Intel® Education: Success Stories

Tina Below

Sharnell Jackson

Chicago Public Schools is one of the nation's largest and most diverse urban districts, with more than 400,000 students attending some 600 schools. Access to technology varies widely across the sprawling district. Teachers also cover the map when it comes to their ability to use technology as a tool for enhancing teaching and learning.

In neighborhoods all over the city, teachers are finding new opportunities for building their own technology skills and improving their students' learning experiences. The Intel® Teach to the Future program has become a cornerstone of the district's innovative approach to delivering effective professional development.

Sharnell Jackson, now the Chief e-Learning Officer for Chicago Public Schools, remembers her reaction when district leaders first asked for an opinion about the Intel Teach to the Future professional development program. "My initial assessment was: Thumbs up! I told them we should leap at the opportunity to utilize such a high-quality, technology-integrated training program to enhance literacy skill development," Jackson says.

Her positive feedback took into account the program's successful track record. Launched in 2000, Intel Teach to the Future has trained more than one million teachers in 30 countries. Even more importantly, says Jackson, "I could see that this program has a sound pedagogical foundation. It starts with addressing standards-based curriculum instruction, assessments to identify desired results, and use of essential questions to guide instruction that lead to conceptual understanding of content. I realized this is exactly what we were looking for."

Jackson also liked the train-the-trainer model used to deliver the 40 hours of hands-on training in a technology lab. The Chicago district is organized into 24 smaller areas, each with its own Area Instructional Officer and Technology Coordinator. The coordinators become Master Teachers through the Intel Teach to the Future Essentials Course. That means they deliver the training for their fellow teachers, right in the teachers' home neighborhoods. "We use the train-the-trainer model to build our own capacity," Jackson explains. "It's a fabulous model for empowering teachers to become leaders."

During the hands-on training, participating teachers learn to develop detailed plans for projects that integrate technology. Because the training is tailored to meet local needs, Jackson explains, "teachers create data-driven projects that are specific to their instructional literacy and mathematics needs."

Chicago district priorities are especially focused on literacy, human capital, and creating more learning opportunities. "Our teachers want to know, how do I do all of that while creating coherence and alignment?" Jackson says. Using the Intel Teach to the Future model, teachers create projects that will enhance learning goals in key areas focused on student needs, she says.

Project-based learning is not a new strategy for most Chicago teachers. "What's new is showing teachers how to address standards-based instruction through project-based learning," Jackson says. "This training gives them a model for building a project using standards-based curriculum as the basis, and time to create their own digital-age, interactive learning projects."

A Leader Emerges

Tina Below was one of Chicago's first Master Teachers trained through the Intel Teach to the Future Essentials Course. During the 2002-03 school year, she delivered eight training sessions to her colleagues.

"She just took off with the Intel Teach to the Future training," says Jackson. "She's a mentor to other teachers. She has such a passion for enhancing teaching and learning through the use of technology."

Together, the district and Intel have nurtured Below's leadership skills. She underwent additional training to become a Senior Trainer for Intel Teach to the Future. Now part of the Office of eLearning, she is responsible for training Master Teachers in the Chicago district. So far, 194 Chicago teachers have qualified to become Master Teachers.

Word-of-mouth is attracting many new participants. Below also recruits at the Office of Technology Services showcase events called Tech Talks, delivered in local areas to help teachers stay aware of technology resources, support, information, and professional development opportunities. "Teachers flock to Tina's sessions," Jackson says. "They are clamoring to be part of this."

Teachers receive no compensation for participating in the 40 hours of professional development offered in the Intel Teach to the Future Essentials Course. However, participants earn credit toward recertification. It's a hefty investment of their time, Below admits, but she says teachers are motivated "because they want to be able to integrate technology in their classes."

Participants come with a range of backgrounds. They include elementary and secondary teachers, including some health, art, and physical education specialists as well as experienced technology coordinators. "They all say they learn something new," Below says. "No matter how much experience they have had with technology. They like the idea that they are creating a project they will be able to share with their students and with other teachers."

Jackson sees great value in a program that nurtures teacher leadership skills. "The teacher-to-teacher training makes a big difference. A teacher like Tina has been a primary teacher. She has been a technology coordinator. She has been a Master Teacher. This is a person who understands the issues of the classroom. That's how you make an impact, when you have that kind of credibility."

In hindsight, Jackson can see it was a critical decision to rely on local teachers to deliver the technology training. "We rely on our own teachers who understand Chicago schools, the priorities and the challenges." And once teachers complete the advanced training necessary to become Master Teachers, Jackson adds, "they get to go out and teach their peers. That's powerful."

A New Model

As part of overall school improvement efforts, Chicago is continuing to strengthen its professional development offerings, combining technology integration to enhance literacy, math, science, and social sciences. A new professional development continuum identifies five levels of proficiency. The Chicago Online Skills Assessment helps teachers identify their basic skill proficiency levels and prescribes course work tailored to meet their needs. As they master new skills, teachers advance along the continuum from an introductory level to the highest level of proficiency, where they share experiences and mentor their colleagues while receiving hardware and software incentives to apply what they have learned in classrooms with students.

"This approach to professional development is comprehensive," Jackson says. Already in the planning are scientifically research-based studies to track the impact on teaching and learning. Jackson is convinced the district is on the right track, adding, "Intel Teach to the Future came along at a key time and helped us create our technology integration continuum. Now we're taking technology-integrated professional development to a new level."