Spartanburg Charter School has won the first-ever “Go Back to School SMART”competition, capturing a technology prize worth nearly $6,000.

“We hope this supercharges your new school year,” Rexrode said, “and supports Spartanburg Charter School’s continuing work for educational excellence.”

Spartanburg Charter School came out on top in the statewide “Go Back to School SMART” contest with strong online voting. Manning Early Childhood Center in Manning placed second and St. Andrews School of Math and Science in Charleston came in third. Those schools win smaller technology packages.

Voting took place through the South Carolina Future Minds Facebook page, where other contests and opportunities for the state’s public schools are routinely posted.

This is the second statewide contest Spartanburg Charter School has won in the past year. Last fall, Spartanburg Charter School was one of 20 schools around the nation to win $500,000 based on a popular vote.

“We’re blessed to have very supportive, very engaged and very active parents,” von Rohr said. “They’re critical to the success of any great school.”

For their victory, Spartanburg Charter School will receive
Class set of SMART Response interactive response system: The SMART Response interactive response system is available in four unique models to suit a variety of learning environments, such as 1:1, K-12, early education, special needs and advanced math and science. Each model gives teachers the ability to instantly track quiz results and lesson comprehension to gain immediate insight into student learning and help increase overall retention and engagement. Retail value is $6,000. www.smarttech.com/response

For its second place finish, Manning Early Childhood Center receives
SMART Document Camera: The SMART Document Camera™ offers a convenient way to display and explore images of objects anytime without losing the momentum of your lesson. The document camera’s seamless integration with SMART Notebook collaborative learning software allows educators to capture images and instantly add them to a SMART Notebook page. It also features 3D and Mixed Reality capabilities with specific content in Notebook or from 3rd party sources such as Google 3D Warehouse. Retail value is $800. www.smarttech.com/doccam

For its third place finish, St. Andrews School of Math and Science will receive
SMART Notebook Math: Create, explore and evaluate math concepts with SMART Notebook™ Math Tools. This add-on to SMART Notebook collaborative learning software combines all the tools needed to teach math concepts and solve equations in a single application. It keeps everything accessible, so that shapes, measurement tools, graphs and tables can be easily incorporated into lesson activities. Retail value is $500. www.smarttech.com/notebookmath

Here’s how the program worked:
From Sept. 1 through midnight of Sept. 22, anyone could go to the “South Carolina Future Minds” Facebook page and nominate their school for the SMART Technologies prize package. The 10 schools with the most nominations became the contest’s finalists – and were eligible for the prizes

Then, from Sept. 26 until Oct. 7, votes were taken through the “South Carolina Future Minds” Facebook page to determine the winners. The top three schools with the most votes each receive a package from SMART Technology.

Congratulations to the following finalists:

Chester Park Elementary School of the Arts

St. Andrews School of Math and Science

Spartanburg Charter School

Kershaw Elementary

Manning Early Childhood Center

McCarthy Teszler School

Mid Carolina High School

Marshall Elementary School

Sheridan Elementary School

Newberry High School

Robert Smalls Middle School  

Be sure to vote for your school on our FaceBook page.  The winning school will receive an entire class set of SMART Response interactive response systems. Voting goes through October 7th. 

Honoring highly effective education initiatives in South Carolina

The Riley Institute at Furman and South Carolina Future Minds are partnering to present the first annual Dick and Tunky Riley WhatWorksSC Award for Excellence to an outstanding education initiative in South Carolina. Monies will be raised to provide the winner with funds for enhancement of their program and for consulting with other schools and organizations interested in replicating it.

The winner will be announced and the award presented as the culminating event of the annual South Carolina Public Education Partners meeting, tentatively scheduled for October 26th in Columbia. Three initiatives will have been notified as finalists and staff members and district superintendents associated with them will be invited. Each of the nominated initiatives will be highlighted. A cocktail reception will follow and the event is open to the public.

This first year’s winning program will be selected from initiatives now in the Riley Institute’s WhatWorksSC clearinghouse. WhatWorksSC is a web-based resource for educators, students, the community and policy makers. It ties strategies for world-class schools in South Carolina to promising in-state initiatives, and includes policy papers written by state leaders, case studies and an evolving clearinghouse of initiatives that explore and exemplify key strategies for improving South Carolina’s public schools. WhatWorksSC is continually seeking information about exemplary education initiatives and welcomes ongoing nominations to include in consideration for succeeding year’s awards.

Initiatives considered for the Dick and Tunky Riley WhatWorksSC Award for Excellence must show convincing data concerning program effectiveness. Their program staff must be willing to consult with other schools and districts to promote replication if their program is selected as the winner.

The confidential, non-partisan selection committee will consist of one person from the South Carolina state board of education, one South Carolina business leader, one professor of education at a South Carolina institution of higher education, and a representative from each of two highly-regarded national education foundations, the KnowledgeWorks Foundation and the National Commission for Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF).

About WWSC Creation of WWSC was driven by “In Their Own Words: A Public Vision for Educational Excellence in South Carolina.” This study, the largest ever done in South Carolina and unique nationally, details key strategies for creating world-class schools in South Carolina, derived from 3000 focus group hours with more than 800 stakeholders. It was conducted by the Riley Institute in 2005 and 2006 with funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

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Ms. Ayer