Technology

Chartwell manages a 1:1 laptop program for all grades, provided as part of tuition. In elementary school, students keep Chromebooks in their classrooms, while middle school students have the opportunity to bring them home when needed. In high school, students use Macbook Pro laptops.

All classrooms have access to robust wifi connections and high-resolution screens for presentations and video. Promethean interactive screens are installed in classrooms where multisensory engagement is encouraged, such as elementary grades and middle or high school math classrooms. Other technology tools are utilized as-needed, such as document cameras and additional webcams and high-powered microphones for hybrid classrooms.

Our school leverages Google Workspace for Education, offering students and staff opportunities to capture and share stories and essays, research and data, presentations, websites, drawings and much more. This includes Google Classroom as our learning management system (LMS), where students and faculty may engage in feedback loops throughout assignments and projects. 

All faculty at Chartwell receive training and coaching in technology integration. In the case where our standard suite of tools won’t offer the right experience for students, supplemental applications are adopted, such as StoryboardThat! for storytelling, Wakelet for collaborative portfolios, and ArcGIS for learning mapping applications.

Technology to support both our student’s learning strengths and challenges are fully integrated into all our programs at Chartwell. All students learn to use our suite of assistive technology tools to supplement strategies used in structured literacy and math instruction, and to develop the mindset of a confident, successful Chartwell graduate. These include a suite of premiere applications for dictation, TTS, and predictive text. Students also learn technology tools to support executive functioning strategies, helping them manage classwork, schedules, note taking, and more.

Using tools such as iReady, ReadLive, and STMath, skills in structured literacy and mathematics are reinforced and assessed to measure progress throughout the year. Reports generated from these tools supplement the qualitative data our faculty share during conferences and reports.

In 2021, Chartwell entered into a partnership with Neuroscape, a translational neuroscience center at UCSF that creates digital experiences to better assess and optimize brain functions in students. Many students at Chartwell have the benefit of engaging in their pilot programs.

Students are not truly natives to their digital worlds; Chartwell recognizes that healthy, productive use of communication tools and digital devices must be taught and supported. While they develop skills and strategies with productivity and assistive technology tools, students learn what it means to be responsible online, and how to develop a positive image of themselves throughout the internet. 

As part of our technology and STEAM curricula, all students learn the fundamentals of computer science in elementary through middle school using code.org, CS First by Google, CodeHS, and MIT’s Scratch. In high school, students may enroll in foundations of computer science course, or engage in one of our enrichment programs, such as robotics.

Thanks to a significant grant in 2020, all Chartwell students have access to either Spike Prime or WeDo Engineering kits (elementary through middle school) or REV robotics kits (high school) with which they may build, program, and experiment machines as part of any classroom project.

Students have access to a variety of technology-rich activities within our STEAM program, makerspace and digital lab, such as raspberry pi, arduino and makeymakey boards, virtual and augmented reality, ipads, iMacs and more. 

Students rising to our upper lower division may apply to our competitive FIRST robotics team, where they work as a team to program a robot to perform tasks for points, manage and market their team, and engage in an innovative STEM project. 

In high school, students may join our robotics program offered in partnership with Plus Ultra Robotics, with access to significant coding and machining tools with a mobile engineering lab hosted on our campus. To learn more about Plus Ultra, visit https://www.plusultrarobotics.com.