The purpose of this grant program is to provide seed funding to districts to adopt "best technology classroom practices and programs" that will have an impact on the districts. These projects and programs are effective models of teaching that integrate technology into the local curriculum and align with the state's learning standards.
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Carolyn M. Cragin
508-378-8232 |
Project Title: East Bridgewater Public Schools Standards-based Curriculum Development Project - Setting the Targets for Achievement
Project Overview:
This project employs the CLASP (Curriculum Alignment and Sharing Project) software database and Mass Network consultant support to ensure consistent, informed implementation of standards-based instruction throughout the district. The project will focus on the English language arts and mathematics content areas. District staffs have established benchmarks for English language arts and mathematics using the CLASP software. This project will extend the process to the development of curriculum units and the integration of material into the instructional program in all classrooms. Having developed standards-based curriculum objectives, the district will embark on the next step of systemic curriculum reform, involving teachers and administrators in the transition to standards-based classroom planning, practice, and accountability. Working with Mass Networks consultants, district staff will develop unit guides and model lessons that will facilitate implementation of the learning expectations. This project will establish a model for the development of curriculum documents in all subjects.
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Maureen Brisson
508-675-8298 |
Project Title: Technology Coach Training Program
Project Overview:
This is an adoption of a technology coach training program, which has been in place in the Fall River elementary schools for the past four years. The goal of the 2001-2002 grant is to establish a team of subject area teachers at each of our four middle schools to work in collaboration with the building media teachers and the instructional technology department. The role of these teams is to serve as a model for technology integration within each building and to disseminate best practices through colleague-to-colleague mentoring. The establishment of study groups will facilitate team training for the further acquisition of technology skills. The groups will also help teachers develop and implement exemplary lessons that use technology to reach specific learning outcomes.
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Debra McRoberts
508-548-1052 |
Project Title: Improving Writing Across the Curriculum Through The Use Of AlphaSmart Keyboards
Project Overview:
This grant will provide access to AlphaSmart keyboards for 50% of the third and fourth grade population of East Falmouth Elementary School in order to improve writing skills across the curriculum. Children will be given the opportunity to improve keyboarding skill through daily lessons. Students will produce PowerPoint presentations, graphs, spreadsheets, book reports, and research papers using AlphaSmart technology. Using classroom mini-workstations created with an iBook, scanner, printer, and LCD projector, teachers will be able to model and teach good writing and editing techniques to improve both content and English/Language Arts conventions in their students' writing.
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Linda D. Whitehead
508-548-0151 |
Project Title: Students Creating Music
Project Overview:
The program, which will serve 400 students in grades 7 and 8, will teach students music theory and composition through the use of a MIDI workstation (Computer and Korg X5 synthesizer). The course, which does not require any previous musical training, will serve a broad range of students from very talented, musically trained students to at-risk students. Students will work on individual projects at their own pace and level of understanding. This class will actively engage students to learn through creating. The software will provide instant feedback to students through sounds they have sequenced at the workstations. The software used will include Music Time (notation), Music Shop (sequencing), and Practica Musica (skill building).
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Jennifer L. Jones
978-345-3247 |
Project Title: MIDI-ARTS Technology Center Project, BF Brown Arts Vision School (BAV), grades 5
Project Overview:
This project at Brown Arts Vision School is designed to set up two working computer labs: a MIDI Lab of 10 keyboards and computers in the music classroom and an art technology lab with six computer workstations. The MIDI lab will give every student the opportunity to learn how to play an instrument. This will be a significant benefit to our children who do not have the resources to take music lessons at home. The art technology lab will be used to integrate computer graphics, animation, video, photography, and desktop publishing into the art curriculum. The purpose of this project is to fully integrate the use of computer technology into the music and art curricula with the promise of improved student achievement. Students will learn to utilize the technology to research, communicate, produce and present projects in the arts and academics.
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Joanne Blocker
413-667-3414 |
Project Title: Enhancing Science/Social Studies Through the Internet
Project Overview:
Murrayfield School, grade 3,will adopt a the Technology Lighthouse Project "The Laptop Library Project." Using a mobile lab of iBooks, teachers will profoundly increase the Internet access in their classrooms in science and social studies. Academically, the major focus of this project will be using the laptops for research, using simulation software, and accessing interactive websites. The intent is to include the entire classroom in cooperative groups utilizing the laptop library.
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Michael Rooney
413-667-8715 |
Project Title: The Use of Distance Learning to Provide Rural Students with Access to Dual Enrollment
Project Overview:
Seniors at Gateway Regional High School will enroll as dual-enrollment students for two courses being offered at Westfield State College. Students will travel to Westfield State College to attend a Pre-Calculus course, which will expose them to campus life. However, the same students will use the model cited above to participate in a Spanish IV course using distance learning technology. A student learning lab will be integrated with the existing distance learning equipment to facilitate communication between sites, and a facilitator will be hired to work with students during the Spanish IV class. The facilitator will oversee the activities of students and provide hands-on support. The facilitator will also act as project coordinator, and work with the high school principal and Westfield State College professor to keep the college faculty aware of student perspectives, manage the learning lab to maximize its effectiveness, and work with the technology coordinator and technician to troubleshoot equipment. Students will also travel to Westfield State College for several face-to-face meetings with their instructor. At the end of the semester, the students, professor, facilitator, and administrators will participate in a comprehensive, independent evaluation.
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Anne Patriquin
978-352-5790 x510 |
Project Title: Writing Process Study Groups
Project Overview:
The Georgetown Public School District proposes to create four study groups of teachers that will focus on challenges in the curriculum and methods of using technology to address those challenges. Participating teachers will join together in study groups of four teachers each, organized by grade-level groupings (grades four through eight). In each study group, members will agree to focus on a common challenge in instruction and will explore ways to use technology to address that challenge. As they master new technology skills, the teachers will work collaboratively to create, implement, and evaluate model-learning activities that integrate state standards and challenge the students' cognitive and technological skills. As a result of the project, each team member will have learned or refined a technological skill and created at least three model learning activities that incorporate the standards in a differentiated instructional model with alternative authentic assessments, which will be shared across the member schools. Georgetown will contract with FreshPond Education to implement their study group-based "Learning Network" program, an improvement upon the successful "Design Team" model of technology training used in Milton Public Schools and other districts across the state for five years.
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Tammy Morgan
Roger Davis
978-281-9850 |
Project Title: Project Engage: Remote Response, Rapid Reply, Rising Results
Project Overview:
An engaging model of instruction has been piloted in sixth to eighth grade language arts, math, science and social studies classes at O'Malley Middle School, using the technology of remote wireless response pads to assess student comprehension throughout the instructional process. During the pilot project, the instructional system was used in teaching spelling and grammar skills, basic math and geometry skills, the physics of force and motion, and the history of ancient Rome. Each student in a class uses a response pad, much like TV remote control, to reply to teacher-created questions that are projected on a class wall or screen during various phases of instruction and assessment. Questions are used to check comprehension of homework and readings, to maintain attention and evaluate emerging understandings during class activities and lessons, to reinforce and review concepts through collaborative and team games, and to assess student learning at the end of a lesson or unit. The accompanying software gives immediate anonymous feedback on the correct answers, while archiving and reporting individual student results in various useful forms. This system engages student attention and learning, instantly transforming the teacher tradition of calling on one individual from a handful of raised hands and the teacher chore of grading endless piles of papers.
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Brian Bentley
508-678-2891 x1340 |
Project Title: Integrating Internet Technology into Curriculum-based Classroom Education
Project Overview:
This yearlong project will integrate technology into classroom instruction and empower educators in grades K-12 to develop Internet-based curriculum units. Our school district will initially implement this project in the mathematics department, broadening the scope to include all other academic departments throughout the school year. Diman Regional Vocational Technical School District will adopt VES as the primary entry portal to the Internet for all district educators. VES will also serve as the conduit for district-wide technology professional development, using a system adopted from Winchendon Public Schools. Our district will collaborate with staff from North Andover and/or Worcester in order to replicate their methods for supporting educators as VES users. We will also collaborate with Winchendon Public Schools' staff to adopt their online professional development system. This system of professional development trains staff to use the Internet to produce curriculum-focused instructional units such as lesson plans and assignments. Anticipated outcomes include increased use of technology to enhance classroom instruction, increased participation in district-sponsored technology professional development, and improved technology competencies in all educators across the district.
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Richard Butterworth
978-468-8456 |
Project Title: Heart Health at Miles River Middle School
Project Overview:
This project initially targets physical education students in grades 6-8. The aim of Heart Health is to address key concepts from the physical education strand of the Health Curriculum Framework. Students will use electronic heart monitors to explore the impact of exercise on their hearts. Students will create and maintain personal health portfolios and plans for healthy living. This project has four goals: 1) Consult with and learn from others who have implemented a similar program. 2) Provide students with access to heart monitors. 3) Provide students with access to additional hardware and software and other materials with which to create and maintain personal health portfolios. 4) Provide professional development focusing on heart health and use of heart rate monitors for the physical education and health staff of the district in order to participate fully in Department of Elementary and Secondary Education dissemination programs and grant activities.
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Steven Wilson
508-430-7200 |
Project Title: Harwich VHS Instructional Programs (Harwich VIP's)
Project Overview:
The Harwich VIP grant proposal will provide 20 online Virtual High School (VHS) courses for Harwich High School students in the spring 2002 semester. The goal of this project is to supplement our "traditional" high school academic course offerings with additional courses that meet low incident but very specific individual student needs, requests, aptitudes and interests. The project is open to all high school students. The grant will provide training to teachers on how to use and support a different learning approach for student online courses. Students will be oriented and recruited in the fall.
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Steven Wilson
508-470-7200 |
Project Title: Harwich Teacher VES and Internet Projects (Harwich Teacher VIP's)
Project Overview:
The Harwich Teacher VIP grant will provide VES professional development training to all teachers K-12 using a mentoring model in which teachers will be grouped by grade level or departments. During Phase One of the project, teachers will learn how to use the various features of VES. During Phase Two of the project, teachers will use their acquired VES skills and tools to collaborate with their group members and mentor to post a collaborative collection of Internet resources for their particular curriculum or department on the Harwich Web server. The project outcome will be 15 new home web pages constructed in a collaborative manner using VES tools.
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Anita Furrow
978-373-8479 |
Project Title: Integrating Internet Technology into Curriculum-based Classroom Education
Project Overview:
This yearlong project will empower educators to develop Internet-based curriculum units in the following subject areas: Mathematics, Science & Technology, English Language Arts, History & Social Science, and Fine Arts. Using VES' "Blackboard" platform, district staff - in conjunction with adoption district partners and ESE-certified professional development providers - will develop online professional development courses that will support the technology training needs of K-12 educators in the district.
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Cecelia Buckley
413-586-4900 x 137 |
Project Title: Promoting Mathematical Thinking Through the Use of Technology
Project Overview:
The project will introduce and support effective use of technology in K-5 classrooms using the Investigations mathematics curriculum. Technology will be used as a tool to manipulate, explore, and problem-solve in ways that enhance, enrich, and transform the teaching of mathematics.
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Cecelia Buckley
413-586-4900 x137 |
Project Title: Secondary Understanding of Mathematics and Science (SUMS)
Project Overview:
This Lighthouse Project, successfully implemented in the Hudson Public Schools, will support teachers in the use of technology to develop students' conceptual understanding in physics, algebra, and calculus classes. The adoption of the SUMS project will guide teachers from five districts in identifying and implementing best practices in technology integration to build students' content-specific learning and use of cross-disciplinary connections. This SUMS adoption project will prepare the teachers to link physics and algebra/calculus labs and to support all learners in using technology in mathematics and science.
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Coleen Collette
508-634-2214 |
Project Title: Keyboard Kids: Technology in the Grade 2 Classroom
Project Overview:
This adoption project will allow for the use of AlphaSmarts in the regular education/inclusion setting in all content areas in grades K through 6. Classroom and Special Education teachers will incorporate the use of AlphaSmarts in their collaborative work with all students. The equipment will be an invaluable tool in helping students achieve academic success. Teachers will incorporate the AlphaSmarts into the recently introduced LINKS Program (a reading, writing, and thinking strategy program with a strong written language component produced by Educational Performance Systems), and the Four Block Program (a structure to ensure a balanced literacy program encompassing process writing, word study, and comprehension development created by Patricia Cunningham and Dorothy Hall). Furthermore, the technology will enhance Hopedale's own efforts to meet the standards set by the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks and the goals set by the Technology Plan. The project addresses the educational objectives of students with special needs, gifted and talented students, and students who are challenged in specific areas.
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Chris Burke
978-356-3137 |
Project Title: Writing Process Study Groups
Project Overview:
In an effort to improve writing instruction at the secondary level, the Ipswich School District will create a study group that will focus on challenges in the curriculum and methods of using technology to address those challenges. Participating teachers will join together to focus on a common challenge in instruction and will explore ways to use technology to address that challenge. As they master the new technology, teachers will use their skills and FreshPond.net to collaboratively create, implement, and evaluate model learning activities that address their curriculum needs and utilize their new skills. As a result of the project, each team member will have learned or refined a technology skill and created a model learning activity that targets the writing process. This project has been modeled after Milton Public Schools and will be facilitated by FreshPond Inc.
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Patricia Makie
978-937-7603 |
Project Title: Assistive Technology Assessment and Staff Development Pilot
Project Overview:
The Lowell Public Schools will adopt a trainer-of-trainers model in order to develop an effective assistive technology assessment and implementation model at a pilot elementary/middle school site. Members of a multidisciplinary team, who participated in the Assistive Technology Project through the Technology Literacy Challenge Grant during the 2000-2001 school year, will expand and refine their skills, develop procedures to organize the assessment process, and provide staff development. Participants in the staff development will include regular and special education teachers, paraprofessionals, and related service providers. Staff development will include an overview of the principles of Universal Design and assistive technology, followed by training on the use of technologies that enable students with diverse learning needs to be successful in standards based curriculum activities. The after-school staff development sessions will focus on technologies available for high incidence diverse learners, as well as an overview of adaptive access devices and software.
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