School Type: Public	School Setting: Rural
Level: Elementary	School Design: Traditional
Content Presented By:
NEIRTEC, Northeast & Islands Regional Technology in Education Consortium

Background Context

Demographics

The Mexico Academy and Central School District is located in Mexico, New York, approximately 40 miles north of Syracuse. The population of this rural community is predominantly white and middle class. There are five buildings: three elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school in this district. There are 2760 students with 195 teachers. Approximately 830 students participate in the free and reduced-price lunch program. There are 410 special education inclusion students in kindergarten through 12th grade. There are no English language learners (ELLs) in the Mexico Academy and Central Schools. Each elementary classroom has five computers with Internet access. Each elementary school has two projectors available for teachers' use.

Background

The Mexico (NY) Academy and Central School District has had a technology integration specialist for the past four years. Amy Spath works three days a week at Mexico Academy and Central Schools. She splits her time among the three elementary buildings, the middle school, and the high school. Her main focus is to provide teachers with basic technology training and technology integration training. She also offers personalized trainings for individual teachers.

The elementary teachers in the Mexico district have various levels of teaching experience and technology expertise. Many of them have attended training for the software installed on the school computers, such as Max's Sandbox (an early childhood interface for Microsoft Office), Microsoft Office Suite, Inspiration, and Kidspiration. They are familiar with basic usage of the software and can help their students with minor problems; however, they have differing levels of confidence when it comes to integrating technology into their lesson plans.

To improve her ability to guide teachers through the process of integration, Spath enrolled in the online Designing for Technology Integration course offered by TERC and the Northeast and Islands Regional Technology Education Consortium (NEIRTEC). She was particularly interested in finding new ways to get elementary teachers in the Mexico district excited about integrating technology into their curriculum. During the course, Spath created a professional development experience that would help her elementary teachers improve student engagement and understanding through technology integration.

When Spath presented her professional development experience to the director of technology and the elementary principals in Mexico, they loved the idea and wanted to know how to get started. To begin, each elementary building principal selected grade levels to participate first in the experience, with the knowledge that teachers in the remaining grade levels would experience the same sessions at a later date in the school year. One school focused on second- and third-grade teachers, while the other two buildings involved the third- and fourth-grade teachers. The fourth-grade students were preparing for the Fourth Grade New York State English Language Arts exam.

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