89 Lighthouse Technology Grant Recipients for 2001-2002
The purpose of this grant program is to identify, enhance, and disseminate existing curriculum projects that have been implemented by classroom teachers. These projects will demonstrate effective models of teaching that incorporate new technology to motivate and support students in their learning the content of the district's curriculum guidelines and the state's learning standards. The teachers who originally implemented these projects will serve as mentors to their colleagues and new teachers, and the projects should become models for other classrooms in the school, other schools within the districts, and/or other districts in the state.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
|
Kathy McMahon
978-356-2976 |
Project Title: Water, Water, Everywhere
Project Overview:
The fourth grade curriculum at the Winthrop School in Ipswich, Massachusetts centers around the comprehensive study of water. Water as a theme naturally fits the needs of our town. Ipswich is situated on the ocean with beautiful Crane's Beach as its main tourist attraction and the endangered Ipswich River also meanders through this picturesque town. This river is impacted yearly by droughts and over use. The theme of water ties together the fourth grade science topics (Objects in the Sky - the search for water, Water - chemistry. conservation, and properties, Weather, and Ipswich Salt Marshes) with the social studies topics of ancient civilizations (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece/Rome, China - the need for water). Using water as the umbrella (no pun intended) for our studies, we are able to cover the following standards of the Frameworks: Science: objects in the sky (the search for water), the chemical composition of water, the properties and behaviors of water, states of matter, the water cycle, water conservation, water's impact on weather systems, and salt marshes of Ipswich. English/Language Arts: technical Writing Skills; writing to inform; writing to persuade
|
|
Lori Robbins
413-565-4270 |
Project Title: Webquest Jr. The Next Generation: The Promise of the Future, the Curriculum, the Learning Standards, and the Possibilities
Project Overview:
Grade 4 teachers and students worked collaboratively to develop a WebQuest Jr. Together they learned the WebQuest process, integrating their aligned curriculum, new software, Internet searching skills, and the possibilities the future has to offer to all of us. This allowed the students and teachers a unique opportunity to use these motivating, web-based resources and activities, complete with built in assessments, in the classroom, the computer lab, and at home. Success was measured by student/parent surveys, checklists, rubric attainments, test scores, electronic and paper portfolios, and journal reflections. This WebQuest Jr. allowed parent involvement through the home/school connection via the Internet and our webpage. While this project addresses grade 4 History and Social Science Curriculum Framework Standards, the process may be used to address any framework.
|
|
Cheryl Cunningham
978-937-7673 |
Project Title: Pass the Poems Please
Project Overview:
This exciting project immerses third grade students in poetry, involves just about all of the ELA standards, and utilizes technology and the Internet to support all learning endeavors. Students have various opportunities to examine the tools poets use, explore different types of poetry, research various poets, and create their own poems. Because poetry is easily read and enjoyed by young students, it provides a great vehicle for them to practice their reading and comprehension skills, build language skills, and use their imagination and creative thinking in writing and illustrating their own poems. Students use technology and the Internet to research poets and poetry terms, read poems online, participate in interactive poetry sites, and to write their own poems. Software such as Kid Pix Studio and Appleworks enable students to type, enhance, and publish poems, which can be compiled into individual poetry anthologies. In addition, various multimedia methods allow students to share their work with parents, fellow students, and with other poetry pals via oral presentations, visual displays, their individual anthologies, and on the Internet. The success of this initiative was evident by the students' enthusiastic participation! All students have a chance to feel successful whether it was through their dramatic performance, their artwork, or an original poem.
|
|
Janis Maliszewski
978-937-2826 x218 |
Project Title: Author Study: Patricia Polacco, Combining Literature and Technology
Project Overview:
Through Project MEET (2000-2001) a team of teachers in our school developed a series of Author Studies. These studies encompassed English/Language Arts Standards to perform research and present information through the integration of technology. The focus of the project is to develop and expand the use of written and oral communication skills through a variety of projects based on a specific author, using multimedia hardware and software. Students increase their English/ Language Arts experiences through trade books, individual and group projects and a specific rubric. The project has targeted all learning styles and abilities through universal design and the use of adaptive technology.
|
|
Kevin Smith
508-261-7540 |
Project Title: Interactive Geometry: Mentoring our District in the Application of Geometer's Sketchpad
Project Overview:
Students in grade 9-11 geometry classes at Mansfield High School have had the opportunity over the course of the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 school years to investigate and explore various mathematical situations via assignments utilizing classroom computers and Geometer's Sketchpad software. The integration of these investigative units speaks directly to Guiding Principle #3 (integration of technology is essential) and grade 9-10 Geometry standards of the Massachusetts Math Curriculum Frameworks, and provides a dynamic vehicle for understanding for many levels of students, from those in the special needs programs to those in the college preparatory integrated math courses to the advanced students who are ready to delve deeper into the inquiries they have begun.
The use of Interactive Geometry units has made the study of geometry more inquiry-based and student-centered at all grade levels, and has broadened the geometry teacher's role as facilitator of collaborative learning, something our faculty has found to be a necessary element of the teacher's role within a block-schedule learning environment. Year one of the project will consist of an online professional development workshop using the Virtual Education Space (VES), mentoring activities for the teachers involved and an in-service day workshop. In year two, the online professional development workshop will be opened up to teachers throughout the district and to teachers in other districts. Mentoring activities will continue in the Mansfield district through the Technology Vertical Articulation team.
The project team will begin to accumulate an archive of lesson plans, activities and other materials to be accessible for the district. In year three, the project team will create CD-ROMs containing the previously mentioned archives. A web site will be published and hosted using purchased hardware. The web site will contain information on the project, archived classroom materials, and links to other sites involving the Geometer's Sketchpad.
|
|
Bette Robblee
508-460-3605 |
Project Title: "I Spy" - Using Poetry and Technology to Categorize Objects
Project Overview:
Students in "I Spy" - Using Poetry and Technology to Categorize Objects Program use AlphaSmarts and a Digital Camera to take pictures of a group of items that have a characteristic in common. Working in collaboration with a buddy from a third grade class, first-graders write "I Spy" riddles using clues to reveal what they spied. The riddles are typed using the AlphaSmarts and transferred to computers for editing and printing. Students share their riddles with their classmates and buddies on an Intranet within each of the district K-3 schools. Original riddles and artwork are used to create a class book highlighting what they learned.
|
|
Woody Filley
508-693-1033 x138
Stephen Nixon
508-693-1033 x163 |
Project Title: The Electronic Enhanced (EEL) Classroom
Project Overview:
Can you imagine a school where children who lose class time for various reasons will still not miss class? Where students who wanted to review today's class exactly as it they saw it? Can you imagine students taking practice tests, improving their scores, and reducing test anxiety? EEL says you can! The Electronic Enhanced Learning (EEL) Classroom will initially focus on the Grade 9 Global Studies students at the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) and train additional staff from other departments to utilize these same practices for their classes. The Global 9 course has been completely aligned with the State's "History and Social Science" Curriculum Frameworks for the ninth grade. Since EEL addresses the course in its entirety, it will insure that all strands (1-4), standards (1-20), and core knowledge (2f-5f) are part of the student's learning. The project will be rich in the use of technology to provide the variety of learners' access to all class materials anytime and anywhere. The heart of this access will be the course web page which will include the converted electronic presentation documents used all classes; homework assignments and other out-of-class materials; practice tests for students; and a comprehensive list of web and other resources to enrich the classroom materials. Past experience has shown that student access to classroom resources in this format has had a dramatic impact on all levels of learners.
|
|
Valerie Becker
508-696-8617 |
Project Title: School's Out
Project Overview:
The challenge to create West Tisbury School's Out newspaper for a target audience (the Martha's Vineyard summer population) serves as a central curriculum activity for all seventh graders. Students work like professionals. They research and write the articles, produce artwork and photographs, sell ads, create them (meeting client requirements), layout the paper (tabloid size, 48 pages) and email it to the publisher, all by a designated deadline. The learning design includes multiple tasks and cooperative work between students, teachers and parents. The project is authentic and complex. The results prove that engaging middle school students in a real project can have a positive impact on their cognitive strategies and motivation. One of this year's goals for School's Out involves expanding it across all subject areas, including Science, Spanish and Math. This project-based learning environment allows our students constructive opportunities to be creative, express themselves, and become part of a community. The money earned ($13,000 to $18,000 from the sale of the ads) goes toward the expenses of their eighth grade trip.
|
|
Valerie Becker
508-696-8617 |
Project Title: Biography Project
Project Overview:
The Biography Project provides fourth grade students with a rich, multidisciplinary learning experience. It blends reading, writing, art, history and music. After choosing a person and reading biographies, students collect information from numerous sources in order to discover and understand the historical context of their characters. On 'Biography Night' they share their findings with a wide audience. Students dress as their characters, and parents, students and siblings are led to the computer lab for the presentation of their web pages displaying time lines, portraits, a typed biography and a poem written about each character. Then on to the cafeteria, where, in character, oral presentations are made and historical projects, props and written work is displayed. The emphasis is upon creativity and production, and the result is an exciting blend of fun and hard work. This is a summative learning experience. Students integrate and holistically represent what they have intensely studied over a period of time and develop the social and communication skills needed to help others learn. By publishing their work on the Internet, students are able to contribute to other student's knowledge. This year we will expand the 'Biography Project' to include geography and map reading (where the historical person lived, showing the world map with the time line so as to connect the expansion of Europeans and other cultures to the "New World" etc). We will elaborate upon the music component with music history, instruments, and performances. The 'Biography Night' will be streamed to the web so the world can ask questions of the "historical characters."
|
|
Susan Carson
Debbie Shapiro
978-887-2323 x6151 |
Project Title: The Use of Video for Documenting, Informing, and Presenting
Project Overview:
In 9th grade science, 12th grade internship programs, and (9th-12th) media communications class, students are finding that creating a video production (using camera, computer, video editing equipment) is an effective way to present their research findings, document their internship experience, and present their stories. In science, the teacher has followed the Inquiry and Experimentation area of the Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Frameworks. In the internship and journalism program, teachers are guiding students using the Media Strand (Standard 27) of the English Language Arts Frameworks that builds upon the previous standards. As stated in the Frameworks, to create an effective video production "entails as much discipline and satisfaction as writing a good essay. Both require clarity of purpose, selectivity in editing, and knowledge of the expressive possibilities of the medium used." In addition, all these projects meet Standard 3 of the proposed Instructional Technology Standards regarding using videos to interact and collaborate with peers. Students take great pride in their video productions and have the opportunity to present it to their peers, their teachers, their parents, and other members of the community. The teachers gain a lasting record of their students' work that can be shown in future years to inspire and teach new students.
|
|
Linda Morkeski
978-887-2323 |
Project Title: Virtual Nationalism
Project Overview:
The Virtual Nationalism Project is an interdisciplinary unit simulating a global environment through the use of VES (Virtual Education Space). Students designed their own countries, created national policy, engaged in international trade, and exchanged cultural items using real data gleaned from Internet sources and documents posted online by teachers. Students wrote extensively on various aspects of their country including cultural traits, mythology, institutions, birds, and animals. Via email and discussion boards, students not only traded with other countries online, but they also disseminated cultural information and even colonized other landmasses. The online component appealed to students of all ability levels, but particularly to the gifted and those reticent to participate in regular classroom activities. The addition of the VES tools made this project-based unit the most exciting unit of the year for teachers and students alike.
|
|
Elizabeth Wernig
508-634-1590
Nancy Thompson
508-634-1581 |
Project Title: What To DO With It All: KNOWLEDGE, Not Just Information
Project Overview:
Utilizing technology and the Big6 model of information literacy, teachers in grades 5 and 6 will develop technology enhanced, standards and inquiry based, interdisciplinary curriculum units. Teachers, and then students, will receive training in the Big6, six step model of information gathering, evaluation and synthesis and in the technologies that are utilized to access, evaluate, and utilize information through various modes of communication. Students and teachers will utilize wireless laptop computers and hand-held devices to access information, manipulate data and communicate their analyses. Peer coaching is an integral part of this project, with more veteran and technology savvy teachers assisting their colleagues. Curriculum units will be disseminated as widely as possible. The Media Center and Media Specialist as well as the Technology Integration Specialists at Miscoe Hill Elementary serve as crucial links between classroom teachers and their students and the technologies available to them for learning and communicating.
|
Previous | Next
last updated: January 1, 2002
|
State Government · State Services 
