Curricula Software Installation and Laptop Training
This project comprises two parts:
Create a central repository of curricula-based educational software. Since our internet bandwidth is so limited, we still cannot take advantage of streaming video or any large file/graphic intensive web pages. West Valley student Jacob Bryan loaded a 5 TB external hard drive with loads of educational software and tools such as KA Lite (for running Khan Academy videos), Kiwix, (the Khmer version of Wikipedia), Microsoft Visual Studio (for programming). The 5 TB hard drive is located in the library. All students snd teachers have access to the software and tools via a new donated dedicated desktop computer that the external drive is connected to.
The Gmerek family donated five tablets for student use in the library. Jacob and David Gmerek loaded them with numerous English books ranging from pre-K level to high school level reading (a little over a gigabyte of English books!).
Once again, for the 9th straight year, we were one of the top ranked village schools nationally in performance on the 9th grade national exam, achieving a 100% pass rate. If students fail the exam, they cannot matriculate to high school. Much of this success derives from the teachers’ dedicated help in preparing students for the exam. This year, to reward the teachers for their efforts, we purchased new laptops for them. Jacob and David spent hours loading curricula software pertinent to each teacher’s subject area onto each laptop. Jacob then gave the teachers basic training on how to use their laptops. Click here to see the slides he used to train them. Each teacher also received a 16 GB flash drive donated by the Gmereks to use for loading software from the 5 TB software repository onto their laptop.
(Upper for left) Teachers prepare their for Jacob’s tutorial. Upper middle center) Jacob works with a teacher. (Upper far right) Jacob shows students how to access SpongeBob Squarepants videos. (Lower left and center) Students listen and watch SpongeBob Squarepants. (Lower right) Students access a music video that teaches them how to play songs on the ukulele. Thanks to Ken Colson’s work and Leland High School student Mira Karthik’s ukulele donations, we now have 14 ukuleles for students. And yes, the Gmerek family donated a guitar that was hand-carried to our school!