{"id":129333,"date":"2026-03-20T15:51:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T18:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/900698628"},"modified":"2026-03-20T15:51:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T18:51:33","slug":"indian-trail-mentors-expand-tech-knowledge-to-help-peers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/20\/indian-trail-mentors-expand-tech-knowledge-to-help-peers\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian Trail Mentors Expand Tech Knowledge To Help Peers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Indian\t<\/div>\n
\n

Indian Trail Middle School students learn about Google Read&Write during a session
\ntaught by Nicole Mattix, a District 202 Assistive Technology Specialist, in February. The
\nstudents are in the PAWS Pack mentor program and will use the program when they
\ntutor their peers. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n

The Indian Trail Middle School PAWS Pack mentor group has a new tool to help students level up their academics. The Peers Assisting with Studying (PAWS) Pack program is designed to support students academically, socially, and emotionally by pairing them with peers or older students who can guide and encourage them.<\/p>\n

The group recently learned how to use Google Read & Write, thanks to Nicole Mattix, District 202 Assistive Technology Specialist for Blue and Green houses. Mattix taught the mentors how to use the program so they could share the universally designed
learning, or UDL, tool with their peers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal was not only for them to understand how the tools support reading and writing, but also to prepare them to confidently model and share these tools with peers during tutoring opportunities,\u201d Mattix said.<\/p>\n

Google Read & Write offers tools such as text-to-speech, speech-to-text, digital dictionaries, digital grammar, and spellcheck features.
Mentors worked on their laptops in the school cafeteria to put Read & Write while Mattix worked in front or walked around to guide them.
It is important for students to teach other students this technology because it normalizes tool use, increases student confidence, and promotes independence, Mattix said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also empowers students to take ownership of their learning while strengthening collaboration, empathy, and leadership skills within the school community,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Indian Trail Principal Mason Luebbing, PAWS Pack has been using the new technology successfully when they meet with students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been very helpful, and no better way to implement a new tool like this than to put it in the hands of the students,\u201d he said.
\u201cThey are very tech savvy and intuitive when it comes to new technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Two Indian Trail Middle School student members of the PAWS Pack mentor program
listen to Nicole Mattix, a District 202 Assistive Technology Specialist, talk about Google
Read&Write in February. The students will use the Google program when they tutor
their peers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… Nicole Mattix, a District 202 Assistive Technology<\/span> Specialist, in February. The students are … very tech<\/span> savvy and intuitive when it comes to new technology<\/span>.\u00e2\u0080\u009d Two … Nicole Mattix, a District 202 Assistive Technology<\/span> Specialist, talk about Google Read …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}