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21st Century Model School opens at Kellogg Elementary
Students of Nikki Webster’s 4th grade class work with an Interactive Board in their classroom as part of Marshall University’s Harless 21st Century Model School program.
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HUNTINGTON -- In a wing of Kellogg Elementary, students in six classrooms are learning in ways never before experienced in Wayne County.
This year, the Harless 21st Century Model School, which has worked with Kellogg students for the past five years, moved its kindergarten, first- and second-grade school into the Wayne County elementary school and added third through fifth grades to its program. Previously, the students in the program met in a separate building nearby.
Stan Maynard, associate dean of Marshall's College of Education and Human Services and director of the Harless Center, said the six classroom teachers and more than four dozen students are taking advantage of high-tech tools such as a SMART Board, an electronic "whiteboard" that serves as a large interactive display that connects to a computer and projector.
The Harless Center also enables teachers to integrate technology and more in-depth concepts into lesson plans.
Since its creation in 2001, Marshall University's June Harless Center for Rural Educational Research and Development has been focused on providing leadership for the state of West Virginia and the Appalachian region in improving rural education and community development.
What Maynard hopes to see years down the road are changes in education policy concerning rural education as it pertains to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
"Harless is set up to assist rural schools in providing the best educational facilities," Maynard said. "Children (in rural areas) should have the same opportunities as students in Kanawha or Cabell."
Each classroom in the model school is learning about a continent, and in some cases interacting with students from an entirely different part of the world. Third-grade teacher April Adams said her class is preparing to get digital pen pals from Chile, something she never would have been able to do without the technology.
"It's definitely changed the way I teach," said Adams, who has been a teacher for 10 years. "Looking back at the way I taught, my students now are much more advanced. I'm more effective."
Adams said her students are more engaged and show excitement during many of her lessons. And, she said the SMART Boards allow the entire class to participate, leaving the students to experience learning rather than Adams just speaking to them.
That's one of the keys to the model school, Maynard added.
"We don't just want to tell (students); we want them to experience it," he said.
In coming weeks, other opportunities will be made available as well, including a robotics team, an after-school science program and a broadcast station where students and teachers can deliver messages about what is happening in their classrooms to other West Virginia schools. Eventually, each class will have its own Web site, and every student will have an electronic portfolio, a digital portfolio containing electronic evidence of a learning record.
"We believe what we're doing will be an optimum experience," Maynard said.
The entire project was handed down to Marshall University by the West Virginia Department of Education. Maynard said the state wanted a model school that displayed what 21st century skills looked like. The state can now use Kellogg's model school on a larger scale to impact students in rural areas from Wayne to Wheeling.
Department of Education officials have access to Web cams that display what teachers are doing in classrooms, and other schools around the county and state can watch as well.
Maynard said the program is working with Wayne County education officials to expand the program to Vinson Middle School next year. Officials also hope to add a magnet high school on the Marshall campus in three years, when this year's fifth-graders become freshmen.
"What we want to see (in students) is they are problem solvers and critical thinkers," he said. "The skills to make them competitors, not just in West Virginia but the world. That's imperative if we want West Virginia to be competitive."
