Somerville High School is proud to announce that the school has been selected by the Verizon Foundation to be one of only six national Verizon “Demonstration Schools”. The Verizon Foundation invests in initiatives that leverage innovative technology and interactive learning to increase teacher effectiveness and advance student achievement. As a Verizon “Demonstration School” the Science and Math Departments will collaborate with Verizon and their content partners to achieve this goal through the use of Verizon’s web portal, known as Thinkfinity. Thinkfinity content partners and their web sites include Illuminations designed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), National Geographic Education (NG) developed by National Graphic, Science NetLinks developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and more.

Kristin Townsend and Stephanie Lee of the Verizon Foundation along with Suzanne Thurston (AAAS) and Patrick Vennebush of (NCTM) will be visiting Somerville High School on January 18th to kick off this project. As a Thinkfinity Demonstration School Somerville High School Science and Math teachers will receive Thinkfinity training and will work with Verizon’s content partners in using the resources currently available through Thinkfinity along with recommending and developing additional content as needed. Project coordinators Marie Foreman, Math Department Chair, and Sebastian LaGambina, Science Department Chair, also participated in a Verizon sponsored Education Technology Facilitator Training held at St. Phillips Academy in New Jersey in preparation for this project.

The “Demonstration School” designation includes an award for $70,000 for teacher professional development and to obtain technology in the form of tablets for teachers and students to access and use Thinkfinity resources which includes interactive lessons, activities, videos and webinars. Thinkfinity also offers various activities, educational games and resources for students and parents. More information about Thinkfinity can be found at http://www.thinkfinity.org/. Following Somerville High School’s “Innovative School of the Year” award last year by the MassBioEd Foundation, this further demonstrates that Somerville High School is committed to being innovative in their approach to teaching and learning.