Stepping Stone School integrates today’s technology into our classroom curriculum, through a partnership with Hatch® learning technology company.
This investment joins Stepping Stone School’s nationally recognized curriculum with the latest research-based educational technology, designed especially to promote preschool learning and kindergarten readiness.
Hatch’s TeachSmart® Learning System is an interactive whiteboard with hands-on technology, and the only pre-K educational software accredited by SMART™ Technologies at the highest Select Level. It’s an interactive learning center with over 1,000 activities children can independently access with just a touch.
TeachSmart® features research-based strategies that can be used effectively by an individual child, small groups of children, or a full classroom setting. All of the system’s strategies meet or exceed national standards; this alignment – including with the Texas Prekindergarten Guidelines – is identified for each activity.
TeachSmart® is designed for cognitive and social/emotional development in pre-literacy, math, science and social studies. Activities strengthen skills in five key areas:
- Phonological awareness;
- Pre-writing;
- Number recognition;
- Counting; and
- Social/Emotional development.
Digital portfolios for every child let teachers and parents alike track student progress through four development levels: Emerging; Still Developing; Developed; and Extension.
Hatch’s iStartSmart™ All-In-One Computer Learning Center is designed to develop school-readiness skills. The system engages children with play-based activities and moves them through 18 skill areas, ensuring competency at each level before moving up to the next. Activities strengthen skills in five key areas:
- Phonological awareness;
- Alphabet knowledge;
- Language development;
- Numeric operations; and
- Logic & reasoning.
Hatch configures each iStartSmart™ Center around ECLaunch™, a utility software program exclusive to Hatch that provides a safe, child-directed computing environment. The center also includes standards-based progress monitoring and reporting capabilities for every child, so the teacher can adjust individual and classroom instruction accordingly.
