Lake Michigan Catholic Schools aims to enable our students to utilize technology to enhance their education, communities, and lives, with an understanding of the moral and social ramifications of their technology use. With this in mind, a computer curriculum was developed at the elementary level to ensure our students have a strong foundation in basic computer skills, focusing on how to use hardware and software. This background provides our middle and high school students with the ability to integrate these skills as they produce papers, projects, and presentations for their classes.
At the Elementary school, our Preschool and Transitional Kindergarten students have access to a set of iPads with appropriate early childhood educational applications installed. Transitional Kindergaten also has a classroom set of touchscreen Chromebooks. Each Kindergarten through 2nd-grade classroom has a set of touchscreen Chromebooks for student daily use. 3rd - 5th-grade classrooms each have a classroom set of traditional Chromebooks. Student chromebooks are used for 1:1 technology lessons, and are students are being introduced to Google Apps for Education. In addition, students in TK through 5th grade have weekly lessons in the computer lab using windows-based PCs, Microsoft Office, Google Docs and online resources. In the middle and high school, 6th-12th grade students participate in a 1:1 technology program with chromebooks, where students are given a chromebook to keep throughout the year. These chromebooks are an integral part of each class, and are rapidly replacing the traditional paper and pencil. Middle/High school students also have the option to bring their own device to school (BYOD).
Each K-12 classroom is equipped with a Smartboard, ceiling-mounted projector, document camera, TV/VCR/DVD system, and laser printer. Teachers are provided with a Windows-based laptop and a chromebook. Teachers use the RenWeb/FACTS student management system for lesson planning, standards tracking, grades and progress reports, and communication with parents.