Blue Cross Blue Shield donation helps expand One Laptop per Child Project

An initiative to improve student achievement by making laptop technology available to every elementary school student in the state is expanding this month with the addition of 12 schools.

One Laptop per Child /South Carolina is a partnership between the nonprofit Palmetto Project, Blue Cross Blue Shield and the State Department of Education. State Superintendent Jim Rex and Steve Skardon of the Palmetto Project accepted a $500,000 donation today from Blue Cross Blue Shield division president and CEO David Pankau to help fund the expansion.

The laptop program was piloted last year in rural Marion School District 7. That rollout has been highly successful, garnering positive response from students, parents and the community. School officials expect test results at the end of the year to show students are performing better since technology has been integrated into teaching and learning.

“We believe that working with a school-issued laptop will help our students improve their academic skills and inspire them to set goals and achieve great things in their lives,” Rex said. “Thanks to our partners in this project, we’re making a bold commitment to prepare South Carolina’s children to become true leaders in the global economy of the 21st century.”

The neon green and white XO laptops used in the project look like toys with their rounded edges, kid-sized plastic handles and rubber-membrane keyboards, but they’re equipped with a camera, microphone, stereo speakers and a screen that rotates into a tablet configuration.

The laptops are spill-proof, rain-proof, dust-proof and drop-proof. Students can use them to draw pictures, compose music, read and listen to books, collaborate on classroom projects and play games.

The computers were designed by One Laptop per Child, a nonprofit organization created to manufacture and distribute inexpensive technology to children in the world's poorest countries. The $200 computers are supplied at no charge to students, although parents must attend one of several seminars offered on laptop use and care and sign user agreements.

Schools for the expanded program were selected based on student need and the capability of teachers and administrators to implement the initiative successfully. Schools being added this month include:

● Chester Park Technology Center, Chester
● Mountain View Elementary, Taylors
● India Hook Elementary, Rock Hill
● Buffalo Elementary, Buffalo
● Foster Park Elementary, Union
● Monarch Elementary, Union
● Sandy Run Elementary, Swansea
● Vance-Providence Elementary, Vance
● North Vista Elementary, Florence
● Rice Creek Elementary, Columbia
● Port Royal Elementary, Port Royal
● North Charleston Elementary, North Charleston

Dillon student donates dress

COLUMBIA – In January, she captured the heart of a nation as she sat next to the First Lady during President Barack Obama’s opening address to a joint session of Congress. Since then, she’s been interviewed on CNN, ABC’s “Good Morning, America,” Inside Edition and the CBS Evening News --– all to bring attention to the plight of her rural school.

She is Ty’Sheoma Bethea, an eighth-grade student at J. V. Martin Junior High School, and today she donated the lavender dress that she wore in Washington to the South Carolina State Museum.

Prior to the president’s speech, the 14-year-old was an unassuming student at the Dillon District 2 school. But after being spotlighted in the president’s speech, she has become a symbol of Obama's call to improve education as part of his economic recovery package.

During her first visit to the State Museum, Ty’Sheoma said, “The donation means a lot to me. By giving it to the museum to restore, my children and grandchildren will be able to see it, and it becomes a part of history.”

Ty’Sheoma commended her teachers, administrators, parents and community for wanting the best for Dillon’s young people. “We are doing the best we can with what we have, but we need better.”

State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex praised the teenager for her courage and for taking her message to the nation. “What Ty’Sheoma has done should serve to remind others about the need to do the right thing and to move with a sense of urgency. We’re proud of her.”

Ty’Sheoma was invited to join the First Family for the address to Congress after she sent a letter to Washington seeking help for her school, which is located in South Carolina’s rural “Corridor of Shame.” She wrote her letter on a computer at the Dillon public library after Obama mentioned J.V. Martin in his first press conference as an example of inadequate schools that would be helped by the federal economic stimulus plan.

Near the end of his speech to Congress, the president pointed out Ty’Sheoma in the gallery.
“I think about Ty’Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school I visited in Dillon, South Carolina – a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom,” Obama said. “She has been told that her school is hopeless, but the other day after class she went to the public library and typed up a letter to the people sitting in this room. She even asked her principal for the money to buy a stamp.
“The letter asks us for help, and says, ‘We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world. We are not quitters.’ ”
Accompanied in the gallery by her mother, Dina, the student received hugs from the first lady as President Obama recounted the letter the teenager sent Congress asking for assistance to replace her dilapidated school. The oldest section is 113 years old.

J.V. Martin principal Amanda Burnette said that Ty’Sheoma’s outfit and her letter will become a permanent part of the South Carolina Leaders and Heroes display.

“How amazing that a little girl from Dillon’s voice has been heard so loudly by so many,” she said.

According to Burnette, the designer of the dress, Byer California in San Francisco, has donated a replacement dress and jacket to Ty'Sheoma as well as several other dresses.

"It was Ty'Sheoma's initiative and thoughts that inspired the events that lead to her recognition," said Joel Feldman, president of Byer California. "For that we applaud her and hope she continues her efforts to become whoever she truly desires to be."

State Museum officials are not sure when the dress will be displayed.

Chester Community Charter School Provides Students 1,400 New Laptops

As part of a continuing mission to offer the finest education possible, Vahan and Danielle Gureghian of Chester Community Charter School (CCCS) will be providing students in grades three through eight the educational advantage of their very own laptop.

The Gureghians’ purchase of 1,400 laptops represents the largest contribution of Nicholas Negroponte’s XO Laptops within the U.S. The XO laptops are the cornerstone of Negroponte’s worldwide One Laptop Per Child program, a nonprofit organization that is likewise committed to children’s education. CCCS students will use their new laptops in school.

“Our students are being given the opportunity to have access to technological tools that are not only helpful but necessary in today’s educational environment,” said CCCS CEO Steve Lee. “The learning potential of our students is limitless and will continue to break new ground, especially with the assistance of these new laptops.

“CCCS is one of the nation’s largest and most successful charter schools, committed to providing superior educational opportunities for our students,” Lee continued. “This initiative, and many others like it that CCCS has implemented over the years, proves the value of finding and supporting alternatives to traditional public school education.”

By December 10, 2008, 325 XO laptops will be available for CCCS middle school students, with the remaining arriving within the following weeks.