The story of iBlocks, as told by: Vivian Hope, Science Teacher*

Hi! My name is Vivian Hope and I’m a science teacher at Mulberry Middle School.  Like most teachers, I spend a lot of time in the classroom. I also spend a lot of time at home thinking about the classroom. Sometimes in the grocery store, too. Or when I’m washing the dishes or paying my bills or out for my morning run. I say “classroom,” but I don’t really mean the classroom. I mean the students.

This year, my seventh grade students are pioneering a new curriculum at my school. We’ve had challenges in the past with implementing programs that will help students build 21st century skills, and we were looking for an innovative way to engage students and have them really apply the concepts they were learning. Then my school discovered Teq. If this was a movie, you would probably hear the theme song kick in right about now. Yes, Teq sold my school all of our SMART Boards (love them!), but we didn’t know that the people at Teq are also pioneers when it comes to the evolution of classroom curriculum. They partner with schools to create iBlocks – a specialized, sequential instructional block of curriculum that’s meant to be embedded in your current curriculum. And the best part of all? You’re the one that defines what it needs to look like, and what skills it needs to focus on and strengthen. It sounded like just what we had been looking for.

Before I knew it, we had commissioned an iBlock and had talked with the folks at Teq about academic performance, educational technology we wanted to leverage, and our goals for taking our students from where they were, to where we knew they could be. Pretty soon we had an iBlock built and we were ready to start our project to understand, design, develop, and then market a prototype for an autonomous car. Pretty flashy, right? I couldn’t wait for the school year to start.

Check back next week to hear more about Mulberry Middle School…

*This is a work of fiction that tells the story of iBlocks and how they could function in a school and impact student outcomes.

An iBlock (or instructional block) is a unique learning pathway that’s custom-built for your students. Together, we’ll create an iBlock that enables your students to explore, invent, and build the 21^st century skills they need to be successful in their academic and professional careers.

Learn more at teq.com/iblocks.