Buhler School District USD 313

Rosemary Miller and Mary Frazier, Technology Integration Specialists, sharing the Technology in Buhler

What a bitter/sweet trip we made to Buhler, Kansas, USD 313, on Thursday, May 7 & Friday, May 8. This was our LAST site visit for our team:( BUT we have seen so many AMAZING districts, schools, and teachers; but more importantly hundreds of truly great kids:)!

We began our visit Thursday, by meeting with Rosemary Miller and Mary Frazier, Technology Integration Specialists for "Team Buhler". They went over their recipe book for "leading teachers and administrators toward seamless infusion of technology into the learning environment." It was amazing to listen to them share how two schools in their district are now Technology Rich Classrooms, providing a 2 to 1 student laptops, interactive whiteboards, iPods, GPS, etc. etc. etc...WOW!

John Knapp explaining Senior Projects

Buhler Grade School has "Target Tuesdays", where they are able to 'target' individual student needs in math, by utilizing every adult in their building; allowing for smaller groups of students to work on their specific needs as determined by the Kansas Assessments. Three 6th grade students shared some of the activities they have enjoyed this year, including Google Sketch Up 7.

Later Thursday, we toured the Kansas Underground Salt Museum, which is located 650 feet below Hutchinson, Kansas. This is an active salt mine that has been carved from salt deposits formed 275 million years ago.

Friday morning began at Buhler High School, learning about their Senior Projects, which have been an evolving project over the last 14 years! We were privileged to be able to grade one round of presentations. We listened as Buhler seniors presented topics such as Professional Photography, Directing Theatre, Using Harmonics on Guitar, Oboe Magic, Angelman Syndrome, Music: A Lifelong Pursuit, Radiology Technician, and Falling with Style. It was obvious a lot of "blood, sweat, and tears" went into their presentations. Way to go SENIORS!

Next we went to Obee Grade School for a quick tour, and then out to the playground with a group of students to go "Geocaching." Several 4th students showed us how they could read a GPS, find the coordinates, locate their 'cache', and together we solved some 5th grade math problems! (Check Walt and his student escort winning the race to find a cache!)

Lunch was at the Dillon Nature Center. Randy Doerksen, Principal, Prosperity Grade School shared with us that USD 313 is in their first year of implementing Character Counts! Two students also shared with us how this program has influenced their lives. While we ate, we were entertained by the Prairie Hills Middle School Cougars singers. WOW! They could sing and dance at the same time! Talk about an aerobic workout! Way to Go kids!

Our day ended at Prairie Hills Middle School, with a presentation on "Quantum Learning" by principal Craig Williams and math teacher Bev Lund. What a powerful learning tool! Be sure to check it out!

WOW! We have literally traveled from one end of the state to the other! We have all be absolutely amazed at how different all of our districts are, but yet how similar we are; we have hard working teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, and volunteers doing what needs to be done to make Kansas Kids the best in the nation!

The Team is caught "monkeying" around at Obee!

Posted by: Cindy Venard