The addition of hundreds of Chromebooks at Park Avenue Memorial Elementary School is opening up new doors for digital learning. Every fourth- through sixth-grade classroom is equipped with a Chromebook cart with enough devices for every student.

Sixth-grade teacher Steve Gafarian uses the Chromebooks extensively to give students access to assignments on Google Classroom. He provides reading passages, and students can answer questions digitally, providing him with instant feedback on their understanding of the material. Recently, he had students compare two artists, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, by giving them articles and examples of their work.   

For students who are hesitant to answer a question out loud, Mr. Gafarian said that the Chromebooks provide them with an outlet to respond. When they aren’t in school, they can still use Google Classroom to access their assignments from a home computer or personal device. 

Teacher Howard Reiner likes to use the Chromebooks to review and reinforce material. Nearpod and Prodigy are an interactive tools that have become popular in his classroom. Nearpod includes review questions in any subject area along with tutorials that help students better understand a concept. Prodigy features math games which engages students because of the competition format. 

“Students love working on the Chromebooks,” Mr. Reiner said, “and it’s great for me to be able to assess them individually. These programs are a great tool to further my instruction.”

March was a celebration of reading at Park Avenue Memorial Elementary School in the Amityville Union Free School District. This year’s month-long Parents as Reading Partners program featured a variety of activities to encourage students to spend more time with books.

It kicked off with classroom read alouds as teachers shared their favorite books with their students. Each week there was a mystery reader over the school intercom, and students guessed who the reader was and what book he or she was reading. 

Volunteer readers visited classrooms throughout the school, including parents, teachers and administrators. On March 20, guests in sixth-grade classes included Superintendent Dr. Mary T. Kelly, Assistant Superintendents Andrea Pekar and Dr. Thomas DeNicola, and Principal Robyn Santiago. 

Students kept track of their minutes read at home, with rewards for the top readers in each grade level, as well as the top class. Prizes included books, pencils and bookmarks that related to the PARP theme, “Reading Like a Champion.”

Spirit days encouraged students to wear jerseys, dress like their favorite athletes and come clad in school colors. A bulletin board featured pictures of teachers as youngsters along with their favorite childhood books. Art teacher Susan Zaratin hosted a bookmark design contest. The winning entry from each grade level would be reproduced for every student in that grade. 

PARP culminated with an evening celebration for students and parents on March 28. In addition to literacy activities, the school welcomed author Lysa Mullady to talk about two of her books, “Bye Bye Pesky Fly” and “Three Little Birds.”

They weren’t hundreds of feet tall, but skyscrapers built by sixth-graders still made a visual impact at Park Avenue Memorial Elementary School. The interdisciplinary project under the direction of teachers Patti Dieck and Nakia Williams incorporated math, science and research skills.

Students could work independently or with a partner to research a famous skyscraper anywhere in the world. Popular selections included the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia. They used the mathematical concepts of ratio and proportion to build their models to scale. 

With Chromebooks now available in every classroom, students were able to easily access information about their chosen skyscrapers and watched YouTube tutorials on model construction. They also found aerial images to recreate the landscape around the buildings.