Case Study: Eagle Heights Academy

Implementation cont..

The school moved up a noteworthy two levels on the Ohio Department of Education’s Content Standard’s scale from Academic Emergency, to Academic Watch, to Continuous Improvement, in just two years.

“We use the Activboard system as a visual and auditory scaffold; that is to say, building student interest brick by brick and improving student comprehension subject by subject,” said Mansfield.

And the students aren’t the only ones to build on their individual skill sets. The teachers are expanding their knowledge of how to be better teachers, too. Most days you will see Eagle Heights’ educators collaborating by grade level as they share the lesson plans and flip charts they have developed individually for use in their classrooms.

“Every day they find something new that they can do with this innovative teaching and learning tool,” said Mansfield.

The staff has been able to incorporate the school’s existing software programs including Destinations Reading and Math from PLATO Learning, to help its students test taking skills. The school also subscribes to a Web site called United Streaming which aligns the content standards specifically by strand and grade level to the lessons that the teachers wants to present. They have also obtained copies of the Ohio Department of Education’s previous proficiency tests via the Internet and made them interactive.

For example, fourth-grade teacher, Diana Zidian uses the camera feature to snap a picture of a writing sample that is placed on the Activboard for students to revise and use as a whole class activity.

Cyndi Martin, 3rd grade teacher, reinforces mathematics by showing stored flipcharts with previous lessons highlighted. “If a child has a question about addition or subtraction -- something we covered earlier, I just push a button and I have all my notations -- plus I can use the 100's chart as a background. Everything we covered is just a click away.”