Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Last spring, Sweet Home Junior High School math teacher Angela Stevens was browsing through her e-mail and opened a message from Samsung about its Hope for Education program, which provides digital technology to needy schools.
The program, with support from Microsoft Corp. and actor Tony Danza, donated more than $2 million in equipment and software to schools throughout the United States in 2005.
“I get e-mails all the time about grant opportunities,” Stevens said. “I just happened to click on this one.”
She noticed that all she really had to do to apply was to write an essay answering the question, “How will the growing use of technology in the classroom benefit students in the future?” Essays could be submitted by students, teachers, parents or anyone with a concern about a particular school in need.
Stevens got her friend and fellow teacher Tiffanie Lambert, who teaches in the Resource classroom next door, to write an essay as well.
They won.
On Nov. 22, the junior high was announced as a $20,000 winner, one of 101 winners and the only Oregon school to receive an award in the contest. North Lincoln High School of Lincolnton, N.C., was the grand prize winner, receiving $200,000 in technology.
This month, the junior high received $10,000 worth of large-screen TVs, computer hardware, digital photography and video cameras, and DVD players. It also received $10,000 worth of Office and Windows software from Microsoft.
Lambert said she emphasized in her essay the need for Sweet Home youngsters, some of whom tend to be somewhat isolated from the rest of the world, for cultural diversity.
“Some of these kids haven’t been out of Linn County,” said Stevens.
Stevens had one of the 30-inch TVs set up in her classroom on Friday, a grading day for teachers. The teachers flipped on March Madness, the NCAA Division I basketball tournament, to try it out.
The TVs, in particular, will be helpful, the teachers said.
“We’re limited in the number of TVs we have,” Stevens said. “Some schools have one in every classroom. We have to check one out when we need one.”
Lambert rolled a beat-up cart carrying a 1980s-vintage TV, with a 21-inch screen, through the door from her classroom.
“This is my TV,” she said.
Lambert said the school had only VHS players, which were outdated in the era of DVDs. They chose several DVD players to go with the TVs they ordered.
The teachers said they chose cameras and a scanner to help students with projects. Right now, they said, both students and teachers often cut and paste, the old-fashioned way, to put projects or teaching materials together for school.
“I’ll go home and create a geometry test, then I’ll scan it at home and e-mail it to myself here,” she said. “If I need it quick, I just have to cut and paste.”
She predicted the scanner will be popular with students.
“The kids really respond to technology,” Lambert added.
Vice Principal Louis Dix said that he plans to make the cameras available to students in the leadership class to record school events for the school newspaper and to prepare slide shows for student assemblies.
He said the prize is a boon for the school.
“We can’t afford to buy these kinds of TVs,” Dix said. “They cost $1,000 each. We can’t afford it. So it’s a great opportunity to get it from Samsung. It’s great that we got a piece of the pie.”