Kindergarten Technology
“If you give a kindergartner a Chromebook, he will happily surprise you,” says Wichita Falls ISD’s Talented and Gifted Coordinator Jamie Jo Morgan. Morgan was among the district’s first teachers to take a full classroom set of Chromebooks and give them to Wichita Falls’ littlest –kindergartners – as part of WFISD’s Digital Pilot Program. She incorporated the computers into daily lessons and was astounded at the results.
“We said, ‘Let’s see what works and what doesn’t,’” Morgan recalled. “We were the only kindergarten class in the district that had Chromebooks. We weren’t sure how that was going to work.” But after teaching the students how to operate the computers – and battling fears that the students would be unable to use the machines because they had yet to learn to read – the entire class was completing coursework online.
Right away, the level of student engagement Morgan saw was, as she describes it, magical. “That’s what every teacher wants to see, that every-kid-is-totally-engaged moment,” she said. “When you put them on a Chromebook, and you’ve got them involved in a project where they are learning and doing something to show to the world, and every single student is working on their level -- whether a gifted learner doing something totally outside the box or a struggling learner working at his pace – and there is not a sound in the room – it’s magic!”
Morgan credits Wichita Falls ISD with looking forward and immersing even their youngest students in technology. “Look at the world around us. There’s an insanely high number of jobs that these kids are headed toward that we haven’t even thought of yet because our technology is growing so fast,” she noted. “They must be able to use technology and be absolutely fluent in it. My students do it all.” #IAmTXEd Wichita Falls ISD