By Grace BENNETT, intern

At the Rosemont Middle School (RMS) open house on Thursday night the school’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA), along with generous attending families, made tremendous strides in raising money for new Chromebooks for the classrooms.

The school hosted multiple opportunities for fundraising, including a silent auction that featured the chance to bid on the 24-hour rental of a Tesla, and a slideshow presentation that highlighted the need for Chromebooks and their uses in core education classrooms.

The silent auction was held in the RMS cafeteria, where 10 tables lined the room displaying over 100 different items that families could bid on, including an all-expense paid stay at a Hilton hotel.

Jessica Sheen, the RMS PTA president, with Julie Black and Anna Bruck, organized the fundraising aspects of the night. Sheen commented on the purpose and goals of the fundraiser overall.

“The fundraiser is 100% for Chromebooks,” Sheen said. “At Rosemont, we just don’t have the funding from the district and from the state in order to get enough [Chromebooks] for the students. So we turned to our parents and community. That’s what the fundraiser is all about. If we could get one Chromecart full, which [costs] about $15,000, that would be a win for us. It’s just a drop in the bucket of what we need here at Rosemont, but every [donation] helps,” Sheen said.

A full Chromecart is equipped with 40 working Chromebooks.

Currently about 40% of Rosemont’s core education classrooms are equipped with Chromebooks. Because these laptops are such a vital aspect of students’ education, the lack of supply could be harmful to the productivity and efficiency of the students.

The need for these computers can be seen throughout the various departments at RMS, including the four core classes of English, history, science and math. Especially with the rise of technology today, digital laptops can be extremely useful in the curriculum taught in these classes.

For example, Adam Grant, a history teacher at RMS, said that he uses the Chromebooks very often as a part of his teaching method.

“The history department has one Chromecart to share among eight history teachers. I get the Chromecart about once a month, and they are really useful for the kids to research historical events or historical figures and write their essay,” said Grant. “Through this, we are saving paper and I have access to the documents while they’re working on them. [The Chromebooks] are incredibly valuable tools.”

In addition to the pragmatic uses of these devices in the core classes at RMS, their benefits can also be seen throughout the various electives as well. In language classes, for example, the students are able to research the countries they are studying, as well as use online resources to further deepen their understanding of the language. Online programs such as Duolingo offer additional support in education and are often utilized in classes as another teaching tool. For instance, Señora Rivera, a Spanish teacher at RMS, had Chromebooks set up in her class at open house to allow for student demonstrations. She explained the significance of this tool as a part of teaching Spanish.

“[The Chromebooks are] an extraordinary tool that we are just beginning to learn how to utilize in education, and I see a lot of potential use in the future to accelerate students’ [education]. This will incorporate global teachings and global citizenship development in terms of collaboration, open mindedness, language development, and becoming a citizen of the world,” Rivera said.

The importance of Chromebooks is emphasized in each education department at RMS through the devices’ efficiency and ability to connect students with the modern era.

Tallying after the event showed that the fundraising efforts were successful.

“We collected $7,158 through both the slideshow presentation and silent auction,” reported Sheen in an email to the PTA board. These were funds that were paid on the night of the event. An additional $6,999 was gathered in the days following the open house. Additional donations were received from the Armenian and Korean Parent Clubs resulting in a total of all the money needed to buy one full Chromecart.

  Grace BENNETT