Saipan Southern High’s junior class gets laptops

By Mismar Misaro
Special to the Saipan Tribune

Junior students at the Saipan Southern High School recently got their own fully loaded laptop computers for school year 2004-05—one of three grants offered last year by the governor’s Computers in the Classroom initiative.

Besides the 220 laptops, the school was also awarded $385,000 under the Computers in the Classroom program, which was used to hire Jerome Ierome as the school’s grant organizer.

Craig Garrison, vice principal of SSHS, applied for these grants on behalf of the school last year. SSHS’s applications won two of the three grants.

According to SSHS principal Peter Le’au, the ability to hire Ierome was the second benefit from the grant application. Ierome is a full time employee for the government’s grant organization, and he is also currently working for SSHS. He will be helping SSHS in applying for grants for the school.

To be eligible to receive the computers, students must have applied to receive one, and they must be progressing in their studies. All laptop holders are also required to attend training sessions that are held in the SSHS cafeteria on Saturdays. This is to ensure that every student with a laptop knows how to use them properly.

Le’au said the laptops will become the personal property of students who successfully advance in their studies and graduate on time. This means the juniors have to be promoted to senior status and then graduate in order to keep the laptops. Otherwise, the equipment will be returned to the school.

The distinctive feature of the laptops, purchased from Megabyte of Saipan, is that they are portable. These particular laptops contain DVD burners, Pentium 4 processors, Windows XP Professional and a wireless network card. The DVD burners can be used to record information for special projects, as well as play songs and movies, store data and perform other tasks. The wireless network card allows users to connect to the Internet and retrieve information anywhere and anytime without being physically hooked to a telephone jack or DSL.

“It will enhance learning and allow more work to be done in less time,” said Garrison.

The current junior class of SSHS was chosen by Garrison and Le’au because they are the target of the SAT 10 and other Commonwealth tests. The two administrators believe that having the laptops will enhance and improve student learning as well as studying habits, and it is all part of why they believe SSHS is the top technology school on island.

Student Narinsa Amaichy said she is proud and fortunate to have access to her own laptop. “It’s great to be able to type anywhere, anytime without worrying about rushing to the computer lab,” Amaichy said.

Other students mentioned programs such as the CD Audio player, word processing capability, and the use of the DVD player to play movies as features they enjoy.

SSHS junior class president Connie Dunn said she looks forward to much success and improved scores on the SAT 10 test in the future. She thinks being a computer owner is beneficial because it will open up different ways to do research.

“Hopefully everyone gets one and we don’t have to bring books anymore,” Dunn said.

Dunn added the principal and vice-principal are still working on the wireless Internet connection. She said that when this is done, access to the Internet can be anywhere and anytime on campus.

Lynn Ordonez, a junior English teacher at the school, said she is glad her students now have access to their own laptops. Laptop holders in her class use them for note taking, essays and current events.

“I like it because all essays and current events are being typed, and it makes it easier for me to grade,” said Ordonez. She said the laptops are helping her students pass her class. “I hardly get late work anymore,” she said.

But not all students are happy with the new computers on campus, notably some underclassmen who didn’t receive them.

Youlani Smith, a sophomore at SSHS, says it’s not fair that juniors are the only ones with the ability to explore things on their own laptops. She says everyone should have the opportunity to learn things the “fun” way.

“We need laptops to make learning easier, but interesting,” Smith said.

Le’au apologized to those students who have not or cannot receive a laptop. He admits there aren’t enough laptops for the whole school. Therefore, one class had to be chosen. “If there were enough laptops, I would gladly distribute them to everyone,” said Le’au.

(Mismar Misaro is a senior at Saipan Southern High School and she plans on reporting on school issues in the Saipan Tribune under the guidance of English teacher and journalism adviser Jeffrey C. Turbitt. )