Interview with Garrett High School Principal Matthew Smith

Excerpt from the March 2013 GHS ’70 Newsletter

On January 31, Garrett High School Principal Matthew Smith was so gracious as to talk with me for about thirty minutes about the new school, and the school district’s vision for integrating education and technology. In what follows, I am paraphrasing Principal Smith to the best of my ability, and formatting a long discussion into concise paragraphs. There was no tape recorder, I don’t know shorthand, and my memory is poor, so there may well be some inaccuracies. And some of my writing is more formal than Principal Smith’s relaxed conversation. But I hope to have at least captured the spirit of Garrett’s leap forward as related by Principal Smith.

 

Principal Smith:

Garrett has stepped forward as a regional leader in what must be the future course of K-12 education. We are implementing what is nationally known as a “one-to-one” program: one iPad for every K-6 grade student and one Mac Notebook for every 7-12 grade student.

Just yesterday a team from the Southern Wells School District spent the day visiting us here in Garrett to learn more about our efforts.

We want our students to be “digital natives.” It isn’t enough to learn how to do this or that, because the instructions will change. Fast. The key is immersion from an early age. Then it all becomes intuitive; the kids, students, and finally adults will find their way; even though the façades may change. They become natives in the digital milieu universe.

This is very important for our children and for our economy. Thousands of Indiana jobs are filled by out-of-staters, or unfilled, or filled but at a sub-par level, because our students lack the necessary digital skills. And I am not just talking about college-required jobs. This is true for a very, very many no-college-needed jobs as well. Information is managed digitally now, and all workers need these 21^st century basic skills. It is the new literacy.

The drive for this direction came from Superintendent Stockdale, and the impulse was born in 2008. But it took a while … a lot of interaction with the school board … but in time we were all on the same page.

At that point, Superintendent Stockdale convened a community meeting: “21^st Century Learning for 21^st Century Students,” wherein he delivered a “State of the Schools” address to the school board.

By January 2011 we had the momentum which carried us through to this new High School dedication in January 2013.

At one point we made a difficult decision to phase out the Family/Consumer Science curriculum [the old Home Economics]. In its place we are teaching web design, digital photography, and interactive media. We took a lot of heat on that, but I am sure it was the right decision.

This is a work in progress. You can’t change on a dime, but we are learning. The kids are great at teaching each other. One may ask “How do you do this?” and another will be right there with “Here, you just do this, do that, and tap ‘enter.’” As kids are immersed in this universe, they become its natives. What they don’t know immediately, they can, more and more, figure out.

What’s the next big challenge, now that the community has embraced the vision, the kids have the technology, and the new high school is built? It is for teachers to develop their own digital skills and curricula. This will take a while. Right now the teachers are about 50/50 on the skills; about half are pretty proficient. But we are learning. We expect to make critical progress toward these goals within the next 3-4 years.

Some of the teachers are not proficient right now, but are fantastic, and their students are blogging about learning experiences in Spanish, world history, and math.

 

 

 

 

Stephen Rowe:


I’ve taken quite a bit of your time, and know you must have plenty else to do, so is there one thing yet that is so important you just have to tell me?









Principal Smith:

Yes! Do you remember the “We Are Garrett” lettering along the hallway? The letters were made  by designing several large train-related graphic posters, from which the letters were cut (according to the design specifications), and here’s the thing: we took the posters to Classic City Signs in Auburn, they did the printing and cutting, but all the design work and digital photography compositing was done by Garrett students. Classic City Signs was blown away that our kids had done this work! They couldn’t believe it. They were really impressed, and the company president asked “Do you think any of them would want a part time job?”

 

 

Thank you so much, Principal Matthew Smith.

 And what a momentous project, this “K-12/one-to-one” vision and implementation. This is not just change, but revolutionary! And in a town like Garrett, so hard hit by economic and demographic change since 1970.

 Surely there will be ‘challenges’ (and outright problems), but I am in awe of the leadership and commitment. Who would have ever thought …?

 
 

Stephen Rowe welcomes correspondence of all sort at StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com

(watch for the period between Rowe and OriGraphics)

Click here for an overview of my blogs

More “Show and Tell” from the New High School

Excerpt from the February 2013 GHS ’70 Newsletter

The last newsletter noted the January 20 dedication and open house and included photos. This newsletter (and more in the future) continues the photos I took at that event.

 

ALSO, the high school Principal Matthew A Smith was very gracious in granting me a January 31 interview. I was very impressed with what he told me, and expect to share this interview with you in March.

 

 Here you see math teacher Steven Rhoades demonstrating a huge digital whiteboard, allowing easy use of internet content in addition to his own input. Though he stands by the board here, he is actually free to move about through the room, writing to the board with an electronic notebook and stylus.

The focus here is on algebra (factoring problems on the left) and geometry, and these digital boards are used in all classrooms.

 

But is this really all that different from how we learned? There are two important answers:

·         Maybe, in that the internet provides a universe of learning material that no set of textbooks could begin to contain, nor any one teacher prepare ...

·         But the more important answer involves the cyber/digital skills that will students learn in this technology-based setting:

Many people our age do not begin to appreciate how important it is that today’s children grow up to be what some have called “digital natives,” whether or not they eventually go to college.

There are thousands and thousands of jobs right here in Indiana that do not require college, but which definitely require cyber/digital skills: word processing, document formatting, spreadsheet manipulation, database construction and use, digital photo skills, electronic search skills, etc, etc, etc; skills which are much too absent in Indiana’s work force.

There are so, so many people who know a little but not nearly enough, and the loss in potential productivity is staggering. It limits the people and the businesses that employ them, severely.

We simply must prepare all of our children for this reality … not just those headed for college. And Garrett is one of the regional schools in the vanguard. More about that development later when I share the interview with Principal Smith.

 

 

 

In the meantime, take a look inside … 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the “No Bully Zone”

 

Art classroom …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now back to the integration

of technological empowerment

with Garrett heritage:

 

 

 

To the right is Garrett’s 1934 FFA (Future Farmers of America) charter …

And to the left, the original drum purchased in the 1920s when the first Garrett High School band was organized. This relic is housed in a hallway window showcase just outside the media center (library ‘plus’).

 

 

 

 

Seeing this new school, I remembered the JE Ober Elementary where most of us began our schooling. That building was just a year or two old when we began, and its newness communicated something to me, even as a young child. Though I hated school grades 1-12, I always felt that learning was important; and while I couldn’t have said so then in these words, it was the community’s investment in that new school that spoke thus to me. So, I am very happy that the town continues to try to do the right thing for its children.

 

Future newsletters will feature additional photos from the open house, and notes from my January 31 interview with high school Principal Smith. Much more “show and tell” ahead.

 

Stephen Rowe welcomes correspondence of all sort at StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com

(watch for the period between Rowe and OriGraphics)
 

Click herefor an overview of my blogs