By the end of this month, all 1,431 of the district's fifth-graders in 13 south side elementary schools will have a netbook computer.
"Students are thrilled; they just can't believe they have received this opportunity," said Principal Lily DeBlieux of Mission Manor Ele-mentary. "In all these years in Sunnyside, I've never seen an op-portunity such as this. They don't feel left behind in education anymore."
Fifth-graders from Drexel, Liberty, Gallego Basic, Los Ami-gos, Mission Manor and Summit View elementary schools have received their loaner netbooks and the remaining seven elementary schools: Elvira, Esperanza, Los Niños, Los Ranchitos, Rosemarie Rivera, Santa Clara and Craycroft will get their computers by the end of September.
"I've learned that if I didn't know the meaning of a word, I can look it up online," 11-year-old fifth-grader Gabriella Cobian said. "I stay in from recess to play games and learn stuff on my netbook."
Angelita Esquer, an 11-year-old fifth-grader, said that her favorite activities on her new computer are math and other educational games to practice school subjects.
The district is utilizing a re-vamped curriculum that stresses project-based, interactive learning largely without the use of books or paper. Students now do nearly all of their regular coursework like writing essays and practicing multiplication with their new computers.
Fifth-graders are also learning how to do research online, create PowerPoint presentations, use Ex-cel spreadsheets, plot points on a map with Google Earth and even use the computers' webcams to produce their own commercials.
"They refuse to go to recess now because they want to play on their netbooks," Liberty Elementary teacher Cithel Orozco said. A "whole new world" has been opened up for students through the use of Internet, and multimedia capabilities, Orozco added.
Superintendent Manuel Isquierdo spearheaded the pilot program for fifth-graders, called Digital Ex-plorers. State funding and soft capital, monies used for necessities like textbooks, provided financial backing for the laptops, Director of Public Relations for Sunnyside Monique Soria said.
Soria said that Sunnyside's long-term goal is to have "one-to-one computing" for all students in grades five through 12.
DeBlieux said the district is partnering with Cox Communi-cations to provide families with discounts on Internet service, as some of the students come from homes that cannot afford the Internet.
"It's a huge need for our kids to learn 21st century skills," DeBlieux said. "Being in low socioeconomic areas, now they can really compete with the rest of the world."
"With access to laptops and the Internet, they can take these home to their families," DeBlieux said.
Soria said that in May the district assigned laptops to each of the 1,075 certified Sunnyside employees, including teachers, counselors and librarians.
Sunnyside teachers also took preparatory training courses to learn how to use their new classroom tools.
"The role of the teacher has changed. Now with the netbooks they have a teacher at their fingertips," Orozco said. "We are like their tour guide through the world."
