Bear Creek Elementary starts new school year with SMART Boards

Bear Creek Elementary began the 2012-13 school year with SMART Board technology in all of its classrooms.

The implementation of the technology has been a five-year goal for the school's principal, Lisa Leethem. In 2010, Bear Creek began a retrofit to add newer learning technology to its classrooms. Before the retrofit, only half of the classrooms used SMART Boards, which use touch-screen technology and allow for multiple students to work on them at one time. Notes and lesson plans drawn on the boards can be animated, and moved around at the touch of a hand.

"The SMART Boards will make connections and learning much more vivid for the students," Leethem said in a press release. "They're accustomed to using technology at home, and we don't want that to stop when they come to school."

Funding for the technology was provided by donations from the local water district, the Bear Creek PTA and the technology retrofit bond from 2010.

The boards will be used in core subject classes such as math and science, as well as P.E., art, music and special education classes.