Report: Chatham Schools Use Technology to Teach

Over the last few years, the Chatham Education Foundation fundraised to provide several schools with new Smartboards. Now, one Chatham teacher finds that other technological advances can help her educate students, and the CEF helps provide her with those tools.

In districts like the Chathams, with a local education foundation, the parents’ fundraising group is called on to meet needs like upgraded technology that the district can’t budget for.

During the past school year, the Chatham Education Foundation (CEF) awarded more than $70,000 in grants to teachers and schools. Not all of that was for computers or other technology. But over the last decade, the CEF has given out dozens of grants for various tech-related projects.

For instance, one special education teacher requested, and received, several iPod Touch devices for disabled students ages four to nine, after trying it out with one autistic student.

"One of the main reasons I began to use the iTouch was because of its portability, size and unlimited opportunities to increase motivation and engage students in learning," said Jennifer Friedrich, a special education teacher in Washington Avenue Elementary School’s K-3 AIMS program in Chatham.

Read the whole story at NJ Spotlight.