We Had Tools in Hand, But Who Knew What to Do With Them?
BY TERESA K. SALAZAR/School Administrator, May 2020

“I am so far out of my comfort zone now, but I will never go back!”

That was the reaction we heard from Jennifer Cashman, a teacher at Edgewood Middle School, when she shared stories about how integrating technology has increased student engagement and amplified student voice in her classroom.

Cashman, a teacher for 10 years, admitted she had been accustomed to being the one in control of all things in her classroom. Now, she’s getting comfortable releasing more control to students as they collaborate on producing tangible products of their learning using a variety of digital tools. As a result, students are exercising greater agency and applying critical thinking skills that extend far beyond just the content standards addressed in the course.

Powerful Tools

We are observing and celebrating more stories of digital transformations throughout the 2,300-student Moriarty-Edgewood School District. But getting to this place has had some tough moments.

Soon after migrating staff e-mail services to G-mail just over a decade ago, we quickly realized many of the other new (and free) digital productivity and creativity apps that came with G Suite for Education could be quite powerful in the hands of our students, too. Our vision for equipping future-ready students with critical 21st-century skills was taking shape, and it wasn’t long before we were outfitting our classrooms with cutting-edge technology in a move toward a one-to-one environment where every student has access to a device.

But there was a problem. Much of that technology from Chromebooks to document cameras and interactive boards sat in corners collecting dust because most of our teachers really didn’t know what to do with them. We recognized a serious need to provide staff with training and ongoing support for effective classroom technology integration — yet our professional development budget was not nearly as healthy as our technology budget.

We held fast to our vision and goals, but with state education budgets in New Mexico getting slimmer, we just didn’t have the funding to make the training happen. We were in this pickle for more than four years as forward-thinking district administrators and school board members worked diligently to come up with a creative plan to address it.

Finally, in spring 2016, with the full support of our school board, administrators got the green light to create an education technology specialist position to support professional learning for staff. The salary for this position was created by coordinating federal and operational dollars. This action was pivotal in getting us on track to impact teaching and learning in classrooms across the grades.

By summer 2016, our new tech specialist, Kris Armijo, was offering an array of workshops and in-person training sessions for our staff. She also works closely with cohorts of teachers throughout the district each year, providing personalized coaching and implementation support while building leadership capacity at each of the seven campuses. It is this type of support that teachers like Jennifer Cashman credit in effecting changes in instructional practice in our classrooms.

We also developed and launched a personalized online learning platform that allows teachers to self-select ed-tech topics that interest them in learning at their own pace. As teachers complete these growth activities within the platform, they earn points that can be exchanged for new technologies in their classrooms. This ensures our tech budget now is spent on technology that is selected by teachers who have the training and desire to actually use it.

Demonstrating Growth

While teachers are beginning to stretch out of their comfort zones, our students are benefitting from opportunities to engage with content in new ways.

From kindergarten through 12th grade, students are becoming digital storytellers and creative problem solvers. They are exploring the world through virtual field trips and collaborations with other students and field experts in places far from the Estancia Valley in New Mexico. They are leveraging digital tools to create content for authentic audiences and responding to peer feedback in ways that demonstrate growth and understanding. They are leading their learning, and they are thriving.

Work remains to be done getting slow starters and holdouts on board throughout the school district, but now that we are almost four years into the execution of a plan for professional learning and support, we are confident we are on track to achieve our vision for equipping our students to become the communicators, collaborators, creators and critical thinkers that we need to send out into the world.

TERESA SALAZAR is superintendent of the Moriarty-Edgewood School District in Moriarty, N.M. E-mail: teresa.salazar@mesd.us. Twitter: @mesdschools. KRIS ARMIJO, education technology specialist in the Moriarty-Edgewood district, contributed to this article.