As a district employee, I am assigned to a number of schools. My role is to help teachers and students leverage the technology they have available to create connected and information-rich learning environments. I have four schools that I am assigned to; all with some degree of technology access for teachers. I am particularly excited about working with one that will be transitioning into a brand new building next year, expected to be very technology-rich, where my role will be to help prepare staff for the new environment.
However, my real love remains with the 1:1 laptop school, whose program has been such a part of my life since it was started six years ago! From a pilot project with two classes to it’s current mature state of almost 600 student laptops in 21 classes, this program has been near and dear to me as an educator – as evidenced by my current role as Technology Mentor, where I work with teachers developing strategies and learning projects. It’s exciting and the staff are amazing to work with!
Now it’s official. After a couple of weeks of discussions back and forth and our district offering their support, Nashwaaksis Middle School has been named as the School Spotlight Award recipient for the 2009 Laptop Institute in Memphis, Tennessee. This is an amazing international conference for any school who has, or is considering, a 1:1 student laptop program.
After attending the conference for the past three years – last year I was finally able to scrape up funding for 8 staff to attend as well – Stewart Crais emailed a while back and asked if “Nasis Middle” would be interested in being the Spotlight School for next summer. Considering the previous spotlight schools included such prestigious international private schools such as the American School of Bombay and the Urban School of San Francisco, it was gratifying that a public school in a small town in eastern Canada could/would be chosen.
Upon reflection, it speaks much to the flattening of the world of learning. Much like students in any area of the world are now being given access to information and learning – every teacher should be made to read Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat – so too can schools in less profiled areas gain recognition for their efforts in flattening their classrooms for students.
It also speaks to the quality of the staff at Nasis Middle. They work hard and genuinely care about the students. They are literally lining up for the opportunity to present and share their story of learning with their students. The unfortunate part is that we will only be able to bring about half of those who are offering to share. I am so proud of the all and they all deserve to go!
This is exciting. If you are in a 1:1 school, or are considering a 1:1 or COW (Computers on Wheels) laptop program, please consider joining us and hear our story in Memphis in July.
tags: technology, education, whipple, learning, laptopinstitute, laptop