Interactive displays win raves in parish schools

Using lesson plans on geography, social studies and foreign languages, high school teachers also can benefit from the new technology.

Many teachers develop plans themselves, while others use ready-made plans on a variety of subjects from the Promethean Web site, educators say.

The boards, which were installed in classrooms across the St. Tammany Parish public school system last spring, have received rave reviews from teachers and students. About 470 are currently being used in the district's 52 schools, and school officials hope to purchase 130 more by the end of the year, said Terry Meyer, the district's supervisor of federal programs.

At Lee Road, Bowie has 25 boards and plans to use "every cent" available to have one in every classroom -- another 20 to 25 -- by the end of the school year.

Teachers and administrators in other schools have been clamoring to obtain the boards, which are made by Promethean Inc. of Alpharetta, Ga., since the district's literacy coaches discovered them at a Louisiana Association of Computer Using Educators conference last year.

"They said, 'Oh my gosh! We need to start getting these into our schools,' " Meyer said.

In addition to the interactive boards, the district has other high-tech additions. A handful of schools are using student responders, hand-held clickers that allow students to answer multiple-choice questions. When pushed, the students' answers are counted and displayed on the board, allowing the class to see how many got the answer right.