Our Eagle Tech Leadership Squad began in the 2016-2017 school year. I’d been running an after school extracurricular tech program for several years, but students and teachers were needing support.
I’m the Tech Lead Teacher on my site and it’s impossible to to support 40-45 teachers, answer all the tech questions, and plan and teach my class no matter how much I think I can. I realized we had huge potential right here with our students.
The year before, my AP came to me and asked me to show him how to do a screencast. It would have been easy to take a few minutes and show him but I had another idea. My after school tech class students were using screencasting regularly and it would be so much more powerful for one of them to teach an admin this cool tech tool. So I told him to ask Marlo, a third grader in my after school class. The next day he pulled her out of class and she taught him Screencastify. He shared the screencast with teachers, and at the end he acknowledged the student, who was supervising his recording, and asked “How did I do Marlo?” She replied, “You did great!” I realized then how much these kids could do and how helpful it would be.
Since then, our program has grown each year. We started with 24 students, then 35, last year was the first year I had to turn some kids down as I had 55 apply. This year I opened it only to 4th and 5th graders for Fall and will have a second session in the spring open to 3rd graders also. Link to our recruiting website.
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| 2018-19 Team |
I have the kids apply by filling out a google form and submit a resume. The resume helps me know that they are serious about being a part of this program. And there is something awesome about an elementary student’s resume. One of my first applicants, a third grade student, wrote under Special Accomplishments that he had intercepted a pass from a 4th grader at recess!
So once the team is set, we meet once a week to learn about tech tools, create tutorials, and brainstorm how we can help our school. We have special shirts and badges so our teachers know who they can ask for help and we support our younger buddy classes too.
The first year, we opened my classroom before school during Hour of Code week to help students who wanted to learn more. Tech Squad students were there to support. It was so well received that our principal asked if we could keep doing it. So now we have Open Tech Time twice a week before school in my classroom. Tech Squad students sign up to volunteer twice a month for these tutoring sessions.
We are constantly finding opportunities to help in our school and beyond. Last year we had a huge AV upgrade at our site. A group of Tech Squad students explored the technology in my classroom, then went to the other classes and showed the teachers some of the features one on one. They found features I didn’t even know existed. It would have taken us teachers a lot longer to figure these things out on our own by going through the manual.
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| Showing the Tech Director how to use MicroBits |
Our Tech Squad students have presented at SDCUE twice, given a school board presentation about technology integration, lead demonstrations at the CSUSM Super STEM Saturday each year, and last year led a Family Code night attended by over 185 parents and students.
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| Family Code Night |
Why do we have a student Tech Leadership Team?
- to empower students
- to increase technology integration
- to solve problems
- to represent our school
Do you need a Tech Squad at your school? You just might.
* SMUSD has a group of Lead Tech Teachers, one at each site, who support tech integration and meet to plan and share district wide.
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Laurie Anastasio is a 3rd grade teacher at San Elijo Elementary School in San Marcos Unified. She has taught 2nd through 5th grades since 1997. Laurie enjoys learning and sharing as a GSuite for Education Trainer, CoSpaces Ambassador, Code.org Facilitator, and is a Raspberry Pi Certified Educator.
Twitter @LaurieAnastasio
Email: AnastasioEdTech@gmail.com
