Technology

Keeping the school current in technology is one of Most Precious Blood’s important priorities.

SmartBoard and Promethean Technologies

We have added more SmartBoard Technology!!

At Most Precious Blood we really do believe in teaching our students with the best tools possible. So this year we have added four SmartBoards throughout the school. This means that MPB has  Smartboard  technology in half of the classrooms. Promethean Classroom Technology  has been added to two of the classrooms utilizing the impressive world of Promethean.

Computer Lab

A new computer lab was established in Fall of 2005 with the latest technology.  This was made possible through the support of the Home and School Association. The lab is manned by a devoted teacher to teaching computer education.

Grades K-5 students come to the Computer Room once per week for the entire school year.  Grade 6 students come four times per week for one trimester. 7th and 8th grade students use the lab for Photography and Technology electives.

K-2 students are taught computer basics such as process, keyboard, mouse, printer, connectivity.  Kidspiration provides an easy way to apply the proven principles of visual learning.  Students build graphic organizers by combining pictures, text, and spoken words to represent thoughts and information.  Younger learners develop early literacy skills and more advanced students improve comprehension skills and better organize their ideas for writing.  Techniques include the use of templates, keyboarding and mouse skills, accessing the Internet, Starfall, and finding information.

Students in grades 3-5 develop essential learning strategies as they create graphic organizers to visually represent concepts and relationships.  The results are clearer thinking, more creative projects, more organized writing and improved performance across the curriculum.  Techniques include timelines, concept maps, webs, idea maps, brainstorming, Venn diagrams, and templates for social studies, science, thinking skills and language arts.  Power Point is used by the students to create presentations by working together.  They learn how to integrate text, word art, and graphics into their presentations.  The present group of students has created diagrams on Native American Cultures and oceans.  For keyboarding skills, students use software titled, Type to Learn 3.  This teachers and then drills the keystrokes for the alphabet, numerals and punctuation keys in a sequential manner.  There are twenty-five self-paced lessons that move students through a series of reviews, practices, and exercises, introducing an average of two keys per lesson.  Students can review charts and graphs displaying their best speed and accuracy scores.  Printed reports are available for each lesson.

Students in grades 6-8 use advanced techniques in Excel, Inspiration and Power Point.  WebQuests are inquiry-oriented activities in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web.  Attached is a more comprehensive write-up of WebQuests along with a list of lesson plans by grade level.

The Computer teacher is continually expanding the information base to increase the programs.  The Computer Lab has new electrical writing, new electrical panel, 24 Dell Dimension and Optiplex desktop computers with a Celeron Processor 2.66 GHz, 2Gb RAM and 17 inch flat screen monitors.  The laboratory is wireless with monitored and filtered access to the Internet.  The laboratory is equipped with a digital projector.  Software used includes Windows XP, Microsoft Office 2007 (Word, Excel, Power Point), Inspiration, and Kidspiration.

Wireless Technology

Not only does the computer lab have wireless technology, but the entire MPB campus is wireless. That's right you can go to almost any location on campus and find a wireless connection.