Laguna Beach Schools Teach Through Technology

By Janina Paragele

The Laguna Beach Unified School District places emphasis on the innovative ways technology teaches and assesses their students.  

This week's school board meeting focused on their three-year implementation of a Student Response System. The system utilizes polling devices, like Activote or Smart Response PE, to help teachers engage students in posing questions on the screen. Students then use the polling device equipped with lettered buttons as they answer questions in a quiz-styled format.   

Schools around the Laguna Beach district have been implementing the Student Response method for two years in aiding students in test-taking skills and helping teachers which subject area to focus on.

Linda Barker, Vice President of the district’s Faculty Association, encourages other teachers to participate in the system. “As teachers, we want to provide the best instructional strategies [for our students],” Barker said.

Several teachers from the district were also invited to speak on behalf of the learning devices. Jun Shen, social studies teacher at Laguna Beach High, commented on how the system instills accuracy. “For me, the great value of this tool is anonymity. Students are personally responsible for their answers, as opposed to raising their hands on the basis of their peers raising their hands. This way we can have an authentic data to assess with.”

In Honor Of ...

Also at the meeting, Bruce Hopping and his Kalos Kagathos Foundation were presented a plaque by the board for his continued contribution in promoting performing arts, journalism, and foreign exchange programs to the Laguna Beach Unified School District.

In his appreciation, Hopping said, “I thank the board for having me for board meetings and allowing me to host students in our foreign exchange programs. [The students] learned through their personal experience [the] important aspects of their growth and development of their mind and body that they wouldn’t have received in a regular classroom.”