The County's High-Tech 'Test Case'

Inside the New Nantucket Elementary Lies a Possible Glimpse of the Future

There was electricity in the air at Nantucket Elementary this week as teachers prepared for the debut of Anne Arundel County's newest school.

As with any new facility, there were plenty of last-minute touches to put on the building in the heart of Crofton. But what makes Nantucket unique, officials said this week, is the amount of high-tech educational tools teachers will have when its doors open next week, including wireless microphones, interactive white boards and hand-held quiz machines. Most schools in the district open Monday, but Nantucket is one of three that open Wednesday.

"It's a huge test case for the county," said George Arlotto, the school system's chief performance officer, after touring the facility and chatting with teachers. "It's the first time we've had a school so top to bottom full of technology, but we believe this is the direction we're headed in."

The district spent $2.5 million to provide the school with furniture and all the high-tech equipment.

Amid their preparations -- decorating classrooms and writing lesson plans -- teachers attended seminars all week to train on the new equipment.

Instead of traditional chalkboards, classrooms come equipped with white interactive Smart Boards -- essentially huge touch screens at the front of the class that can be used to show videos, test questions, Web sites and photos.

Every teacher has also been issued lanyard microphones to amplify their voices through their rooms' built-in speakers. The goal is to keep students focused even when there are audible distractions such as airplane flyovers and lawn mowers.

"It also means less sick days when teachers aren't straining their voices, trying to be heard in a class full of kids," Principal Diana Strohecker said.

Hand-held quiz machines will allow teachers to pose multiple-choice questions to their students and see the results instantly, so they know whether students have comprehended the lesson before they move on.

Another new gadget in Nantucket's classrooms is a document camera, which teachers describe as "an overhead projector on steroids." The cameras, which beam images to the Smart Boards, allow teachers to avoid dealing with the kryptonite of school photocopiers: transparency sheets.

"Ugh . . . transparencies, the bane of our existence. I can't tell you how many times they have messed up our copiers," Assistant Principal Sara Pickens said. Now with the document camera, she said, teachers who encounter an interesting book or drawing won't have to make a transparency so the whole class can see.

Technology aside, the staff at Nantucket has also had to deal with the logistics of opening a school.

"It's the little things you don't realize or think about until you've done it before," said kindergarten teacher Megan Spirk, 25. "The school started out with no name, no mascot, not even a mailing address."

The mascot, a starfish, and the school colors, a bright teal and Caribbean blue, were decided by the teachers. And the school's name, Nantucket Elementary, was voted on weeks ago by parents. There were already four area schools with "Crofton" in their name, Strohecker said.

"It gets a little confusing," she said, so parents decided to name the school after its address on Nantucket Drive.

The school is expecting about 680 students, most from Four Seasons and Crofton, two nearby schools that have been crowded.

As teachers spread throughout the school Monday for their first official day of work, they talked about feelings of excitement and energy. A few also admitted to some jitters leading up to the first day of school Wednesday.

"I think there's a little bit of nervousness because as the new school, everyone's going to be watching and seeing what happens here and how we do," said kindergarten teacher Megan Taylor, 25. "But that adds a lot of excitement to everything, too. It's going to be a really great year."