Ginger Lewman thinks she may have found a career title she likes better than teacher: “Lead learner.”
Lewman, who is in charge of the face-to-face classes at Turning Point Learning Center, has returned from the Google Teacher Academy in Boulder, Colo., where she was the only Kansas teacher accepted for the program this year.
A total of 50 teachers were chosen from applicants from around the country and internationally, according to information on the Google Web site.
Lewman came back to Emporia with a passel of ideas and skills to pass on to her students and to other teachers and students who are interested in what she learned at GTA.
The idea of being a “lead learner” came from the academy.
“They don’t consider themselves teachers; they’re lead learners,” Lewman said of the Google instructors. “... That’s what it’s about. I want to be a role model for the kids, being a ‘learner,’ No. 1, before I am a teacher.”
Lewman was chosen as a good fit for the academy through an application process in which she had to answer six essay questions and create an original video on one of two topics — Motivation and Learning or Classroom Innovation. The application encouraged her to “be as creative as you like.”
“We realize that you may have never produced a video before and that you may not own video equipment, but through perseverance we are confident you can find a way to meet this requirement,” the Google application stated.
She struggled for a time to find a good topic for the video, until a solution became obvious.
“I just thought to myself, you know, why don’t I just make a cool advertisement for Turning Point,” she said.
The school prides itself on its innovative teaching methods, which stress creativity, collaboration, sophisticated technology skills, and global communication.
The innovative and unorthodox thinking and environment at GTA impressed Lewman and gave her more ideas to apply in her own classroom.
“They’re really innovative on how they run their business,” she said before listing a number of unique Google employment policies:
Employees are to work on projects of their own choice 20 percent of their work time, just as Turning Point students are encouraged to take time to work on studies independent of the class.
“The reason why Google lets employees have 20 percent of their time for their own project is it really helps with productivity, because you have happy employees and they actually work more,” she said.
Google also furnishes climbing walls and video games to promote fitness and relaxation, and healthy foods and snacks are always available.
“No employee is allowed to be 150 feet away from food at any time,” she said. “It’s part of their policy. They’ve got micro kitchens all over the place and they had the healthiest food there. I was so pleased.”
Healthy and easily accessible snacks are something she has encouraged for her students at Turning Point.
During the more than 12 hours spent at the academy, Lewman and her fellow teachers hustled through experiences with Google Earth, Sketch-Up, Google Lit and other applications that could be put to good use at home in their classrooms.
Google Documents held special possibilities.
“It’s like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, spreadsheet — and you can collaborate with anybody across the globe,” she said. “It’s just a new way of integrating amazing technology tools in to the every-day program.”
Turning Point students last year contacted international professionals to get their advice on the students’ 10K Project, which gave them $10,000 to use as they wished to make improvements at the school.
In addition to planning, measuring endless walls and windows, and figuring paint gallonage and square footage, the y used computers to create walls and place their chosen furniture, work spaces and other features into virtual rooms that could be “toured” to show what the children had in mind to do with the money available. Later, the youngsters presented several plans to a board, which chose the winning team proposal.
Turning Point already has a Google Web site and is using the company’s technology.
“We use Google calendar already to share information with our families,” Lewman said.
Many of the students are adept at using advanced technology and already are either familiar with the free Google programs or understand their concepts.Those are skills or natural talents that adults perhaps do not have.
“Some people are like whatever, blase — but the kids know what it means,” she said. “Now I can show them and have better resources for the stuff we were already doing.”
This week, she tested Google’s Augmented Reality and is planning ways she can disseminate what she has learned, both to local educators and students and to others, both nationally and internationally.
Turning Point students will become part of the presentations Lewman is obligated to make as a Google Certified Teacher.
“Not only am I able to share this with everybody but I’m expected to share this with everybody,” she said.
She will be required to be speak, collaborate or be a chairperson for at least six conferences.
“I never present at conferences without kids, if at all possible,” she said.
“First of all, they get a lot of learning from presenting, and second, if you want to learn about the school, you talk to the kids and not the teacher.”
• Web sites featuring Lewman and/or Turning Point and its students are: http://tinyurl.com/lxutcy, http://turningpointterriers.com/ and http://www.google.com/profiles/GingerTPLC.
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
Albert Einstein said, imagination is more important than knowledge.
August 15, 2009 at 1:39 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Let's imagine a field of soybeans and getting them to market without a truck.
August 15, 2009 at 6:51 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
Crete, that sounds like a pipe dream but, soybeans are alreadly moved by pipe to Bio Deisel Plants.
August 15, 2009 at 9:47 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )