Melissa Day, who serves as the K-12 Instructional Support Specialist for the Tamaqua Area School District, has been an integral part in the implementation and adoption of a new tool used in the education and development of Tamaqua Elementary School students.

Tamaqua Area School District adopted, and is using, Turning Technologies' ResponseCard NXT clickers, in part with Study Island; an academic software provider of standards-based assessment, instruction and test preparation e-learning programs.Although the ResponseCard NXT clickers have been used with Turning Technologies' TurningKey software for self-paced testing, other teachers are using the clicker for everyday formative classroom assessment with Turning Technologies' TurningPoint polling software.Day estimates that 10 - 12 ResponseCard NXT classroom kits are spread out through the Tamaqua Area Elementary Schools; on average, about one kit per grade-level. She said she would love to see this grow to one kit per class.During an ugraded test held in Kelly Reaman's fourth grade class, students were asked what they thought about the clickers."This is an easier way to learn," said Dominic Valentine."Classes and assigments are done a lot faster," said Molly Murphy.Courtney Postupack responded, "It is easier to hide your answers," as she states these devices will make cheating or copying a thing of the past."We don't have to write anything on paper," stated Logan Hess.In the future, Day hopes to purchase more clickers for the district. She added that she expects to use these clickers more frequently and for upcoming summative testing.Day even received praise from one of the young student's mothers in the elementary school. Day reported that the mother said, "I worked with the clickers today. It was so much fun."According to Turning Technologies website, the program creates assessment delivery and data collection solutions for learning environments.Founded in 2002, the company began with the development of response technology that was affordable, user-friendly and better documented so that users could easily grasp its benefits.The site adds, that an estimated six million ResponseCard keypads have been delivered to K-12 schools, universities and businesses worldwide and expanded its learning tools to include data collection systems that securely transfer digital data for various assessment, testing and certification programs.For more information on Turning Technologies', go to

www.TurningTechnologies.com.