Tech Savvy Kids Help School Ready for Opening

Sometime what appears to look like a big mess, turns into a great opportunity. Or so found a handful of Tech Savvy Kids as they attended a training session on how to properly setup classroom computers, followed by the opportunity to use their new skills to help St. Albans City School get ready for opening day. Water damage during this summer‘s roofing project resulted in extra challenges getting the classrooms ready. Ms deLaBruere looked at this challenge as an opportunity for middle school students to practice their leadership skills and tech skills by organizing a team who students who welcomed the opportunity to help their school community prepare for the opening of school.

The team of middle school students were part of the Tech Savvy Kids network at St. Albans City and Town Schools. Each of them has been learning leadership and tech skills through the annual Tech Savvy Kids Summer Camp and other Tech Savvy Kids activities at their respective school during the school year. The students arrived on the scene to see large piles of tangled wires amongst hallways full of furniture and computer equipment waiting to be put back into classrooms. While cleaning and construction crews put finishing touches on the rooms, Ms. deLaBruere provided the student team with training on how to setup computer equipment that met safety guidelines for a classroom. The students then plowed through the classroom, attacking one room at a time, learning leadership, problem-solving, troubleshooting and how to work as a team.

“We learned that sometimes you have to create a bigger mess to come up a good solution” noted student leader, Nichole as she and her teammates decided that they needed to disassemble everything and start from scratch in one room. Dylan felt he learned the importance of good communication skills when working as a team “I gave calm directions to get the jobs done faster, and the whole group benefits when there is a person that calmly leads the way to get things done and helps the group.” Explained Dylan.