There’s “Snow” Better Time to Read

Reading is a wonderful activity for the winter. Scott School’s Library Resource Center has many books for your enjoyment.

Students in kindergarten through third grade are participating in the Monarch voting in February. To be able to vote, you have to read at least five of the titles. The books are located in the LRC by the butterfly. Students in fourth and fifth grade are enjoying Battle Books. Our collection of Battle Books has over forty titles, both fiction and non-fiction.

Thanks to your support at the book fair in November, we were able to purchase over 180 books for the LRC. Many books were purchased to match the new science curriculum in kindergarten, second, and fourth grade. Popular series were added to the collection, such as Joe Sherlock, Secrets of Droon, Weird School, Dear Dumb Diary, and Star Wars. Two new books about the Constitution were purchased to help students when we participate in Constitution Day. Books were purchased to prepare for our community reading program, Naperville Reads. Lots of non-fiction titles are now in the library, too. We have many new robotics books, sports books, car books, and drawing books. Your support of the library is truly appreciated.

Technology Updates

Just as the technologies of computing, multimedia, and telecommunications have transformed the world, they are transforming the schools. Technology will better prepare District 203 students for the future. Further, technology is a tool for achieving the District 203 Mission. District 203 has developed the following goals for student use of technology:

Goal 1: Use technology to find, retrieve, and evaluate information.

Goal 2: Use problem-solving techniques and technology tools to collect, organize, analyze, and synthesize information from a variety of sources.

Goal 3: Use technology to communicate knowledge and ideas through media for various purposes and audiences.

Goal 4: Use, manage, and adapt to changing technology in a learning environment, the workplace and daily life.

Goal 5: Use technology responsibly and demonstrate a recognition of and respect for the implications of its societal and environmental use. 

Students' Projects Changed by Technology Tools
The nature of student work has changed greatly with the use of technology tools. With the vast resources now available for researching, composing, correcting and revising, students are more willing to do more complete and complex work throughout their school years. Scott School has been wireless for almost three years and is able to provide student workstations in classrooms. We have 79 portable workstations for student use and a lab for classroom use. Our first grade teachers are participating in a district technology grant and have the use of eight of these workstations. Kindergarten, third, fourth and fifth grade pods have a set of 6 to 8 of these workstations in their pod. Students will be able to use technology anytime during their work day.

Primary students learn how to log on, operate a mouse and use various programs to obtain desired results.  By third grade, students are learning keyboarding skills and see nothing unusual about using one computer program to write what they have learned about castles and another program to add a picture and/or draw and color an illustration. Students are creating multimedia projects using Photo Story, PowerPoint, and Movie Maker. Fourth graders are using Terrapin Logo to learn computer programming as they study geometry. You’ll find students collaborate on problem solving and record information on an Excel spreadsheet. Fifth grade students are creating web pages using Publisher for their unit on the respiratory system. The students and staff thank you for your support of technology.