NMSU-Grants center offers many educational resources

Elementary education student Michelle Spencer works on a project for a class in the NMSU-Grants campus's Education Resource Center. The grant-funded center is specifically designed to help education students with their coursework. [Photo by John A. Bowersmith/Independent]

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — There is a special room set aside at New Mexico State University-Grants campus that provides teachers and students with a wealth of up-to-date and state-of-the-art resources to make them better in the classroom.

"The Education Resource Center" has a full-time coordinator, Susie Rhoderick, a computer tutorial system, "PLATO," and a "Smart Board."

Rhoderick said there is also a number of maps, information for language arts, social studies and mathematics.

"The center is also a place where student teachers can learn how to write lesson plans and a variety of techniques and skills for classroom management," she said.

"PLATO" is an on-line tutoring program for teaching skills installed in a mobile Apple computer lab with 16 laptop computers.

The "Smart Board" is a computerized white board with a projector that works with a portable laptop computer. It replaces the white boards currently in use by schools that teachers write on with temporary colored markers and then wipe off what has been written to write more.

"The biggest challenge in teaching is integrating all the technology it's moving so fast, we are trying to keep up with the changes and teach teachers how to use it in the classroom.

"Since we are new (less than two years old), we are pretty current (with technology) and will be updating as we go," she said.

Teachers are also assisted with first day of classes, working with special needs students and classroom behavior, with the materials and computers in the center.

"All the things we do are to try to help make our students and teachers better teachers."

The center is open to college students and all educators in the county, Rhoderick said.

The education program at NMSU-Grants started small, it had nine graduates in May.

There are 40 in the current "cohort," so named for the groups of education at each level, freshman, sophomore, etc.

"We (Education Resource Center) meet the needs of education students from the first day they start college until they are finished and graduate," Rhoderick said.

The center is open during the a school year from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday. and 9 a.m. 1 p.m., on Saturday.

During this summer, the center is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., on Wednesday and Friday.

For information about using the center, call Rhoderick at (505) 287-6266.

To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197, or e-mail: tiffin.independent@yahoo.com.