Photo courtesy of Monica Sargent.
Kade Worthen receives his new Chromebook from Vice Principal Brook Gibbons.
Technological innovation is changing the way students learn and the way schools teach, and MBJH teachers and administrators believe that technology is a tool that can be instrumental in a student’s growth during the junior high years.
The use of technology in the classroom not only helps prepare students for the real world but it also helps address diversity in learning styles and fosters collaboration among students.
Over the past few years, Mountain Brook Junior High has made tremendous investments in its students and their educational opportunities through technology.
Initially, MBJH introduced over 800 Chromebooks to core classrooms which resulted in substantial benefits for its students. As a result of this success, Mountain Brook Junior High once again partnered with the Mountain Brook City Schools Foundation and decided to issue companion devices to every ninth-grade student for the 2016-2017 school year.
Beginning in 2015-16, Mountain Brook High School issues companion devices to its students and found that such devices were a major benefit to the students’ learning. As a result, MBJH established a focus group of parents, students, teachers and administrators to determine if companion devices would be beneficial for ninth-grade students. Such research and conversations resulted in a conclusion that companion devices would be beneficial to ninth-graders and would assist in their transition to the high school.
For the 2016-17 school year, all ninth-grade students received a technology bundle to assist them with their learning. The technology bundle includes a Dell touchscreen Chromebook, on-site technology support and repairs, filtering, management, secure Wi-Fi access and software (Google Apps for Education and Microsoft 365).
MBJH partnered with the Mountain Brook City Schools Foundation to provide the technology bundle to ninth-grade students for a minimal fee. All ninth-grade students received a device on the first day of school and will have access to them throughout their high school career.
– Submitted by Monica Sargent.
