News

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2008 Sylvia Charp Award for District Innovation in Technology. Tell us about the unique or inventive technology programs your district has implemented and you could win this year's award!

The Charp Award is presented annually by T.H.E. Journal and ISTE to recognize the best district-wide technology program in the country. The winning entry is chosen on the basis of consistent district commitment to excellence and overall success of the program. The winning district will:

• Be honored at the NECC 2008 Conference in San Antonio, TX
• Receive $2,000 for travel and registration expenses to attend NECC
• Be recognized in both T.H.E. Journal and Learning and Leading with Technology

Join an elite group of past recipients of the Charp Award:

• 2007: Calcasieu Parish, Lake Charles (LA)
• 2006: Niles Township High School District (IL)
• 2005: Kiel Area School District (WI)
• 2004: Irving Independent School District (TX)

Deadline for submissions: March 14, 2008.

Technology & Learning and 21st Century Connections is launching a new multimedia video contest to challenge the imagination and creativity of your students. And the great news is that if they win, you win, too!

The list of prizes includes a high performance Lenovo laptop computer , Adobe Digital School collection software , professional development classes , and airfare and accommodations for an upcoming 21st Century Connections event.

To enter, your student needs to create a public service announcement—a short video that showcases why digital learning tools are critical to your school or curriculum. If the video is chosen as one of our 12 winners, you and the student could win a digital prize package that will take you to the next level of digital filmmaking. The contest, sponsored by the 21st Century Connections program, is open to all K-12 students.

The U.S. Department of Education's Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative is accepting nominations for 2008 American Stars of Teaching until March 31. Parents, students, colleagues, school administrators and others can nominate an exemplary teacher who they believe has the qualities to be an American Star of Teaching.

We are seeking nominations of teachers across the United States who are improving student achievement, using innovative strategies in the classroom and making a difference in the lives of their students. Teachers across all grade levels and disciplines will be honored as 2008 American Stars of Teaching this fall.

The U.S. Department of Education received more than 4,000 nominations for the 2007 school year.

The yearly Intel Schools of Distinction Awards recognize U.S. schools that implement innovative, replicable programs that inspire their students and lead to positive educational outcomes in the areas of math and science. Find out how your school can apply at the link below!

For the fifth year HP will be partnering with ISTE to provide professional development for K-12 teams participating in the 2008 HP Technology for Teaching grant program, which will award grants of nearly $7 million in cash and equipment. K-12 grants are available to public schools in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Higher Education grants are available to public and private, two- and four-year colleges and universities throughout North America (Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S.). The higher education initiative is specifically targeting faculty teaching selected disciplines within math, science, engineering, information systems, and computer science.

Web-based applications are due by 5 p.m. PST, February 14, 2008.

The Nineteenth Annual Education Technology Fair will be held February 7, 2008, at the State Capitol in Topeka. This Fair showcases some of the outstanding education technology programs currently being used for the education of Kansas students. The projects on display will represent all sizes of schools and districts, indicating the importance and need for programs of this nature.

Please consider completing the Application for Exemplary Program Exhibit at the Education Technology Fair. This is an excellent opportunity for educators and students to showcase their school and the technological advances they have made for the improvement of student learning.

Board members of MACE will review applications. Those education technology projects showing promise in contributing to improvement of student achievement will be given priority.

Applications to participate are due to KSDE by October 26, 2007.

In celebration of its 25th anniversary, Inspiration Software has expanded its Inspired Teacher Scholarships for Visual Learning program.The 2007-2008 scholarships will recognize 25 educators who are creatively using visual learning to help their students think and learn with $1,000 awards to support professional development or new technology for their classrooms. In addition, one outstanding educator will receive a special award for "Best Overall Visual Learning Project." Applications for the 2007-2008 Inspired Teacher Scholarships will be available at www.inspiration.com/scholarship on Sept. 25.

The grant includes:
*Free access to the In2Books online learning curriculum units and platform for one academic year: Introductory, Realistic Fiction, Social Studies, Biography, Folktales and Science
*Free books for students, teachers and pen pals for units 1-3
*Toolkit for recruiting ePals from the local community
*Free read-aloud books to introduce each unit
*Free online professional development
*Free access to the global community of In2Books teachers
*Free email for students and teachers in a safe and secure environment

Deadline for application has been extended through July 15th

In2Books has a fun way for kids and families to keep reading and learning this summer. This FREE online program will motivate your child to read great books and build new interests. The program engages your child and the pen pal you've chosen in a learning adventure that builds reading writing and thinking skills in a fun, safe way. Additionally, everyone who participates in the In2Books Summer Reading program will be able to buy books at up to 40%off retail all summer long!

An article recently published in the Garden City Telegram profiled Stanton County USD 252's technology initiatives, including their Technology Rich Classrooms! Click to read the article below:

Sixth Grade students worked with their 2nd grade Learning Buddies to count and graph 100 M&M’s and color a bar graph showing the breakdowns of the colors. Then the 6th grade students generated the data into a computer made graph. Pictures of the activity were taken and put in to the final printed product. Then the Sixth Grade students converted the percentages into decimals, fractions and reduced fractions.

Abilene's Garfield Elementary experience with Electronic Field Trips was elevated to a whole new level this year! A Phase I TRC School participant, Garfield was selected from 100's of schools by Ball State University to help produce the Feb. 2007 live broadcast of the electronic field trip "Manzanar: Desert Diamonds Behind Barbed Wire". Garfield 5th Grade students, parents and staff participated in a number of events leading up to the Februrary trip, which saw a representative team from the school travel to Manzanar, California to be involved with the actual broadcast event. Garfield's 5th grade teachers also supported the field trip by publishing lesson plans for Ball State. Congrats and Thank You to Garfield!

The March 2007 issue of Scholastic's District Administration magazine has published an article highlighting the Kansas Technology Rich Classrooms project! The statewide project funded through Enhancing Education Through Technology/NCLB Title IID is receiving growing attention as participating schools, teachers, and students enjoy exciting learning opportunities while building content area knowledge!

The Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative is pleased to announce its 2007 Summer Workshop Schedule. Regional workshops will be held in 22 cities across the United States to provide free high-quality professional development opportunities for teachers. Prominent educators will share best practices in all grade levels and content areas. Agendas will be posted during January and February and registration begins on April 8, 2007. This year's co-hosts include the National Park Service, NASA, Microsoft, Siemens, EMC, AMD, Symantec, University of Nevada, Motorola, General Motors, and Target.

Does your school demonstrate excellence in math and science? The 2007 Intel Schools of Distinction awards recognizes schools who demonstrate excellence in implementing innovative, replicable programs supporting positive educational outcomes in the areas of math and science achievement.

Don't miss this opportunity to apply for the Intel Schools of Distinction Award! Six winners will be selected - one from each grade range, K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 - in each of the two categories of math and science.

Each winning school will receive a $10,000 cash grant from the Intel Foundation, as well as $150,000 in products and services from the program awards' sponsors. One of the final six winners will be identified as the Star Innovator for 2007. This school will receive an additional $15,000 cash grant from the Intel Foundation as well as supplemental services and products from the award sponsors.

Application deadline is February 28, 2007. Two schools from Kansas were finalists last year!

Want to apply for a TRC Grant? The Phase 5 Technology Rich Classroom Grant RFP is available! Grants will be accepted from Jan 11 through Feb. 1 (1:00pm CST Deadline on Feb 1). Grants will be awarded in April 2007.

Elkhart's TRC project is highlighted in the December "Innovators" articles in THE Journal! Way to go Elkhart!

American Stars recognizes and honors superior teachers with a track record of improving student achievement, using innovative instructional strategies, and making a difference in the lives of their students. These teachers will be highlighted as representatives of the thousands of teachers who are making a difference in the classroom. The next group of American Stars of Teaching will be identified in each state and the District of Columbia and will represent all grade levels and disciplines. Officials from the U.S. Department of Education will again be visiting the classes of each American Star to congratulate them on their success.

Nominations will be accepted through April 1, 2007.

Technology Rich Classroom Days will be held across the state in November to provide an opportunity for interested schools, school leaders, legislators, parents, business and community members to experience the excitement of the Kansas Technology Rich Classroom (TRC) Project!

The project is funded primarily through the Enhancing Education through Technology Grant program. Targeting classrooms in Grades 3-6, the project provides extensive training, support and 21st century learning tools to empower teachers to create rigorous, relevant and collaborative learning opportunities for students in the content areas of reading, math and science.

Those attending will have an opportunity to:

•Learn about the Technology Rich Classroom Program in Kansas
•Learn how the local school has benefited from the program.
•Observe the teacher & student benefits of a Technology Rich Classroom project.

For participating schools, dates, times and registration/contact information, check the EVENTS link!

Are you an inspired educator? Inspiration Software is offering 30 scholarships in the amount of $750 each to educators who are champions of visual learning and technology. Award categories: Educators with at least one year of service are encouraged to apply in any of five categories. Click on any of the categories below to view scholarship guidelines, apply online or download an application Inspired Teacher Scholarships for Visual Learning Rookie Awards for Visual Learning Best Inspiration® Project Best Kidspiration® Project Best InspireData™ Project Deadline for entry: The Inspired Teacher Scholarship program is now open for entry. Applicants can apply online or fax or mail applications to Inspiration Software by January 11, 2007 for consideration. 2007 scholarship recipients will be announced on February 26, 2007.

4Kids staff would like to involve you (TRC Facilitators, Teachers AND students) in the creative discovery and authorship of content for future issues because we think that the process will help sharpen your skills to evaluate credible web resources for the classroom and get published so that over 3 million readers see your work.

September 30 Deadline Best Buy te@ch schools, use technology to make learning fun. * Each year Best Buy will present up to 1,200 schools with $2,500 te@ch awards* o $15,000 will be awarded to up to 36 schools** o $250,000 will be awarded to 1 school district*** * Total amount awarded: More than $3.5 million * Awards go to K-12 public, private and parochial schools using interactive technology in classrooms. * Schools must be within 50 miles of a Best Buy store to apply. * Educators must apply between July 1 and September 30. * Winning schools are announced in February

Took my grant teachers to NECC in San Diego, had a wonderful time and we won FOUR sets of eInstruction CPS Response Pads. Excited deesn't describe it!! We have also added two SmartBoards this year and United Streaming!!!! This week, the battery recall has impacted 50 of our 75 laptops. So....... Could be a challenge until the new batteries arrive. Although, the teachers and kids are all wondering how they will survive without the laptops, so in a round about way, that is good, IT IS WORKING!!!!

This is a news article from the Newton Kansan. In Kathy Murphy's fifth grade class, we had a high tech treasure hunt for our Easter party. Click on the link to read the article.

We've updated and moved our Instructional Technology TechSpot website for the TRC project at Tescott Elementary School. Included are projects by students and teachers, and some of our teachers' lesson plans, and a page all about our students' blogs.

Here is a link to the EETT Website for the schools supported by the Education Service Center-Greenbush: http://eett.greenbush.org. The resources added to this website are those used by the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers involved in the project! Without a doubt, this website is always a work in progress!

Newton Phase 2 TRC decided for their year 2 grant to share their knowledge with other interested 4th and 5th grade teachers in the district. To date, they have held 3 all day training sessions. Both large group and small group activities have been used to introduce and train teachers on literacy and adapting levels of integrating technology into the curriculum. The first session left everyone in a bit of a daze and questioning if they wanted to continue. By the end of the third session, they have experienced such success they are looking for ways to continue into year 3 and beyond.

This can't be year 2 already with our EETT grant! Last year flew so quickly, as we practiced integrating technology into our classrooms. This year is going just as quickly, and we are accomplishing so much more!! We began the year setting goals for ourselves and our students. We are reaching those goals and adding more!! Our teachers are recording podcasts, working on incredible across-the-curriculum projects, and learning to use our new "Clickers" to make learning more meaningful for students. Communicating with our communities about our success with the grant was also a goal that we selected to work on this year. The Colby team has made two presentations to faculty and community members so far. We are sad to see the year, and the end of our grant, come to an end, but we know the fantastic learning taking place now will continue long beyond that!

This grant supports classroom teachers who undertake action research inquiries about literacy and instruction. Grants will be awarded up to US$5,000, although priority will be given to smaller grants (e.g., $1,000 to $2,000) in order to provide support for as many teacher researchers as possible. Completed applications must be received by January 15.

They are in the beginning stages, but all the grant and other grade level teachers and a few others as well have a website up. At our Dec. 19th training we plan to work on them again and clean them up and improve, but I think it is quite an accomplishment for all them to have a site up. Right now, they are not overly excited about people looking at them so I won't share the address until next week. But, check back next week and all the links will be avialble for you to view. I am very proud of my teachers. This is a huge accomplishment.

As we entered our second year in the grant, we welcomed in a new teacher; Erin Vatne is a first year teacher at Garfield Elementary School....and she is AWESOME. While we have all been using technology integration, she has jumped into the program with such vigor. There isn't a day that goes by that she doesn't use some type of technology integration in her lessons. While she may have missed the first year of our program, she is making up for it by learning and practicing during her spare time. We began this year by setting goals for ourselves and our students. The time has flown and the progress is evident. One of our main goals was to develop websites for our classrooms, as well as the program in general. Happily, we are making strides, and we believe our finished site will be useful to the teachers in our district. The teachers are putting lessons, activitites, and templates on their sites to help guide teachers just beginning in their quest for ideas. Additionally, our district offers technology inservices to further aid teachers in acquiring these skills. With a great start to the year, we know that we have much yet to accomplish in the second half. Stay tuned!

The RFP to apply for a Technology Rich Classroom Grant has been released by KSDE.

As the facilitor, it sure is fun when you get the chance to be Santa Clause in November. In our training this week we learned NEW things. Each classroom received their iSight web cameras, iPods, iTalk mics, Wacom tablets, and Video Cameras. Boy was it fun. This morning I have already video conferenced from my office on campus with two teachers needing help. Pretty slick to say the least. I am amazed at the progress my teachers are making. The fear is gone and they have become risk takers and are eager to learn new things every day. In addition, all have a Website up and going. I am so proud of them!!!

The Up, Up, and Away project is an interactive project that will engage students in learning about the world around them. Participating elementary classes at Irving and Woodland will release helium filled latex balloons (biodegradable) with attached cards containing school and classroom information. Each card will also contain an e-mail address and contact information so that balloon recipients can contact the school. Students will collect the data received and post it on our TRC web site and on a map showing the location where the balloons were found. Students will track information about the temperature, climate, and geographical landmarks of the response cards. At the culmination of the project (at the teacher's discretion) students may choose to plan a trip to their favorite charted location. This project can be differentiated by the number of indicators that are included in the final project. For example: The 5th grade classroom might plan a trip (to their favorite location). For the trip they would need to write a technical paragraph describing the major highways they will be traveling on, or cities and landmarks they will be passing through. They will need to create a budget for expenses (gas, food, and lodging). Additionally the standard of measurement can be integrated by calculating timed stops and as mileage. A 3rd grade classroom may decide to focus on scale, graphing the mean, median, range, and mode of distances that the balloons have traveled.

Since I was involved in the Phase One of EETT, I am so excited to be doing this again only better. We are doing trainings every Monday afternoon and about every third training, we invite teachers from across the school district to come. There are about 25 that take us up on this offer each time. I am finding that these sessions really give my Washington teachers a shot confidence because they are so far ahead and can help the others. It is really making a difference all the way around, in the grant and in helping other teachers grow with technology. We are working on classroom webpages and hope to have them up on the interent by Oct. 1.

Teachers at Irving Elementary use current events of hurricane Katrina to engage their students in the learning process. Shannon Banta and Heather Blake use HPR*TEC's TrackStar to help their students learn more about natural power of hurricanes. Students research questions about hurricanes using web sites like National Geographic, Miami Science, and Tropical Twisters. Of course the rooms were full of excited chatter. "Oh man, that is too cool!" and "The eye of a hurricane can be 20 miles long..... that is huge!!" These are just of few of the excited comments heard and students worked in pairs. The students are also initiating a fund raising project at Irving to help raise awareness and money for the hurricane victims.

Gee Whiz.... what a wonderful day of training on August 2, SUPER FANTASTIC!! We began with Garage Band and made wonderful music. It was so much fun! Then we did a little planning for that magic "teach the consititution day" in September. We also explored a few other resources. The afternoon was spent working on our classroom websites. I can't wait for everyone to see them. Our goal is to have them up on the web by Aug 25th. So far, they are looking great. As the facilitator, I am just excitied about how far these teachers have come this summer. Just absolutely incredible!!! I am so proud!!! We have also create a MOODLE site. You can login as a Guest if you want to access our resources. It is set up by week and will just grow and grow.

Wow!! We did a full day (8:30-4:30) on June 22 and a full day on July 7. Our next training is August 2. What is cool about this grant is that not only are the OFFICIAL grant classroom teachers participating in training, but every teacher in the school is participating. It is so cool!!! Everybody! Every classroom teacher in the building has a laptop now. Yesterday, we began creating their classroom websites. We are using eZedia QTI2®. Quite a challenge, but they are really excited about it and we are hoping to have at least a basic classroom website on the internet by the time school begins. We have a Blog!!!

On Tuesday, May 31, 2005, the teachers from the Washington Elementary (USD 489, Hays) had their first training. We were planning a full day, but our computers did not arrive as planned. They were on a truck on the way, but didn't arrive. So, being the flexible teachers we are, we moved to my lab on the Fort Hays State University campus. Well, it went fine, but needless to say, was a completely different direction than I had planned. Next training is June 22, pray for computers!!!!

Students from Hutton Elementary of Chanute, Marmaton Valley Elementary of Moran, Yates Center Elementary, and Lincoln Elementary School of Fredonia are communicating with students from other schools throughout the world. Since January, students from Hutton Elementary and Yates Center Elementary have learned a great deal about tsunamis and what is happening in a village, Mawella, that was destroyed by the tsunami. The students are communicating with a family from Colombo, Sri Lanka. This family has taken pictures of the village and e-mailed to the students. The Kansas students in return have wrote letters to the children of Mawella, gathered and mailed school supplies, and sent infomation about Kansas tornados! The Tashkent International School and students in Mrs. King's class have been e-mailing journal entries to one another. They are also sharing pictures and video clips! We are also working on a videoconference between the two schools! Fifth grade students from Yates Center Elementary have recently started to communicate with students in Greece and Billings, Montana. They will be sharing book reviews along with many other activities. Finally, students from Ms. Bever's fifth grade class will be posting their States & Capitals commercials to their classroom webpage and students from Prior Lake, Minnesota will be scoring the commercials! Congratulations, students and teachers on your adventures in your Technology Rich Classrooms!

Laura Turpin's 5th grade communications students are now officially published authors. The students created a book with a new twist to an old idea. They created alphabet books focusing on the 50 states. However, rather than use the states first letter, they were assigned a random letter for each state and then required to make a page for the state highlighting little known facts about the state to go with their letter. For instance, E was for New Hampshire. By using this method, students used skills for searching and researching on the Internet to gather new and interesting content for their pages. The completed book willl be publised in a hardback copy and shared with the school. This project allowed the students to create content that was a change from the typical information about states to details and facts that were exciting and creative.

The Wichita TRC Project has just launched an on-line collaboration site to the world called The Wild Weather Project. They would like to invite and 4th and 5th grade teachers to join them. Students will have the chance to collaborate with other classrooms around the world in this exciting project. All of the activities and documents to go with this project have been created; all teachers will need to do is sign up if they are interested. The whole project is standards based and can be an extension of what teachers are already doing in their classrooms; or it could be part of a bigger unit. Please visit the site today to register. http://itd.usd259.com/trc/wildweatherproject/WildWeatherProject.htm Teachers are always looking for ways to make learning both educational yet fun for their students. And what better way to accomplish that then by participating in an On-line Project!! Brad Niessen Instructional Technology Specialist & Technology Rich Classrooms Trainer Instructional Technology Department Wichita Public Schools 316-973-4743

This article was provided by Barb Lorson, 4th grade teacher at Hope Elementary.
The Zoo Project was a group activity used as an assessment following the completion of the animla unit in Science. The class was divided into groups of 3 or 4 students. Each group was assigned a section of the zoo: Africa, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, and the Aquarium. The students were to research their area and choose 4 animals to place in their section. Most chose to use the internet for research, but some used the library for information also. Each group made a map of their section illustrating the habitat and animals. The information they gathered was presented using PowerPoint. A description of the animal, types of adaptations, and a description of the habitat were included in the presentation given to the class and to the third grade class. All of the instructions and websites were placed on a web worksheet using www.4teachers.org. That way if students wanted to work from home, they could. The parents could also check the web worksheet to see what their child was supposed to be doing. The rubric used to grade the project was made using Rubistar which is located at the same website. The students really enjoyed combining technology and art to complete the assignment. Science turned out to be their favorite part of the day while we were working on the project.

This article was provided by Barb Lorson, 4th grade teacher at Hope Elementary School.
After reading a fairytale in our basal reader, I divided the class into groups. Together they wrote an original fairytale. They divided the fairytale into sections and then took pictures using the digital camera that would illustrate the sections. The students made props and brought costumes that would enhance their fairytales. Once they had downloaded their pictures onto theit computers, the fairytales were typed onto slides using PowerPoint, and the pictures were then inserted into their PowerPoint presentations. The class showed their fairytales to each other and their book buddies, the Kindergarten class. I used rubistar located at www.4teachers.org to make my assessment rubric. The kids loved this project. It seemed to make writing painless!

TRC teachers from Cheylin, Ellis, Hanston, Kinsley-Offerle, Phillipsburg and Victoria will have two days of training using eZedia QTI 2. The training will be on Sunday, March 6, and Monday, March 7 in Picken Hall room 330 at Fort Hays State University. Jane Madden from North Carolina will be instructing the TRC teachers. This multi-day training replaces the usual one day of training a month for the TRC teachers at FHSU.

4th grade students in Solomon paired with 5th grade students in Osawatomie and created a creature swap. The students in each class began by creating a creature. Then they wrote out the directions for recreating their creature. The directions were then posted to the group TRC website. The students accessed the internet, and found the directions for a creature from the partner school. They followed the directions carefully and recreated the creature. All the pictures were scanned in and posted to the group TRC website. The students could then see how well their directions were written and how well they were followed. They are using these same creature to participate in the world wide Monster Exchange®.

The 5th grade students in Mr. Brown's class have been reading the novel, The Tails of the Bronx: A Tale of the Bronx. One of the themes in this novel is homelessness. The neighborhood children discover one of their own neighbors is homeless. Mr. Brown guided his students through several internet resources, so the students could create a clearer picture of what homelessness looks like and how it happens.

The students then worked in pairs and created a brochure. The students included facts they had learned about homelessness as well as ways they could help.

It was rewarding to watch the students get emotionally involved with this nationwide problem. They truly have the desire to help, and are now armed with the tools to do so.