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A brief overview about me and the location of my project:

• I am an elementary education student majoring in science at University of Michigan - Dearborn. Until I started student teaching, I held a student assistant position in the Department of Behavioral Sciences in the College of Arts, Sciences and Letters Building on the south end of the UM-D campus.        
• Currently I am spending my days student teaching second grade at Grant Elementary in Livonia. Livonia Public Schools serve the city of Livonia and parts of Westland. As of September 2000, 9,195 students were enrolled in elementary schools in the district. 537 of those students were enrolled at Grant School.
• Overall, Livonia has consistently scored above the state average on the state mandated MEAP tests. The 1999-2000 science and writing scores were not available for Grant's 5th graders. Fourth graders at Grant scored a 71.4 in the category of the reading portion of the test which includes story and information comprehension. This was above the district average of 69.6 and even higher than the state average of 58.2. The math scores mirrored the reading results. For example, Grant's 4th grade average math score was 89.6 which was higher than the district and state averages of 86.2 and 74.8 respectively.
• Grant School is located in a middle class neighborhood. None of the nineteen children in the class receive reduced or free lunches. This is not to say that all purchase hot lunches each day; most opt for bringing their bagged lunch from home. All of the children in our class come from families that have two parents in the same house.
• When I assessed the technology that Livonia offered to carry out my plans, I found that the school had three Apple computers- two with internet access- and one printer containing black ink only in the classroom. However, the computer that had email access was the slowest. Eventually that computer was removed from the classroom and a new iMac and color printer were installed. Now the other two computers are only able to run software applications because the hub to connect all three computers is unable to connect to the new computer. Despite this obstacle, we still have the children completing their weekly computer center activity on the new computer--it just takes a little longer as we have to do it one at a time. The children use the other computer to examine content-based software on CD-Roms.
• Children attend computer class one time each week for The computer lab at Grant School offers thirty iMacs with access to a printer. Children can not access the internet from the computer lab. Also in the lab is a projection device that allows the children to see my screen projected on the wall.
• Technical support at Grant School is offered by the technology paraprofessional. Her duties include maintaining the working order of the equipment in the school. Any technical questions are addressed to her.

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