Students at Grundy School can put their pencils and paper away and instead review and take tests using a remote control.

The Senteo system is part of the Smartboard technology that is used in almost all the grade-school classrooms in District 709. Smartboards are an interactive system that allow teachers to use their computer screen on the wall.

The Senteo remote is part of that system, and the 32 remote controls that students use at Grundy School were purchased by the Parent Teacher Organization.

“This is a good use of funds for educational purposes,” Jon Wheat, a fourth grade teacher at Grundy, said. The remotes cost about $1,300, and $1,000 of that grant money was from Wal-Mart. Lisa Preston, a former co-president of PTO, said the rest was covered by PTO funds.

Last week, Wheat used the Senteo remotes to have his class review what they have been learning about classifying sentences. The students each had a blue remote and logged onto the system. The questions to the review were on the Smartboard screen, and the students entered their answers using the remote control.

The questions can be multiple choice, true/false or yes/no.

At the end of the 20-question review, the students can see their results on the screen of their remote. The student can see how many answers were correct and which questions were answered incorrectly.

“At first people are a little intimidated with it. You just have to try it,” Wheat said. The students are quick to learn and eager to use this technology.

“I think they are neat. They are better than writing, you just press buttons,” Emma Schmied, a fourth-grade student, said.

During the review or test, Wheat can monitor how many students have answered the question before he moves on. He also has access to immediate results about the review or test. Once it is complete, he can display charts and graphs that show how many students answered each question correctly. He can quickly see the questions that were answered incorrectly by the most students.

“I can go back and find out who those people are that missed that question and work with them individually and address it as a class,” Wheat said about the usefulness of the data the Senteo system provides.

The students like the immediate feedback, too. A wave of “yes” could be heard throughout the classroom as their individual remotes recorded their score.

“This is what we mean by instant feedback,” Wheat said. Wheat said he is still learning how to use the Senteo remote system, but the immediate results will help him adjust his classroom instruction by giving the students more individualized help and also by spending more time on concepts they need to sharpen.

He showed the class a graph that charted how they did on each question. They reviewed a particular question that several students answered incorrectly.

“As a class, I think we did really well,” Wheat said about the results. He said this technology and the instant information it can provide will help him meet the needs of each student. With that data, he can make adjustments to his curriculum.

“That is good information for me to know,” Wheat said.

Currently, all the elementary schools in District 709 are using Smartboards. However, Grundy is the first school to use the Senteo remotes.