The New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Union Free District has been continuing to integrate technology into K-6 classrooms this school year.
District Technology Integration Specialist Jeanine Laurino supports the teaching staff at all four school buildings by offering training on various instructional technology, such as Seesaw and Learning A-Z in grades K and 1, as well as Google applications such as Google Docs and Slides for all grade levels. The district has been hosting technology training sessions in conjunction with Model Schools through Nassau BOCES. Once the teachers participate in these trainings, Laurino enters the classrooms to model lessons alongside the teachers to support students with the technology.
“With 1:1 Chromebooks starting in kindergarten, these lessons can be as simple as logging in for the first time and accessing instructional software in Clever such as Star Fall,” Laurino said.
Recently, Laurino co-taught with kindergarten teachers Ms. Guarasci at Garden City Park School and Mrs. Rendon at New Hyde Park Road School to teach students how to use the Seesaw app and the embedded tools. Students practiced using the digital pencil, drag and drop, digital drawing tools and voice recording. Some students read, recorded, wrote and sorted sight words all within Seesaw. They also learned how to use the Starfall app. For fifth graders in Ms. Guzman’s class at Garden City Park School, Laurino helped students create and format a Virtual Ancient Civilization brochure in Google Docs. Students used Google to research and take notes on their civilization. Then, they learned how to add and edit images, as well as how to modify text and add a watermark and borders to images.
