Students in Chris Maggio’s Pre-Calculus class at Jamestown High School work on a specially designed lesson using their iPads and the application “Numbers” to learn about limits.

Jamestown Public Schools students aren’t the only ones in the district expanding their expertise with technology.

Over the last two months, roughly two dozen JPS elementary, middle, and high school teachers have had the chance to work directly with certified experts from Apple Education as well as district technology integration specialists, Jason Kathman and Jeff Kresge, to enhance the use of technology in their classrooms. The coaching cycles last three days.

“We meet with teachers on day one to hear about what they’re teaching and talk about how we might help to make the lesson more engaging, effective, and fun with the students’ iPads,” explained Kresge. “Day two has us working with the teachers and students in class and day three gives us the opportunity to sit down with the teachers and reflect on the experience.”

The teachers who participated are members of the district’s CORE mentoring program.

“The long-term goal is that all of these teachers will be able to run their own coaching cycles in their own buildings in the not-so-distant future,” Kresge added, who noted the program also aims to personalize education for students.

“Our aim is to give students options in content, process, and product in the classroom,” he noted. “Educational research shows that when kids determine the learning path and have input into processes and products, they are more engaged and the work is more memorable. It also puts the decision-making in the hands of the students, where Jason and I would argue that it belongs.”

Marcie Centi, a third grade teacher at Ring Elementary School, utilized the help of Apple expert Josh Mika to aid her class in learning about ecosystems.

“Students applied their science knowledge with new learning in Keynote (a slideshow application) to create their own habitat,” Centi said. “Together with the expert, students learned to create slides, change backgrounds, add images, remove background from images, add clipart, change the size/color of clipart, and eventually make objects move to show the parts of a food chain.”

Centi called the experience “enjoyable, engaging, and low-stress” and plans to utilize the application in other lessons throughout the school year.

“We’ll use it to tie into learning throughout the school year,” she said. “Students may use it to storyboard and illustrate writing pieces, explain math problems and show knowledge of social studies and science in creative ways such as by putting themselves into different times in history.”

Jayme Genco, a social studies teacher at Persell Middle School, meanwhile worked with Apple expert Jim Harmon, to enhance learning on the American colonies using the app “Clips.”

“During the initial meeting, the Apple coach and I landed on ‘Clips’ after a consultation of what tools my students are comfortable with as well as what I feel most confident in using,” Genco said. “Clips was the app I was least confident using in depth, so we took advantage of his time with us.”

The result was a persuasive video to attract prospective English immigrants to the colonies.

“I was impressed with the features of Clips that I didn’t know existed or knew how effortless they would be for students to use,” Genco added. “We have used it a few times beforehand, but in its most shallow, basic form.”

The coaching enabled him to “see that the tool has a lot to offer,” he noted.

“The experience was great,” he said. “It was nice to be in a position where I was learning along with my students. It was important for the students to see that we are never done learning. Even as adults, we can keep growing well into our careers.”