Fifth-grade students at the Cranford campus of the Solomon Schechter School of Essex and Union tackle reading challenges using a computer system donated by the Gruss Life Foundation. Photo by Elaine Durbach
Sidebar
Science boostMarch 27, 2008
For teachers still concerned that computers might replace them, seven-year-old Eitan Gerstle’s answer might be reassuring. Asked what he enjoys more, doing instructional games with a mouse and screen or learning from his teacher, the first-grader said, “Both.”
Along with 18 classmates in the computer lab at the Cranford elementary school campus of the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union, he was working through a series of learning challenges provided by the SuccessMaker education software.
The system, together with 21 new computers, was donated to the school by the New York-based Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Life Monument Funds last summer.
Asked if he was enjoying the computer work, Eitan said, “It’s fun and it’s hard,” and went right back to competing with the cute cartoon character to solve his math questions in the allotted time.
What most delighted his teacher, Sharon Kaufmann, is that he, like each of the other first-graders, was working up to his own highest level. “The key word is differentiation,” she said. With the language segment, some were doing basic spelling; others were deciphering quite complex stories. In math, the same broad range was evident.
That aspect also pleases the Cranford campus principal, Moshe Rudin, who took over leadership last September.
“My predecessor, Jan Naldi, who was a visionary educator, heard about this system and began to look around for a way to get it for the school,” he said. “There are a number of nonprofit foundations that help Jewish education, and each one has its own philosophy. The Gruss Life Foundation approach is to really reach students in a hands-on way, to bring the goods to the kids. So this was a perfect fit for us.
Individualized attention
“It has turned out to be a boon to our students,” said Rudin. “Schechter’s unique approach has always been to deal with each student exactly where they are, and this allows us to really differentiate our teaching.”
Julie Schwarzwald was hoping for just such an outcome when she began training with the system last August. Schwarzwald, who has her master’s degree in computers in education, is system facilitator for the school. In addition to her own fifth-grade social studies class, she manages the SuccessMaker sessions for the other classes, handling technical questions and learning issues for the students and the teachers.
The children have two sessions a week of language and math instruction on the computers, with 15 minutes of each for the younger students, 20 of each for the older ones. The system gives teachers a report on how each child is doing, highlighting their strengths and problem areas.
Schwarzwald said the Gruss gift has enabled the school to take the computers it had before and place them in classrooms. The new ones can also be used to build basic computer skills, like handling a mouse — which most of these kids do with ease — and working with such programs as Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, so long as they are compatible with the new system.
Schechter fifth-grader Hayley Nagelberg works out a math puzzle, part of the SuccessMaker learning system. Photo by Donna Oshri
The SuccessMaker system provides headphone audio and on-screen visual instructions to each child. Correct answers earn gold-ribbon icons or a bonanza of celebratory graphics, and when they finish, a score card pops up. Kaufmann said the children used to copy the results onto a piece of paper and take them home. She urged them not to. “I told them it’s just a way to show how they’re doing. Now they just take it that way and move on.”
Fifth-grader Tabatha Hickman gave a whoop of delight as she trounced a math challenge. She was using a calculation method Schwarzwald said wouldn’t be handled by the rest of the class till the end of the year. “It makes me really proud,” Tabatha said with a big smile.
Back in the classroom, and back to conventional collective learning, the benefits of the computer lab still show their impact. Schwarzwald said, “As teachers, all of us try to give individualized attention, but three different levels are usually as many as you can handle. With this, you can see exactly how each child is doing, where they need extra help.”
Science boost
ENHANCED COMPUTER instruction at Solomon Schechter’s Cranford elementary school comes amid growing awareness among Jewish day school educators of the importance of offering top-notch science and mathematics instruction. In a May 2007 Brandeis University study that compared Jewish day school graduates with graduates of non-Jewish schools, the authors urged day schools and yeshivot to "do more to improve math and science learning." The study was endorsed by the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education, an interdenominational consortium of Jewish day schools.
- Comment: comments@njjewishnews.com