Imagine a classroom where students store their homework assignments and projects in the cloud and take tests without pencil and paper.
That’s what you’ll soon find at Technology Middle School on Burton Avenue, when it opens August 27 with an inaugural class of 327 students and 12 teachers.
Many schools around the country are integrating technology in the classroom, but at Tech Middle School, this means more than laptops and Smartboards.
Instead, students will work with Chromebooks, a personal computer that utilizes the Google Chrome platform and allows students and teachers to store notes, assignments, presentations and pretty much everything else using applications that reside on the Web.
“In our 21st century, we know that is a need in our society,” says Principal Amy Goodwin, who has spent 15 years in the Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified School District, including as a principal of Waldo Rohnert and John Reed elementary schools. (She also spent seven years teaching in Novato Unified, including middle school.)
In addition to cloud-based computing and emphasis on math and science in projects, Tech Middle School will also offer tech-centric electives including robotics, computer programming, music technology and gaming.
It will also utilize “tech-x-perts,” students will help teachers figure out new software, since teens spend much more of their free time with tech gadgets.
Goodwin says reception to the new school has been excellent, with about 10 students coming from outside the district, including from Santa Rosa and Petaluma. That’s good news, since the district continues to lose students, although not nearly as much as in previous years.
Tech Middle School will start with sixth and seven grades, then include eighth grades in 2014-2015. La Fiesta is another Rohnert Park school opening in August, which district administrators say was necessary because of crowding at some schools.
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