South Terrebonne classroom goes ‘paperless’, thanks to grant from TFAE

Ten local teachers have received a Terrebonne Foundation for Academic Excellence (TFAE) Innovative Ed-Venture Grant for the 2019-2020 school year.

One of the bunch shared stories this week about how the grant is allowing her to train students for life in the real world.

The grants are part of $77,105 in funding TFAE has given to Terrebonne public school teachers this past year.

For South Terrebonne High School Family and Consumer Science teacher Nikki Thibodeaux, her grant totaled $9,508.70 and funded 33 chromebooks, a charging cart, management consoles and more.

Thibodeaux said her classroom consists of a mix of future college students and also folks who Jump Start into careers post-prep.

She said she aspires to prepare all of her students for life after high school, so she sought the grant as a way to challenge students to work in a technology-focused environment to collaborate and engage in the classroom.

With the grant and the chromebooks, Thibodeaux is able to deliver a “paperless” classroom to her students.

Each child has access to their own chromebook where they can take notes, complete projects and classwork, take tests, receive real-time feedback from their teacher and peers and much more.

They can even collaborate with other students with live documents that allow all team members to work in the same project at the same time.

Thibodeaux said that without this access to technology, students could be lost in the future, and she hopes that she’s giving students a real-world experience that they can apply anywhere in their lives.

For the college-bound students, the next chapter will be filled with online coursework and tests, etc. For students about to begin their careers, they will apply for positions, complete proposals, submit quotes and more – all online.

“My hope is that my students leave my class better prepared for all the technology they will face in their professional lives and to give them more exposure to useful technology than social media offers,” Nikki said. “It’s important to prepare them for the world after graduation.”