St. Vrain teachers training in new technology

Digital technology can change a classroom, but it will never happen if the teacher has blinders on.

That’s part of the message educational technology trainer Michelle Bourgeois passed along recently to a group of St. Vrain Valley School District teachers who were participating in the district’s new digital learning collaborative project.

Spangler Elementary School fourth grade teacher Lynne Post uses her classroom's new projector to chart last week's temperatures. The St. Vrain Valley School District has a new, collaborative digital learning project. Kira Horvath photo

Bourgeois held up a textbook written in French and a stereoscope with its pictures as illustrations of her point.

“My grandmother taught in southern Louisiana in the early 1900s, and at that time all the curriculum was taught in French,” Bourgeois said. “However, 20 years later, my grandmother was out of a job because the curriculum had changed to English and my grandmother had not changed with it.”The stereoscope came from her first teaching job.

“The teacher who had been in my new room gave it to me,” she said. “She told me ‘the students need to see pictures of what you are teaching them about’ when she gave it to me. This was in the 1980s, and technology had advanced way beyond stereoscopes. But she had her blinders on and didn’t change, and her students suffered for it.”

SVVSD’s digital learning collaborative project, new this academic year, gives teachers the chance to develop proficiency with new technology, said Connie Masson, manager of educational technology services.

Each school was invited to have a four-member team of teachers apply for the two-year project. Teams chosen are learning to use and apply the technology, and members will serve as resources for teachers at their school. One member additionally serves as team leader. Teams from 13 schools were trained in the first cohort in November, and a second cohort of teachers from priority schools was trained Jan.4 and 5.

Participants in the two-year project receive a laptop, projector and sound amplification system — along with training on how to use those items and other technology available in their home schools, Masson said. Team leaders are taught how to lead meetings and how to facilitate setting group priorities and goals. The school teams will meet monthly to develop their goals and projects, and team leaders from all the schools will gather together monthly to receive more training and touch base, Masson said.

“Learning is a social process, and people can certainly learn from each other’s experiences,” she said.

In the second year of the project, participating teachers will focus on how classroom technology can boost student learning and achievement. The teams will work with curriculum experts to develop ways to help students learn by using technology tools. Masson said she plans to present a showcase of teachers’ work and student projects at the end of the two-year project.

The project goals developed by the teams are ambitious: facilitate and inspire learning and creativity in the classroom; model digital-age work and learning; design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments; promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility; and engage in professional growth and leadership development.

“We want to be able to teach our students how to live and thrive in a 21st century world,” Masson said.

Funding for the SVVSD digital learning collaborative project comes from state and federal grants and funds, along with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and federal Title 1 funding, Masson said. The funding is used to purchase the necessary technology, and to pay any needed stipends or substitute teacher pay for participants.

At the recent team leader training session, teachers learned the specifics of the new project, along with how to navigate their new laptop computers and access both district and online resources. They talked about how to set “SMART” goals for their teams — goals that are strategic and specific, measurable, attainable, results-based and time-bound. They also were congratulated by Bourgeois and educational technology trainer Bud Hunt for having the courage to become technology leaders in their schools.

“We don’t require teachers to participate in this project,” Masson said. “We offer it — dangle it like a carrot — and those who are interested apply to participate.”

Spangler Elementary teacher Lynne Post’s fourth grade class had a hand in inspiring her to apply to join the digital learning collaborative project.

“I used my computer in class to look up a word at dictionary.com for the class, and the kids told me they wanted to actually see the definition, not just hear it,” Post said. “So I got out the projector and projected the word and its definition on our classroom white board. When I heard about this program, I knew I wanted to be a part of it and be able to bring it back to my kids.”

Josh Grandprey and Melissa Tobin, teachers at Columbine Elementary, were encouraged by principal Eddie Cloke to apply for the project.

“I would see the ‘smart carts’ of laptops in the school and be intrigued by using them, but they were a little intimidating if you had never used that setup before,” fourth-grade teacher Grandprey said. “Now I’ll be able to show other teachers what to do, and that’s exciting.”

Tobin, who teaches first grade, already takes part in another new district program — the “take your teacher home” program. She records herself reading books on an iPod, and then sends the iPod and the book home with a student. The student can then read along with the recording at home.

“This project just seemed like a really good way to use more technology to reach my students,” Tobin said. “I’ve seen what can be accomplished by using technology.”

E-mail: kcglasscock@comcast.net