They’re the newest of their kind. Shiny, white gleaming pieces of technology with glowing buttons and an array of colors to enhance the learning and aid the teaching in every new classroom of WJ. They are Promethean Boards.

As modernization continues, each classroom has been furnished with a Promethean Board complete with a toy box full of tricks for teachers. For approximately $6000 per classroom, each board comes equipped with a multi-functional toolbar and stylist pen for many varieties of note-taking, a clear resolution projector for powerpoints, pictures and videos projected onto a 72-inch screen, and, the newest classroom gadgets, the Wand and AtcivSlate, which promote student participation.”One great aspect of them is that I can save the class notes from the day, including work that students do on the board and post them on Edline that night,” said math teacher Mike Egan. “This way any student who was absent or might have missed a spot in their notes can access the notes whenever they wish.”

The on-board note taking has been a popular favorite among the teachers.

“The notes can be saved and printed,” said social studies teacher Micah Wiggins. “No clean up.”

The creators of Promethean Boards, PrometheanPlanet, describes them as technology that “enables [teachers] to create, customize and integrate text, images, quizzes and tests, web, video and audio content, so they can more easily capture students’ attention and accommodate the different learning styles.”

Maintaining student interest is the main incentive for the Promethean Boards. Students have found the boards captivate their attention and garner more interest in the lesson.

“I love the Promethean Boards. They’re amazing,” said senior Andy Correa. “It definitely helps because it causes an attraction to the board.”

Students show even more interaction with the use of “eggs.” These small individual pods allow students to answer questions from their desks. They “activote” by pressing a button for answers ‘A’ through ‘E’ while the Promethean Board anonymously records it.

“I like the fact that you can find out the percentage of students who understand,” said Wiggins in relation to the eggs. “I mean, I like all the gadgets. Whenever I discover something new that the board can do, it’s exciting to me.”

In contrast to the overwhelming approval, the benefits to classroom productivity are viewed questionably by some.

“I mean, they’re cool, but I really don’t think it made much of a difference,” said senior Sara Brown. “[Teachers] should just use the regular boards instead. Just because there’s not a little button that erases everything at once doesn’t mean we need new high-tech boards.”

Criticisms have been voiced towards the allocation of funds, suggesting they could be redirected for more advantageous uses throughout the school.

“[We should give] more money for the clubs,” said senior Ababa Asseged. “Most of the clubs don’t have enough money, and they have to raise their own money.”