Channel 4 News at our school

Here is the Channel 4 News Story about our classroom. You can either click on the blue letters and follow the link, or read it below. The video that was played on television is also there. I am working on getting a digital copy of it to post, does anyone have it?

Teacher Pays It 4ward To Help Students Learn

Smart Boards Preferred At Little Elementary In Arvada

Written for the Web by CBS4 producer Libby Smith

Suzanne McCarroll
Reporting

The idea behind CBS4's Pay it Forward Colorado project is to give $1,000 to a Coloradan (or group of Coloradans) who will use the money to change someone else's life. Below lies CBS4's Sept. 20 report.

ARVADA, Colo. (CBS4) - At Little Elementary School in Arvada, Amanda Biles teaches reading, writing, and arithmetic to second graders. The walls of her classroom are covered with full bookshelves and writing reminders. It looks like most any other classroom, except at the front of the room there's a new piece of technology that Biles says helps her connect with her students.

"Chalkboards were introduced over 100 years ago, why would we still be using the same tools we used 100 years ago?" Biles asked.

Biles and the other teachers at Little Elementary prefer to use a "Smart Board" to teach their classes. The "Smart Board" is computer driven, interactive, and appealing to a new generation of students.

"This is the way they're experiencing life at home. They have computers. They have their video games. If you're trying to lecture kids, they're not going to get it," Biles said.

Teachers at Little Elementary are using "Smart Boards" to teach English, math, science and writing. But they only had one board for 18 classrooms. That's when Biles wrote to CBS4 and asked to pay it forward to her school and her students.

"By giving them the opportunity to learn in a way that makes sense to them is helping them grow as people," Biles said.

A "Smart Board" costs $1,500. They're made by CSS Presentation Systems. When Biles contacted them to buy one for her school, they gave her a $500 discount so that our $1000 covered the entire cost.

Now, teachers at Little Elementary are sharing two smart boards with the hopes that they'll be able to add more in the years to come.