For Kloiber Foundation’s fall initiative of 2015, we have partnered with Lansdowne Elementary. With it’s 720 students hailing from 34 different countries and speaking around 22 different languages, this school offered the opportunity for us to address several educational challenges with technology based tools. While we have dealt with schools in the past with higher percentages of gap kids including ESL and free and reduced lunch, Lansdowne has it’s share of hurdles to overcome and presented us with a solid plan for dealing with them.

Kloiber Foundation was able to help the team address these challenges with the donation of 6 carts full of 30 Dell laptops each. In order to introduce a more robust technology program in the school, the ability for teachers to reserve and plan curriculum using full classroom sets of laptops was integral. To make sure that the teachers themselves have the technology they need to lead class effectively, most received new Microsoft Surface Pro 3’s. The local Microsoft Store partnered with us on this endeavor and provide volunteers to help set up the units and train the staff to guarantee optimal usage of the donation. The remaining teachers will be implementing ipad programs to address issues facing younger students and those in Special Education classes. Along the same lines, several apps and software are now available via the laptops and tablets to aid the one guidance councilor and one part-time social worker in addressing the social and emotional interventions needed for the 720 students. One software program we donated to the school is a research program geared specifically toward beginning researchers, aiding them in developing skills they will need across all disciplines to use technology effectively in research.

To help address the school’s language barriers during their frequent Parent Learning Nights as well as other large gatherings of parents in the school, a portable RF system has also been donated to aid translators in communicating with parents, allowing the 22 or so languages to be translated clearly and simultaneously. This addition to the school will improve parent and community understanding and involvement, by leaps and bounds. Last but not least, in researching an effective method for addressing shortfalls in math scores, and fractions specifically, the educators at Lansdowne came across an innovative math program, entitled “If I Had A Hammer”, designed to teach fractions, measurement, and scaling via carpentry. Like every other element of their proposed program, Hammer has a record of being implemented successfully in other similar schools nationwide.

While the needs and uses enumerated here give a general over-all look at the plans being implemented via this donation, rest assured there are a plethora of classroom and student specific programs also possible that the educators at Lansdowne are exited to implement. With every new incoming class, teachers face new challenges in preparing students for a bright future and Kloiber Foundation is proud to provide the means for them to address those challenges with the most up to date, proven means possible.