A metropolitan traffic jam in the windy west

Never got published, but was quite the experience...

Rawlins Daily Times, Janice Kurbjun

A mile from Walcott Junction on Interstate 80, traffic just about stopped due to road damage caused by Monday’s truck fire. When the road reopened for westbound travel at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, the highway’s truck and car volume resembled Colorado’s Interstate 70 on a wintery Saturday morning.

Rawlins Daily Times, Janice Kurbjun

The skeletal remains of a semi-truck were parked in the median of Interstate 80 near Walcott Junction on Tuesday. The truck caught fire on Monday, forcing westbound traffic to halt so firefighters could arrive on scene. Heat from the flames melted the frame to the asphalt, causing road damage that slowed traffic Tuesday afternoon when the highway reopened.

Technology big part of new school

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

Technology is at the forefront of the planning discussions for the new Highland Hills Elementary School complex.

“Technology is the future for kids,” said Debbie Wright, a computer technician for the Rawlins elementary schools. “They’re never too young to learn.” Wright, also a school planning committee member, is an advocate for the integration of technology into the classroom. That position is supported by Carbon County School District 1 Associate Superintendent Neil Terhune.

Touting a concept of “flexible thinking,” Terhune sees the new schools less as buildings built around a certain type of technology and more of an effort to build the infrastructure to accommodate any new technology that might be installed.

He wants the new school to fit into the district’s goal of providing “authentic learning via a project-based, technology enhanced, multidisciplinary approach. For the lay person this means using technology in real world settings to accomplish real world results,” Terhune said.

Wright is also pushing for a building that can accommodate new technologies. However, she hopes to develop a program that first gets teachers and students proficient in the current technologies.

“There is exciting technology out there, but we haven’t incorporated it in the past because the teachers often don’t know how,” Wright said. According to her concept, the district should save money by only buying new technology when it’s necessary for continued learning.

Terhune acknowledged the difficulty of fitting the plan into the School Facilities Commission’s budget. However, with the help of consultant Brad Oberg, he believes it can happen. “Ken Daraie (of the commission) has given us a square-footage footprint (for our school), but we have the flexibility to operate within that footprint,” Terhune said.

Both Terhune and Wright believe that technology is a way of teaching. In particular, it is a way of reinforcing the curriculum already in place “without having to expend a lot of extra time,” Wright said. “It is not just another subject to teach, but it is a way to teach better and with more excitement.”

While much of the school’s specific technology is still up in the air, Terhune and Wright both expect audio enhancement, the digital amplification of a teacher’s voice, to be a staple in each classroom. The SMART boards and voting devices, handheld electronics that allow students to answer questions simultaneously, should continue. Wright plans to push for Web cast video technology in the gymnasium in a distance-education style for teachers. “The cost is considerable to send several teachers to a meeting, but if we connect with video, we can learn (on-site) the same,” she said.