Hawkins Elementary School
Orbit Grant 2005-2006

               

 
In February, 2005, Hawkins Elementary and three other East Tennessee schools were selected to apply for an EdTech Orbit technology grant.  The consortium consisted of Hawkins Elementary (Rogersville), Lincoln Heights Middle School (Morristown), Mosheim Elementary (Mosheim), and Cosby High School (Cosby).  Hawkins Elementary's Anchor School is DeBusk Elementary in Greene County.   Hawkins Elementary's administration was very interested in this particular grant because most of our technology equipment was outdated and inadequate.  Because our consortium was chosen after the grants were judged , Hawkins Elementary received $105,000.00.

Gena McBrayer, Cathy Fleenor, and Devonia Cochran agreed to write the grant.  Ms. McBrayer was our computer lab instructor/Title 1 Coordinator and is now the Orbit Commander.  Mrs. Fleenor is  our Speech Therapist, and Mrs. Cochran is our Library Media Specialist.  As the mentoring team for HES, they have provided technology training in areas of need as indicated by a survey completed  by the faculty.  Areas such as Microsoft Word, burning CDs, using digital cameras and PowerPoint were some of the suggested training sessions.

This Orbit grant has allowed us to purchase 40 Dell Dimension 5150 Pentium computers to be programmed as teacher workstations, 2 laptops, a Dell 2300 MP projector, a Dell 3000cn printer, a digital camera, and computer-to-tv video converters and Microsoft FrontPage software.  To receive one of the new computer workstations, teachers were required to complete 12 hours of training provided by the mentoring team.  Thirty-seven percent of our faculty have completed the 12 hours and have received their computer workstation.  Our county technicians have stated that the specifications of these computers basically exceed any computers in the county at this time.  We also provided 40 hours of technology training to those who chose to participate.  Twenty-three percent of our faculty have accomplished this training.  Our county school system has provided the UnitedStreaming Video Digital Library for this school year.  The new equipment has permitted teachers the opportunity to download videos and to burn CDs; training was provided by the mentoring team regarding United Streaming and burning CDs (prior to the grant, only two computers in the school had CD burners).  The computer-to-tv converters have been installed in the computer lab and the gym.  Teachers who participated in the training were required to create a PowerPoint presentation and these presentations were shared at one of the training sessions.  A new school website is in the process of being constructed using software purchased with the grant; we did not have this capacity prior to the grant.  Teachers also received training regarding the hck12.net email system (Microsoft Outlook), including creating folders, making distribution lists, attaching documents, etc.  As a result of this training, more effective and efficient communication is available on site.

We are very appreciative of the training and equipment that the Orbit grant has provided Hawkins Elementary.  It is our goal to have our faculty become comfortable using technology and to provide the most up-to-date equipment possible.

 

                  Click HERE to learn more about the Orbit Grant.

 

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           Rogersville, TN