Friendship School Receives Grant to Improve Technology

The Marion L. and Henry J. Knott Foundation Rosetta Stone Spanish has awarded Friendship School ( friendshipschool.org) in Eldersburg, MD, a $40,000 grant to support the school’s Technology Improvement Program. According to school officials the funds will allow Friendship School to acquire a SMART Interactive Whiteboard, a dozen iPads, 50 new computers, and additional software.This grant will enable the school to offer assistive technology in the classroom, critical for Friendship School students who are normal functioning, highly intelligent, and generally very creative but have dyslexia or other language-based learning differences. The Friendship School’s staff specializes in bridging the neural pathways within the minds of students; helping them process information as it is presented in mainstream education.Key Rosetta Stone Spanish V3 features of the new technology include enhancing students’ independent work through iPad applications that allow audible text reading capabilities. These, combined with the SMART Interactive Whiteboard, offer multi-sensory instruction that allows the school’s students to learn through multiple modalities.According to Teresa Ankney, Head of School, “This allows us to maximize the Orton-Gillingham methodology we use, a multi-sensory approach widely recognized for its effectiveness, blending visual, auditory and kinesthetic modalities in the learning process.” About the Marion I. and Henry J. Knott FoundationFounded in 1977, the Marion I. and Henry J. Knott Foundation is a Catholic family foundation committed to honoring its founders’ legacy of generosity to strengthen the community within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. For more information, visit knottfoundation.orgAbout Friendship SchoolFriendship School serves students in grades one through eight with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences who attend from throughout central Maryland. Friendship offers a full curriculum covering all core academic subjects as well as art, music, drama, Rosetta Stone Greek V3 physical education and computer literacy. The school’s program includes daily one-to-one reading and language-based tutoring, as well as multi-sensory teaching strategies. Friendship School also provides training for teachers to help identify and remediate students with dyslexia. The school serves as a lab school where these research-based best practices are put into action with the student population.