Cape to improve tech training for teachers

The Cape district has joined a consortium of schools that blend traditional instruction with technology to ensure students are college- or career-ready.

Cape Supervisor of Instructional Support LouAnn Hudson said joining the consortium was an easy fit. “There’s a huge amount of technology used at Cape,” she said. “The missing piece was training for teachers on how to change instruction in the classroom. Through the BRINC Consortium, teachers will learn to create an engaging, blended classroom atmosphere.”

Hudson said teachers will have access to online mini-courses or webinars that teach how to combine online tools with classroom instruction and group work to personalize learning for today’s technologically driven students.   “It’s not just a worksheet on a computer,” she said. “Teachers can get credentialed in whatever the topic was about, for example, creating interactive lessons online. Learning modules are built by partner districts for others in the consortium to use. It’s very collaborative.”

Hudson said all students use iPads for classwork and assignments; iPads for elementary and middle-schoolers stay at school, while high school students take them home to work on assignments anywhere and access the district’s online learning management system, Schoology.

Schoology is an online platform used by teachers and students to assign and upload work, view grades and hold lesson-based discussions. Hudson said administrators and teachers will visit partner schools in October for instructional rounds, learning best practices on how to roll out the program. “Kids love to use technology as a tool, and it helps communication between teachers and students,” she said. “It just makes both of their jobs easier.”

BRINC is an acronym for the school districts that founded the collaborative initiative in 2012 - Brandywine, Indian River, New Castle County Vo-Tech and Colonial. Now, the consortium includes Red Clay, Colonial, Appoquinimink, Capital, Caesar Rodney and Polytech districts, in addition to Cape. “The BRINC Consortium now reaches 62 percent of public school students in Delaware,” Hudson said. “That’s over 77,000 kids.”