WSWHE BOCES Educator Earns National Recognition
SARATOGA SPRINGS — CoSN and EdScoop announced the edtech professionals selected for the 2020 NextGen: Emerging EdTech Leaders Program on May 19.
The program annually recognizes rising technology leaders in K-12 school districts across the United States who have embraced technological innovation to improve education outcomes. WSWHE BOCES is pleased to announce that Assistant Coordinator for Model Schools, Laurie Guyon, was among five educators chosen from a highly accomplished group of finalists nationwide based on their personal essays and the diversity of the populations they serve, among other criteria.
“The 2020 NextGen Program cohort consists of a remarkable set of emerging leaders with the hands-on experience and vision needed to ensure that technology makes a profound difference in education,” said Keith Krueger, CEO of CoSN. “We congratulate each of the winners, as well as all of the applicants, on their accomplishments. This is a new generation of leaders that will help us create a new learning reality.”
The 2020 NextGen Leaders were honored virtually during the CoSN Annual Conference.
The award comes at a pivotal time in remote learning. WSWHE BOCES has been supporting teachers with many aspects of this transition. It began with the WSWHE Model Schools team designing a resource website and continues with daily webinars and newsletters.
Guyon has been helping teachers learn new ways to teach in an online environment. It started with daily office hours to get teachers up to speed with EdTech tools. The main goal was to help teachers with Google Classroom and Google Meet. Teachers have the opportunity to schedule individual time with her and many do daily. She and the model schools team shifted to offering daily technology-based webinars.
“I love what I do,” says Guyon. “It’s a privilege every day to support educators in the creative learning experience. I am honored that CoSN chose me as an Emerging EdTech Leader for 2020.”
Since March 16, 1000 teachers attended at least one of the 100 training hours offered. The Model Schools program has hosted over 70 workshops. They have trained teachers on best practices on all aspects of the G Suite and a multitude of edtech tools. The daily newsletters offer one location for access to important information. They get hundreds of hits daily.
“It’s the teachers who come to my training, my workshops, and my webinars that inspire me. We all want our students to be lifelong learners and our teachers are modeling this every day.”
“Laurie is a true leader in the area of educational technology. Her knowledge of various ed tech tools, combined with over a decade of classroom teaching experience allow her to connect with teachers and inspire them to explore new instructional possibilities. We are thrilled that her talents have been acknowledged on the national level by CoSN,” says David Ashdown, Assistant Director, Instructional Technology Programs at WSWHE BOCES.