Profiles in Success: The Gillispie School
La Jolla, CA — Laura Sanderford says two words guide her teaching: fearlessness and playfulness. Sanderford encourages her third- through sixth-grade math and science students at The Gillispie School to experiment — especially with their Apple hardware and software tools — and above all else, to enjoy learning. Since 2003, when Gillispie became the first elementary school in Southern California to implement a 1 to 1 learning program, the two activities have become commonplace. Now, Sanderford’s students are creating interactive Keynote presentations, and demonstrating a remarkable level of technological proficiency.
When Gillispie rolled out its 1 to 1 initiative based on Apple notebooks, Sanderford admits she was a new learner as well. Before the notebook distribution she had rarely touched a computer, nor had she used any technology tools in her curriculum. But in almost no time, she says the Apple tools ignited the same excitement for learning that she herself experienced.
“I feel like one of my kids!” Sanderford says. “We’re constantly finding new and innovative ways of using our notebooks. My Mac has allowed me to be as brave as my students, who are totally fearless about technology.”
Students Take Apple Tools for a Ride
With that sort of confidence, the spring of 2007 found Sanderford suggesting that her sixth-grade science students attempt a dramatically different sort of project. After dividing the class into cooperative learning groups and teaching lessons on Newton’s laws of force and motion, she had students research the history of roller coasters. Next, they were asked to design and create their own roller coaster using cardboard boxes, pipe insulation, and other recyclables. Team members then used Keynote and the iLife digital authoring suite to develop multimedia presentations as final projects to share with their classmates.
Sanderford says the Apple technologies encouraged her students to stretch themselves even beyond her expectations. “The intuitive, seamless way that Keynote works with iLife made the project not only fun, but extremely easy,” she says. “The kids could edit videos with iMovie, and make their own music and record their thoughts with GarageBand, and then bring it all into Keynote. Everything works together so fluidly.”
Interactive Presentations Outpace Traditional Reports
Without Keynote and the Apple notebooks, Sanderford says her students’ projects would have been much different. “The students would have written a traditional paper, relying heavily on text with some illustration, or a few photos,” she notes. “The projects would lack the excitement that comes from the integration of sound, images, movies, and hyperlinks that the Mac allows with iLife and iWork.”
The intuitive, seamless way that Keynote works with iLife made the project not only fun, but extremely easy.
— Laura Sanderford,
Math and Science Teacher,
The Gillispie School
“Another important aspect is that in Keynote, students can set their projects to ‘Hyperlink Only,’” Sanderford continues. “This allows them to create much more complex, nonlinear, interactive multimedia presentations, and eliminates the possibility that a user might accidentally click the mouse and mistakenly move to the wrong slide, which is easy to do in PowerPoint. As a result, students use creativity and critical-thinking skills to give their projects fluidity of movement within their structure.”
Objectives
- Support mastery of difficult scientific concepts
- Ensure that students acquire strong presentation skills
- Encourage students to explore new areas of interest
Solutions
Results
- Students highly motivated to learn laws of physics
- Use of interactive multimedia content encourages self-directed study
- Students are working collaboratively and sharing their learning
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