Written by: Dan Maas
11/3/2009 

On October 30th, 2009, guests from the NSBA T+L conference visited East Elementary School. Lunch was provided by the NSBA as visitors came to hear our vision for technology, visit classrooms, hear from students and dialog with staff. But before going further, there are some factors that are important to note. For two days prior to this visit, we had one of those classic Colorado blizzards; 60 degrees on Tuesday, 14 inches of snow by Thursday morning, and the sun peeking out on Friday. Also, one might notice that 10-30-09 would be the last school day before Halloween which fell on a Saturday this year... meaning kids wanted to have some celebrations on this day.

The miraculous staff at East Elementary had dress up time and a parade in the morning, but by 11:00, they flew into action and transformed their school into readiness for important visitors. In a matter of minutes, you would not have guessed that it was the day before Halloween. The school was spotless and clean. The sheer volume of quality student work posted on the walls and the associated web sites was impressive. Teachers were all smiling and welcoming. The kids beckoned visitors to come into class and find out just what they were doing. Document cameras and projectors were in use in the primary grades while netbooks dominated the activities happening in the 4th and 5th grades.  This was our agenda for the day.

Beginning the visit, we presented this Power Point presentation with help from Renee Howell (Board Member), Connie Bouwman (Assistant Superintendent), Mike Porter (Assistant Director of Instructional Technology) and Beth Best (Director of the LPS Foundation). We made reference to the TPaCK reflection training we provided our principals during a recent discussion.

After our presentation and tours of the classroom, we had a student panel. I am not sure I have media releases for all the kids involved, so I will not post the video link yet, but perhaps later. Suffice to say the kids were great to hear. I asked the students if they liked writing before they had netbooks; one raised her hand. When I asked how many like writing now that they do have netbooks, all 12 quickly raised their hands.  The students went on to describe all the different ways they use technology in class, but what struck me the most was how much ownership the students have for their learning; how much self-direction they can assume; how much more opportunity they are now able to create.

Embedded below, I have some recordings of the Staff Voice Panel in which a number of our teachers stayed until 4:45 to discuss how they use technology in their classrooms. They were not coached on what to discuss but were rather given an open forum to express their views on how they use technology. I was impressed by their candor and the clever ways they make learning exciting and effective in the classroom using technology. For some reason, the ustream.tv recording is split into a number of segments.

Thanks to the NSBA for making a great visit to our school.  And thanks to all the wonderful students and staff that came together to share a vision for 21st Century learning!

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