Home
The Yarmouth School Department has been seen as a longtime leader in the use of technology in the State of Maine. The district hosts visitors from around the globe each year looking to gain insight into a successful 1:1 computing program. Ted Hall, former principal of Yarmouth High School, often noted that these groups come to view our technology program but leave impressed by our school culture. Our culture is defined by our district's mission statement, "Empowering all students." The Yarmouth School Department has built a culture that supports collaboration, innovative approaches to student-centered instruction, and a focus on learning outcomes. This culture is cultivated in an environment that encourages risk-taking while maintaining high expectations for staff and students. The work of the district places importance on culture before technology.
Our work has been focused on the research done by Richard and Rebecca Dufour for many years. Professional Learning Communities within the district continually look at student work, plan lessons, and develop assessments. As this work is accomplished we ask ourselves the following four questions:
What do we want each student to learn?
How will we know when each student has learned it?
How will we respond when a student experiences difficulty in learning?
How will we deepen the learning for each student?
Our technology program is highly successful due to the work being done in all of our classrooms on a daily basis. In all schools, teachers do exceptional work utilizing technology as a tool to engage their learners, not just select classrooms. All teachers across the Yarmouth School Department are expected and challenged to utilize technological tools to enhance instruction. Administrators, teachers, and students use their devices to collaborate, share, and reflect on the work being done regularly. Innovations in technology are moving rapidly. We seek to keep pace with these changes in our classrooms in all of the work that we do.
