School Officials Present a Vision for the Future of Watertown's Schools

Monday night, School officials laid out a vision for the future they would like to build in the Watertown Public Schools, including classrooms where students collaborate, have access to technology and where teachers and students receive support.

Officials presented their wish list for next year and the coming five years in four areas during the meeting of the Budget and Finance and Curriculum subcommittees.

Watertown’s schools must meet the state curriculum frameworks, said Interim Superintendent Jean Fitzgerald. School officials hope students do that using more project-based learning and also develop communication skills, enhance creativity and teach them to collaborate and think critically.

Toni Carlson, the education technology coordinator said she hopes students can have more access to technology – computers, iPads, iPods and more – and learn to use the tools and programs properly. That will help change the classroom model, she said.

Now, the district’s model of teacher has the teachers spend class time instructing students, and they then go home to do the work. In the future, Carlson said, students will work together in the classroom and learn by doing while their teacher guides them.

Computer programs such as Google Apps for Education and itslearning will help students work in the classroom and at home, Carlson said. They won’t have to carry around all the books and will have access to the many of the same materials at home as they have in the classroom.

To move to this new model, Carlson said, the district must add more technology and restore technology teachers and library staff. In the first year, fiscal 2013, she hopes to show teachers how to use the tools, and teach students and other staff how to use them.

In fiscal 2014, she hopes to hire a full time librarian/technology teacher. In the following three years, she hopes to add another half-time (or equivalent) library/technology teacher.

Currently in the elementary schools, Cunniff has only a half-time librarian, Hosmer has a full-time librarian who has more training in education technology than as a librarian, and Lowell has a part-time technology teacher. The middle school lost its technology specialist due to budget cuts.