Local teachers take part in innovative forum

Jennifer Dempsey and Sharon Goodman routinely encourage their students to expand their learning experiences beyond the classroom.

This weekend, Dempsey, a media specialist and Goodman, a fifth-grade social studies and reading teacher at Wrights Mill Road Elementary School, are taking a little of their own advice.

The pair is currently at the Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus in California where they, along with more than 30 teachers from 13 states, are attending this year’s U.S. Innovative Teacher’s Forum.

The forum’s goal is to improve K-12 learning outcomes through collaborative networking among the educator community on how to further integrate technological tools in the teaching process.

Dempsey and Goodman were selected to participate in the U.S. Innovative Teacher’s Forum from applications submitted to the forum.

On Friday, teams of teachers presented classroom projects their students participated in at their respective schools before a panel of forum judges.

And it’s a lot to take in for the forum’s participants.

“My brain is on overload at this point, but learning how other teachers are using technology in their classrooms has been a really exciting and rewarding experience,” Goodman said.

Part of the presentation Dempsey and Goodman showcased to the panel of judges at the forum was a project involving a group of fifth-graders at WMR that learned a specific lesson and then taught that same lesson to a class of their third- and fourth- grade peers using a PowerPoint presentation.

The winners of the Innovative Teacher’s Forum will be announced later, with one team being selected to represent the United States at the Worldwide Innovative Teacher’s Forum in Brazil this November.

While she’s proud of her teachers’ participation in the forum, WMR Principal Lynda Tremaine said the event simply mirrors a world that is driven by technology.

“The world is getting smaller but more competitive, so it’s critical that our educators move quickly to prepare our students for existing careers in technology and jobs that may not even exist yet,” Tremaine said.