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Schools

Back to School: Winchester High School Gets New Mac Lab

Thanks to $50,000 in grants from the Winchester Foundation for Excellence in Education and the Griffin Trust, students at Winchester High School will now have 18 brand-new iMacs at their disposal, each fully loaded with the latest design software.

Flipping through the channels on any given day, it's hard to miss those "I'm a PC/I'm a Mac" ads put out by Microsoft and Apple touting their product's superiority. But in the eternal battle between Mac-users and PC-users, you can chalk one up to team Apple thanks to a new Mac Lab that was installed at Winchester High School over the summer.

With the Winchester Foundation for Excellence in Education and the Griffin Trust each awarding a $25,00 grant to the school, students will now have 18 brand-new 27-inch iMacs at their disposal, each fully loaded with the latest design software including Adobe Suite and Final Cut Pro.

"I've been looking at the new software and the CS5 (Adobe Creative Suite 5) is amazing," said art director Terry Lannon. "The amount of new stuff that they can do is unbelievable. It's almost like it has this intuitive self-intelligence in there. I'm wicked psyched about it. It's totally cool."

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Editing photos and movies, graphic design and creating music are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what students will be able to learn at the new lab. And for students who don't think they have any artistic ability? WFEE director Caren Connolly said the Mac lab will open up a whole new world of creativity.

"Students who perhaps have not taken studio art classes because they don't feel like they're creative, they're kids that are very drawn to computers and software," said Connolly. "When they walk by the Mac lab and see people doing Photoshop on Mac, it kind of clicks. Once they get in and try it, they suddenly discover they're more creative than they though and they open up whole other side of their brain. I think that's what education needs to be doing, helping us to open all the different sides of our brains."

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Art is just one of the areas that will benefit from the lab. With such advanced computers and programs installed, just about every subject should reap the benefits of this new computer room.

Since the Macs were installed this summer, Lannaon said he has been working with math and science teachers to create visual illustrations to go along with various lessons throughout the year. 

"The way I look at it is, art is the language of humanity," said Lannon. "So I think with this new initiative that's coming in, art can be the tip of the spear. It can be the cross-curriculum language that everybody can use. It doesn't erode anybody's curriculum all it does is enhance it."

The Mac lab should also help to expand the curriculum at the school to include more computer design-based classes, something Connolly said should happen in the next two to three years.

But the lab isn't the only new addition to the school this summer. WFEE also gave $10,000 to create a 21st century media center in the library complete with six new wireless laptops, a wall-mounted LCD T.V. to go along with a grant from the Parent Faculty Association for new furniture.

"The current computers are all PC," said Connolly. "So the idea is by giving the kids laptops it's going to be easier for them to do project-based collaboration. That's how students today think, how they work and how they need to be able to collaborate with each other so that they can be successful if they go on to college which most of our students do. It's simply 21st century tools that teachers are excited to use to bring innovation to the classroom and it's going to get kids really involved."

The WFEE is funded by donations from Winchester residents. Through town-wide fundraisers like the Trivia Bee in February and the spring Prom 'n Aid, the WFEE is able to award grants to all of the schools in the Winchester School District.

Some of this year's grants include $7,500 for the district-wide Authorfest, close to $5,000 for a new Lego robotics program at Vinson-Owen and  $1,300 for new Flip Video cameras at Lynch Elementary.

"Our money comes from the very generous community of Winchester," said Connolly. "Not only parents, but grandparents and people who don't have children. People who realize their public schools and the reputation and their excellence are what often draw families to Winchester and they want to support that."

For more information about the WFEE or to make a donation visit www.wfee.org.

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