Learning doesn’t stop in the summer — for students or for their teachers — and some local educators are just as excited about using new technologies as, well, kids in a computer store.
In four separate training sessions this summer, teachers can learn strategies for integrating technology into their classroom to help take advantage of the resource they now have — thanks to the Computers for Families program — every student has a computer at home.
Teachers from Brandon School, Carpinteria Family School, Cesar Chavez Charter School, Hollister School, Isla Vista School, La Patera School, Santa Barbara Community Academy, Solvang School and Vieja Valley School were visibly excited at a session led by Steve Keithley last week at the Santa Barbara County Office of Education.
“I think what we have to offer is pretty much cutting edge in education,” said Keithley, the county’s coordinator of instructional media services. In addition to sponsorship from Computers for Families, Keithley offered special thanks to Coldwell Banker and Bob Ruccione for sponsoring lunch for the trainees and providing each teacher with a free custom website, which they learned to use that day.
“Fold your hands and put them in your lap, so you won’t be tempted to surf while your colleagues are teaching,” joked Keithley, as La Patera School’s Judy Jenkins and Tara Svensson guided their fellow teachers through a “really thorough lesson plan” about the physics of roller coasters. This is just one of many teacher tools found on Unitedstreaming, a county service which makes over 40,000 video clips available, all of which are correlated to the California state standards.
Teachers now have the ability to make a play list of films available for students who finish their class work early, as well as insert video clips into homework, along with quizzes to ensure that students understand the material they’ve just viewed.
“Are they going to want to take a practice quiz with movies in it more than practice with a book? Of course they will,” said Keithley.
“This is great as a study device. It gives them immediate feedback and they know the right answer now,” said Hollister School teacher Kimberley Shingle, who was excited to have another month to fool around with the technology before she goes back to teach with it at school.
“I never knew about any of this before,” said Carpinteria Family School teacher Lori Lee Collins.
“It’s really cool,” agreed Leanne Patterson, from Cesar Chavez Charter School. She and her colleague Nate Monley were particularly interested in the bilingual selections, since Cesar Chavez is a dual language immersion school.
“Having visual stimuli available, such as photos and videos, to go with a written request really helps EL (English Learner) students,” Keithley said. “It also helps teachers assist students in multiple grades and with differing ability levels.”
In addition to learning to create websites and integrate digital media into their lessons, teachers also learned how to use the new pen drives and scan converters they were provided with, free of charge, for attending the training.
With so much to learn in just one day, how can the teachers possibly absorb it all?
They can’t, said Keithley.
The learning really doesn’t stop in the summer. “When you’ve got so many resources … it’s really much better to master a piece of it,” he said.
“Then share it with a friend.”