New Laptops Upgrade Bloomingdale Students' Classroom Lessons

Students at the Walter T. Bergen School are using laptop computers to assist them in the learning process.

School officials recently purchased 30 wireless laptops and two carts to transport the computers between classrooms.

While preparing the school’s budget last year, district administrators recognized that the computers were needed at the school in order to bring “them up to par with other neighboring districts,” officials said in a press release.

“With pending implementation of PARCC testing in 2015, we believed it was necessary to begin the outfitting of our school for wireless access,” said Principal Frank Verducci. “Our school very much appreciates the support of the Board of Education, business administrator, and the superintendent for making this acquisition possible.”

PARCC stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. The consortium of 18 states is to develop a common set of assessments in English and math.

Students are utilizing the computers in a variety of ways. Language arts classes are using Achieve 3000, a web-based application, during lessons.

Certain math classes are also using the laptops, which can also be hooked up to an electronic SmartBoard.

“Students can access [a] math program from home and the teacher can create specific lessons tailored to each individual class,” the press release said.

The program is designed to improve math scores by focusing on the new Common Core state standards.