iPods offer an incentive

May 22, 2009 • written by Emma DeJong, News Editor  
Filed under News

        Walking into Assistant Principal Cory Steiner’s office, feelings of nervousness consumed freshman Claude Sabimana, as he had no idea what to expect.  Being called to the principal’s office is not something Sabimana is used to, and receiving a free iPod is definitely not something he considers ordinary.

        Sabimana, along with sophomore Nick Walvatne, showed the most improvement on their Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) testing scores from the fall to the spring.  Because of this, both Sabimana and Walvatne received a free iPod Shuffle as a reward for the work they have done to improve over the year.

        Steiner’s brother, Mark Steiner, donates various technological items from where he works, High Plains Inc. 

        “Normally he donates a computer, but with the economy down, he and his company felt they needed to go with the iPods,” Steiner said.

        Steiner has seen that because students are given a goal, they work harder when it comes to the spring MAP testing.  However, he knows it’s still not a perfect system, as students with relatively high scores in the fall have less of a chance for a high improvement level.

        “That’s the one glitch we have in the system,” Steiner said.  “Next year our plan is we’re going to find a way to recognize those who already have high scores.”

        Steiner also pointed out that encouraging students to do well by offering them a prize isn’t an ideal situation, but he wants to keep giving them a goal if that’s what gives them the drive to put forth effort.

        “I don’t always like the idea of offering incentives to students to make them work harder, but it’s not a perfect world,” Steiner said.

        English Language Learner (ELL) teacher Elizabeth Jahner sees this incentive system as a positive thing for both Sabimana as well as for the ELL program.

        “It’s really nice to get some positive recognition for our students,” Jahner said.  “Once you get to know [Sabimana], he’s very smart, very funny.  He works very hard.”

        When she first heard about Sabimana’s accomplishment, Jahner could not contain her excitement.

        “I yelled and screamed,” Jahner said.  “I was just unbelievably excited for him.  If anybody deserved it, it was him.”

        While Sabimana was proud that he won the iPod, he was still confronted with the difficulty of putting the technology to use.

        “He doesn’t have a computer at home, so he can’t run iTunes,” ELL teacher Matthew Montonye said.

        In order to help solve this problem, Montonye plans on bringing the iPod home with him and putting music on it for Sabimana. 

        Jahner thinks the fact that Sabimana received an iPod is a perfect way to show the connection he, as an ELL student, has with the rest of the student body.

        “No matter what language we speak, we all love music,” Jahner said.