Orono teachers present classroom STEM and feedback projects at ISTE conference

Orono Public Schools teachers and digital-learning staff told the school board Thursday that they presented district classroom projects at this year’s International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference and shared plans to expand the work locally.

The presentations, school leaders said, highlighted an elementary “Igniting STEM Learning” unit that links reading, math and coding through a family-facing “Balloons over Schumann” parade project, and a high-school initiative designed to “close the feedback loop” by giving students faster, iterative formative feedback on longer writing assignments.

District technology director Sean Beverson described the presentations as a direct result of classroom teachers solving “a problem of practice” and then sharing the solutions. “What I’m calling elevating excellence from problem to presentations,” Beverson said, noting ISTE draws thousands of educators and that the district’s proposals were accepted for presentation.

Why it matters: district staff said the projects improve student engagement and instructional practice and can be scaled to other grades and buildings. The work was supported by the Orono Foundation for Education and an educator excellence grant; Beverson told the board the foundation’s excellence fund was created from a $1,000,000 pledge honoring Dr. Karen Orcutt’s service and is dedicated to professional development.

In elementary classrooms, second-grade teacher Laura Young described a unit called “Balloons over Schumann.” Students chose characters from read-aloud texts, identified evidence of character traits tied to the school’s pillars of character, decomposed three-digit numbers with base-10 blocks to build a parade skyline, coded robots to follow a parade route and decorated balloons that represented their characters. Young said the project now runs annually as a family event in second grade.

Bailey Net, a district instructional support specialist, said the technology in that unit was not the primary goal. “The technology wasn't necessarily the focus in this. It was more just providing our students with a really amazing experience and something we knew that they needed,” Net said, adding that preparing to present caused the team to scale the unit beyond a single classroom.

At the high school, English teacher Jennifer Ivers told the board she began the feedback project after confronting an unsustainable grading workload in late 2021. “I was at a point in my professional practice where I couldn't keep up. And I felt like I was failing my students,” Ivers said. She described working with digital-learning staff to create a workflow and tools that allow students to submit drafts and receive faster, actionable feedback; teachers then see students revise and resubmit quickly.

Digital learning specialist Paul Ivers said the faster feedback loop also helped teachers analyze data and improved professional learning community (PLC) work. He said the approach was adapted for guided-study teachers and special educators who need rapid, targeted feedback for students with intervention needs.

District staff said the presentations feed back into local professional development. Beverson and other presenters described two emerging-technology cohorts (one in year one, one in year two) and asynchronous, on-demand professional development options that give staff flexibility to adopt and adapt the demonstrated practices.

Board members praised the presentations and the district’s investment in staff development. Several members noted the projects’ family engagement component and the potential to expand the feedback approach into other departments and grade levels.

The board did not take formal action on the presentations. Staff said they will continue the cohorts and on-demand professional development through the school year.