I thought I might use this site to provide statistical information about our inventory and the tools we have available at Westlake High School.

I can honestly say that thanks to a very generous school board and a very supportive PTO, our campus is considered high tech!

We have document cameras and ceiling mounted projectors in every classroom. Each teacher and office staff member has access to a computer that will be one year old this December.

So far for 2007-2008, we have:

• Introduced a new Robotics class which is working toward competing in several competitions its first year. They successfully received a $6000 grant from NASA this year.
• Developed weekly staff Instructional Assignment days for furthering the vision of a 21st century school. Teachers have been engaging in topics ranging from 21st Century skills to listening to student panel discuss what engages them to a new strand of topics on ethics. Visit our Staff Development Wiki for information here.
• Updated the software in our digital graphics courses to the latest Adobe CS3 suite.
• Purchased Dell GX745 computers for our BCIS courses which will also begin teaching Microsoft Office 2007 on delivery.

In 2006-2007, our campus successfully:

• Increased teacher technology use through Project Technology showcase on Wednesdays
• Integrated blogs in several classes including Math, Science, English, and Social Studies.
• Used wikis in some classes
• Put a document camera, projector, and amplified sound in each classroom.
• Installed a new Dell GX745 in each classroom and office. Every staff member uses a Windows XP station.
• Joel Adkins, our Campus Technology Coordinator, was awarded the Instructional Technology Specialist of the Year award from the Texas Computer Education Association in February (TCEA.org).
• Increased use of GNU/Freeware software apps for staff: Google Sketchup, Google Docs, Audacity, ITunes, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Picassa.
• Added the use of a Tablet PC to a chemistry class
• Incorporated new software applications in departments needing to update