Apple honors Jackson Avenue School

Steve Smirti

The Jackson Avenue Elementary School has been named an Apple Distinguished School for the 2015-2016 school year, Mineola school officials announced Thursday.

The tech giant gives this commendation to schools that demonstrate a commitment to 21st century learning techniques.

Jackson Avenue Elementary joins Mineola Middle School as the district’s two schools to get the recognition.

“It’s leadership in the buildings and it’s teachers embracing technology in the buildings that make it work,” Mineola school Superintendent Michael Nagler said. “When people ask students how they feel about learning and using technology, they love it.”

To achieve this distinction, Apple determines which schools are successfully implementing the its products into lesson plans.

Jackson Avenue, along with the other schools in the district, has utilized Apple products — especially iPads — to enhance lesson plans and student interactions.

With the tablets, teachers are able to work individually with students through interactive videos while also assessing the needs of the class as a whole.

Lessons are introduced with multimedia components that the faculty film themselves.

The videos end with a problem solving exercise that the student completes.

The data is compiled automatically and the teacher is able to pinpoint where students needs are.    

“The math curriculum is rigorous and some of the concepts are challenging, so we wanted a way to bring the math modules to life,” Jackson Avenue principal Janet Gonzalez said. “We created these videos where children at their own pace could actually learn the concept and then come to class prepared to show what they’ve learned.”

To best educate the students, the faculty decides which lessons would benefit from using interactive lessons plans.

Not every classroom uses this new approach to learning, but teachers at Jackson Avenue believe it will soon appear in every classroom due to the success they’ve had using it to teach the math Common Core curriculum for third- and fourth-graders.

“This is so much of what they need as they move towards college,” Mineola school Trustee Margaret Ballantyne Mannion said. “For starting them on the path to 21st-century learning, you’re setting them up with such good habits of the mind and work skills. I think that this is extremely exciting.”

Nagler said technology has aided student assessment, noting the difficulties he and his colleagues had when attempting to sort student data. 

“(Technology) tells you where (the students) are and how they’re doing,” he said. “Then it takes a great teacher to do something with that information.”

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