County Council President Phil Andrews opened the meeting with a general question to Jerry Weast about enrollment projections.
The answer from Jerry Weast was a real eye-opener.
Weast launched into a sales pitch for "a very substantial CIP." He told the assembled folks that construction costs are down 30%, "bonds are cheap," and it's time to "go for it." He further opined that now is "the best time for the taxpayers."
Mike Knapp mentioned that the County Executive had some ambitious capital projects planned, to which Weast replied: "there may be some tension between their ambitious plan and our ambitious plan."
"Bonds are cheap," huh? Now is the "best time for taxpayers," huh?
It's apparently not enough that MCPS incurred enough long-term debt in their lease-purchase of the Promethean Boards that they could have renovated an elementary school. No, Jerry Weast wants to have his (cup)cake and eat it too: in a time when money is tight, Jerry Weast is going to propose "a very substantial CIP" and conjure up images of children being denied access to college if we don't go along.
From what I have seen to date, the Promethean boards do seem to be a very useful tool for teachers. I would encourage MCPS (which I heard is the case) to take full advantage of this technology even more by getting more teachers trained in the use of the equipment.
ReplyDelete@ anonymous (same as anonymous that likes paying towel fees): What makes you think teachers haven't been trained? Training was "included" with the $20 million plus that Weast paid for these boards. Teachers have all been trained - that's what the Board of Education and people attending MCPS CTO's presentations in London think.
ReplyDeletePromethean Boards only have a useful life of around 7 years so training has to come right away!
I'm sure Promethean Boards are useful for teachers. But on a scale of "nice to have" I would rank a modernized school, working bathrooms, updated HVAC systems as higher priorities.
ReplyDeleteAt back to school night, only once in seven classes did a teacher try to use a Promethean Board during his presentation. At the beginning of the presentation, he started to write on the Promethean Board. After struggling to get the writing wand to do what he wanted, the teacher paused, then said "The Promethean Boards are good sometimes, but they are like writing on glass and a chalkboard is often better." The teacher then moved over to the regular chalkboard and continued his presentation without any problems.
ReplyDeleteActually, not all teachers have been trained. My spouse was not trained on the board in "their" classroom as it was installed in the middle of the school year and training is held at the beginning of the school year. Training has been all on "their" own with online tutorials through a British company which is somewhat difficult when you consider some of the terms/language is different. This might explain some of the back-to-school night issues Louis experienced if his teachers were not fully trained either.
ReplyDeleteRegarding anonymous, MCPS should consider looking for someone else on the inside to monitor this blog. This "anonymous" really doesn't get how to put a positive spin on the post for the county nor do the comments come off as being from an everyday parent. The worst part is that the responses are not on point in regards to the blog. Sorry anonymous, you are trying way too hard and appear too obvious in your postings to be a real parent. With all the central office staff, don't they have someone in PR that can help?
At back to school night, I saw the promethean boards used in an effective manner when available in a classroom (in about 4 or 5 classes). In a BOE meeting a few months ago, some users (trained) also mentioned their advantages. My kid said that students use them and the boards are "perfectly fine". Note that training is not a one-time event. It should be on-going, and with technology like promethean boards, I would assume that the functionality is under-utilized.
ReplyDelete@ anonymous (same as towel fee & 7:43AM) Why should using a projector be so hard? It is just a projector hooked up to a computer. It really shouldn't be that hard to train teachers who already know how to use computers. Do teachers really have that many free days to learn how to use a projector in their classroom? Isn't curriculum/content a lot more important? If using a Promethean Board is so difficult, then maybe Jerry Weast bought the wrong product. Too bad he didn't discuss it with the Board of Education before he spent $20 million.
ReplyDeletePromethean boards are more than just projectors. Again, with the right process for training and incremental usage, there is a lot of potential with this type of technology. I am sure there are some techno-savvy instructors out there (yes, in MCPS - gasp) already getting some benefit out of them. It may not be for everybody, but I believe these will indeed be standard equipment in most classrooms just as laptops/tablet PCs are becoming in the not so distant future.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.edutopia.org/interactive-whiteboards-technology-success