OEF’s $45K Donation Funds New Teaching Tools
By Joanna M. Iwata
Generous donations to the Ojai Education Foundation have allowed the nonprofit organization to present a check for $45,000 to the Ojai Unified School District, which will be used to pay for new laptops, projectors, speakers and interactive whiteboards in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms.
Last year, the OEF gave $37,500 to the school district to pay for new classroom technology in fourth through eighth grades that helps promote the visual learning and interactivity stressed in the enVisionMATH California curriculum recently adopted by the OUSD school board.
“The $45,000 grant to OUSD for enVisionMATH technology in grades K to 3 in 2011 is the largest grant by OEF to date, and follows our grant of $37,500 for grades 4 to 8 in 2010,” said Phil Caruthers, OEF treasurer. “We are very proud of this accomplishment and very grateful for the generous contributions of more than 200 donors and many of our community businesses and sponsors for making what we do possible. Among them, Vintage Productions California LLC has been instrumental in bringing such important resources to the school district by providing matching grants of $10,000 for the past two years.”
Hank Bangser, OUSD superintendent, noted the importance of both OEF grants. “The decision of the Ojai Education Foundation board to fund the entire K through 8 mathematics technology initiative in two years, rather than the originally planned three years, was a tremendous morale and educational boost for our faculty,” he said. “I wish every OEF donor and parent could be with me when I see how much our teachers and students are the beneficiaries of the new creative software and technology available to them now, directly attributable to the $82,500 in OEF grants for the program.”
All the OUSD school principals agree the new technology has exceeded their expectations. “Because of the generosity of the Ojai Education Foundation, our classrooms have come alive with technology,” said Dawn Damianos, Meiners Oaks Elementary School principal. “Students are engaged in the lessons and teachers are able to ‘read’ students’ faces (as they are looking up to the screen in the front of the room) and see whether or not they are understanding the lesson.” Teachers use their new teaching tools not only for math, but for science, social studies, language arts and current events as well, Damianos added.
Parents Katie Metzger and Sandy Ulrich have seen the positive impact of the new technology in their children’s classrooms. “I am fortunate that I get to see firsthand how my kids and the rest of the children in the class become so excited and engaged in what they are learning,” said Metzger, who volunteers twice a week in her son’s first-grade class and her daughter’s fourth-grade class at Meiners Oaks Elementary School.
“I have noticed that both the kids and teachers love this new technology, especially the whiteboards,” said Ulrich, who has a kindergartener at San Antonio Elementary School and a middle-school student at Matilija Junior High School. “Since it is an electronically driven and interactive system, it instantly engages the students,” she said. Ulrich also said her daughter raves about the new handheld device that looks like a cell phone, which she uses in her life science and social studies classes. “Students can type answers right away so that the teacher and everyone can see them,” she said.
As Kathy White, Mira Monte Elementary School principal, said, “Technology as a tool for delivery instruction has become so important to the majority of our teachers that some have commented they feel like they are in the dark ages without it.”
John LeSuer, Topa Topa Elementary School principal, agreed. “Our teachers are feeling more comfortable with the technology,” he said. “It is making such a positive difference in our schools. Students often express that it makes learning fun and easier to follow. Teaching is also more interesting and motivating to the students of all grades and it holds their attention.”
Teacher Chris Ando at Topa Topa also concurs. “My teaching is better because I can show the students concepts and they can watch as they are presented. I didn’t know all the benefits until I started using it and I now use their technology for all subjects, not just math.”
Special-education teachers Laura Van Auker at Meiners Oaks, and Harriet Clise at Matilija, value using the new technology to make the math curriculum accessible to students with disabilities in ways that keep them active, engaged and learning in an inclusive way with other students.
Debbie Johnson, president of the OEF, is gratified by the ongoing support of OEF donors and business sponsors. “I am proud to be part of such a hard-working, all-volunteer organization,” she said. “I look forward to the future as we continue to work with OUSD to determine where our fundraising efforts will be put to the best use.”
“We are seeing what exciting things can happen for our young people, their teachers and our school system when we fund special initiatives that can transform how teachers teach and students learn,” said Marianne Ratcliff, OEF board member and parent of two children at Summit Elementary School in Upper Ojai. “The Ojai Education Foundation is committed to investing in our youths’ future through its annual educational grants and larger multiyear projects.”
OEF is a community-based, nonprofit organization that promotes excellence in public education by building community support and providing resources to our schools. For more information, log on to www.ojaief.org. Donations can be mailed to OEF, P.O. Box 1769, Ojai, Calif. 93024.
The real problem is that the state and federal governments require the children to demonstrate that they are being educated. This puts too much pressure on the children. School should be a nurturing place, not a competitive place. Our new methods only teach the students to win at all costs, cheat, and try their best. This is truly a shame.
I thought I would also share a few insights from Katie Metzger (parent) that illustrates what her kids have to say about the value of the new math curriculum and technology (both who are enrolled at Meiners Oaks Elementary School):
As far as my kids, my 7 year old- Hayden says the math program is, “easy to pay attention to.” That’s a revealing comment!
And my daughter Eden says she likes how they explain ideas through examples and how the examples apply to the real world. “I like all the real-life situations they use to explain math.”
As a parent I’m grateful that not only is she understanding the concepts better, but just as important –that she sees the relevance of math in the real world.
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She also goes on and states the following:
“I’m so grateful this technology has been introduced- for the students and the teachers alike. Our kids live in a technological world and to have the classroom void of it does a great disservice to them. I don’t take the subject lightly and my kids are sharply monitored in terms of the amount of screen time and media they get. When technology is used appropriately and wisely it can be very beneficial. “
Yeah. Give more money to the POOR administrators
($100,000 plus a year) of the OUSD. A sucker is born
every minute in Ojai.
Hey “qualified educators please,” ….
you say, “This is OUSD punishment for low-income and minority students.”
So you’re telling us that exposing children to technology (something they MUST become proficient in, in today’s world) is PUNISHMENT? really???? helping them learn in new ways that are significant in today’s society is a bad thing?
You’re obviously well educated. Why not pony up some dough and donate it to OUSD, so those POOR KIDS don’t have to SUFFER through interactive programs that allow teachers to track the progress of each individual child?
My daughter is a student at Meiners Oaks Elementary and she is definitely NOT “forced to sit in front of a computer screen and told to “do work.”\" For all the years she has been there, she has been taught by dedicated, caring, terrific professional teachers. Time will tell whether the new curriculum and the new technology leads to improved learning (and higher test scores). In the meantime, students and teachers alike praise the new math curriculum. The district is lucky to have Dr Bangser at the helm, our kids are lucky to have such great teachers and principals. And we’re all lucky to benefit from the generosity of groups like the Ojai Education Foundation.
I am curious with all this new technology have the test scores improved?
Nordhoff is the high school of the OUSD. Joanna
must be quite aware that most school districts
here in California are diverting their resources
to their lone high school, in the case of Ojai,
it is NHS. But a lot of the other schools in
our district are mismanaged. Chicago Superintendent
Hank Bangser has returned to the windy city for
the holidays. Thank you Joanna for helping our
children and the helpful insights. A child should
never be left alone in front of a computer.
Mary, I share your positive sentiments too about the outstanding job OUSD is doing in educating our students.
I had three younger sisters who attended the same OUSD schools and their kids too — we have all since graduated from Nordhoff. We were also able to excel while in college due to the excellent preparation we had here in Ojai through our public school system.
Yet I do remember that when I went to school then, we were lucky if we even had a state of the art projector let along computers available for our use or even our teachers to use in our classes as they do have today.
So it’s great to hear wonderful insights like yours and too your having seen the benefit of this new curriculum and technology especially in a time wherein more is being demanded of our teachers and resources are tight for all schools — our kids and teachers need more people like you around!
I have seen this program in action and I wish there had been something like this when I was growing up or when my kids were in school. Seems like a lot of people like to blame schools for their own shortcomings. OUSD does an outstanding job of educating students.
I grew up in Ojai and attended Topa Topa, Matilija and graduated from Nordhoff and I have seen the new enVision Math program through the use of the new technology which is both interactive and educational.
I wish I had the benefit of learning math (and other subjects this way when I was growing up in the public school system). If anything, using this curriculum and new technology requires that the teacher is not only trained to know how to use the equipment but also teach from this new curriculum as well.
If you have not had an opportunity to visit your child’s class or speak to the teacher about how this works, I would encourage you to do so.
This type of facilitated learning using such technology is not a passive teaching tool and more school systems if not colleges across the country use both methods with the face-to-face instruction and technology to enhance what is being taught in the classroom.
While this technology nor interactive math program was available when I went through OUSD in the 70′s-80′s (and I was in the demographic of students you spoke about being first generation and low income) the fact that it is available now for our teachers and students to benefit from in terms of the more broader applications (than just math) is important for me to note in response to your concerns as well.
The students comments we received (from Meiners Oaks Elementary to Topa Topa) were both positive and especially in sharing with us that the new technology also makes learning different subjects easier and fun — so it is a whole different world now out there in more ways than one.
Oh god. I can’t believe this. What are these people
talking about? No wonder our schools here in Ojai
are in such a mess. There is no scientific proof or
educational study. Why do we leave our children
sitting in front of a computer screen and no
instruction? Blended Learning and E Learning must
be accompanied by full-time, individual
instruction. This is a fact. Every qualified
educator in California knows this. My child is not
“engaged” or “excited”. This is OUSD punishment
for low-income and minority students. Does the
author of the above article know anything about
our schools? Half of AMERICA is poor according
to the latest figures from the 2010 U.S. Census.
They need individualized instruction. My kid is
forced to sit in front of a computer screen at
a public elementary school here in Ojai and
told to “do work.” There is no instruction and
is definitely not “interactive.” How do you
“read faces” of 30 or more students? Is that a
scientific term? Are you Superman? Or just more
OUSD propaganda and b.s. from unqualified personnel?
Awesome!