By Scott Sims, Communications Assistant ssims@pitsco.com
Perfect fit
Pitsco Modules provide Washington County, Utah, intermediate schools what they have been searching for
Walt Jones had been looking for just the right lab for awhile when he was introduced to the Pitsco Education Modules. After coming to Pittsburg, Kansas, and seeing the development and manufacturing processes, talking to the support team, and touring area schools using the labs, the Sunrise Ridge Intermediate School technology teacher was sold. “I have taught with homemade, factory-made, and group-made modules. Yes, many of those modules were good, but it seemed as though none of them were complete, always a problem, or something needed to be added to make the module work better,” he said. “Pitsco Modules have it all – complete, easy-to-follow instructions; proper video clips to depict the real-life application; pretest, post test, and enrichment activities to fill any time left after other activities are completed.” It didn’t take much convincing to get Career Technical Education Director Larry Stephenson on board. Like Jones, Stephenson isn’t new to modular curricula. In fact, he developed his own individual/self-paced technology modules while he was still a teacher nearly 20 years ago. “Over the past five or six years, we have looked at what is available on the market and decided that Pitsco’s labs best fit with what we are teaching here in Utah and Washington County,” Stephenson said. Sixteen different Modules are taught at Sunrise Ridge. Along with Sunrise 28
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After using homemade modules for years, Facilitator Walt Jones of Washington County, Utah, likes how the new Pitsco Education program at Sunrise Ridge Intermediate School is a complete curricular solution.
Ridge, Stephenson implemented Pitsco labs in four other intermediate schools in the district a year ago. “The Pitsco lab is what I dreamed of doing with the modules we built for years,” says Jones, who sees the three-way approach the Modules offer as the key to student success. “The nonreader can succeed, the hearing impaired can succeed, and the accelerated student can also find his or her place in the lab with the extra enrichment activities.” Along with the curricula, customer service was a big selling point for Jones.
“The support system, customer service, is incredibly helpful and available every teaching hour and day of the school year with real people, not answering machines, on the other end of the phone or e-mail.” With all the support from customer service and the tools provided in the Modules, Stephenson said instructors like Jones are able to focus on what is truly important – “To get kids excited about learning, reward them for their good work, and help them overcome obstacles that get in their way.”