Germantown Academy MS Technomancers at Back to School Night
GERMANTOWN ACADEMY MS “TECHNOMANCERS” AT BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT
“Technomancer” is a term a number of my students adopted during their 6th grade year that combines “technology” and “necromancer” and reflects their comfort with and ability to manipulate technology and apply it in new, transformative ways in education.
It is a fitting term for the new student technology group that was assembled in the Germantown Academy Middle School just prior to the Back To School Night on Thursday September 26th. This group offers students comfortable with technology a way to share their expertise and practice leadership roles in technology while benefiting the whole MS community.
The group’s first task was to staff tables at the Back To School Night and provide technical support to parents visiting the Middle School.
This was the first time the Middle School publicized the annual event as BYOD- Bring Your Own Device. In order to cut down on paper usage in line with Germantown Academy’s Green Initiative, as well as to highlight the digital transparency of the Middle School’s information and curriculum, parents were encouraged to bring their web-enabled phones, tablets, and PC’s to access a variety of information.
The Technomancers met prior to the evening to plan their roles
and came up with the following goals for the evening:
Throughout the night, the small student group provided support to parents: getting them online, logging them into the VLE parent portal, showing them Head of the Middle School Head Ken Rogers’ Middle Matters blog, Head Advisor columns, school publications, andsports schedules.
The overall feedback on the evening was incredibly positive; said one parent, “I wish you could come to my office- you’ve made this all so easy!”
The students (all 7th graders) look forward to being able to continue identifying places within the Middle School where they can take a leadership role, including creating video tutorials for using and manipulating software such as iMovie, Audioboo, and Paint, providing lunchtime support to faculty, and increasing the overall comfort with educational technology within the community as a whole.
