In June of 2018, we sent a group of educators to Puerto Rico to work on the infrastructure of Rafael de Jesus School, a distressed school about an hour east of San Juan. Our work included painting the school, and installing technology for student and teacher use. To see some of our work please view this video: https://youtu.be/9s8OEEzQUYk.

Phase One:

In collaboration with the Puerto Rico Department of Education and other organizations, provide refurbished Chromebooks and similar computing devices to schools lacking technology in Puerto Rico.

This June, D117 will be sending another group to Puerto Rico to work on Phase Two of our work.

Phase Two:

Organize local tech-savvy classroom teachers to offer professional development to teachers in Puerto Rico, during the summer, with a goal to build lasting collegial support networks and ultimately to improve student learning through the integration of technology and the teaching of sound, research-based strategies.

Description:

Skillful teachers will present small group workshops on a variety of topics focused on instructional technologies and pedagogy. Using a typical workshop model, attendees will be able to choose sessions of interest as well as an opportunity to participate in an Ed Camp session. The technology received by the school will be used and showcased in each session. Participating teachers will leave the highly engaging, hands-on sessions having created a useful activity or lesson to use with their students. Each session will last 60 minutes and will employ software and programs that are free to the user.

Most of the web-based instructional technology tools are free to the user. The conference is intended for teachers, technology directors, and administrators.