Welcome to 2023! I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing holiday season.
Over the last two years, our district has made huge strides in providing digital device access and knowledge and skills for students and teachers with digital learning. Due to federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) pandemic funding, TSD has provided one-to-one digital access and equity for all students and teachers.
One-to-One Initiative
I want to take the opportunity to explain our one-to-one initiative and how it aligns with the Thompson School District Portrait of a Graduate strategic work.
Digital teaching and learning are our current reality. To prepare students for their futures, we need digital access and equity.
Importance of Digital Access
In Thompson School District, we have already identified this need through our Portrait of a Graduate “Communicator” standard, which states that graduates will use technological skills and digital tools to explore and exchange ideas. This is only one of the standards that align with using digital tools.
Why should we continue supporting student digital access? In short, the digital tools we provide today are much like the pencil and paper that schools have used in the past. Thompson School District has adopted digital tools and curricula that can help reveal what students are thinking in ways we couldn’t do before without technology.
Digital Tools In Use Across the District
Students at Walt Clark Middle School and other Thompson School District schools create weekly newscasts shared with the school and district community. Current events, updates, and special announcements are included in the broadcasts created in their multimedia studio.
Teachers can use software to create interactive sessions containing quizzes, polls, open-ended questions, matching pairs, “Draw It” activities, and more. These tools help teachers to view the student responses and check for students’ understanding in real time. The teacher can instantly gain insight into overall understanding and make adjustments on-the-fly.
Students and teachers use Google applications to collaborate and create. Since October 2022, our students have made over 100,000 Google Docs or presentations. They use these documents to learn, collaborate and share their knowledge with their peers and teachers.
Students at Winona Elementary School worked together to create a public service announcement about the importance of attendance at school. They identified an area of focus and used their movie-making skills to address their community attendance concerns. Many schools in TSD have created similar public service announcements to share with their communities.
Sustainability of Digital Devices
Although we have achieved one-to-one implementation through ESSER funding, our next step will be to work with our stakeholders to create a sustainability plan and a more systemic approach to support, repair, and learn using those digital devices. Due to worldwide supply chain issues, our district staff has experienced some challenges with the availability of devices.
Our fantastic technology team supports eleven different models of Chromebooks and seven models of iPads. As you can imagine, this presents challenges for repairs, support, and parts for the many models we provide. This year, we are working on the sustainability of the devices so that we can continue one-to-one digital learning once ESSER funding is unavailable.
Our Technology Advisory Leadership Council will work to determine the best path forward to remain one-to-one and focus on the types of digital tools students and teachers need to be successful.
As always, thank you so much for supporting our students and staff. Your dedication greatly benefits our district but also helps further strengthen our amazing community of digital leaders and learners. We look forward to a terrific 2023!
Sincerely,
Dr. Marc Schaffer
Superintendent
Thompson School District