Expanding Our Horizons

The Elementary Forward Learning
Team at Rio Norte Elementary School

This last Thursday we hosted a great day of learning with our elementary pilot teachers from Round Meadow and White Oak Elementary Schools, as well as our middle school mentors. The day began with a trip to the Rio School District, just a few miles away in Oxnard. Rio is making great strides in building technology-rich, next-generation learning environments for staff and students in grades three and up, utilizing many of the methodologies and technologies we are using in the Forward Learning program.

One of our stops was Rio del Norte Elementary School, where we met up with Dr. Mike Vollmert, Director of Technology for the Rio School District, and Principal Jake Waltrip. This school has been 1:1 for 3 years  in grades 3 through 5 with laptops similar to those we will be deploying to our middle schools in January. Having visited this school about a year ago, it was amazing to see the ongoing classroom transformation taking place there. The learning spaces are designed for collaboration and group work, easily adjustable to the needs of the activity.

Obviously, this transformation of the learning space took time - the classroom above was organized as a series of long tables last year, and was even more traditional the year before that. But in speaking with classroom teachers and district leadership, there is no doubt that the introduction of continuous, ubiquitous, and transparent technology into the classroom was a driving force in the profound changes to the space, the instructional strategy, and personalization of learning.

After visiting Rio del Norte we visited another elementary school and Rio Vista Middle School to get a feel for the diversity of the district. Rio Vista, in particular, was only a year into their technology infusion, so it was an excellent opportunity for our team to experience and understand that the infusion of technology is a process that takes time. 

Our team returned to LVUSD inspired with great ideas and strategies for infusing technology in our classrooms. It's always great to step outside of our comfort zones and expand our horizons!