Two local educators received an invitation to join the cream of the crop this summer when they were chosen to be presenters at this summers University of Texas/Texas Association of School Administrators (UT/TASA) Annual Summer Conference.
Kali Little, Instructional Technology Specialist, and Melissa Motes, Director of Instructional Technology for DeKalb ISD have been invited to share with school administrators all over the State of Texas the plan they both implemented and executed to transform a total of eleven classrooms on all campuses of DeKalb ISD into state-of-the-art active learning spaces. “Learning doesn’t look the same as it used to,” explained Melissa Motes. “Technology has evolved, and kids have so much more opportunity than they used to, but we still are trying to teach them the same way we did. Things are changing, and we wanted our classrooms and learning spaces to reflect that.”
Motes and Little did just that. They first went to the school board and obtained approval for grant funding for their project, then to the teachers to solicit applications. The first year, three classrooms - one on each campus - were approved for a complete face-lift. Through consultations with district teachers, other educators, and vendors, they were able to determine a plan of action and see it through to completion. The result - a non-traditional setting conducive to learning in our modern age of technology. Walls were painted in fun shades and heavy traditional classroom furniture was replaced with light-weight modern furniture in bright and fun colors. Pieces with names like “wobble stool” and “fidget bars” replace the rigid steel and wood desks of times past.
