Technology Integration
1:1 CLASSROOM PROPOSAL
After implementing technology-rich units with only intermittent access to computers, I presented my principal with a proposal to teach in a 1:1 classroom. Fortunately, my timing was advantageous as Mabry was due to receive a large supply of computers. Dr. Tyson supported my request and for the past two years, I have embedded technology in my French and Reading curricula. Technology Integration with 1 to 1 Computing: A Proposal
BELLE TEAL COLLABORATIVE UNIT: EAST MEETS WEST (Click here to view blog.)
In this unit, 8th grade students in one of my reading classes at Mabry Middle School mentored a class of 4th grade students at Due West Elementary. Students read the book Belle Teal and corresponded with each other about the novel. The unit included learning opportunities with experts on the book's themes of civil rights, aging and bullying. The correspondence with mentors was completed electronically through the East Meets West blog, as well as in person with Jeff Dess, one of Cobb's Intervention Prevention Specialists. The culminating activity was a field trip to The King Center and The Varsity where the two classes of students met in person. To view the lesson plans for this unit, click here.
FRENCH FAMILY ALBUMS AND INSPIRATION PROJECTS
French Albums: French students created family albums in iPhoto. Students used digital cameras, scanning devices, Word language editing tools, peer editors, and iTunes to create their albums. Albums were converted to QuickTime and students viewed their products as movies at our end-of-the-year celebration. At this culminating event, I presented each student with a compact disc of the Quicktime album and the iPhoto project saved as a pdf file. Click here to see Napoléon's album.
Inspiration Projects: When creativity, choice and color can be infused in a project, students tend to be more interested and invested in their work. Inspiration is a webbing program that provides students the opportunity to creatively display knowledge acquired. French (and Spanish) students used Inspiration to create trees of real or fictional families. Each student wrote approximately 100 sentences in which they revisited previously learned material as well as demonstrated understanding of new concepts related to family members and describing people and animals. Click on the web above to see a sample of family members described in Inspiration.
DIALOGUE WITH A COOK
This is a media literacy project that I created for Reading students. After conducting interviews of family members or friends, students created "magazine" pages similar to the celebrity highlight pages that appear in cooking magazines. I created the original template in Word and, as you can see, progressed to Apple's Pages. The Word document below is the prototype I use to introduce the project to students. The four pdf files demonstrate a few of the different template choices available to students when creating this product as well as provide you a taste of the creative outlet this offers. This activity captures the attention of even the most disinterested of students.
Sample of Original Project in Word
Pages Project 1 Pages Project 2 Pages Project 3 Pages Project 4
ONLINE PRACTICE AND ASSESSMENTS PROVIDE IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK AND MONITORING
Technology allows students to play a greater role in their learning and takes away much of the monotony of traditional skills practice. Interactive websites that students can access at school and at home provide students and teachers immediate feedback about what students understand and in which concepts students need more practice and guidance. Since I began teaching in a 1:1 classroom, there have been over 9,000 visits to my Quia French home page. This is an average of 60 visits to the home page per student per school year. I developed a non-fiction unit for reading students that consists of adapted comprehension questions from high-interest articles in a reading series. Using online learning tools allows me to more quickly analyze understanding and growth on individual questions and to share this data with the learning community including parents. The screen shots below show a student's increased proficiency with non-fiction reading comprehension generated by the online interactive program, Quia.
COBB EDUCATION CONSORTIUM (CEC) PODCAST PROJECT
Through the Cobb Education Consortium, I have the opportunity to learn more about educational policy and to work with a community of people beyond my local school, people as passionate as I am about improving education for all. I am a member of the CEC Leadership Academy 2006-2008 University Committee, which a year ago was tasked to define and solve a problem facing the two universities in Cobb. The University Committee determined that prospective college students need more guidance in choosing their majors. Due in large part to my experience with technology, we created enhanced podcasts of deans and recent graduates from the schools and colleges at Kennesaw State University and Southern Polytechnic State University. Click on the links below to see and hear a selection of these interviews:
KSU's College of Humanities and Social Sciences (See right tool bar.)
SPSU's School of Architecture, Civil Engineering Technology, and Construction (See centrally located boxes.)
COLLABORATION AND MENTORING
Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand. (Chinese Proverb)
Throughout my eleven years of teaching, I have always sought ways to collaborate with my colleagues and students. I seek out opportunities to mentor new and veteran teachers. I pursue experiences that may improve my own and others' teaching and learning practices. My instruction, enhanced by the use of technology, is designed to prepare students to continue their education and to enter the workforce prepared with the skills that enable them to stand out among their peers. My eyes, ears, and brain are always alert to see, hear and to try to solve the problems others face. The following bullets highlight the myriad of experiences I have had with collaboration and mentoring.
- Graduate School - Educational Leadership with Technology Leadership Concentration (See electronic portfolio.)
- Staff Development - Co-teach staff development classes on the integration of technology in ESOL and foreign language classrooms. Teachers in this course are employed in elementary, middle or high school classrooms. (Visit Cobb's Foreign Language and ESOL technology blog.)
- Teacher Support Specialist - Formally and informally mentor colleagues in all disciplines.
- iMovie Sponsor - Teacher sponsor for all of Mabry's Film Festivals; this year established community connections with Chattahoochee Technical College, doctors who treat skin cancer, and skin cancer victims. (Click here to view this year's film festival movies. The movies I sponsored this year are "Protect the Skin You're In" and "The French Impact.")
- Technology Fair Sponsor - Two French students won at both the district and state levels in the spring of 2007.
- In-Service and National Conference Presenter - Conduct local and district level training on language acquisition, communication, collaboration, and technology integration.
- Blue Ribbon Award Application and Year-End SIP Review Writer - Demonstrated my strong written and oral communication skills while helping to write the application for the national Blue Ribbon Award; selected to assist writing the end-of-year review of Mabry's School Improvement Plan.
