High-tech classrooms could be coming to every Washington County

High-tech classrooms could be coming to every
Washington County, TN school
By Callie Durham (http://wjhl.com/author/callie-durham/)
Published: August 11, 2016, 5:53 pm | Updated: August 11, 2016, 6:26 pm
WASHINGTON COUNTY, TN (WJHL)- Washington County, Tennessee commissioners will soon vote
on a plan that could transform your students’ classroom. The school board last night voted to
build a brand new kindergarten through eighth-grade school in the Boone’s Creek area. That
proposal will now go before the full county commission later this month.
(https://mgtvwjhl.ᴀ밄les.wordpress.com/2016/08/panel1.jpg)While that new school is years away,
Washington County’s new Director of Schools, Kimber Halliburton, already has a vision to build it
around technology. She said, “I’d like to equip every
classroom in Washington County tomorrow with all of
this technology.”
Halliburton says technology can greatly improve
students’ learning with elements like the clear touch
panel that’s being used in Ridgeview Elementary’s
technology demonstration classroom.
“When you equip the teachers with the right resources
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and your students, it can really improve and increase student achievement across the board,”
she
said.
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Washington County Commissioner Tom Krieger agrees. He said, “I was blown away … I had seen a
little bit of it, prior to this, but I’m a hands-on learner and that’s what this is going to enable our
students rather than a teacher being up front just giving a lecture,” he said.
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(https://mgtvwjhl.ᴀ밄les.wordpress.com/2016/08/student.jpg)Krieger says he’s suᴀ洅ered from
hearing problems his whole life and feels he could have beneᴀ밄ted from this type of technology as
a student. He said, “I had a diᴀ甇cult time knowing what the teacher said and oftentimes I would
miss things and would have to have ask somebody else and get in trouble for talking, but the
surround sound system that will accompany this (screen) will enable children, no matter where
they are in the classroom, to hear,” he said.
Halliburton says the next step would be to put smart classrooms in the two new schools the
county may soon build. Halliburton said, “I think we’re doing an excellent job of showing the
community how it can transform a classroom … how it can transform a school is the next step
with our two technology demonstration schools that we want to build, which would be Boone’s
Creek Elementary School and Jonesborough Elementary School.” “So, that will give the
community a picture of how it can transform schools so that we can grow this beyond two
schools,” she said.
(https://mgtvwjhl.ᴀ밄les.wordpress.com/2016/08/cleartouch-panel.jpg)
Before that happens, Halliburton says she hopes to
provide every fourth-grade classroom in Washington
County with a clear touch panel. The county budget
committee has submitted that $640,000 proposal to
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the full commission which will vote on the item on
August 22.
Krieger said, “I’ll be voting for it, I don’t know about the others, but I think they will … because
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we’ve been talking about this a little and we already had a signiᴀ밄cant number of dollars already
committed to technology.” “This is just a little change in the type technology that
weme
were
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up going to
budget,” he said.
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Krieger also added, “At some point, it’s probably going to replace textbooks WordPress.com
so there will be some
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saving on that end of it … so, it’s not like it’s going to be all new dollars.”
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To learn more about the impact Ridgeview’s technology demonstration classroom is already
having on student learning, tune in Friday at 5 as we feature that technology in our “What’s
Working” segment.
Copyright 2016 WJHL. All rights reserved.
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