American Time School Blog

In an era when funding school improvements can be quite a challenge, a creative partnership between a school district and its internet service provider is especially noteworthy. Thanks to their unique collaboration, the district's new school has a state-of-the-art emergency communication network, and the ISP has increased visibility throughout the new complex.

It all started when Rushford-Peterson, the school district in Southeastern Minnesota, began planning its new centerpiece facility, a 170,000-square-foot complex that would serve pre-kindergarten through grade 12. When it came time to think about their synchronized clock system and in-school communications network, district leaders decided on EverAlert® from American Time, which utilizes integrated displays and audio communications to quickly disseminate information across a facility for emergency scenarios and day-to-day messaging.

If you're in charge of your building's technology needs, a big part of your job is just to keep up with the times. You read the trade publications, watch the webinars and network with other experts – all so you can know what's around the corner, and what tools might best serve your building.

Exploring your options for an emergency notification system is no different, and that requires delving into the details. Here are some things to consider as you research emergency notification systems and how to ensure they meet the requirement for your building. 

They say you should always prepare for the worst and hope for the best. If you follow that maxim, you likely have an emergency notification system in your school or have considered installing one. 

The hope, of course, is that you'll never absolutely have to use it, but that doesn't mean you can't get value out of your investment every single day. The convenient reality is that the same technology used to spread critical information during an emergency can also be deployed for routine communications – everything from pep rally announcements to bell automation. 

Designing a school is a unique challenge. Unlike other buildings, a school will undoubtedly have pride and ownership attached to it from a large number of stakeholders who are concerned not just about the building itself, but about the students and quality of education it represents. This isn't an office or a retail space. This is a school, where students learn, and futures are formed.

As you fill in this blank canvas, your thoughts should be returning to one thing over and over again: the students. So, when times are trying and your budget is straining and you know way too many contractors way too well, just remind yourself, it's about the kids. That's rule number one for your school design plans.

Remember the wonder you felt when you first went online? The beeps and screeches of that old modem were less an annoyance and more a promise of the wealth of information awaiting you – just on the other side of those digital doors. 

This was when there was still a divide between the world of 1s and 0s and the rest of our lives. Yet that dichotomy is fading more and more as the cohort of youngsters known as the digital natives grows up. For them, there is no boundary between the internet and what some might call the real world. The internet is the real world, and the classroom is part of it.

Hence, educators have no choice but to incorporate digital learning into their routines. The educational opportunities can be transformative, but like any powerful tool, teaching methods that embrace digital technology should be employed with ample preparation and a healthy dose of caution. 

Here, we'll look at some ways technology can transform classrooms for the better, but also how it can present some pitfalls that you should avoid.

When considering all of the factors that lead to successful educational outcomes, it's critical to understand the importance of school bonding. Of course, finance and construction are related, since any major building project in your district is likely to require school bonding. But we're talking about the emotional and social type of bonding that exists between the students and the school where they spend so many of their waking hours. 

Still, both kinds of bonding are intertwined. The construction of a new school and other major building projects presents the chance to enhance that connection, one that social scientists deem a vital indicator for positive youth outcomes. Here, we'll look at what this connection is, and how you can use your building project to make it stronger.

School is a place to learn. That's the basic principle we teach our children from the first day we send them to school, and it's the driving force behind the quest the create the best learning environment for them. We build new schools, hire good teachers, regularly evaluate new teaching styles and constantly tweak our classrooms to create the best learning environment for the students.

Yet despite our constant focus on finding what's best, the search still continues. After all, we are constantly learning more about what helps them learn. So, let's examine the importance of effective learning environments, and how to create one of your own.

Technology has a way of forcing everyone around it to keep up. To make sure you're optimizing the technology experience in your schools, it's important to think about which of your learning tools might be in need of replacement as you work to fully take advantage of your digital ecosystem.

If you’ve got an older building, it likely has a wired clock system. And some of those clocks may be failing or require regular maintenance that sucks up time and energy from your maintenance team. Plus, what will you do for synchronized time if you expand or remodel your building or campus?

That’s the beauty of the SiteSync IQ Wireless Clock System. SiteSync IQ wireless clocks are one of the few technologies on the market that can work with a legacy wired clock system or a newer wireless system. Plus, as your wired clocks burn out, they can simply be replaced by one of our wireless clocks – even if the brand isn’t American Time!

Anyone paying attention to changes in schools over the years will notice how evolving technology has altered the ways students learn. For example, iPads have replaced textbooks, digital whiteboards have replaced chalkboards, even the classroom itself has been replaced to a degree, with students able to take classes remotely over the internet. The question begs to be asked. Are analog clocks the next to go?

Technology hasn't just changed how we learn; it’s changed what we learn — and the kinds of lessons we value. As digital resources expand, some people question the importance of maintaining the old skills that were once required to survive in the world while others find worth in the mental challenge of doing certain tasks the "hard way."

For example, when word processors and computers became mainstream in America, it was debated whether cursive should be part of the curriculum. A similar discussion is now taking place as we consider the increasing prevalence of digital clocks.

With digital clocks everywhere, especially on the phones and computers that demand our attention all day, teachers are questioning what used to be a basic part of an elementary curriculum: Just how important is it that students learn to read an analog clock, anyway? Here are arguments on both sides.