So, just the um, and they all have as
070soon as you walk into the class. Uh, this has been a point of emphasis for several years now. students put their personal device into a pouch in front of the group. Um, and I I really applaud our high school teachers for making sure students do interact with one another and making sure they're um regardless of their subject matter that they're delivering content and it's that face to face discussion. And then obviously um if you go into any of our arts classes, music, art, you have to remember kids have they have five courses It's not traditional schedule. So they're definitely going to have an arts. They're definitely going to have the science labs. So just the content lends itself to that interaction. So and I did visit recently I did visit local university speak to some
071student teachers recently and undoubtedly in between classes as I was walking around everybody has their phones out uh as they move class to class. That's that's society, right? But um and we're not perfect, but >> the level of interaction in high school I think is you see >> two unrelated questions. One from a high school standpoint, can you So I don't have kids at that level and obviously it's been a little while since I was in school thankfully. Um in terms of the amount of um the technical reading and everything that's available, can you like what are some of the advantages? I remember writing to buy the college of intermediate academy book twice because the publisher changed like three sentences the second year. Is that does that help with this or like what's >> costwise?
072Costwise content wise >> it's actually revenue that's neutral because cost is in the intellectual property. So 10 15 years ago everybody everybody's going to save all this money on textbooks but um that's not the case because the cost of the intellectual property and then um secondly can you talk about some of the security in terms of the um the computers and the thankfully my youngest isn't old enough to do anything yet but um yeah security is see >> thank you um the security in terms of internet security uh because we do we have a number of different filters. We have a spam filter, we have an email filter, we have contact filters, but we focus on the internet. Uh we do have a filter which is also a classroom monitoring tool. Uh so what the
073filter actually does is it categorizes things such as pornography, um different categories that you can set and restrict. Uh we also have an open policy with our building. So if teachers are going to a website that's being blocked, they're able to send that to us. We review it and if it's okay to go through it meets our SIP compliance, it has COP and has purpose filled into the terms and agreements and we release that site. Um situation happened recently where teachers overheard kids talking about something. they notified administration the next morning and then we were immediately notified uh to block that specific site as well. Um so we're using a product in the district right now K through 8. Uh we just released it on Monday in the middle school. Um so we have a
074new product that we're using. We moved away from our older product uh that was really designed for the corporate world, not necessarily education, and we now focused in on a product that's specific for education and we're very excited about it. Uh so not only um has the content filter built into it, it also has what's called classroom management. Uh so now the teachers can actually open up their classroom while their students are logged into Google and see all the screens and communicate with the students through the computers. Uh so it's another great resource uh that we have now that is now live K3 as we're observing and then we're going to be moving it to the high school. >> Did I get your question? It's a it's a constant uh battle of looking for the
075best product, the best way to protect our students. Um that and also securing district information, student information, privacy information, financial information of our employees, demographic information. Um there was a district a couple years ago that got you know hacked and went through the whole ransomware thing. So it's a constant uh it's probably something we talk about. We talk Drew and I talk about it on a monthly basis, but we're constantly looking at different products that can, you know, protect our students and our staff from inappropriate uh inappropriate content. I have to say one of the coolest things I saw I saw I saw a math teacher teaching a course uh teaching a class and the concept was pretty difficult and the teacher could see the students um and they were younger students and they were
076only using their devices briefly in the class and the teacher said you know I can see what everybody's doing on their math and he said and the teacher said to me do you remember is they can call to the board and I said oh yeah I said I teacher turned to me. I said, I remember it was chalk, not a dry race board. And teacher said, I I used to be so afraid if I was going to get called to the board, you know, because I I wasn't sure if I was going to be right or not, and I was so embarrassed I would be called up to the board. the teacher that said, "I can see that a couple of these kids who have some confidence issues don't want to don't want to share
077their work, but I can see if they saw a little it was a little, you know, probably just get warmed up and I can see student A has this right and I'm going to be able to call that student because if I just randomly said, hey, you know, so and so answer this question. I'll put it on the spot." And it was really cool and and the student knew like oh I got this and it was you know very if I was I had that same apprehension especially as the math concepts got a little more challenging um because I didn't want to go to the board uh because I didn't know the answer and then I'd be embarrassed and it was pretty cool that teacher said you know that was my anxiety and now I'm
078able to help build that confidence with my students. So pretty cool technologies out there as long as we use them the right way. >> Can you clarify if the new filters are either agent or exception based so that when we send Chromebooks home kids they have the same protection at home that they do in the building. >> That is correct. It's agent based. So the same filter will apply when they're >> one more question. Uh, as a parent of a sixth grader, how can parents tell if students are using expansion opportunities or if they're just playing games under the guise of expansion opportunities? For example, uh, my teacher told me I had to do four hours of Minecraft for education or I'm building this uh, cahoot for but it's all, you know, Minecraft. Uh, is
079this list published available? I know they can go into Canvas and those group and see like the school is assigned. But as a quick reference for parents for the kids like no no I have to do this. Do we have a easy answer for them? >> Our web resources and supplemental resources are on our district website. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. And also just another quick question. Um I know SATs um ACTs online. What um what has moved all to online testing? That's sort of out of our out of our hands at this point. >> So the state assessments this year are mandatory all online. Last year they were optional. We did do the optional last year just to prepare for this. Um, so we have been taking online assessments from kindergarten, you know, and up
080for at least three years now. Um, because again, everybody is moving to online assessments. It's quicker. It's faster for the assessment results. >> Okay. Yeah. I had a teacher saying that it's sometimes hard for kids who aren't used to working on a device to then have to transition um to the device to take some of these assessments. So >> giving yeah giving them some time to be familiar with >> and we do a lot of crafting they call them TPI items which technology enhanced items um drag and drop highlight that so we start with those tools um >> so they're prepared for they have to do these >> bigger assessments that correct >> I assume we don't really have control over how they're administered thanks >> to that point we don't have control over how
081to how these assessments are administered. And so kind of to that point and to Jude's point, um I think it was Rick's question in regards to the level of security behind um because we don't have control over it. And so, um, what part of the plan? >> Drew could probably better explain. Do you mean when we go into a state assessment, we go into a kiosk mode, which kind of locks us down into just the state assessment portal? And >> they're not using their Chromebooks. >> I'm sorry. >> They're not using their Chromebooks. >> No, no, they are. They are. But it has a lock down browser on it. It goes into kiosk mode. >> Yes. Okay. So, I just have a question and maybe Karen and the two of you would be good. Um,
082are there downsides to doing the uh assessments on the computer for students that may have a physical disability or whatever? um or or not, but just like the difference between doing this and doing this and drag and drop like are there >> the state still does allow accommodations of course in accordance with the students IEP or 504 >> but there might be kids that don't have an IEP or 504 that might still have the same kind of issue. So, I'm just curious. >> And we do work with those um counselors, special education teachers, general education teachers to work through those accommodations. On the flip side of that, there's a lot there. There are just as many students that would rather not write, too. So, we do work with all of the students to figure out
083what's best for them. And the state does allowations. All right, last thing on our agenda are conference requests. Uh we have two conference for the board to consider this evening. The first conference is for Brook Carpenter, a library media specialist at CMS. Uh and Joe is going to talk a little bit about um the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association work with as uh so we're very fortunate to have a representative in Brook Carpenter going to this conference. Um she also functions in our district library um and is deeply immersed in the work not just around CSLA um but also in our AI committee um our you know spearheading a lot of our research efforts. Um so she has been invited to present at that conference. Um so she is requesting to attend that. It is uh
084in state. It's not terribly far. Uh which we're we're happy for. Alina is a little bit of a hype, but it's not that. But again, she is she's welcomed by PSLA. It's a true honor to be invited for that conference. >> And our other teacher that is requested in the conference is Jared Kubern. classroom is right behind you, a CES math teacher. Um, I actually started mentioning building picking classrooms earlier and Mr. Mark's going to share a little bit more about that. So, Mr. Fudolf was invited to u to present at this conference. This is a a concept that's been building in mathematics classroom and it's even making it way to other content areas, but it's a strategy where students are up out of the desk on vertical surfaces. uh cooperative learning um cl you
085know working small groups it with uh questions that they kind of drive a party in math lessons the groups are randomized and so what's happening is this strategy has become so large is that it's going to have its own conference this year and we've had a number of teachers in each grade level that have begun local conferences and Mr. was invited to go to this one in Connecticut. So, it's a it's an honor for him to be invited to this one because it is actually it's a very popular thing that we've adopted here that we enjoy the students enjoy as well and he's also going to turn around um training at our best practices fair next office. Uh so not only will we present it here, we'll present to all staff who are able to
086attend these sessions during >> Okay. Sorry. Is there any board comment? Okay. Is there any public commentary? Okay. if um as you come to the lectern if you could just say your name and like where you live not necessarily your street address but um just hi uh my name is Elise Lashel I live in Lafayette Hill I am the parent of a second grader and a first grader at White Marsh Elementary I am also the co-founder of the Colonial School District chapter of wait Until 8th, a a national network of parents who have pledged to delay smartphones and social media for their kids. As part of wait until 8th, I have had many conversations with parents in the district about the ways that the early use of smartphones and social media can harm children. But
087in so many of those conversations, the topic quickly turns to Chromebooks. These devices were essential to virtual learning during the COVID pandemic, but six years later, they remain ubiquitous. Parents have become skeptical of how well these devices are suited to education and rightly so. First of all, I want to establish the difference between tech education and educational tech, which of course we've touched on already. Tech education or teched means teaching students how to type, how to code, how to use tools like spreadsheets. Educational tech or edtech means using a device as a means for teaching any subject from science to foreign language. I am not here to speak about tech ed which I believe to be an important part of our curriculum. I am here to speak about edtech. Technology is of course embedded in
088our world. One might argue that incorporating devices into our curriculum is essential for preparing our students for the future. But in reality the data does not bear this out. According to a 2025 Chamber of Commerce report, young people are entering the workforce less job ready than previous generations. Why is this? If they had greater access to devices in school than ever before, edtech is failing our kids because it is at odds with the way the human brain actually learns. Learning requires focus, whereas students using laptops in class spend 24 to 38 minutes of every hour off task. Learning requires social connection, which is undermined when students spend more time engaging with devices than with teachers. Learning happens when students are taught how to think, not just how to engage with a device. Students who are
089taught to use a device or tool will know how to use that device or tool, which will likely be obsolete within a decade. Students who are taught how to think, how to problem solve, and how to be creative, will be well equipped to learn any tool or any device they may encounter for the rest of their lives. I am not here today as a complaining parent. I am here today as a concerned parent who wants the same things you do for our students to grow and learn and turn into mature adults. I am also not here today to ask you to immediately do away with onetoone devices in our schools. What I am asking for today is transparency. Parents want to know what devices are being used for. How much time each day are these
090devices actually being used? What apps are students using on these devices? Why are these apps better suited to teach to teach our children than traditional methods? And do parents who opt out of using these devices still have robust educational options at their disposal? I also want to make you aware of some recent survey data for PA Unplugged, a statewide coalition of which I am a proud member working toward a cultural shift in the approach to electronic devices during childhood and adolescence. PA Unplugged recently launched this survey to gauge how parents throughout the state feel about their district's edtech practices. Nearly 100 families in Colonial School District have participated in the survey so far. I won't delve into all of the data here, but as we work toward greater transparency regarding edtech, I would be happy
091to share it with you. Lastly, I want to make you aware of the book, The Digital Delusion, a new book detailing how edtech undermines education. I have a copy here for you to read and share amongst yourselves as we work together to examine the edtech practices in Colonial School District and build the best possible future for our students. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. >> Thank you. >> Who can I have this to? >> I'll take it. >> Thanks. >> It's yours to eat. >> Thank you. >> Hello. Uh my name is Allison Russell. I'm a White Marsh Elementary School parent with daughters in kindergarten and third grade. I'm also the co-founder of the Colonial School District chapter of wait until 8th along with Elise and I'm a community member of
092PA Unplugged. While we have been in conversation with Dr. Christian about a district-wide meal policy, Delta Bell phone policy as Elise stated today we are here to talk at tech. I thank Elise for introducing this topic to the committee for sharing data and for diving into the digital delusion. I'm here today to ask an important question about 1:1 Chromebook use within the district, specifically with grades K through 8. In providing additional support to what Elise has already shared, I want to pose this question directly to the schoolboard and the curriculum committee. Why, to what point and purpose are these onetoone Chromebook devices utilized in the classroom with seemingly little oversight, limited oversight? Let me share a personal story. My third grader has come home regularly reporting that her peers are able to access YouTube in
093the classroom on their school issue device. In my own home, we don't permit the use of YouTube unless we are together as a family trying to accomplish a task like braiding a hala or learning to draw a unicorn due to its addictive nature and the algorithm propensity to quickly pivot from the content of the original search. She reports that her peers have learned how to split their screens so that they're able to have YouTube slime videos up at the same time as their lesson. So, when her device was sent home on a recent snow day, I decided to explore a bit. I was pleased to find that, as we were talking about the firewall before, that Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram, and other sites were blocked. But when I Googled the Jeffrey Epstein files, in addition
094to YouTubing knife videos and asking it quote unquote how to kill myself, I quickly realized that while there are minimal guard drills applied, it is simply not enough. I was able to find all the details of the Epstein truck. I was able to learn from a knife afficionado and was given the 988 suicide and crisis hotline number. Again, my daughter is in third grade. She's 9 years old and her sister's Chromebook in kindergarten I believe I believe is set up in the same way. And to note, I was never later contacted by any school administrator both based on these searches. This should be a concern for every single person in this room. This is not a reflection of our wonderful teachers and principles, but a reflection of a larger culture around these devices in our
095district and let's face it, around the world. Let me be very clear. It is not the job of our teachers to monitor these devices when in use, although now we know they have the capability to do so. It is the job of our teachers to teach our children and prepare them for the lives they have ahead. Colonial School District, to my knowledge, recently altered the policy so that students in CES no longer bring their laptops home on a daily basis to complete homework. We know that our K through K through three students only bring devices home when inclement weather is forecasted. This shows that our district does have some awareness that these devices are not essential to the learning process for this age demographic. It is my hope that this conversation continues that is as
096it is examined what benefit if any these 1:1 Chromebook devices have and even more specifically why our little learners have access to an entire world they are not developing developmentally prepared to inhabit. School administrators have been duped even sold out of product high in promise only now to realize that these devices are more detrimental to the greater K through2 population. Although of course as we heard there are exceptions. The push towards digital standardized tests has accelerated the need to teach using Chromebooks. I stand here now like Elise as a concerned parent and community member hoping for more transparency around tech use within the classroom and an honest look at whether these these devices benefit our children and provide long-term success. Anecdotally, I have heard my child speak about bringing her laptop to gym class when
097the gym is unavailable. I have heard her bring her Chromebook to music class every single week. She's using her device for math and read it. Me, along with many other district parents, feel we do not have a full understanding of how and more importantly why technology is being used throughout their day in these capacities. We encourage you to join us in initiating these challenging and uncomfortable conversations with students, teachers, and parents through focus groups and surveys. It is never too late to course correct as we watch other schools around the world examine and ultimately walk back their edtech practices like Wake County Public Schools in North Carolina, McFersonson Middle School in Kansas, and the entire country of Sweden. We can all agree that the best interests of these children is our number one priority. So
098together, we are confident that Colonial School District will take all of this into consideration when planning future curriculum and have the courage to adapt based on the most up-to-date research and data. Thank you. >> Okay. Is there any other public comment? Seeing none. Oh, >> would you mind? I know you have a lot of facts and figures in there. Would you mind sending the supplemental resources to the school board so we can make informed decisions on those? >> We'll buy more copies too if any. >> Yeah, they're stated in the book as well. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Seeing none, this meeting is journed.