MARSHALL — Marshall Public School Board members got an up-close lesson on how technology is currently being used in various classrooms during the regular board meeting on Tuesday at Marshall Middle School.

After curriculum director Amanda Grinager introduced them as “fantastic teachers,” MPS kindergarten teacher Erica Hess and MMS technology teacher Theresa McCoy engaged the board while giving a technology presentation.

“I use the Apple Classroom app in my kindergarten room,” Hess said. “It’s free, which is a super bonus, but being able to lock the iPads is by far the best part. I can give certain kids access to an app for a specific skill — like Number Magic — and they aren’t able to get out and play a different one. It’s really, really helpful.”

Hess can also view every student screen with Apple Classroom.

“I can see it in real time,” she said. “I can see all of their screens and I can enlarge it to see what a single student is doing. I can see what they’re working on without looking over their shoulder.”

The ability to monitor student activity has allowed Hess to praise students who stay on task.

“Sometimes I don’t lock them out of everything,” she said. “Then I give out Tiger tickets as a way of saying thank you for doing their job and working on what they’re supposed to be working on.”

The one aspect Hess said that has been less than perfect is the mute button.

“There’s one app that goes ‘whoo hoo’ when we open it,” she said. “The mute only works for a few seconds and then you start hearing 24 iPads going ‘whoo hoo.’ Otherwise, (Apple Classroom) is awesome.”

Referring to her as “our technology pioneer,” board member Bill Swope asked Hess what percentage of her students were already familiar with the iPad when they started kindergarten. Hess said she didn’t know what percentage, but that “a lot of them do.”

Hess said her students quickly learn to use Seesaw, which is a student-driven digital portfolio, as well. It allows them to communicate with their parents.

“During free time, they’ll go on there,” Hess said. “They love to talk about and share what they’re doing during the day.”

As a technology teacher, McCoy’s role is widespread. The No. 1 goal is to teach the middle school students to be good digital citizens. She also teaches a great deal of exploratory technology classes.

“I want my kids to come in with excitement,” McCoy said after showing a short video of enthusiastic children. “I see over 700 students. I get them for half of the quarter.”

Thanks to a Tiger grant, McCoy said students have the opportunity to use their imaginations to build in Minecraft.

“Minecraft is like Lego sand blocks,” she said. “It was created in 2009 and spread in popularity very quickly. There are now more than 100 million users, and it’s available on PCs, tablets and phones. It’s a great tool for them to be using their imagination.”

While creativity is the biggest piece, McCoy said there are also other skills that the students are learning as well.

“There’s engagement as they build different cities and buildings — whatever they want — with the blocks,” McCoy said. “They’re also collaborating, so they’re learning life skills.”

As empowered learners, McCoy said the students have the opportunity to do coding, video game design, debugging and problem solving.

“It takes patience and perseverance,” she said. “They’re also learning empathy for others because there are times when they make mistakes on their builds.”

While some find it interesting that Oregon Trail is incorporated into Minecraft, McCoy said others really like that they can re-create actual buildings.

“We’ve created Marshall and we’ve had students create schools,” McCoy said. “History comes alive when you transport a building already in existence.”

McCoy said technology can also be very inclusive. She then showed how a non-verbal student was able to create her own build.

“She’s building like the other kids,” she said. “She put blocks in the wrong spot, so she’s also doing problem solving and basic coding. She loved it.”

MMS students are introduced to all of the Microsoft Office tools in addition to much more. McCoy talked about Hour of Code, Code.org, Coding with Finch Robots, Bitsbox Coding, Dash Robots and Kodu Game Creation.

“And all of this ties into being a good digital citizen,” she said.

After seeing a video where students are operating various robots in the hallways at MMS, board member Matt Coleman joked that he used to “get in trouble for playing in the hallways” back in his day.

“This is all very exciting, so thank you for coming,” Coleman said.

As the lead in the chairman’s absence, vice chair Coleman also made sure to encourage people to thank paraprofessionals in the district. Paraprofessional Week is Jan. 22-26.

“They do a lot of behind-the-scenes work,” Coleman said. “They’re very special people.”