Beach Street teachers Trish Portnoy and Chris Salerno recently presented at the 21st annual ASSET Conference at the Huntington Hilton. Educators from across Long Island meet at ASSET to discuss technology, innovation and best practices. Portnoy and Salerno’s presentation showcased the Computer Essentials program available to Beach Street’s seventh and eighth grade students.

“We consider Computer Essentials to be the ‘class behind the class,’” said Salerno. “It’s not just a typing class, it teaches students how to apply Google Apps in their general classes and introduces students to college and career interests as they begin to build their personal digital portfolio. Computer classes were once a dying trend, but Computer Essentials is bringing it back and with a purpose.”