Technology Specialist Molly Klodor Wins Innovative Educator Award

Chagrin Falls Exempted Village Schools Instructional Technology Coach Molly Klodor recently won the PBS Ideastream Innovative Educator Award. 

Klodor accepted the award on Tuesday April 12, 2022 at the ceremony where she presented the key to her success to the Ideastream audience and guest attendees. 

For a chance to win this honor, nominees had to thrive as an innovative technology user as a teacher, and she was nominated by Director of Technology and Innovation Mike Daugherty and library media specialist Angie Jameson.

Daugherty chose to nominate Klodor because she has done an amazing job building relationships and serving the students, teachers, and staff across the whole district. Daugherty said, “Mrs. Klodor has been an excellent addition to our Chagrin team.  We are lucky to have such a talented, caring individual in our district.”

So far at Chagrin Falls Schools, Klodor has accomplished many achievements. Klodor has been working on strengthening areas of communication. She said, “this year we have worked on improving how we communicate our technology and the tools that we have to the teachers.” 

Klodor has accomplished a lot at Chagrin in one year, which has been really exciting for her. She also stated that this year she has worked on making a new website, making lots of new posters, and emailing with students and teachers more frequently. But what she found most enjoyable and most exciting was being able to get into different classrooms and create some new projects.

In addition, Klodor has recently been working on a science project with seventh-grade science teacher Alison Hinesman, seventh and eighth-grade science teacher Emily Moore and Angie Jameson. 

Hineman said the team wanted to come up with a project for all seventh-grade science students that would allow them access to the Creation Lab. The idea of the project was that students would have the ability to use the innovation center to create a toy that utilizes energy transfers to work. Students were allowed to use any of the machines in the Creation Lab to create prototypes of their toys. 

This is the first major project Klodor and Hinesman have worked on together, but Hinesman loved being able to see their ideas come to life. Hinesman said, “Mrs. Klodor was a huge asset in helping come up with a plan and developing the lesson materials we would use.” 

Klodor’s day-to-day job at Chagrin is different every day. Some days she spends with classes like science and Project Lead The Way, but other days, when she doesn’t have a lot of classroom visits, she spends much of her time researching and finding new resources, communicating with teachers, and trying to build out plans for when she can be in their classes. 

Klodor has impacted both students and staff during her first year in Chagrin Falls. Hinesman said, “she’s amazing at bouncing ideas off of and has pushed me to be a better educator.” 

Students in the Project Lead the Way class learned about digital citizenship when Klodor served as a guest teacher.  Eighth-grader Ethan Johnson said, “digital safety is extremely important in our generation, and I am glad we are able to learn about it at a young age.” 

Another eighth-grader, Molly Macioch, stated, “It seemed like she was very happy to be doing her job and she seemed very passionate about what she was teaching, and I was able to learn about some other ways I can be safe online.” Klodor really knows her stuff and is very helpful. 

Before Chagrin, she taught at Streetsboro City Schools for eight years, and while she was there she taught 9th, 10th, and 12th grade advanced placement English literature. 

Klodor earned her undergraduate degree from Ohio University, and she has a master’s in curriculum and instruction, which she earned from Kent State University, and she is currently in school to get her Doctorate degree at the University of Findlay. 

Klodor plays a very important role in many digital initiatives throughout all of the Chagrin Falls Schools. If you see her, make sure you congratulate her on her award.

Story was written by Katie Jones
Interviews completed by Katie Jones and Gus Bando