‘School of Tomorrow’

St. John’s School Earns National Technology Award

(from Catholic SF Newspaper) By Sharon Abercrombie

When Kenneth Willers came on board as principal of St. John’s School in San Francisco less than two years ago, he faced two challenges: declining enrollment and a scarcity of computer resources. The school had no designated space for either a computer lab, and it had no computer teacher. Today, enrollment has climbed from 217 students to 229, and the technological scenario has turned itself around at head spinning speed. Computers have become familiar tools around the school. They’ve been integrated smoothly into the curriculum.

The turnaround has been so complete, in fact, that the National Catholic Educational Association has named St. John’s School as one of 12 national recipients of the "Catholic Schools for Tomorrow Award For Innovation in Technology." Mr. Willers will accept the award at the NCEA meeting in St. Louis on April 24. Archdiocesan superintendent of schools Maureen Huntington, St. John faculty member Ursuline Sister Lillian Repak, Ursuline Provincial Shirley Garabaldi, and Sulpician Father Jim Myers, pastor, will also attend the annual convention.

How did St. John’s make such a quantum transformation, moving from a school with no technology to one which joins 20 percent of U.S. schools with the most advanced technology? The answer is Mr. Willers, himself. He came to the school with his own extensive background in computer technology. Where problem solving and program development were concerned, he’d already "been there, done that," so to speak.

Nearly 10 years ago, when Mr. Willers accepted a position as eighth grade teacher at the School of the Madeleine in Berkeley, his job description included being in charge of the school’s nine computers. "Can you teach these?" asked the principal. Unhesitant, Mr. Willers replied "I can teach anything. I’m an educator."

Mr. Willers then proceeded to teach himself computer 001. "I got all my technology on the job." When he left Berkeley eight years later, the School of the Madeleine boasted 60 state of the art computers.

Last year, when Mr. Willers arrived at St. John’s, he hitched his large wagon of computer know-how to some already existing stars at the school – namely its teachers. Since their funding resources for multiple programming were scarce, they had learned how to weave art, music, drama, history, math, religion and other subjects together into a seamless garment. Mr. Willers remembers thinking, "why should technology be any different?"

Rather than develop a computer lab, per se, and hire a computer lab teacher, why not bring computers to the kids, in their classrooms, so they could use them to work on their daily lessons, he strategized?

As Mr. Willers explains, "you can’t teach computers. The hardware doesn’t teach. The teacher does." Teachers always remain the classrooms’ "treasures," he said He likens bringing computers into each class, as they’re needed, to the same way a teacher teaches beginning writing to little kids. Kids arrive with their pencils, and find their own ways to put them to paper to make letters and words. "No one sets up a pencil lab," he adds.

So, here, in a nutshell is what happened.

Mr. Kenneth Willers brought a high-speed Internet connection called Digital Subscriber Line into the school. Then he invited an engineer from Apple Computer to help set up a network which included infrastructure for a digital future. Once those plans were in place, the principal asked for help. Ferdie Centeno, who has three children in the school volunteered to wire the school at no cost. His son, Randy, a sixth grader, helped configure the wireless network and set up the technology. The results: the ability of students and teachers to set up their computers anywhere on the school grounds, without cables or wires, while staying connected to the school’s network and the Internet.

St. John’s is now in the top 20 percent of U.S. schools, which have this advanced technology. In order to make certain that classes had access to enough computers, St. John’s borrowed $45,000 from itself to purchase 16 laptops and 15 desktop imacs.

These are brought to a classroom, as they are needed, said Mr. Willers. During a phone interview, the principal talked a lot about transparency –which, in simple terms, means that students use computers like they use a textbook or a notebook –they become one more tool within the classroom.

And who teaches kids how to use these tools? Why, other students, naturally, says Mr. Willers. He has enlisted the help of some of his seventh and eighth graders to assist younger students. They’ve been dubbed STARS – Student Technology Aide Representatives.

"Teachers don’t need to be computer experts of technology gurus. Rather, teachers must continue to be curriculum experts and use technology as a compliment to their instruction."

Mr. Willers says that junior high students are as technology proficient, if not more, as many teachers. So partnering a teacher with a STAR enables the educator to focus on instruction and the STAR to show the students how to use the computers.

In recent weeks, these experts have helped first graders to log on to their laptops so they can write letters to U.S. soldiers in Iraq. They’ve worked with fourth graders, as they research the history of the California Missions. They’ve worked with other classes as they researched a history unit on the Holocaust, and helped students prepare a Power Point presentation on immigration.

For those readers who haven’t a clue what Power Point is, it is a program which enables the computer user to prepare slides which are then projected via a slide projector, according to STAR consultant Rebecca Nguyen, 12, a seventh grader.

Twin brothers James and Julian Spediacci, 14, have helped first graders to log onto a program called "Reading Rabbit," which moves these little ones into literacy skills. They’ve helped fifth graders call up information on Native Americans and sixth graders to find out all they ever wanted to know about fungi and mushrooms.

Ian Bruce, 13, an eighth grader, has assisted students in preparing their Power Point presentations. The four attest to what a good experience it’s been to help their younger friends, and to learn what responsibility is all about.

"In a job like this, we are always needed during recess and class breaks, carrying the computers back and forth and setting them up," said James Spediacci.

Sister Lillian Repak, eighth grade teacher, is thrilled with the project. Since she has a disability and cannot type, to have STARS available to assist her students, is a great service. Sister Repak added that she is impressed at how students "really respect this tool, in a responsible way." Best of all she, she said, is the experience of seeing "students teach other students."