Teaching tech

The walls of the computer lab at Inverness Elementary are decorated with iconic Mickey Mouse ears. In one corner is a sign counting down to the next trip to Disney World — the most recent one was over spring break. And when students leave the computer lab, teacher Julia Thomason always says the same thing: “Y’all have a magical day!”

“I have kind of a Disney thing,” Thomason said, adding that Disney is a love shared by multiple generations of her family.

Inverness Elementary faculty recently named Thomason their 2015-2016 Support Teacher of the Year for her work in the computer lab and a separate reading lab, which provides book sets for teachers to use in their classrooms.

A Meadowbrook resident, Thomason started out as an active parent at IES. Eleven years ago, her daughter’s former second-grade teacher offered Thomason an aide position in a reading intervention program. 

“I said I would love to because I was up here all the time anyway,” Thomason said.

In addition to reading intervention, Thomason spent a couple years working in special education before she started teaching in the computer lab four years ago.

“I have always enjoyed being here. I love working with the kids, I love seeing the kids get something in here, when something clicks with them,” Thomason said.

She only gets about a half hour every week with each class. This year, as part of a countywide change, Thomason is teaching all of her students how to use a Google email address and programs such as Google Classroom, Docs and Sheets instead of Microsoft Office.

Even kindergartners are using the new programs, though Thomason said they didn’t get email addresses until the spring to “let them get used to the alphabet and their names first.”

The kids seem to enjoy the change, especially because they can access the programs at home and use their email address to play school-approved games. Sometimes, however, Thomason’s younger students take some time to get used to a desktop computer and mouse instead of a touchscreen.

“That’s a lot of fun and very interesting at the beginning of the year,” Thomason said.

Thomason also uses typing programs and Code.org to begin teaching web coding to her students. The site’s lessons are built into games, so the children enjoy learning their new skills.

“Kids will be expected to code in high school at some point. So they’re wanting us to let them do that on a regular basis,” Thomason said.

Since students are growing up around technology and will continue to use the same skills and programs throughout high school, college and their careers, Thomason said she enjoys the chance to teach something she knows will be useful for the rest of her students’ lives.

“It’s something they’ll use forever. That’s the really rewarding thing about it. I know what they’re doing in here, they will benefit from, you know, throughout their lives,” Thomason said. “What they’re doing in here is something they will carry on.”