Dibrell first-graders learn computer skills

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard (McMinnville, Tenn.)

Enjoying Dibrell Elementary’s new state-of-the art computer lab are, first row, from left, first-grade students Trevor Crawford and Raven Dixon. Second row, teacher Sheila Gann, principal Sherry Trotman and teacher Dee Dee Holmes. (Will Stewart photo)

Students at Dibrell Elementary will be able to take advantage of a state-of-the art computer lab provided by the school’s PTO.

“Thanks to the PTO we now have a comprehensive K-8 computer program which will give all of our students the skills needed not only to perform research and keyboarding, but to prepare them for high school and beyond,” said Dibrell principal Sherry Trotman.

Trotman and a group of the school’s teachers approached the PTO about helping to build a computer lab early last school year. In only nine months the group had raised and solicited close to $38,000 for that purpose through fund-raisers like the fall festival and parent donations, said teacher Dee Dee Holmes, whose husband, Scott, is PTO president.

“We said if we’re going to do it, let’s do it right,” she said. “We wanted the best of the best and that’s what we got. After we went to the PTO, the money just started rolling in.”

The new computer lab features 25 brand new Dell computers as well as furniture, printers and all necessary software, the latter of which was selected by the school’s teachers to best fit the needs of their students.

While every classroom at the school has at least one computer, only between two and five students could utilize a single computer at the same time. One big advantage to having a computer lab, both Trotman and Holmes noted, is that an individual teacher will now be able to instruct all of his or her students on computers at the same time, making their teaching more efficient.

This will be particularly useful in teaching keyboarding skills, which all students will now start learning in the first grade. It will also be helpful when teachers are preparing their classes for the TCAP tests using specialty software or just need to give their classes extra tutoring on a certain subject.

Trotman said the school’s study skills teachers will use the computer lab on a daily basis to help their pupils with their math, reading and writing skills. Having a computer lab also “levels the playing field,” she said. “Some of our students have computers at home. Others do not. This lab will help students who would not otherwise have access to computers, which can’t be anything but good” she said.