85 Adopting Best Technology
Grant Recipients for 2001-2002
Project Descriptions
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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A. Ellen Prochilo
978-531-1600 x 472 |
Project Title: Study Groups for High School Departments
Project Overview:
This program utilizes a study group approach to professional development to share expertise and fully integrate technology toward improving standards-based instruction. Peabody will use the "Design Team" approach, a regionally recognized exemplary model of technology and curriculum integration. The district proposes to create five 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 five teachers each organized by grade-level groupings. Each group will contain a mixture of teachers with more than three years of experience and newer teachers. In each department-based study group, members will agree to focus on a common challenge in instruction and will explore ways to use technology to address that challenge. Departments to be included in this first year are English, mathematics, science and social studies. As teachers master new technology skills, group members will work collaboratively to create, implement, and evaluate model-learning activities that address their challenge and use their new skills. As a result of the project, each team member will have learned or refined a technological skill and created a model learning activity around the writing process. The District has contracted with FreshPond Education to implement their study group-based "Learning Network" program.
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Paul Lipman
413-253-3595 |
Project Title: Butterflies, Technology, and Buddies
Project Overview:
The Butterflies, Technology, and Buddies Project will adopt the outstanding Lighthouse project "Fly Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee" implemented by Swift River Elementary School. This project is both multi-disciplinary and cross-grade level. Sixth grade buddies will support first grade students as they stretch their emerging literacy skills in a science study of butterflies. First graders will raise Monarch butterflies from caterpillar to adult and monitor the discrete stages of the butterfly life cycle. They will share what they have learned by reading, writing, drama, and drawing about butterflies and other insects. Their sixth grade buddies will help support the first graders' literacy skills as reading partners, writing scribes, and technology coaches. Sixth graders will help turn still digital images into personal books for the first graders and digital video into projects that will allow the first graders to replay and reflect on what they have learned. Cross-grade partners will "travel" through the Internet as they follow the Monarch butterfly migration to Mexico through the Journey North Web site.
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Mary Johnson
413-498-5842 |
Project Title: Second Grade Entomologists
Project Overview:
With the right combination of encouragement, excitement, guidance and technology, Northfield Elementary School second graders will see themselves as scientists when they explore the amazing world of insects. In adopting Swift River School's exciting and technologically rich project, we will enhance and enrich our thematic unit which is based on AIMS (Activities Integrating Math and Science) materials. Our students will use electronic activities including graphing and charting, Internet-based research, digital still and video images, and computer-generated art. Computers will be used to reinforce and extend science concepts. Students will choose insects they have observed in nature to research on the Web. Using Kid Pix Studio, students will create a slide show as a way of sharing their research.
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Mary Leyden
413-648 9356 |
Project Title: "Using Real Life" Technology for "Real Life" Investigations of the Magnificent Connecticut River
Project Overview:
Elementary students collecting data with Palm Pilots and probes? Unbelievable, but true! As members of their multiage classroom, Rockport Elementary students, as young as first grade, are using "real life" technology tools to gather "real life" data for their scientific investigation of the ocean. In addition, these students are documenting their discoveries and outcomes using spreadsheets and electronic journals. To educate others about their findings, they are creating slideshows and movies that chronicle their journey through the scientific process. As the Atlantic Ocean is to the children of Rockport, so is the magnificent Connecticut River to the children of Bernardston. In adopting Rockport's Project I.M.PA.C.T., Bernardston Elementary teachers and students will gain the knowledge and skill to integrate the use of "real life" technology into our study of the Connecticut River. Although teachers from grades 3 - 6 will be involved in the staff development component of this project, our third grade class will be the focus of the implementation for the year 2001-2002. Both schools will expand their use of technology to include the use of water quality data collection probes and video conferencing technology for "real life" classroom collaboration between the two schools.
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Irene Vassos
413-499-9507 |
Project Title: Access to Learning: Using the Assistive Technology Tools to Create and Adapt Effective Lesson Materials
Project Overview:
The Pittsfield Public School District has helped to pioneer some very creative projects using technology. We have come to recognize that when effective electronic tools and professional development are provided, teachers, and in turn students, can benefit immensely from the dynamic and interactive qualities of technology. This project combines the initiatives of our past SWAT team with a project that promises to push students and teachers to new levels of both efficiency and competency. Our technology goals are grounded in curriculum goals and standards. The focus of the project will be to develop curriculum initiatives and teacher material models based on the Springfield Public Schools Assistive Technology Center. Our goal is to develop a set of teaching materials, logged in a district database, using current lesson plans, and adapting them for special needs students. A major focus of this effort will be the forging of new relationships between classroom teachers, special education teachers, and curriculum specialists.
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Richard O'Brien
617-984-8770 |
Project Title: Math Study Groups
Project Overview:
In an effort to improve math instruction from kindergarten all the way through twelfth grade, the Quincy Public School district proposes to create four study groups of teachers that will focus on weaknesses in the math curriculum and methods of using technology to address those weaknesses. Participating teachers will join together in four study groups of five teachers each organized by grade-level groupings (early, elementary, middle, and high). In each study group, members will agree to focus on a common challenge in math instruction and will explore ways to use technology to address that challenge. As teachers master new technology skills, they will work collaboratively to create, implement, and evaluate model learning activities that address their challenge and use their new skills. As a result of the project, each team member will have learned or refined a technological skill and created a model learning activity that targets a weakness in math instruction.
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Marcia F. Kessler
508-763-2049 |
Project Title: Writing Anytime, Anywhere
Project Overview:
Writing Anytime, Anywhere explores the use of AlphaSmarts for improving teaching and learning in all subject areas. The Rochester Memorial fourth grade teachers are emphasizing the use of AlphaSmarts in three main areas: 1) Writing Activities, including Accordion writing, sequential responding, group looping, and integration into the Sitton writing program. 2) Internet activities including the creation of text-based Web pages. 3) Presentations including spreadsheets, and text components of a hypermedia presentation. AlphaSmarts will be available for use at home, as well as at school, thereby increasing access to instructional technologies for all students.
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Stephen O'Connor
978-546-1250
Cameron Smith
978-546-9209 |
Project Title: Curriculum Sharing via VES
Project Overview:
This project's objective is to enable a K-12 team of math teachers to produce a curriculum and lesson plans that are consistent with the Massachusetts curriculum frameworks and that support a clear progression in growth of competencies through all grades. Part of the project's goal is to produce curriculum resources that are easily shareable within the district and with others. We will achieve this by adopting Gloucester's Curriculum Sharing via VES project. In brief, the project will create a K-12 team of math teachers that will use VES/CLASP (Curriculum Alignment and Sharing Project) to adopt, construct, and share a matrix (database) that will support the creation of lesson plans. A team member will post a lesson plan, coding it to relate to the relevant standard(s). The team will probably decide to work in vertical slices across K-12 in order to reach consensus on consistency and quality. Succeeding teachers will thus be able to refer to more and more enabling on-line examples, so the work of populating the database should get easier. A final step will be to introduce a consistent before-and-after rubric to test learning of each standard or even lesson plan, thus beginning to address quality.
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John Fortunato
978-740-1111 |
Project Title: Cardiovascular Wellness Using Technology
Project Overview:
The Cardiovascular Wellness Using Technology project will target physical education students in grade 9. The main objective of this grant is to provide every ninth grade student at Salem High School with accurate and sustainable knowledge of how heart rate impacts fitness and to enable each student to develop a lifetime fitness program. To achieve this objective, the high school will integrate heart rate monitors into the scope and sequence of the physical education program. A wireless transmitter strapped to each student's chest will accurately transmit the student's heart rate to a wristwatch monitor and continually display the student's pulse throughout various activities. Each watch will be programmed for a safe target zone to improve the individual's fitness and or training level. Upon completing an activity, the heart rate monitor will interface with a computer and the student's data can be analyzed in a variety of ways. The accurate information obtained from the monitors will be compiled in the students' individual fitness portfolios. This data will help students develop a concrete understanding of their own wellness and provide the foundation for the development of a fitness plan that will meet their needs now and in the future. This ninth grade fitness portfolio will follow students through matriculation at Salem High School.
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Jane Macdonald
508-888-1054 x12 |
Project Title: Instructional Technology Implementation: Project MEET
Project Overview:
The challenge of integrating technology is, in large function, that of attitude of believing that one can be successful with the use of and integration of technology. Every educator can be trained to use technology, although not all educators believe this of themselves. The Sandwich High School (SHS) Project MEET team has been successful in helping educators become comfortable with the integration of technology and has developed a six-component system of professional development and support which has significantly increased technology integration at SHS. These six components are 1) modeling of successful integration, 2) just-in-time support, 3) professional growth plan, 4) study groups, 5) tutorials, and 6) invention sessions. The techniques and support provided by the Project MEET staff at SHS has substantively changed instructional practice, including the full implementation of VES, new rubrics for the design of instructional units, the integration of instructional technologies within all subject areas, and the development of a new Technology/Careers program. We want to adopt the successful methodologies and professional practices of Project MEET within the three K-8 buildings in Sandwich.
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Jane Macdonald
608-888-1054 x12 |
Project Title: SaTL Adoption: Barnstable High School Computer Repair and Help Desk
Project Overview:
Women and minorities continue to be underrepresented in computer science programs, representing less than 3% of college graduates in these programs. This number has been decreasing despite outreach efforts to entice more women into the field. These efforts have focused primarily on exposing young women and minorities to underrepresented fields of study, as well as to the people gainfully employed in those fields. However, young women and minorities need more than just exposure. They need practical opportunities to demonstrate their competency and capability of mastering the material. Under the guidance of Charles Shark, Barnstable High School recognized this need and organized a Lighthouse Grant that created a curricula to prepare women, minorities, and special education students for the technology workforce. Barnstable High School developed a comprehensive program including conferences, training in basic computer literacy, A+ and Networking classes, and mentors to ensure that young women and minorities developed the skills and attitudes necessary for success in the world of technology.
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Florence Smith
781-784-1570 |
Project Title: Applying the Use of Hand Held Devices to Writing Across the Curriculum
Project Overview:
Cottage Street School (grade 5) will adopt the model of Mobile Writing Labs used by Westford's Norman Day School. Grade 5 teachers systemwide have indicated the need for word-processing devices to improve students' writing skills. Teachers reported that it is difficult for students to accomplish writing goals in a timely fashion as computer access is limited. The use of AlphaSmarts in mobile labs will provide students with the technology to write, revise, and print using classroom computers. Cottage Street students will be trained with the help of Norman Day pupils; then they will become mentors in an outreach program with the grade 5 students in the other two Sharon schools.
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David Gilberti
617-625-6600 |
Project Title: Performance Assessment Portfolios: Creating Student-Centered Digital Video
Project Overview:
This technology-centered project will be established in our first and second grades with their respective teachers, the reading specialist, and the computer technology specialist. The integrated unit of English Language Arts, mathematics, and technology will be a student-centered assessment project that will create digital portfolios for improvement in reading comprehension for students across these grades. It will be modeled after the Harrington Elementary School Adoption Grant. Students will put samples of their best writing (scanned or imported from a word processing document) and speaking abilities (sound or video clips) into their electronic portfolio computer files. These files will be created throughout the school year to help the students self-evaluate their progress in reading from the beginning of the project until the end of the year. The goal of the project is to teach students to reflect on and assess their own learning growth and to give all students a vehicle to showcase their talents. Students with varied learning styles will be motivated by this visual, hands-on method of self assessment.
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Karyn Stodulski
508-481-2300 |
Project Title: Reading Counts!
Project Overview:
Southborough's third and fourth grade classrooms at the Neary School will adopt a program that integrates technology and reading. Based on a model used in the Triton Regional School District, we will incorporate two technology programs, Scholastic Reading Counts and Scholastic Reading Inventory, into a guided reading model. The intent is to provide a way of meeting the diverse, individual needs of all the students in each classroom. Students will use information from a database to choose appropriate trade books and complete computer based quizzes, specific to the chosen texts. Ongoing assessments will be used to monitor students' progress. Our goal is to provide students with the skills they will need for future success, and a lifelong love of reading!
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Mary Lou DiBella
413-787-7073 |
Project Title: Adopting VES, supplemented by our Assistive Technology Model to develop a school-wide multimedia literacy magazine.
Project Overview:
The project will address English Language Arts in kindergarten through fifth grade at the Armory Street School. This project will adopt VES and the Springfield Assistive Technology Center to provide training to staff in using technology. VES will be used to facilitate the development of lesson plans meeting universal design standards. This project will focus on organizing our student writing efforts into a monthly multimedia literacy magazine while applying our knowledge about VES. The magazine will be accessible to students through print and through networked computers, enabling children to share writing products with the necessary software support. Use of VES will provide us with lesson plan rubrics to assure comprehensive and unified lesson planning across grade levels. In addition, VES is an ideal source for dissemination. Working with the Armory Street staff on the project will be Jackie Bedinelli, technology teacher for next year; Mary Lou DiBella, autism teacher; and Susan Giordano, first grade inclusion teacher (all from the Armory Street School).
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Paula Moran
413-787-7068 |
Project Title: VES Connects Curriculum through Collaboration and Communication
Project Overview:
Springfield Public Schools will continue its implementation and expansion of its 2000-2001 Virtual Education Space (VES) grant. The previously trained coaches and academic department resource teachers will work to refine and clarify the district Lesson Plan Quality Assurance Rubric draft so that it best addresses the district's vision and mission. This grant will provide continuing support and training for the VES coaches. Funding will increase the depth of the project through the addition of 33 schools; the previously trained coaches are well equipped to mentor this second phase of coaches in a train-the-trainer model using the communication and collaboration tools available through VES. This VES level of technology implementation will enable classroom curriculum to be more easily aligned to both the curriculum frameworks and the district learning outcomes. The school-based coaches will focus on the management of the VES school organization site to enable the delivery of school-based VES organization mapping, lesson plan development, lesson plan peer review efforts, lesson plan sharing, online plan books and online assessment tools to better facilitate learning through communication and collaboration.
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Lori Stoddard
413-787-7303 |
Project Title: The Talmadge Literacy Challenge Grant
Project Overview:
Talmadge Elementary School in Springfield will adopt Project MEET to work with Grade 5 on integrating technology into the History and Social Science Curriculum frameworks. Project MEET (Massachusetts Empowering Educators with Technology) is a statewide initiative with the goal of improving teaching and learning through the use of technology. Talmadge Project MEET will allow us to purchase a cart of mobile laptops. In the fall of 2001 professional development related to this project will begin. Following professional development, the core team working on the integration of technology will provide instruction to grade 5 students in the use of laptops and the Internet. This will allow the students to access the necessary information to align our curriculum with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks in the area of history and social science. A technology integration specialist with the Springfield Public Schools will train teachers.
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Eric Bouvier
508-581-1605 |
Project Title: Lights, Camera, Broadcast
Project Overview:
Lights, Camera, Broadcast has been conceived as a collaborative effort to help five school districts in the Blackstone Valley develop successful video production programs for grades 9-12. The five participating school districts (Sutton, Millbury, Uxbridge, Mendon-Upton, and Blackstone-Millville) will adopt Northbridge High School's video production program, which uses digital video cameras and editing boards to develop student-produced videos. The adopting districts will receive training on various areas of video production, as well as new equipment, to help with the filming and editing of at least one student produced video. Completed student videos will be broadcast over local cable television stations in all participating towns and made available on tape to all participants.
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last updated: January 1, 2002
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