Kimball classes selected as lighthouse classrooms

Two Kimball classrooms were selected as lighthouse classrooms by Educational Service Unit across the state. As such, Danielle Reader’s math classes and Jeri Ferguson’s social studies classes, will be pilot programs of sorts for blended education.

“This year is our first year with a blended ed pilot program through the state of Nebraska. The ESU’s across the state have gotten together and picked what they called lighthouse classrooms. Certain districts were selected to participate and a couple of classrooms were selected within those districts,” Reader said. “Those classrooms are willing to jump into blended ed, try it out in the classroom and get evaluated by the ESU members. They will collect a lot of data from the lighthouse classrooms of things that work and things that don’t work so they can put a report out of what works for blended ed.”

This topic was the Pride in Excellence report given to the Kimball Board of Education on Monday, Nov. 7. Blended Education is a broad term that covers all the ways technology can be used in addition to traditional instruction, both inside and outside the classroom.

“It allows students more accountability in their learning, requiring them to do things on the internet, maybe on their own time, maybe increasing the pace, decreasing the pace,” Reader said. “It is really another name for differentiated instruction, where you are able to target different types and styles of learners and bring it into one classroom.”

The goal of such learning is to allow more advanced students the flexibility to accelerate their education while allowing instructors to spend more one-on-one time with students who may need additional support.

Additional goals include improved student performance on NWEA and MAPS tests as well as the ACT and improved state assessment scores.

The Kimball Public Schools blended ed committee hopes to incorporate a Learning Management System (LMS), which would bring each student’s courses onto a home screen of sorts.

This would allow students and educators to post assignments, schedules and other information as needed.

“It is basically a one-stop shop for students. Our student activities are amazing for kids, but with the size of our school system we are finding so many students involved in everything and when that happens... I already have several kids that are going to be in class three days out of ten,” Reader said. “So what do we do for those kids who need to stay on track and can’t make it into the classroom? So having a learning management system, having a one-stop shop for kids, to allow them to carry on with their education even while they are gone, is a huge benefit to their education.”

Reader presented information based off of the techniques she uses in her Algebra II and Calculus classes, including what is termed a “flipped classroom.” Her students watch instructional videos at home for each lesson. They then complete work for that lesson while in class. This enables them to have the teacher’s assistance while they complete the “homework.”

Ferguson uses technology differently in her classrooms.

“I struggle with: Am I blended ed or am I tech rich? Because it is hard for me to give up telling the stories. I love telling the stories that the kids may not know of,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson uses different interactive tools for her classes, but she too enjoys the instant feedback provided for both teachers and students.

“That is the nice thing about the tests, as soon as the kids are done they can go back and look at which ones they missed and what the correct answer was,” Ferguson said.

Additionally, Ferguson hopes to prepare her college-bound students to the technology they will be using in higher education systems.

“It is actually meeting multiple goals, providing content and not necessarily teaching kids a particular software, but a system, so they are comfortable going from one thing to another,” Superintendent of schools, Marshall Lewis, said. “We haven’t even talked much about the student-pacing, the location, the delivery; those are student-determined now. Students have the opportunity to guide their own instruction and delve deeper into something.”