Ponus Ridge was one of the three Norwalk middle schools to receive the devices through a partnership with Digital Promise and Verizon Innovative Learning, an education initiative from Verizon dedicated to addressing barriers in digital inclusion. The partnership, announced earlier this year, will also benefit students at Nathan Hale and West Rocks middle schools.
"We're looking forward to this partnership as we close a number of gaps, our economic gap, our achievement gap, and most importantly, a hope gap. As we continue with the 21st century, we want to make sure all of our students are college and/or career ready," Principal Damon Lewis told families gathered for the kickoff event.
Each school participating will receive about $1.8 million in programs and services for the first two years of the program. The grant will amount to $5.4 million in value overall for the first two years, including the cost of the data plans, devices and professional development. The grants funds were factored into the 2021-22 budget.
Students received a new Chromebook with 5G access built into the device. Students without Internet access at home can access the Internet anywhere with these devices, making it easier to collaborate on projects and expand their learning opportunities.
"They get to take these devices home and use them 24/7. In fact, they're encouraged to use it as their personal device," said Tina Henckel, education administrator for school support and improvement for STEM (K-12).
Amy Fusarelli, an instructional coach for digital learning, added, "The biggest goal of this is to increase the digital learning as far as them being able to have student choice for projects, being able to use more digital tools, a lot more collaboration."
Each device came with a charger and a case. In the coming days, students and teachers will learn how to best use the device, how to take care of the device, and how to integrate the use of the device into their classes, whether its STEM related or not.
Students got a taste of those STEM and STEAM-related opportunities during the carnival with activities spread across the gymnasium floor. High school students and district staff members hosted stations that introduced students to robotics, coding and engineering, as well as how those fields play into the arts.
Prior to the partnership, the district was already implementing instructional coaches like Fusarelli into the schools. Verizon will now pay a portion of those coaches' salaries, which allowed the district to scale up the program and develop best practices.
For Lewis, the partnership came at the perfect time as the school continues its transition to a full STEAM academy. The program will help the school with new curricula, new teacher strategies, new collaborative practice and additional professional development. And the broadband access provided by the device is huge for his students.
"Two years ago, when we first went home, we had so many kids were Internet void at home," said Lewis, who stressed that each student received a Chromebook before leaving school, but they all couldn't access what they needed from their homes. "I can't tell you the amount of kids that we'd get emails from that were literally walking to the laundromat or somewhere they could connect to Wi-Fi just to get their work done."
He added, "With these new 5G Chromebooks, that's no longer a reason for students to not be able to access and connect with the entire world."
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