The second year of the Sheppard School Project is underway.  On Dec 3rd, 23 parents took delivery on their new I-macs for the second year of the program. We also welcome two new trainers from Temple University to the program. Eva and Chrissy are both Spanish majors at Temple University.  This year, trainings will be offered every Wednesday and every other Saturday.

The first training session on digital cameras is scheduled for Jan 10th.

This past summer several families from the Sheppard School Project journey to State College for an advanced class that focused on i-movies. The parents put all their new skills from the training sessions to good use. Check out their weekend and their finished projects.

Wireless Philadelphia recently profiled the reception for Senator Tartaglione at Sheppard Elementary School. You can view more photos of the day at Wireless Philadelphia’s blog.

On April 24th, the ITSRG staff had the pleasure of attending a reception with Sen. Tartaglione at Sheppard Elementary School.

The Sheppard Parent Empowerment Project has been funded by a PA Department of Education grant that enables all of the third and fourth grader students and their families at Sheppard to receive a new i-Mac, digital cameras and free Internet access in their homes. Sen. Tartaglione was instrumental in helping the Parent Project to gain the funding needed to support the program.

In addition to free computers, the families have been receiving extensive computer training as part of the program. Six ITSRG students: Brendan Conlin, Britney Smith, Erin Cusack. Greg Sykes, Brader Jimenez and Lily Zdravkovic have worked as Spanish-speaking computer trainers for the program.

The six ITSRG students have assisted with home visits to families, helped run the weekly training workshops and provided phone support to families.

The event was exciting for our staff to see how thrilled the families and children were with their computers. A 125 people turned out to thank Sen. Tartaglione for her assistance with the program.

PHILADELPHIA – The households of one inner-city Philadelphia neighborhood are no longer lacking access to technology.

Enhancing communication between Isaac A. Sheppard Elementary School and the parents of the school’s students is one of the main goals of an initiative that is putting a new Apple desktop computer into each child’s home. “Student Achievement Through Parent Empowerment,” a collaborative project between Sheppard School, Philadelphia School District, and Penn State’s College of Education, is designed to engage both parents and children in learning. The $250,000 project is funded by the Office of State Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione (D., Phila.).

The computer initiative is part of Penn State’s multifaceted Urban Teaching Collaborative, established three years ago for the improvement of education at Sheppard School.

Read the full article HERE

This blog chronicles the IT learning activities of students enrolled at Issac Sheppard Elementary School and their families, teachers, and neighbors.