Morgan Wall

Staff Reporter

DOBSON — It is the 21st century and the Surry County School System is doing its part to make sure its students are ready to play a role.

At the retreat held Thursday, school board members learned and discussed 21st century educators, 21st century classrooms, implementation of the Rosetta Stone language software and the 1:1 laptop initiative.

The 1:1 laptop initiative has been a work in progress since last summer’s retreat when board members decided it was something they wanted to investigate for the school system.

Seventh-grade teachers have begun using laptops which are on mobile carts for some of their lessons during this past school year. They have undergone training to learn how to appropriately implement the laptops into their lesson plans.

“The first thing is to get them to feel comfortable with the technology,” said Heather Venable, who has begun helping teachers implement the laptops, of the teachers. “The technology makes a big difference because the students get excited.”

As a result of a discussion with Craig Hunter, chair of the Surry County Board of Commissioners, board members expressed their desire get the program rolling as soon as possible by getting laptops into the hands of every seventh grader, hopefully by January.

“I’m a supporter. I think I know enough to take that position,” he told board members. “I just want to know how much money you need. We just need to go. It’s time to go.”

Jill Reinhardt, director of CTE/technology, believes it will take anywhere between $150,000 and $300,000 to set up the first year’s program to put laptops into the hands of students, depending on how far the implementation goes.

Board member Michele Hunter wants the students to have the laptops by August, and Sue Stone, board member, agrees that the school system needs to move as quickly as possible.

However, there is an issue of space to set up the laptops which should be solved by the acquisition of the Reece Building in Dobson. The building is being renovated now and Reinhardt hopes to have it wired to switch the network over in July.

Brian Gates, board member, also pointed out that the board does not want to rely solely on the county commissioners to fund the project, bringing up the possibility of creating a foundation to collect money solely for use on technology.

“We know we need to think outside the box to make this a collaboration,” he said.

“We’ll do everything we can on our end to help. We’re with you,” said Hunter. “Just keep going. Do not look back.”

Even for the students who do not have laptops to use in class, technology still plays a role in the way they learn and the way teachers need to approach material to make it interesting.

“We’ve talked about skills the students need. We want to talk about skills our teachers need,” said Jennifer Scott, communications director, at the beginning of the retreat. “The job market isn’t there the way it was. They have to be creative.”

Board members were asked to look at what it takes for teachers to teach in a 21st century classroom. They agreed that teachers need skills such as problem solving, creative and innovative thinking and relationship building as well as being a consumer of media, an effective technology user and a facilitator or coach focused on outcomes.

“To create a 21st century environment, you need every one of those skills,” said Gates. “I think about my experience versus my children’s experience. It very much excites me.”

Board members also noted that the way students learn today is different from the way they learned because most students today can multi-task. They are used to working with the Internet and with e-mail as well as with books and papers.

“Students today are not like I was when I was in school, and the way they learn is different because of the way they’re brought up,” said Michele.

“Kids today can multi-task. It’s not a distraction, it’s part of their learning style,” said Gates.

In order to ensure that teachers are prepared to teach in a 21st century classroom, the school system has planned a technology conference in August for all teachers K-12. The teachers will have a selection of 70 classes of which they can select five to attend during their one-day sessions. The sessions have been broken down so that grade levels are attending on the same day with K-2 teachers together, 3-5 together, 6-8 together and 9-12 together.

The courses will be set according to the level of technological literacy of those attending. The teachers took a technology survey in September to determine their level of proficiency.

The use of the Rosetta Stone language software in grades three through five during the past school year will expand to include middle school students in the coming year. The program not only teaches students a new language, but builds on computer skills as it is a software program.

During the past year, third- through fifth-grade students had the choice of taking Spanish or Mandarin Chinese and worked with the program during a 30-minute computer lab session once each week. For many of the students, that did not seem like enough time.

If the plan holds for the coming school year, middle school students will have the option of taking any one of the 25 languages offered through the software and will be able to work on the program outside of the designated time during computer lab, whether that be at home, after school, during flexible group times or in some social studies classes.

“What we thought might be very difficult for the children has not been,” said Assistant Superintendent Pat Widdowson.

All of the students began learning at level one which is what is available now. However, most languages go up to level three and English and Spanish go up to level five, which means they are essentially fluent in the language.

With the middle school program, every student and staff member will have access to a license for 365 days, 24 hours a day.

“This is not just a benefit for the students but for teachers and teaching assistants,” said Widdowson. “In middle school, it’s all about exploration.”

Superintendent Dr. Ashley Hinson voiced his concern about the result of the program. He wondered if there was any sort of accountability in place that would measure the students’ progress towards a goal and what the goal should be when students graduate.

“I think we need to have expectations. We need to clarify what the expectations are for this program,” he said.

The board will continue to evaluate the progress of the Rosetta Stone program each year to see how it grows and how expectations may need to change.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.