Hinsdale D86 Teacher Pushes Louder Classes, Offers App To Do That

HINSDALE, IL – A Hinsdale High School District 86 math teacher is proposing that the district let his colleagues try out his math app for a year.

At Monday's school board meeting, John Schlamann, who teaches at both Hinsdale Central and South, said his app, Kovalna, would improve students' educational experience.

"Our classrooms have gotten quieter, not calmer," said Schlamann, who is retiring next year after 32 years. "Education technology keeps individualizing – one student, one screen, one algorithm. But a child working alone on a screen is still a child working alone."

Students learn when they talk, argue over an answer and explain it to a friend, he said.

To address that, Kovalna makes students face one another, taking part in group games and partner activities, Schlamann said.

The program involves worksheets that a computer writes and a phone grades, but students work them on paper, side by side, with no screen between them.

"Students take a page in their hands more seriously than anything online," he said.

He also said the app has a practical side: providing randomized questions, so every desk gets its own version.

But he said he knew board members would have understandable concerns over the "unusual" conflict of interest in buying an app from someone on the payroll.

That's why he said he would offer a one-year free trial.

"It is better than free," Schlamann said. "Kovalna, my website, can replace the online coding software we now pay over $5,000 a year for. So accepting this trial saves the district money immediately."

He said his request was simple.

"Let a few willing teachers try Kovalna for one full year," Schlamann said. "Let the classrooms get a little louder."

An official asked Schlamann for the spelling of the app's name, Kovalna. He spelled it and said it was Ukrainian for a blacksmith's shop.