KPS builds on technology

Throughout the school year Kimball Jr./Sr. High School has made some exciting advances with technology in the classroom, though they are not teaching technology as much as they are teaching core subjects using technology as a tool.

“We are wading into it, because it is a big change,” Superintendent Marshall Lewis said.

Lewis and Jamie Soper, Special Services Director, said that teachers, students, administration and the local Board of Education are all excited for the changes being made, still, change is rarely easy.

“We are no longer the conveyor of information,” Lewis said. “It’s more ‘It is out there, let’s find it.’”

Traditionally teachers have been educated and pass their education on to students, but that process has changed with more information being readily available to everyone on the internet.

“For us as educators, the way most of us were trained, it is not that way,” Lewis said. “We are having to change our mindset and our approach to allow a little more freedom and still protect them.”

The process offers a lot of opportunity for students and teachers to learn according to Lewis and this transition has been a great learning experience.

“We have done some conferences, we sent some teachers and they brought ideas back. We have sparked some excitement in some teachers and they are bringing new things into their classrooms,” Soper said. “That is what it is all about.”

Soper added that English Language Arts standards now includes a digital citizenship piece, which is something the school will be addressing soon. This piece includes safety, but also appropriate communication techniques, such as refraining from messaging while in a face-to-face conversation.

“It’s very important, keeping the kids safe while using these technologies and where to use them and how to use them,” she said.

One of the first steps was setting Google classrooms for each of the core classes and setting up log-in information for students. Google classrooms allow students to retrieve assignments, turn them in and be graded in a paperless manner.

This particular blended learning platform also allows future planning with calendars and instant feedback and communication.

According to Superintendent Lewis and Soper, this is just the beginning.

One potential long-term goal for blended classrooms is to record classes for students to use if they have been absent for games or illness or for review as they complete assignments and projects.

“We have applied to be part of the BlendEd Pilot Project. We were chosen along with Mitchell and Bayard to be a part of this project,” Soper said. “We have a team of five. We will just go and learn some new ideas, get teachers excited about it, bring back the information and see what we can add to what we are already doing to better suit our students.”

BlendEd, supported by the Nebraska Department of Education and the Educational Service Unit Coordinating Council, enhances traditional classrooms practices with technology.

According to Soper, blended education teaches students how to be active, life-long learners.

One Kimball teacher, Danielle Reader, has not only embraced blended classrooms, but she will soon be encouraging others across the state to do the same.

Reader is scheduled to present the flipped classroom, which she offers for some of her higher level classes in Kimball, at the State Conference with a pair of Kimball students.

“She pre-records the instruction and the kids watch the instruction on their time and they come in and do all of their homework in class with her help,” Soper explained.

“The ultimate goal would be for kids to ask for this, this is all done for the kids,” she concluded.