October 2nd, 2008
Educational technology at Saint Mary High School is designed to empower teachers to create an environment where multiple resources allow for a better understanding of class discussions, ideas, and other lesson materials. This is made possible through our technology program which offers St. Mary's teachers and students all the modern possibilities and advantages that larger school may offer.
More than 80% of classrooms have digital projectors, bringing the vast resources of the Internet and the presentation features of PowerPoint to students and teachers. Interactive white boards can be found in our science
classrooms and labs. This technology creates students interaction in a new promising way through questions and lab experiments. Also, both technologies stimulate the audio and visual intelligences of our students.
A laptop program is offered to students who choose a computer science or computer graphic arts elective. These classes further the development of the student's skill set through digital projects, computer graphic arts, illustration, web design, and computer applications. St. Mary's also has a two to one student to PC ratio, much lower than the state average. Everyone is connected throughout the campus through a gigabit network backbone and our new wireless network.
Saint Mary High School also features two computer labs, media commons, and a studio featuring the latest in computer hardware and software. Teachers are encouraged to take advantage of a few unique online resources such as Discovery Streaming, Turnitin.com, and access to a dozen professional article databases. With Discovery Steaming teachers incorporate multimedia aids and interactive activities to their lessons. Turnitin.com allows teachers to create digital profiles for their students and comment about their work online. Both students and teachers can gain access to professional databases through our library web site. These databases, usually seen in universities and in the professional world, offer student all the possibilities to find the right resource for their research.
All St. Mary High School teachers operate their own web blog or web site letting parents gain an insight to the day to day classroom activities of their children. Our web site, which is maintained by St. Mary students, provides parents, students, and friends of St. Mary's a great way to stay in touch with school news, interesting articles, athletics, and alumni events.
Finally St. Mary High School is always focused on expanding its technology program. We will soon be adding more interactive white boards, two more laptop carts, and online access to student grades for parents.