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Eight minutes after customers and workers rushed to take shelter last May in what had been Home Depot鈥檚 employee-training room, Klista Reynolds was pulled from what was now rubble.

As she climbed out, she looked west across Rangeline Road, beyond toppled traffic lights, busted neon signs, and crumpled cars, into a path of the destruction she guessed had pulverized not only Joplin, Mo.'s big-box shopping district, but also its high school.

鈥淚 assumed 20th and Indiana was hit, and I thought, 鈥業 think I鈥檓 going to take tomorrow off,鈥� 鈥� says Reynolds, a technology-integration educator for the 7,400-student Joplin school district, now chuckling at the absurdity of the thought. 鈥淥ther than dealing with hail hitting me in the head, and lightning that was striking over there, and my daughters that were crying, I thought, 鈥業鈥檓 taking tomorrow off.鈥� 鈥�

But by the next day, as some Joplin residents salvaged what they could from flattened homes, and others worked Facebook, Twitter, and text messages to account for friends and loved ones (cellphone networks were too loaded to handle calls), Reynolds began researching what she instinctively knew would be Joplin High School鈥檚 future.

And when she finally reunited with friend and Assistant Superintendent Angie Besendorfer鈥攏early a week after the Category 5 twister killed 161 people, left hundreds more injured, and gashed a trail a half-mile wide through the center of this town of roughly 50,000鈥攕he knew others also were already finding in the devastation an unusual opportunity for the district.

鈥淪he grabbed me and hugged me, and the first thing she said was, 鈥業鈥檓 so glad you鈥檙e OK,鈥� 鈥� remembers Reynolds. 鈥淎nd then after that it was, 鈥榃e get to do 21st-century schools now.鈥� 鈥�

So began one of the more rapid and remarkable 1-to-1 laptop implementations in American public schooling鈥攁 project that Superintendent C.J. Huff had always envisioned, but never under these circumstances.

Fueled by a $1 million donation from the United Arab Emirates, and a desire, as Huff puts it, to 鈥渒eep families in Joplin and give them something to look forward to,鈥� the district deployed 2,200 Apple MacBooks to all its high school students on the first day of the new school year, Aug. 17, 2011. That was just 87 days after the May 22 tornado leveled five of the Southwest Missouri district鈥檚 20 campuses, damaged five more, tore apart the school district鈥檚 fiber-optic network, and displaced so many students that outside officials had predicted a hemorrhaging drop in enrollment.

鈥淲e lost about 5 percent of our enrollment, but people were telling us to expect 30 percent or better, and that didn鈥檛 happen,鈥� Huff says. 鈥淎nd initial high school enrollment was up. I have no doubt the 1-to-1 initiative played into that.鈥�

The digital deployment followed a plan condensed into 55 days from a roughly nine-month time frame originally conceived by the district鈥檚 technology department before the storm. It was executed in front of a horde of national media, on two makeshift campuses, with 9th and 10th graders downtown at a building last used for continuing education programs, and 11th and 12th graders housed in a school erected with portable walls inside the Northpark Mall. It was launched as a calculated risk for a community already burdened with more grief, stress, and anxiety in a year than most people see in a lifetime. And the initiative is anything but a guaranteed success.

鈥淎 lot of people are working through all the different stages,鈥� says Steve Leatherman, a special education instructor at the 11th and 12th grade campus, who lost his house in the storm. 鈥淚 mean it was halfway through October that my mind started getting unclouded to really feel like I was doing a decent job.

鈥淲hen you lose everything that you鈥檝e got, and lesson plans and resources you鈥檝e stored for years, 鈥� it鈥檚 a whole new thing.鈥�

鈥榃hat I Need to Do鈥�

Adam Bell left the technology department of the Joplin school system in May of 2010 because of a blend of budget cuts and philosophical differences. When he was interviewed to return to the staff 12 days after the tornado, his old colleagues thought maybe that blend had aged into a mixture of compassion and insanity.

鈥淲e鈥檙e interviewing him, and going like, 鈥楧ude, are you freaking nuts?鈥� 鈥� recalls Traci House, the district鈥檚 director of technology.

Says Bell: 鈥淛ust in my heart, I felt, this is what I need to do. This is where I need to be. I can make a difference here.鈥�

So Bell came back on board, says House, and immediately became a leader of the district鈥檚 push to go 1-to-1 by the first day of school. Bell set the schedule for colleagues and his staff, and spearheaded efforts to work around obstacles that rose along the way at North Joplin Middle School, which temporarily housed the administration.

That included finding jobs for dozens of well-meaning but sometimes unknowledgeable volunteers. Some were eventually utilized to rove tables of opened MacBooks and press 鈥渆nter鈥� whenever a screen prompted, as Bell and colleagues performed a dual boot on all machines so vocational-program students could use Windows software.

The work also included Bell once having to climb through the ceiling tiles at the school, in search of additional power outlets to lessen the stress on the circuit breakers.

鈥淪omebody鈥檚 got to step up,鈥� says Bell. 鈥淎nd you鈥檙e not a boss, by any means, but somebody鈥檚 got to take a lead position and say, 鈥楬ey, what do you guys think?鈥� 鈥�

Bell鈥檚 efforts were possible only after others on House鈥檚 15-person staff鈥攁s well as volunteers鈥攎ade their own heroic efforts to salvage equipment, restart Joplin鈥檚 network servers, and get district email up and running.

Technology specialist Dusty VanGilder joined others at the central administrative offices at sunrise the morning after the tornado as they worked to patch leaks and wrap server computers in painters鈥� plastic before powering them up with a gas-powered generator. Fellow specialist Rick Freeborn traversed the wreckage of the high school building, scavenging for every piece of computing equipment he could find and leaving with about 15 laptops that would be used to get network servers functioning again.

At one point, House鈥檚 staff worked overnight shifts at the administration building to keep the generators fueled and servers online through the evenings.

鈥淲hen [House] said the first night she wants to stay by herself, I鈥檓 like, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e crazy. There鈥檚 looters鈥� everywhere,鈥� Freeborn says. 鈥淪o I went by the National Guard, and said, 鈥楪o by and check on her every once in a while.鈥� 鈥�

Embracing Trial and Error

In the temporary school at the Northpark mall, built for Joplin鈥檚 new 21st-century aspirations, there are alcoves with stools and desks, tables with plugs so students can link their laptops to LCD monitors, and plenty of outlets for laptop charging.

But for the first days of the 2011-12 school year, those spaces disoriented senior Brad White, whose only dependable landmark was a wall emblazoned with a red-and-white Joplin Eagles logo that cordons off a private student workroom.

It鈥檚 an experience, White says, that helps him empathize with what his teachers must be feeling, asked to teach in a new school, with a new tool, and without the benefit of the months of professional development often deemed part and parcel of successful 1-to-1 programs. Teachers did have access to summer professional development, but with the demands of the post-tornado craziness, many struggled to attend regularly.

鈥淚 think that teachers and students, we aren鈥檛 ready for it yet,鈥� says White, who wants to attend the theater program at Missouri State University in nearby Springfield after graduation. 鈥淎 few teachers are starting to switch [to more effective use of the laptops.] That鈥檚 the problem with this year. Everyone is switching.鈥�

White supports the initiative as a whole, but sometimes wishes it could have been phased in more gradually, and not during his senior year.

Some other students are outright dissenters, such as sophomore Laela Zaidi, who in late November wrote in her Huffington Post blog that the 1-to-1 initiative causes her to 鈥渢urn into a zombie鈥� for full class periods at a time.

But every student鈥檚 experience with the laptop project appears different. In Paul Gipson鈥檚 fifth-hour U.S. government class during an early-December day, some students use the laptops to write letters to their congressmen, for a class assignment, while others search their gmail accounts, and still others peruse ESPN.com to look at predictions for the college-bowl season.

In Chris Young鈥檚 French class down the hall, some students work on Quizlet vocabulary exercises, while others check out teen-fashion Web pages, and one who occupies Young鈥檚 classroom during what is for her a free period works at writing poetry. Through a gap in the temporary wall come the smells and sounds of eggs, sausage, and pancakes cooking in a home economics class next door.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just about finding the resources,鈥� says Young, who concedes that his comfort with this model of education is still growing. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to get the trial-and-error [commitment] from everyone.鈥�

In the short time it had, the district held department-by-department meetings and hired five instructional coaches to help teachers at the two high school campuses, and the Franklin Technology Center, lay out expectations and provide support for a new model that would see the district replace most textbooks with open and subscription-based Web resources.

But the exact nature of the model can be hard to decipher. The district has mandated that department faculty be pulled out of class once a month for collaborative planning, and has charged instructional coaches with pointing teachers toward content that aligns to class curricula.

Even so, teachers and students both say the transformation has been far from systematic or deliberate. And even Reynolds, who spearheads those efforts, concedes a wide variety of comfort level and acumen among students and teachers.

鈥淓verybody is at a different spot on the spectrum,鈥� Reynolds says. 鈥淪ome of the kids needed this鈥攁 lot of them needed this. But a lot of them were really good at playing the game of school and didn鈥檛 need it as much. Teachers are kind of the same way.鈥�

Some teachers Assistant Superintendent Besendorfer approached about technology coaching positions wouldn鈥檛 touch them, for fear of being seen by colleagues as an enemy, she says. And across departments, she says, attitudes have varied as widely as acumen.

鈥淭here were people that were going, 鈥楢ll right, let鈥檚 go,鈥� and there were people that were angry and wanted to say, 鈥榊ou didn鈥檛 really mean us. We鈥檙e going to have textbooks for our department, aren鈥檛 we?鈥� 鈥� Besendorfer says. 鈥淚n the post-tornado life that we were living, there wasn鈥檛 an opportunity to gain buy-in.鈥�

Besendorfer says she hopes some success stories will encourage other teachers to think more openly about reinventing their own teaching methods. And, she says, some of those stories are already out there.

One is Kristi McGowen鈥檚 business class, which has benefited from the program while launching JoJoe鈥檚 coffee shop in the school cafeteria, both in terms of student access to business management software, and customer access to wireless Internet.

And there鈥檚 history teacher Dustin Dixon, who found he could reach 34 students in 90 minutes by holding Skype office hours the night before a test, as compared with one regular before-school tutoring session he holds for an hour twice a week.

Fellow history teacher Andy Ritter, who works primarily with gifted-level students, says instruction has become easier because his curriculum already involved many of the collaborative projects the laptops are designed to facilitate. But he hopes his colleagues who teach all levels of students will see the 1-to1 initiative as a gesture of goodwill, not an imposition by district leaders.

鈥淚t took a great element of trust that [Superintendent Huff] thought the staff could, in just almost 50 days, go from teaching with textbooks to teaching with laptops,鈥� Ritter says. 鈥淎nd I really feel that we need to step up to the plate and honor that trust professionally and ethically, and just as a community.鈥�

Picking Priorities

Emma Cox鈥檚 family, like some 9,000 other people in Joplin at the time of the tornado, lost their house in the storm. Unlike most, they had a place to go.

Emma鈥檚 family鈥攈er mother, father, sister, and two brothers鈥攚as among the first in the neighborhood to salvage what they could from their house and tear down the remnants of its wood frame to the ground. They were the first to relocate, thanks to one set of grandparents nearby.

And the weekend after the twister hit, they made the drive down I-44 into Oklahoma, to a family-owned lake house, in search of normalcy.

鈥淢y parents, 鈥� they kept us so busy that we didn鈥檛 really have time to think about it, and I think that鈥檚 really the best thing that we could鈥檝e done and they could鈥檝e done for us,鈥� says Cox, a senior who is now in a newer temporary family home just outside the district line, but still goes to school in Joplin.

鈥淚f you left Joplin,鈥� she says, 鈥測ou could just block it out.鈥�

With 500 students districtwide still living in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, as of early December of 2011, and many more scattered in unfamiliar houses on unfamiliar streets, a laptop with Web access can also be a mental bridge out of town for students. And, with the storm鈥檚 path hitting a large, lower-middle-class neighborhood in the center of town particularly hard, Cox says she sees the appreciation less-advantaged students have for the district-issued devices.

鈥淵ou could see the kids who were like, they had never had things like that,鈥� says Cox, who says she may attend the University of Missouri, in Columbia, next fall.

Freshman Chelcee Burton adds that it also has given students from across backgrounds a sense of unity.

鈥淚 think for everybody it鈥檚 kind of a bonding experience, too, because we鈥檙e all trying to figure out how to use them and how to do assignments and turn everything in,鈥� Burton says. 鈥淎nd we ask each other for help.鈥�

Huff, Besendorfer, and other district officials say the initiation of a 1-to-1 program was in no way meant to distract students from the grieving process that follows natural disasters, or in any way divergent from the district鈥檚 long-term educational goals.

As the district holds 鈥渄ream sessions鈥� to conceive design ideas for the town鈥檚 new high school, which the Omaha, Neb.-based DLR Group that created the mall school will break ground on this spring, it鈥檚 possible that a career-pathways approach to education will result. That would require even more collaboration and student production as part of the educational experience, and give more opportunities for practical use of the district-issued laptops.

But Besendorfer, the assistant superintendent, admits that, for this year at least, while it was imperative to get students back into school and give them structure, success won鈥檛 be judged by whether putting laptops in classrooms results in higher test scores.

鈥淚 think we definitely know that this is their only chance at this year of their education,鈥� Besendorfer says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 their only junior year, it鈥檚 their only 2nd grade year, it鈥檚 their only everything, and it has to be a quality year.

鈥淗owever, I think that quality can be measured in different ways,鈥� she says. 鈥淔or some kids, a quality year of education is going to be helping them become emotionally OK again.

鈥淚f achievement drops a little bit, and we took care of our kids, and we didn鈥檛 have any suicides, and we did the right kinds of things that way, 鈥� I鈥檓 not going to be concerned about that at all.鈥�