STONEAGE THINKING
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Harry Stone Montessori Academy!
Meeting the digital child where they are by creating a media rich environment that inspires creativity and problem solving skills in order to make a global impact.!
www.stoneagethinking.com
Digital Vision College Readiness & Real-Life Learning through technology
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Technology Team “We need technology in every classroom and in every student and teacher’s hand, because it is the pen and paper of our time, and it is the lens through which we experience much of our world.”
Harry Stone has developed an initial group that serves as the think tank behind the digital movement. This team meets to contract the vision necessary to prepare our students to exceed tomorrow’s expectations for College and Career Readiness standards.
Brian Smith
Jeremy Bennett
Megan Capshaw
Technology Coordinator: Responsible for transforming HSMA into the premier 21st Century school. Graduate of Full Sail University with a Masters in Educational Media Design and Technology and the University of Missouri with a Bachelors in Education. !
Humanities: Raised in Grand Prairie, TX. Graduated from University of Texas at Austin. Lived in Madison, WI for a spell. Spent a year learning to work on wooden boats. Worked happily at Harry Stone since 2002.!
Student Leadership, U.S. Studies, & Student Newspaper: Born in Houston. Great parents, great childhood. Taught at Dallas ISD's TW Browne, a private school in Denver, Humanex, and Harry Stone where I have been for the past 16 years. I love it, so I'm not leaving it !
Lisa Straley
Renita Hines
Born and raised in Ukraine, I started playing piano at the age of 3. Graduate of Kiev Music Conservatory (Ukraine) with B.A. in Piano Performance and Pedagogy; and Towson University (MD) with M.S. in Music Education. With almost 20 years of experience, positions held include performing pianist with Ukraine Army Band, piano and choir director in grades 1 - 8, church musician.
8th grade science teacher at HMSA for about 15 years. ! Born in Corsicana, TX raised in Dallas…I enjoy creating and designing projects.!
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Technology Team
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Harry Stone has embraced the motto of #stoneagethinking. In order to change the way we learn we have to change the way we think. This is all based on the digital vision here at HSMA.
"I believe that when students participate in "learning by doing" it helps them focus more. Technology helps them to do that. Students will always be extremely excited when using technology.” — 5th grade student
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stone•age•thinking /stohn-eyj-thing-king/
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Harry STONE’s digital AGE approach to media-rich THINKING for today’s student. “Their stonagethinking approach to educational technology has revolutionized classroom performance and overall student engagement.”
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synonyms: awesome, brilliant, innovative, purposeful;
The application Vision 2015 is an "era & age appropriate" maturation of Dr. Montessori's vision for the elementary-age child. Lessons and materials were developed by Maria Montessori to capture the imagination of the child based on the inherent and observed interests of the child. That's our goal. Using the same principles to improve the global education of our IB students. Taking a look at the Montessori Theory section of the Daily Montessori website the foundation principles and concepts of Montessori theory can be applied across all ages. “Those principles are: Independence, Observation, Following the Child, Correcting the Child, Prepared Environment and Absorbent Mind. It is within these concepts we find the reasoning behind why things are such in a Montessori environment. These are goals and beliefs that Maria Montessori held with regards to the education of children."
50 25 0 2011/2012 2012/2013 2013/2014 2014/2015
- http://www.dailymontessori.com/montessori-theory/
!Student engagement percentage over time using: #stoneagethinking
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Vision “To understand their world we must be willing to immerse ourselves in that world. We must embrace the new digital reality. If we can’t relate, if we don’t get it, we won’t be able to make schools relevant to the current and future needs of the digital generation.” – Ian Jukes
The charge given to me once hired was to bring Harry Stone Montessori Academy into the 21st Century and help enhance the academic value through the use of technology. While taking a tour of the building, my first thought was “This is the stone ages!” However, HSMA was just the challenge I was looking for. My first mission was to change the overall attitude toward educational technology before simply upgrading equipment and securing devices in every classroom. They say education is power. Well the more knowledge we gain on how technology can help create an environment that is conducive for global success the better off we are in choosing appropriate tools of technology that will help us exceed all expectations. It is my mission to “rebrand” Harry Stone and create a platform for the world to see the true uniqueness of our programs while opening doors for our students to achieve greatness. “Oh the places we’ll go!”! It is my hope that after exposing our community to the power of educational technology, equipment changes inherently comes next. The goal is to enhance each classroom and
to redesign the computer lab to be a catalyst for creativity and innovation. “Oh the places we’ll go!”! The natural follow up is to meet our students where they are. The goal is to develop a 1:1 plan suited for our students in grades 4 - 8 and a 4:1 plan for PreK-3. That simply means find a way to allow our upper elementary and middle school students to have 24/7 access to a device, their curriculum and classroom, while the younger students have a classroom situation where there is at lease 1 device for every 4 students. “Oh the places we’ll go!”! Finally, Improving the Digital impact of the campus. This will be the most aggressive notion because it involves building infrastructure. The desire is to utilize 3 spaces and make it media rich: The Home Economics room Transformation, The Court Yard Remake and the Auditorium Transition. “Oh the places we’ll go!”! This is only the beginning.!
Brian Romero Smith Sr.
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Updates The initial process was set at three (3) years. Here are the highlights from the first two (2)
“If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.”
Software Updates Upgraded Lab computers from Windows XP to Windows 8.1
Netbooks updated from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1
Adobe CS6 added to all lab computers and 2 Netbook carts
All supplemented software removed from desktop computers in favor of online applications
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablets for STEM lessons
65” Overlay Display Touch Screen TV added to replace smartboard
Hardware Updates Added 2 new Lanovo laptops carts for 1-3 classrooms.
Added 3 Surface RT Tablets carts for 4-5 Classrooms
Web Based Platform Grade Level
Google Email Docs
Haiku
Digital Citizenship Certification
Computer Science introduction
PreKKinder
Yes
No
No
No
Yes (Tynker)
1-3
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes (Tynker)
4-5
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes (code.org)
MYP
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes (code.org)
*Harry Stone is a Google Apps For Education (GAFE) campus. Collaboration and productivity increased by 212%
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MYP
1:1
Why 1:1?! “Education is evolving due to the impact of the Internet. We cannot teach our students in the same manner in which we were taught. Change is necessary to engage students not in the curriculum we are responsible for teaching, but in school. Period.” – April Chamberlain
The educational landscape is changing. Everyday new technologies emerge to replace the old familiar education tools. Today’s classrooms have laptops and tablets. One-to-one programs are more popular than! ever as schools are beginning to realize the power these devices harness in the classroom.! As Harry Stone contends to evolve to create 21st Century learning environments, the school requires a technological edge to enhance the academic rigor already provided in each classroom on campus in order to compete with schools on a global scale. The ultimate goal being to create the platform to develop Harry Stone Students into digital citizens who will gain technological literacy ! necessary to thrive globally. ! More importantly, we want Meet Our Students Where They Are and bring passion back to learning. Passion is hot. It is a force that sells movies and margarine and everything in between. It is a force the can move mountains, inspire art and make the weak strong. We need to bring passion back into learning, into teaching and all around. Passion motivates. It makes a way out of no way. It allows students to overcome hardships to achieve a goal that is meaningful to them. Going 1:1
equips our students with the means to cultivate that passion in order to change the world. ! HSMA conducted a thorough search to identify the most effective tool. We tested several tools, including the Google Chrome book, Microsoft Surface tablet, iPad and others. Through our hard work and research, the district has decided to financially back our 1:1 Mission. The announcement on the device will come in July 2014. ! To improve student engagement and maximize student achievement ! To decrease paper consumption by 80% ! To increase parent involvement through parent applications ! To provide 24/7 access to course content for all students! To encourage creative personalized exploration ! To inspire a passion for learning that goes beyond Harry Stone. !
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Montessori 3:1 iPad “Steve Jobs must have been a Montessorian. Why else would he introduce the iPad with the ability to have an entire library of apps, fullyintegrated, and at the fingertips of learning” –Bobbie George
! Harry Stone wants to take the methods and principles of Maria Montessori to the next level. There's a new generation, but the way children learn hasn't changed!
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We want to develop a 3:1 program for our PreK-Kinder and 1-3 Montessori classes. This means for every 3 students there is 1 iPad to share. Which would put at least 8 iPads per classroom. With the use of iPads, our students can !
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Go international. ! iPads support the notion of going bilingual or the desire to expose our students to a second language and cultures from around the world. ! ! Experiment. ! With many open-ended activities, students are free to explore, learning from their mistakes as they experiment.!
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Imagine. ! Our student’s creativity will come alive, as they become inspired by integrated interactive activities. !
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! Stay on Task. ! Animated sequences throughout Montessori apps encourage independence, while keeping your child right on target. !
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Be in control of their learning. ! If there's one goal to our suite of activities, it's to develop the selfconfidence that's needed to cultivate learning. !
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This forward thinking caters to the educational needs of all of our children, especially today’s digital child. !
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GAFE “My idea of a perfect world really can't be designed by one person or even by a million experts. It's going to be seven billion pairs of hands, each following their own passions.” — Jay Silver
Encouraging students to reach out to each other to solve problems and share knowledge not only builds collaboration skills, it leads to deeper learning and understanding.
The need to collaborate was the impetus for becoming a Google Apps For Education (GAFE) campus. However, we found out that this was just the beginning. As the Ed Tech paradigm began to shift, Harry Stone began training it’s teachers and students on how to use the many useful applications that Google offers.! All students from 4-8 have access to Google email, Drive and various apps and extension that support and encourages students to explore studies and careers in Computer Science and more broadly Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. Google + makes learning more accessible, relevant and collaborative by connecting students, teachers and lifelong
learners in a virtual classroom. On YouTube EDU, access a broad set of educational videos that range from academic lectures to inspirational speeches and everything in between.! Search is a remarkable tool for connecting with the world’s content and citizens. Glass can help make every moment a teachable moment. Google Apps has all the tools that schools need to be productive, including email, calendar, documents, and more.!
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The idea is to not just prepare our students for what we already know about the future, but for what may be.
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"We can never get a recreation of community and heal our society without giving our citizens a sense of belonging." -- Patch Adams
CROCKPOT COMMUNITY ROOM We can begin by doing small things at the local level, like planting community gardens or looking out for our neighbors. That is how change takes place in living systems, not from above but from within, from many local actions occurring simultaneously. ! Harry Stone has an old Home Economics room that we want to convert to a room that can be used to invite the community in to simmer on ways to improve not only ourselves but the world around us simultaneously. We want to redesign the room with computer workstations, sitting areas, training space and of course the kitchen being the center of it all. Harry Stone has purchased a Professional Development program that provides licensed access to our students, staff, parents and community. Within the CCR, students can receive specialized training during the day. In the afternoon, the space can be used for community members to come in and learn a new job skill. Be it Microsoft training, Adobe certifications or even learning to speak another language. The room can be also be used for small group training, community teas or even elaborate after-school programs.
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The CrockPot Community Room (CCR) vision derived around the need for a table to be at the center of the family. Explanation: Whenever decisions are made that had an impact on the family and its future, that conversation took place…at the dinner table. When we needed to talk about issues of life that had direct correlation to where we are as a family, that discussion happened at the dinner table. When every activist and community leaders wanted to bring about change while involving the community, it happened around food at…dare I say, the picnic table. Change is imminent, yet the method in which we make those changes needs to be reflected upon. Hence “The CrockPot”. A slow process that allows the maturation of a
10 9 meal concoction by allowing a cooking method that encourages the ingredients to simmer and marinate and marry into something that will feed many.
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The initial idea is to partner with Wade College of Design and create 8 design teams that consisted of our students and staff. Each Harry Stone team would be assigned a Wade College Design Student to cultivate a design for the room and compete to choose a winning design. The design would need to include a creative way to keep the kitchen area while developing a small training space, a collaboration space with seating, utilize the workstation insets and storage.
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This concept works well with our Montessori and IB philosophies regarding community. Why not let Harry Stone be at the center of it all? 
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THE STONE LAB "There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns." — Edward de Bono
✦ Creative Space! At Harry Stone, college readiness begins here. The computer lab is not just a place that houses desktop computers and teachers simply send their students down to conduct simple research. The Stone Lab is a place for creativity and innovation. Therefore, the look and feel of the space along with what the space offers has to change. ! Computer Science courses has already been introduced. Now we need to address the equipment. The vision is to have the current desktops switched out for iMacs. The impetus for this is the ability to expose our students to a multitude of platforms and tools that will encourage them to evaluate, problem solve and create. Every iMac will be equipped to install and run Windows at native speeds, using a built-in utility called Boot Camp. Setup is simple and safe and students will have the ability to boot up each iMac using either OS X or Windows. You can run the Windows operating system on your Mac at native speed—without the performance penalty that comes with software emulation or "virtual machines." Windows applications have full access to multiple processors and multiple cores, accelerated 3D graphics, and high-speed ports and networking such as USB, FireWire, Wi-Fi, AirPort, and Gigabit Ethernet as well as drivers for audio and Bluetooth functionality. Along with that, students will also learn Chrome OS from the same device. Our students will leave Harry Stone well versed in all operating systems, an advantage that not many students have globally. ! iMacs come with iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Students will have the opportunity to be creative with photos, videos and music using built-in software that is very close to industry standard. Each mac will also contain Adobe Creative Suite which includes applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and Premier. !
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3D Printer! Green Screen! Digital Overlay Display! Poster Printer!
“Oh the places we’ll go!”!
✦ Tech Squad! HSMA Tech Squad was highlighted at the 2014 Region 10 Digital Fluency Conference and received tremendous support. The plan is to take it to a global level by having our Tech Squad students go to other campuses throughout DFW to help establish student led technology teams. Tech Squad also has participated in many Google HOA with NBC Learn, Forbes, and Google. In the future, Tech Squad will produce our own HOA on Youtube for various VTF’s (Virtual Field Trips), and Virtual Career Days along with moderating Mystery Hangouts and Classroom Connection across the globe. ! Tech Squad will also produce the announcements on air each morning beginning in Fall 2014 and will promote Harry Stone as a brand using photography, video, web publications and social media. All ran out of The Stone Lab! Facebook: facebook.com/thestonelab! Twitter: @imajnbeingbettr! Google+: google.com/+thestonelab-stoneagethinking! “Oh the places we will go!”!
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Bridging The Digital Divide "It is dangerously destabilizing to have half the world on the cutting edge of technology while the other half struggles on the bare edge of survival." Bill Clinton
Technology has transformed the we teach, learn, collaborate and live. However, close to 1 in 5 Americans do not use the internet. Disproportionately from lowincome and minority communities, these populations remain isolated from the digital society. ! Cost, relevancy and digital literacy are 3 components preventing people from getting internet access. Even those who recognize the importance of the internet, 61% of unconnected Americans would need assistance. ! Harry Stone would like to partner with Mobile Beacon and EveryoneOn to provide internet access to our students who do not have internet access at homes. Many of our families are going to McDonald’s, the local Library and various other locations to connect to the internet. With Mobile Beacon’s we can offer Unlimited Access: It’s a $10/month Internet plan that offers unlimited data. ! • Broader Reach: It’s available to underserved Americans of all age groups and family types — not just those who have a child receiving free school lunch under the National School Lunch Program. ! • Mobility = More Access: It offers a choice of fixed or mobile devices so users are not limited to personal Internet access only in their homes. ! • Low Cost, Long-Term Solution: There is no set expiration date on our $10/month offer.
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Color is the keyboard, the eyes are the harmonies, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul. Wassily Kandinsky
THE STONE ARTS ✦ Piano Studio! One of the unique assets of Harry Stone is the opportunity for students to participate in the superb Fine Arts program that include Art, Theater, Choir, Strings and Piano starting as early as pre-K. In particular, the piano class covers multiple aspects of modern music studies. That includes classical piano studies, modern band piano, composition, basic music technology and recording. The target of the piano class is to give students a foundation upon which they can continue their music studies and prepare for exciting and rewarding careers in the music industry. ! We want to take the abilities of our talented young musicians to the next level by offering a cutting-edge music technology and the instruction necessary to ensure that they remain competitive in the technology-oriented musical world of the 21st century. ! The idea is to redesign the piano lab that would offer Macintoshbased student workstations including MIDI keyboard synthesizers, Audio/MIDI interfaces, headphones, and a variety of software supporting computer-based music notation, MIDI sequencing, digital synthesis, digital audio editing, digital signal processing, computer assisted instruction, word processing and data management, computer aided presentations, and internet-based activities.!
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“Oh the places we will go!”
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Where we are ! !
First school in DISD to secure it’s own domain (harrystone.org) Stone controls the security and privacy of the organization.
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Online Learning Management System that we ran the first successful pilot in North Texas. Provides a real-time window inside the classroom for students and parents.
First school in Dallas ISD to become Digital Citizenship Certified by offering a comprehensive curriculum to teacher technology safety, security and responsibility. We were only the second school in Texas.
Crowdsource Funding partner that has helped Harry Stone raise over $5000 for classroom support and materials.
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One of ten schools to participate in the CSE Week Hour of Code. Harry Stone went further and implemented a CS program to teach code to students 2nd-8th grade. Harry Stone is in the final stages of becoming a code.org ambassador school.
“Oh the places we will go!”
! ! Harry Stone Montessori !
Academy
4747 Veterans Drive, Dallas, Texas, 75216 Phone: 972.794.3400 Fax: 972.794.3401 brian@harrystone.org www.stoneagethinking.com