I am honored to send you an extract from the summary of our activity in the framework of the Our
Sderot smart classroom project. This has been an impressive success, a genuine revolution among
teachers and students from a pedagogical, technological and social perspective. Minister Michael Eitan
8/6/2009 6:15:48 PM
August 3, 2009
Mr. Eli Tene
Mr. Dan Alpert
Mr. Shoham Nicolet
The Israeli Leadership Council (ILC) – Los Angeles
Re: The Our Sderot Smart Classroom Project - Summary of the First Year of Activity
Dear Sirs,
I am honored to send you an extract from the summary of our activity in the framework of the Our Sderot smart classroom project. This has been an impressive success, a genuine revolution among teachers and students from a pedagogical, technological and social perspective.
As you may know, at the start of the school year we installed 16 smart classrooms at two elementary schools in the city, funded mainly by your donations. At the end of the school year, summative meetings were held with the teaching staff, principals and instructors, from whom we learned that the use of the smart blackboard in class is experiential, and enable the presentation of information in various configurations – images, films and maps. The ability to learn and to cope with assignments of varying levels of difficulty on an individualized basis is of major assistance to the students.
The teachers have stated that teaching has become more diverse. They say that they now have more confidence in working with a computer, using an extensive database of material to create a continuous sequence of assignments and evaluate them in the afternoons.
The children display greater interest in class and are highly responsible and committed to safeguarding the equipment. No damage was caused to any computerized classroom throughout the entire year.
The many trainings and courses that were held throughout the year were attended by an absolute majority of teachers, and, of course, they were also attended by the school principals. And thus, by the end of the school year, we achieved a situation whereby not a day goes by when the smart blackboard isn’t used for various purposes – in order to begin a lesson or summarize learning processes, as an audiovisual aid or for the use of simulations.
All the lessons of this project were brought by me before the highest levels of the Ministry of Education including the Minister M.K Gideon Saar and the general director Mr Shoshani who are considering development and implementation of similar projects in more schools.
All the participants at the summative meetings asked me to thank you for the donation that made it possible to carry out the project with great success, in its very first year of operation. They asked me to mention the ongoing involvement of the organization’s representative, Mr. Guy Yom-Tov, throughout the entire year.
In advance of next year, we are planning to continue reinforcing the teachers’ skills in operating and maximizing the benefit of the smart classrooms. In addition, the project will be accompanied by an external evaluation and assessment program that will make it possible to formulate the correct work processes in the long term.
I hope that the Israeli Leadership Council (ILC) will continue to fund the project in the years ahead as well, since our biggest challenge is to generate a genuine change in the long term.
Sincerely yours,
Michael Eitan
Minister
Minister Michael Eitan