Parochial Students iTravel To Nazareth

At a school that has followed centuries-old Catholic tradition for six decades, an update has been put in place.

Each student at the K‑8, St. Bernadette in Morris Cove, now receives an iPad to use for schoolwork. The practice began this school year as an effort to bring the parochial school into the modern technological age without sacrificing its values or mission.

As the school year winds down, the new practice got rave reviews. It looks to become a new tradition.

“I knew I had to get people to buy in to what this new technology program would be,” said Principal Peter Barile, who started the practice this year. ​“Fortunately, we had a priest, Father Carter, who was a strong supporter, we had a school board that was a strong supporter, and we had a parent committee that was strong.”

Thanks to a grant from the Maximilian E. and Marion O. Hoffman Foundation and a girft from an anonymous donor, the school had a total of $80,000 to spend towards getting brand new iPads for each student and teacher, as well as a charging station for each classroom in the school building.

“The amount of people that have bought into this as a celebration of education has just been fantastic,” Barile said.

“I’m a little bit older, and I’m not telling any secrets there, so the effects of this are astounding to us,” Father Frank Carter said. ​“When we think of getting data, we think of going into the library and finding the Encyclopedia Britannica. With an iPad on their desk, they can reach anywhere in the world. In a place of faith, they can Google search Nazareth, where Jesus grew up, and here’s a design of his hometown.”

Father Carter and Barile were both enthusiastic about the power of technology to bring the students of St. Bernadette more in touch with their faith, as well as to enhance their learning and knowledge of the world itself.

“Last year’s eighth-grade class gave me a unique gift,” Father Carter said. ​“It was a stole. And on each side there are about 15 children holding hands. And the bottom one is grounded in the earth. For us it began a sign about Internet technology, where we are connected with one another electronically. It’s a sign about what we’re doing here.”

Students and teachers alike said that having iPads in the classroom will improve the quality of education at the school. In Myree Conway’s fourth- grade classroom, kids were excited to do schoolwork, as well as their own research on the iPads, she said.

“We like learning about our favorite animals and dinosaurs and things like that,” said Cole, a third-grader with an interest in biology. ​“And then there are apps that help us study for tests, too.”

“It’s definitely a benefit to have them in the classroom,” Conway said. ​“We don’t have to schedule a time to use them like we did with the computer labs upstairs.”

Students keep their iPads at school, and do their homework assignments from a home computer or the old-fashioned way – with pen and paper. Conway said her goal is to encourage students to learn how to work the iCloud or Google Docs from home to continue working on projects in class.

Lynette Glynn’s sixth-grade class felt similarly to the third-graders when it came to iPads in the classroom. Jillian Chiaramonte (pictured) was working on a project in which she would draw pictures with markers or crayons, take pictures of the drawings with her iPad, place captions on these pictures to narrate the scene, and then put all the work together to create a short movie.

“This is a project for school, and it’s my favorite app,” Chiaramonte said. ​“It’s called Animoto. It’s really fun to do.”

“I’m able to assign kids who finish early to work on something on the iPads, either for enrichment or to enforce and help them with the activities,” Conway said. ​“I teach math as well and in fact, one kid is working on math right now since he finished his in class activity already.”

Barile and Ed Goad, Barile’s right-hand-man and the future principal at St. Bernadette, sat down to reflect on how this transition to being a more technologically advanced school would impact their curriculum.

“It was a big goal at the beginning of the year,” Goad said. ​“Newer age teachers can get this into their curriculum very easily, but some teachers are very set in their ways, they’re hesitant. At the end of the day, it’s just another tool for them to use.”

“We’re now as competitive as any private program, and we’ll only continue to become more and more competitive,” Barile said.

As of July 1, Goad becomes the new principal. He plans to keep the iProgram going.

“It’s part of the new wave,” Barile said. ​“It’s here and it’s here to stay.”