Technology Leaders
Step inside any school in our district on any given day, and you’ll see teachers and students
interacting with content and one
another through technology. Here
at Newton-Conover City Schools
(NCCS), you could visit a fourth
grade classroom to see a teacher
and her students create a video to
send to an Olympic athlete through
the Classroom Champions program.
Or you could walk down the hallway
to a second grade classroom, where
you would find every student using
an iPad to work through an interactive math lesson that their teacher
prepared with the cloud-based tool
Nearpod.
A few years ago, this school visit
would have been much different, but
since then, NCCS has focused intently
on improving both teaching practices
and student learning through technology. A commitment to professional
development and building teacher
capacity in tech integration was the
key to our success, and we believe
that any school district that shares
this commitment can replicate the
success of our instructional technology plan.
Doing More with Less
NCCS is a small city school district in
the foothills of North Carolina, USA,
serving approximately 3,000 students
from diverse backgrounds. The majority of students come from households
with low socioeconomic status. The
district has become one of the 10 high-est-achieving, low-funded districts in
the state and now serves as a model for
others. In other words, NCCS does a
lot with a little. The school district is
a leader in tech integration because of
the progressive, focused efforts of educators across every level of leadership
within the district, from the superintendent to classroom teachers.
Several years ago, NCCS implemented an initiative to outfit every
classroom with the technology it
needed to become a digital age learning environment. At that time, the
initiative focused directly on equipment and only indirectly on learning
and teaching. There was no person in
the district whose job it was to assist
teachers with integrating technology
into their planning and instruction.
The lack of continuous support left
much of the technology underused
or, worse, avoided.
The lack of continuous support
left much of the technology
underused or, worse, avoided.
In 2009, the district created an
instructional technology facilitator
(ITF) position to equip teachers with
the skills and competencies they needed to integrate technology in ways
that enhance instruction and increase
student engagement and learning
through trainings, model lessons,
and collaborative planning. At the
same time, the district revised its
strategic plan to include a goal addressing tech integration. The strategic
plan requires all teachers to attend at
least four district-initiated technology
trainings each year.
As in any district, not all teachers
were excited to learn how to use technology in their classrooms. However,
school and district administration
support instructional technology
professional development efforts
by requiring teachers to participate,
expecting implementation of technology, and following up with teachers to ensure they were using it.
