Digital School Solutions

Together, with IS 339 in the Bronx, DSS developed learning communities that helped transform the school from a SURR school to high-achieving school. The leadership and teaching team worked to create a long-range innovation plan with 1:1 computing and project-based learning at its core. Students showcased their learning methods online at the first annual Dot-to-Dot: A Global Learning Reception. IS 339 was featured on PBS Frontline: A Digital Nation -- How Google Saved a School

IS 339’s annual end of the year culmination event, The Dot-to-Dot: A Global Learning Reception – was proposed and coordinated in partnership with DSS consultant Pat Wagner.

The website that has been compiled (http://339dottodot.com), will be a lasting reminder of the work from teachers and students, with over 15,000 page views from around the world in the first two days of its launch. In addition to having a combination of on-site and online visitors for the event, Dot-to-Dot will be remembered for the professional growth that it encouraged.

100% of teachers completed a project plan with an essential question, enduring understandings, guiding questions, key vocabulary and concepts, aims, activities, assessments, differentiation strategies, technology integration opportunities, and resources and exemplars.

100% of teachers worked with students to present their work both online, and to visitors to the classroom. This confidence in presentation follows on from teachers’ involvement in Technology Open Houses throughout the year, and the school’s involvement in an upcoming documentary for Frontline about how technology is changing the way we live.

Throughout the school year, the focus for professional development and teacher feedback that lead to the annual Dot-to-Dot: A Global Learning Reception was RED: Rigor, Engagement, Differentiation. This saw the evolution of collaborative, online lesson planning in ELA for two of the three grades, the use of centers for instruction in all subject areas at different times during the year, and the establishment of a school site promoting reading strategies.

The school continues to show significant growth in ELA and Math, with averages of 40% and 60% respectively, after scores in the teens in previous years.