EASTERN WAKE COUNTY - Sixth-graders in Jodi Pearson's classroom will soon be able to manipulate math problems on their classroom TV, thanks to a grant from Wake Electric.

Pearson was awarded $1,879 as part of Wake Electric's Classroom Technology Awards.

"We're no longer in the days of, 'Open your math books to page 50,'" said Pearson, who will use the money to purchase a Next Window: 2700 Overlay Touch to use on top of the 50-inch TV in her classroom.

"By having an Overlay Touch, my students would be able to be more hands on with math. They could move figures around, graph points, solve problems, right on the TV!" she wrote in her grant proposal.

Pearson added that the new technology should help motivate bodily-kinesthetic and visual-spatial learners.

For example, when students are learning the basics of geometry, they can rotate triangles just by touching the screen.

"It's taking figures in a plane and moving them around, instead of just saying, "We're going to move it here," she explained.

Not all students learn by doing, Pearson said.

"Some could care less. They just want to (complete work) with paper and pencil," she said.

But the new tools will give Pearson a wider variety of teaching options, which will allow her to reach more students.

"East Wake Academy is a Spectrum 360 school. This means that it is my job as the teacher to reach all students, regardless of learning style on the spectrum of learners," Pearson wrote in her grant. The Overlay Touch, she said, should make that easier.

The new equipment will enable Pearson and her students to highlight particular parts of word problems directly on the television, so students can more easily figure out how to solve those problems.

"I love the (classroom) TV," Pearson said, but added without the Overlay Touch, "I was not able to use it to its full potential."

Shared information

East Wake Middle School Track 4 Science Teacher Katie Kennedy also received a Wake Electric Classroom Technology grant, for $1,465.

Kennedy will use the grant money to purchase a specialized document camera, a multimedia projector and a mobile cart.

Kennedy will use the camera and projector to help her students create interactive notebooks.

Interactive notebooks are spiral notebooks which students use, not only for notes and handouts, but also for feedback about what they are learning in the form of stories, graphic illustrations or foldouts.

By using the camera and projector in class, Kennedy won't have to rely so much on creating PowerPoint presentations or making images for the overhead projector ahead of time.

"I can (project) my notebook so they can see what my page would look like," she said.

Kennedy said she is also excited about the ability to share a student's "neat picture or really amazing graphic organizer" with the rest of the class as soon as it is finished.

"It's better than an overhead projector" because it allows for spontaneity, Kennedy said.

The multimedia cart and associated equipment will allow teachers to integrate audio and video into their lesson plans, which will make it easier for them to reach students with different learning styles, Kennedy said.

"We do have two other document cameras here at school," Kennedy said, but they are shared by the entire staff and usually checked out. "This will stay amongst the science teachers."

The cart and equipment will stay in her science classroom, but Kennedy will share it with other science teachers when she tracks out.

The camera and projector will help support the school's recent venture into becoming a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) school, Kennedy said.

As part of the transition, Track 3 and 4 seventh- and eighth-grade teachers have started using interactive notebooks to promote learning "because they personalize and organize student learning while developing organizational skills and allowing students to express their understanding of concepts creatively," Kennedy explained in her grant proposal.

Wake Electric awarded nearly $20,000 in Classroom Technology Awards in a seven-county area this year.

Grants are funded through the electric coop's Operation RoundUp program.