Gazette Tweens Get Help in Math, Technology

Ebony Taylor, 13, of Capitol Heights read aloud the gray message box that appeared on her computer screen last Thursday when she logged on to her MySpace account:

"This page was blocked by your approved sites list."

Maryanne Anthony, who co-teaches an after-school program called Techno Tweens, had blocked the popular social networking site to keep Ebony and the group's six other members focused on their work.

"The kids are very bright, and they know the Internet," said Anthony, an information technology specialist.

But the goal of the after-school program is broader: to improve the math skills of the middle school students, while providing them with technological skills they can use in the workforce someday.

Techno Tweens began in February and meets Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for two hours at St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church's rectory in Seat Pleasant. It operates under the nonprofit Maryland Umbrella Group, founded in February last year to help nonprofit organizations, municipalities and other groups better serve their communities.

Anthony, who lives in Columbia, was one of the Umbrella Group's founders. She teaches Techno Tweens with Carol McCreary-Maddox of Capitol Heights, also a co-founder of the Umbrella Group. The two women and co-founder Christal Batey of Capitol Heights partnered with Walker Mill Middle School in Capitol Heights for the technology program because of its proximity to St. Margaret's.

Anthony said Walker Mill staff members suggested students who they thought would benefit most from the group, such as those struggling with math and class participation. The women tested students to ensure they had at least fifth-grade-level math skills.

"We want to help everybody, but we wanted to make sure they weren't too remedial," Anthony said. "Our goal is to get them up to grade level."

During a recent session, McCreary-Maddox said she was disappointed in the students' performance on a math homework assignment, so she instructed them to look up the average salaries of their dream careers on http://simplyhired.com. Some students typed in "computer designer" and "pediatrician."

"This is a way to kill your dream, by not doing basic math," McCreary-Maddox said.

The group exposes students to careers through monthly field trips. The students plan to visit Sarah Price, the information technology manager for the city of College Park, this month. Last month, group members broke down and reassembled computers.

"It was fun," said Walker Mill eighth-grader Asa DeShields, 13, of Capitol Heights, whose father works with computers. "My computer, it had a hissing noise, so we had to do a disk scan."