EDUCATION: Teaching with Technology

Beth Smith, a New Mexico elementary school principal, wanted to see what the Kyrene School District’s Teaching with Technology Project (KTTP) was all about, so she joined 20 other Rio Rancho School District employees and traveled to Arizona Feb. 20-22 to find out.

“What really amazes me in Kyrene is student engagement,” Smith said. “The students are so engaged in their learning.”

The National School Boards Association chose Kyrene as one of three districts in the nation to host a National Site Visitation, which allowed Smith and her colleagues to join about 80 other educators from Arizona and across the country to come together and learn about what a district is doing to integrate technology into instruction, learning, management and productivity.

Throughout the three days, visitors learned about KTTP, Kyrene’s major technology initiative that began five years ago with just one grade-level team in 12 of the 19 elementary schools. It now includes about 95 percent of Kyrene’s classrooms in all schools.

Visitors also split up and walked through classrooms at Altadeña, Aprende, Brisas, Centennial, Cerritos, Lomas, Kyrene, Milenio, Miranda, Niños and Sierra to experience KTTP’s results first-hand.

Smith visited Aprende, Brisas and Milenio Feb. 21 and Altadeña and Cerritos Feb. 22.

“The technology here just increases the learning,” Smith said. “There’s no doubt in my mind these kids are learning.”

At Altadeña Feb. 22 about 30 visitors gathered in Will Norris’ band classroom to learn about the program SmartMusic, which allows Norris to reach the class visually and audibly while moving around the classroom instead of sitting in the front of the class.

“You can highlight a note and a picture will pop up with a diagram of the instrument that shows how to play the note,” Norris said as he demonstrated the software on a projector while teaching “The Entertainer.”

Visitors then split into three groups and walked through Gina Meade’s language arts class, Kim Umbay’s math class, Karen Joshu’s science class and Darren Schmidt’s social studies class. They observed teachers using wireless keyboards and mouses, and students working with laptops in groups using various computer programs.

“The wireless mouse and keyboard let the kids be interactive while I teach,” Meade said as she demonstrated a geometry lesson.

The last stop at Altadeña was the KAMS TV headquarters, where the school’s broadcast club creates the daily morning announcements under teacher Glenn Nienaber’s supervision.

After the visit, Smith addressed a major problem she faces with technology in her district.

“We have a lot of the same technology, it’s just utilizing it,” Smith said. “We come from a low economic school and the technology really reflects the neighborhood. As far as the budget goes, we should be out of this world, but it won’t be. We have 1,200 kids at our elementary school, but our budget doesn’t reflect that.”

In Kyrene, grade-level learning teams of teachers now meet monthly with a District Educational Technology Specialist and the building principal to set goals and discuss how education and learning may be impacted by technology. Each teacher’s classroom has five to eight wireless laptops, a document camera and a video projector.

For more information, visit www.kyrene.org and click on “NSBA Tech Site Visit.”

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