New administrator sees expanding role for TEEN
By ROWENA PLETT
Staff writer
Shelli Elliott, new executive director of the Technology Excellence in Education Network, is impressed with the infrastructure of TEEN and the fact that it already is 13 years old.
"I had heard of it, but I didn't realize how long it has been around," she said. "They've been working hard for 13 years to help the kids, and I want to help them with that."
Elliott's dream is to see TEEN used as a tool to help all students and all teachers, not just those who participate in distance interactive classes.
Technology excellence is a broad term and should be broadly applied," she said.
She has no desire to interfere with technology programs already in place in the five participating school districts — Centre, Hillsboro, Marion-Florence, Peabody-Burns, and Herington — but she would like to encourage them to work together to train teachers in integrating technology into the regular classroom.
Elliott spent the past four years in staff development and as a technology integration consultant for the Maize school district.
She worked with teachers and the technology staff to promote tech use in the classroom, and she also assisted with the online school the district conducts.
One of the things she especially is excited about is IDL, or interactive distance learning.
At Maize, students took part in various projects that connected them with students from other parts of the world including countries in Africa, Central America, and the Middle East.
She said it was a real learning experience for them.
"They realized kids from Africa are the same as them and want to talk about the same things," she said.
Because the students are asked to describe where they live, it makes them proud of Kansas, she said.
Elliott has been on the job a little more than two weeks, but she said she is happy to be in Marion County and working in a small town atmosphere. Her office is at Hillsboro Elementary School.
She lived at Buhler until a sophomore in high school, when the family moved to Goddard.
After graduating from high school in 1989, she attended Kansas State University with the intent of pursuing a career as a lawyer.
She earned a degree in political science but then decided law school was not for her. She took up elementary education and graduated in 1996.
After teaching for one year at a bi-lingual school in Costa Rica, she joined the Wichita school district as a middle school science teacher and remained there four years.
She was hired by the Maize school district as a teacher of gifted students before becoming involved in the technology program.
Elliott said she has never taken a computer class, and everything she knows about technology has come from hands-on experience.
Her job as TEEN director is the first administrative position she has held since obtaining an administration degree from Baker University in 1995.
"I wanted to do something different," she said. "I see a lot of opportunities for the kids and communities."
One of Elliott's longterm goals is to establish an online library of resources for students, teachers, parents, and community members.
She would like to create video clips that instructors could use to learn how to teach certain subjects or concepts using technology.
All that is down the road and only if it's what the TEEN staff wants. For now, she's happy to be working with a tech staff that is devoted to creating more learning opportunities for their schools and communities.
She and her husband, Heath, live in Newton, where he teaches physical education and health and coaches at Newton High School. They have a 4-month-old daughter, Alexis.
