Viatorian Community
Winter 2012
Volume 17, No. 1
Viatorian Parish School Wired for Success
Sixth grader, Ramsey Johnson, works quietly on her literature assignment at Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Grade School in Bourbonnais, IL. But she’s not reading a book or working on a paper. Instead, she sits at her laptop, with its split screen open to her calendar, current assignment, and a third screen showing an email from her teacher. Surrounding Ramsey during her study hall are her classmates, each with their laptops open and working on different subjects. The room is quiet and the students engaged. In fact, says Principal Terry Granger, they’re wired. This Catholic grammar school is part of the first Viatorian parish in the U.S. It celebrated its 150th anniversary last year, yet its administrators remain firmly focused on the future. “We are committed to providing an education that will support the 21st century learning style and skills of our students,” Terry says. While schools across the country wrestle with how to incorporate technology in the classroom – and stay 2
one step ahead of its technologically savvy students – Maternity BVM leads the Joliet diocese in this area. Indeed, seven years ago, school officials launched its 1:1 laptop initiative, providing a laptop for every sixth, seventh and eighth grader. The school purchases the computers and leases them to students for $54 a month, and this year the school added desktops for each fifth grader as a means of transition. Students use Microsoft OneNote to take notes on their laptops, read their assignments on electronic books and take tests – all on their computers. They are proficient in creating PowerPoint presentations, circular graphs and Excel spreadsheets. During the same study hall class, sixth grader Jack Arno works on flip cards on his laptop to go over his science terms before a test while his classmate, Matthew Carroll, diagrams sentences by shading the different parts of speech. “I like doing it on the computer better,” Matthew says. “My teacher emails me my assignment and I work on it and send it back.” Continued on page 2