Teaching the Double-Clicker Generation

By Ann K. Williams
Staff Writer

September 18 -- It was a familiar feeling. The teacher, in this case school Superintendent Dianne Talarico, asked if anyone in the room didn’t know what a smartboard was. Hesitantly, a few raised their hands.

The admission was all Talarico needed. She grew animated, describing a scene that could have come out of an episode of the Jetsons.

“It’s like playing Jeopardy or a game,” she said of the interactive computer wall-screens and accompanying student desktop modules she hopes to see in the district’s classrooms.

It was her second Wednesday breakfast with the press – and a PTA representative – designed to let the community get to know her philosophy and her passions as she gets to know the schools she leads.

Calling this generation of students “the double-clicker generation,” – a phrase she attributed to acting Chief of Police Phillip Sanchez – Talarico said, “The ‘stand and deliver’ lecture mode is not really working for them. They’re wired differently than we are.”

“The kids got it,” Talarico said, snapping her fingers, as she described how eagerly and easily students adapt to the state-of-the-art tools.

Math teacher Glenn Sato shows off his new smartboard. (Photo by Ann K. Williams)

The new technology will give teachers immediate feedback on their students’ understanding, allowing them to “reteach concepts” and “fill in the gaps immediately,” while students “click in response,” fully engaged with a process they understand intuitively.

All the district’s middle-school math classrooms have smartboards now, and every school has some of the touch screen teaching aids, thanks to an Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) federal grant obtained by the district’s Educational Services department under Director Maureen Bradford’s leadership.

“The kids are really excited,” John Adams Middle School 6th grade math teacher Glenn Sato said, excited himself, as he gestured towards the smartboard up and running in his classroom just days before school started this year.

“This is the video age,” Sato explained. “The kids like that it moves,” he said as he showed a rolling die on the screen. “Oh, Mr. Sato, that’s so cool,” they say.

Sato’s just learning the ins and outs of the flexible screen linked to his computer that lets him create his own lessons, make notes for the class on the board with a digital pen as he lectures and share and fine-tune lessons -- including video lessons -- with the other math teachers.

An “infinite cloner” lets him manipulate geometric patterns on a grid, and move them around by touching the screen. Sato can call up a timer that beeps when time’s up, and musical instruments that play. These are just a few of the features he’s found so far.

“I know enough by now that I know there’s a lot I don’t know yet,” Sato laughed. “I’m just limited by my imagination.”

Still, some things never change. “There’ll never be a replacement for a human being talking to you,” he said.

Upgrading technology is just one of the steps Talarico wants to take to bring the district’s math and science scores up to the same level as its exceptional English and language arts scores.

“Berkeley and Stanford are filled with people from other countries,” largely owing to their higher math and science scores, she said.

She wants the district to focus on math from the 4th to the 11th grade, and plans to initiate an internal audit by principals, teachers and parents that will look at curriculum, alignment of teaching with mandated standards, and textbooks and supplies, followed by an external audit. Talarico emphasized that she wants this to be done “quickly.”

Teachers should challenge the students at all levels to apply higher-level critical thinking skills, and should ask them “questions that are really thought-provoking…early enough and often enough.”

And she doesn’t mean just the honors students.

“When I say all the kids, I mean all the kids,” Talarico said. “Enriching the top, stretching the middle” -- the job force of the future -- and helping struggling students are equal priorities as Talarico sees it.

“If we don’t educate the masses, we parallel a third world country,” she said. “You can’t continue to have ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ or you’re going to have a revolution. Street violence and gang violence is indicative of this.”

Talarico knows her plans will cost money.

“I need to go through the budget with a fine-tooth comb,” she said, to “free up” funds without “unemploying anybody,” a challenge since “90 percent of our budget goes to people.”

She hopes grants will make up the difference. If the district can find money in its general fund, “the funders are out there” ready to provide in-kind matching funds, she said.

“I think it’s going to be tough,” Talarico said, later adding, “I will always do what I think is in the best interest of the kids even if it isn’t popular.”