Short Stories
Ian's
Story
Ian beat the odds. Karen tells this story of how Ian arrived in the Seattle
School District as another needy ESL student. He, his mother, and two siblings
emigrated to the US from the Philippines from a semi-rural area outside Manila
in 1993. A few years later, he scored 620 on the verbal portion of the SAT and
had a 3.977 GPA at high school graduation. He accomplished all this by a high
level of persistence, curiosity, adaptability and a new-found love of technology.
Move
Over Oprah!
By Muggs Murphy
Muggs' fifth-grade class in Mitchell, Indiana, did its own takeoff of Oprah
Winfrey's famous book club using distance learning. The kids hooked up with
Mr. Horner's fifth graders in Tell City, Indiana, to share their thoughts on
the book Rifles for Watie. The students realized that it can be fun to read
a book and share thoughts and reactions with peers.
Creating
a Web Site with Resources for Teaching Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
By Sheryl Hinman
On a Shakespeare message board, teachers discussed the difficulty of helping
today's high school students understand and enjoy Julius Caesar. Because she's
an avid Shakespeare enthusiast, Sheryl decided that she could help. She and
a few colleagues entered ThinkQuest for Tomorrow's Teachers, a competition for
educators to collaborate in building academic sites. They worked for ten months
to create the site of their dreams. Sheryl describes what they did and how they
did it.
Kids
World: A Collaborative Multimedia Magazine
By Nader Ghali
In the spring of 1997, Nader's sixth-grade English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
students in Jakarta, Indonesia put together their first multimedia title. Kids
World-as its creators eagerly dubbed it-was a multimedia magazine, an electronic
document with the format of a print publication. The computer program showcased
his students' literary and artistic talents; it featured articles, stories,
jokes, recipes, and recordings.
Choosing
New Math Software
by Cheryl Oakes
When Cheryl chooses new software for her school, she looks to see how well it
will integrate with the curriculum, the Maine Educational Assessments, and the
Maine Learning Results, as well as how easy it is for students and staff to
use and how appealing it will be to students. Read this article to learn about
her selection this year.
Expanding
Your Classroom
by Muggs Murphy
This semester, Muggs' fourth-grade gifted-and-talented (GT) class in Mitchell,
Indiana, is doing a collaborative project with another class in Tell City, Indiana.
Part of the fourth-grade curriculum is studying Indiana's state history. The
two teachers thought it would be fun for the kids to learn about a different
area of Indiana from their peers. This project uses many different aspects of
technology and different ideas about how kids can learn.
Cyberfair
by Cheryl Vitali
In 1995, Cheryl had a simple goal-a Web site for free. Cheryl works with special
education, and tenacity is her greatest strength. She built a team of seven
dynamic students. The work they did opened all sorts of opportunities for her
students and her community that she had not foreseen. It opened the world.
A Monster
E-Mail Exchange Project
by Karen Eini
The Monster Project's goal is to develop children's' writing skills so that
they can communicate what a drawing of a student-created monster looks like.
Karen's students use only words-that is, a detailed written description. Students
from cooperating schools read the descriptions they receive by e-mail and work
to duplicate the original drawing.
Karen's Book Becomes a Beacon
by Kent Mollberg
"Sometimes," says Kent, "our students become our teachers, and the best thing
we can do is sit back and learn, digest everything they present us, and mentally
record the time they are in our class." Kent shares such an experience of a
student with strength and courage who showed him the benefits of the "incredible
technological age we are now entering."
Parent
Communication
by Sharon Sumner
Almost half of Sharon's students in her rural Missouri classroom have parents
who can access the Internet at home or at work. As more and more students come
to her each day to say they're getting computers at home, she has created a
classroom Web page that serves to connect school with students' homes. Sharon
shares what she does and why she does it.
Kids
Are Leading the Learning at Perry Middle School
by Judy Shasek
"Each one teach one" is an adage that Judy’s high-risk students
successfully put into practice. Faced with brand new computers sitting unused,
she began by having teams of students explore the computer’s potential
and then tutor other students. Like a rolling snowball that turns into an avalanche,
not only were all students helping each other to become computer savvy but soon
the teachers began to master the Joys of the G3 just by watching their students.
A Breton Class Reaches into the Community
by Kevin Kearney
The Internet certainily brings
people closer together, and here’s an example of how it brought Kevin’s
students closer to their own community on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Armed
with a digital camera and a lot of determination, the students interview various
community service groups and return to the school to create an individual web
page for each group. They also epitomize their teacher’s beliefs that education
involves social responsibility and that for learning to be successful there
must be active component.
Technology
Helps to Build a Reading Bridge
by Virginia Shaffer
Growing up means learning to
do the hard stuff — like reading books without pictures! Virginia describes
how one particular software package can motivate second- and third-graders to
make that awesome leap into the grown-up world. It worked for her own child,
who now counts reading as one of his top-five activities.
Nutrition
Slide Show
by Patricia Nelson
It’s never too early to learn
— not just about food groups but about the joys of collaborative group-work.
In their quest to create "talking slides" Patricia’s young students
learned both.
1
Computer, 1 Teacher, and 20 First Graders
by LuAnn Lawhon
What do "Secret Words,"
"Treasure Hunts," and "Rhymes" have to do with computers?
They’re all part of LuAnn’s technique to make her first graders computer
literate so that they could handle diskettes, applications, and files. Armed
with their new skills, learned in a one-computer classroom, her students were
ready to journey to the computer lab and meet the challenges of ClarisWorks.
Fun
and Technology? Make a Video!
by Joella Holbrook
As seen on TV are words that hold
magic, especially for students. Joella describes how an ordinary camcorder and
television in her classroom brought out her students’ creativity and also
helped them to develop some important life-long skills, including organizing,
writing, and working collaboratively.
A
Spreadsheet With Heart
by Catherine Nelson
Catherine, a Library Media Specialist,
teamed-up with a Physical Education teacher to create this interdisciplinary
project in which students not only learned about the benefits of physical exercise
but also learned some authentic real-world uses for a powerful spreadsheet program.
Bringing
Literature to Life
by Renee Ramig
Renee, a former computer teacher and
now technology coordinator, has a mission: to have every teacher integrate technology
into their lessons. Now second-graders create original storybooks, fourth-graders
do elaborate multimedia presentations, and seventh/eighth-graders thoroughly
explore the lives of the characters in their literature. She offers lots of
suggestions so that your students can do the same.
Online
Projects
by Leslie Nicodemus
As a new technology coordinator,
Leslie decided to step right into having students doing online projects. She
selected two contests for two different grades – CyberFair for the 4th
grade and ThinkQuest Junior for the 5th; they had close deadlines
and lots of hard work. The end result was that everyone learned a lot and the
students provided web sites for all 4th graders in Florida to use.
From
Persimmons to Astronauts: A Successful Research Project
by Muggs Murphy
Muggs uses HyperStudio with her fifth-grade
Gifted and Talented classes to create long-term class projects. This year, the
class not only learned about where they live, Lawrence County, Indiana but they
also created an award-winning research project called "From Persimmons
to Astronauts."
The
Challenge of Introducing Technology
by Bonnie Bracey
Bonnie spent the last year in an
elementary school computer lab in Arlington, Virginia, introducing reluctant
staff and students to the value and uses of technology. The year, and her implementation
of technology, had ups and downs, and Bonnie reports the challenges she faced
and the details of her experiences.
Who
Really Benefits From a Class Web Site?
by Susan Silverman
Susan explains how the effort
and expense involved in creating a class web site pays off for her second grade
students, their parents and other relatives, other teachers and students, and
even herself. She tells what she’s used the site for and what you’ll
find there if you visit.
Family
Trees
by Cindy Kuhrasch
It is difficult to convince students
that there are risks involved in their behavioral choices. So, in order to teach
her high school students about the long-term health effects of their behaviors,
Cindy used a family tree software program. Then they could see patterns of disease
in their own families.
J.J.'s
Adventure
A ThinkQuest Story
by Susan Silverman
Susan’s second-grade students
were working on a thematic unit about whales. She used the ThinkQuest project
"J.J.’s Adventure," and other Internet tools, to develop information
literacy, keyboarding, reading comprehension, creative writing, online communication,
and Internet navigational skills.
The
Middle School Book Review Web Site
A ThinkQuest Story
by Carmela M. Federico
Carmela’s sixth-grade
class joined students from other states—and Russia—to write book reviews
for ThinkQuest’s Middle School Book Review Web site. She says, "It
was a fun way to introduce students to new forms of literature, teach them how
to write a quality book review, and explore the basics of story structure, characters,
and plot."
Computer
Software Enhances Classroom Instruction
by Helen DeWitt
Teachers at King Middle Grade School
use computer software and the Internet to complement their curricula. Helen
is the coordinator who helps teachers integrate technology; she says, "Computers
have become very important to King Middle Grade School." The programs allow
the students to have fun and make "adult" decisions about their work.
How
the Internet Facilitated Environmental Awareness
by Jamie Hutchinson
Students in a Boston high school
teamed up with a class of German students over the Internet to learn about global
warming. Says Jamie, "Teaching students in an urban setting about global
warming can be difficult in the abstract, but with the help of loads of technology
the abstract became very real."
Opening
the Computer Lab to Show-Offs
by Cheryl Oakes
Each year Cheryl tries to get
as many parents as possible involved in their children's computer education.
She offers a technology evening in the fall and Computer Show-Off Week in the
spring. Here's her recipe for a great Show Off Week.
Modular
Learning: Independent Study via a Web Page
by Cindy Kuhrasch
In the past Cindy has offered
independent courses, which students took during their own time and were based
upon a specific textbook. These were all right, but she felt they were limited
and so did the students. Enter the Internet. About three years ago she began
to develop a professional Web page, which she used as a way to organize the
links she had collected and as a way to share information with others. Now she
offers an online, independent course. Here's how she does it.
Technology
Mentors
by Barbara Lane
Students in Grades 4-6 at Albert
Einstein School in Schaumburg School District 54 in Hanover Park, Illinois,
began a technology club with the idea of becoming mentors to other students
and teachers in the building. Barbara describes how the students worked with
others and saw the results of their efforts.
Mother's
Day on the World Wide Web
by Susan Silverman
Mother's Day is a time that
young children create handmade cards and gifts in elementary school. This year,
Susan's students got a little help from the Web and achieved state standards
in reading, writing, language, technology, information literacy, and they enjoyed
every minute of it!
Technology
Is Here to Stay-Learn to Use It!
by Jean Stringer
A recent article in Jean's
local paper quoted a principal stating, "We expect these children to learn
things we never had to know." She believes we should prepare students to
learn things that do not exist yet! To that end, she challenges her eighth graders
at the end of each year to learn a software program. She gives them the manual
and the tutorial and watches as they learn to answer their own questions.
Anatomy
of a Murder
A ThinkQuest Story
by Lois F. Knutson
Finding the ThinkQuest site "Anatomy
of a Murder" was a delightful change for Lois' students. She works in the
Severely Emotionally Disturbed classroom and asked if the Alternative Day Program
class would like to join her class in this project in order to have enough participants.
Learn what she did and view her lesson plan too.
Developing
a ThinkQuest Entry
A ThinkQuest Story
by Kathy Schrock
As a coach for a ThinkQuest Junior
entry, Kathy tells of her students' experiences developing the site in order
to encourage others to participate in either TQ or TQ-Jr. next time around.
They decided to have a team with a student from each of two local regional school
districts in order to foster collaborative learning. Read about how it worked.
Conflict
in the Wetlands
A ThinkQuest Story
by Aprille Hemans
Students at Perry Middle School
in Miramar, FL created a ThinkQuest Junior web site called Conflict in the Wetlands.
Then Aprille's students at the same school used the site as a resource base
for a service learning project their team of seventy sixth graders did.
Learning
Cultural Etiquette
A ThinkQuest story
By Sheryl Hinman
Sheryl's students learn how difficult
it is for a person to fit into a new society. They read Dickens' Great Expectations
and apply what they learn about cultural adaptation from the ThinkQuest Pow
Wow web site.
Sport
Goes Hawaiian: A Virtual Vacation
by Peggy Nakamoto
You'll wish Peggy a "Mahalo"
for this entertaining tale of how she and some third-graders showed island hospitality
to a visitor from the mainland, escorted the little critter on a tour of Oahu's
most beautiful places, and recorded the entire adventure for a website.
Collaborative
Internet Projects for Lower Primary Students
by Susan Silverman
You're never too young to enjoy
the advantages of telecommunications, as Susan demonstrates in this tale of
how her second-graders participated in two fascinating projects which had them
wide-eyed and engaged as they hosted two separate collaborative multimedia Web-based
efforts with counterparts all across the U.S. and Canada.
An
Apple A Day
by Susan Silverman
Susan describes how the apple,
wholesome yet quite ordinary, inspired a collaborative globe-spanning Internet
project which provided plenty of nutrition for the eager minds and imaginations
of her second-graders.
Tricks
of the Trade
by Susan Love
Anyone wondering how to "turn-on"
colleagues to the delights of the Internet might want to try Susan's simple
but effective technique, which is guaranteed to spark interest and create some
dedicated new web-addicts.
A
Landmark Site
A CyberFair story
by Mickie Flores-Ward
Mickie's McKenney Middle School
class created an electronic walking tour of the Silas Wright Museum in upstate
New York for their CyberFair entry in the historic landmark category. They divided
the museum into areas about which they would learn and report on their school's
web site.
Digital
Archaeology: Uncovering a City's Past
A CyberFair Story
by Irene Huschak
The rust-belt city of Altoona had
a glorious past, and Irene describes how the history of this Pennsylvania town,
that was once home to the world's largest cement-bottom swimming pool, was uncovered
through an inter-generational web-based project in which high school students
and senior citizens worked together to recreate past splendors from "old"
photos
Chinatown
A CyberFair Story
by Lu-en and Shu Jun
Like so many others in their
Chinatown community, these students were "greenhorns" in a strange
land, but theirs was the land of Cyberspace. Lu-en and Shu Jun describe how
newcomers to web-page design used the most modern technology to vividly portray
one of the oldest neighborhoods of Singapore.
An
Australian School's Zoo Project
A CyberFair Story
by Carl Gibbs
Carl describes how creating a CyberFair
entry made the theme of 'Share and Unite" come alive for his students at
Dubbo South High School in Australia. His students were amazed to see how not
only their local community but zoologically-interested people from all over
the globe shared their expertise and united in their aspirations.
One
on One
by Josie Levine
How does one "repay" one's
teachers? By passing along the expertise they provided us to those less knowledgable.
Josie relates her tale of how one computer expert gave up precious free time
to help put at ease a very eager but very frightened "newbie."
Technology
Trials and Triumphs
by Jerry Woodbridge
Jerry describes the intense,
often exciting, and sometimes frustrating journey that took place one summer
when she was transformed from computer illiterate to a computer-expert educator
and the kind of teacher that she had always dreamed of becoming.
The
Choctaw Tribal Schools: A Technology Success
by Rick Smith
Technology can work wonders not
just for students but for their teachers, as Rick describes in this tale of
a dedicated educator who learned an important lesson: no one is ever too old
to expand her horizons.
A
Revolutionary War Unit
by Staci Kasse
Staci describes how, with the
cooperation of two high school video production classes, her fifth-graders were
able to create "Good Morning, Continentals!": a televised look at
the colonies' successful bid for independence.
Carmen
Sandiego: A Fifth Grader Discovers a Special Tutor
by Nelda Brangwin
Nelda describes how technology
helped a fifth-grader "turn lemons into lemonade"; not only did the
student circumvent a disability but he became a classroom asset, helping other
students learn information-age skills.
The
Wonders of the Web Resource Page
by Tom Banaszewski
Tom offers a simple technique
and an easy-to-use template to help us build a Web Resource Page, a tool designed
to control the vastness of the Web and tailor it to suit the needs of our classes.
Using
a Listserv to Find Bookmates
by Pat Barnhardt
A professional-development
listserv, some email queries, and lots of string enabled Pat to have her Pre-K
to 6th-grade students not only appreciate literature but create a great bulletin
board display.
The
Phenomenal Case of the Student-Authored Software
by Helene Bergman
Helene describes how HyperCard
and the desire to create a holiday "game" provided the clue that allowed
teachers of a special education student to find the secret of teaching him to
read.
Using
PowerPoint to Teach Technology Integration
by Jim Bowling
How does one convince technology-shy
pre-service teachers that the computer really is a tool for learning? Jim's
solution is to have them create real hands-on presentations.
Using
the Internet to Connect People Across Cultures and Historical Events
by Ian Fogarty
Captain Fogarty describes how he
and his students use the Internet as a link for learning, whether they are linking
across generations to study WWII or learning chemistry by corresponding with
an expert on whale physiology.
Helping
Students Comprehend the Holidays
by Lou Giraldi
Using the newest technology to
study the oldest traditions, history, and geography, these students develop
an interdisciplinary understanding of everyone's favorite holiday.
Using
Name Acrostics to Help Students See Themselves
by Julie Hauber
Julie describes a clever technology-based
technique that helped her get to know her students, helped her students get
to know each other, and allowed for creativity and expression.
Greece
and Rome: A CBT Project
by Steve Miller
Steve says he is now "a
believer" after seeing how his school's cutting-edge technology empowered
his students to become active learners as they created modules based on the
art, philosophy, science, medicine, and technology of the ancients.
Making
a Book Project Personal
by Chris Rademan
Chris tells how his second-graders
in the Migrant Education Program collaborate using a Mac LC to create books
that are complete with illustrations in their newly-acquired language of English.
You
Never Know Whom Technology Will Reach
by Carol Shields
Carol reveals how HyperStudio
changed this repeat ninth-grader from an apathetic in-school drop-out to motivated
master of multimedia.
Using
Media Technology to Help Students Help One Another
by Jeannine (J.J.) Towler
Jeannine tells how she
elicited the assistance of her Media Technology students to help media-center
users decipher "The Mysteries Beyond the Screen Savers."
Sometimes
It Really Can Take a Rocket Scientist . . .
by Ruth Vellensky
Ruth earns the title of "Honorary
Rocket Scientist" for finding a way to safely introduce her students to
the joys of email by having them communicate not with strangers but with parents,
one of whom is a real rocket scientist.
E-Mail,
Parents and Teachers: A New Conferencing Method?
by Stacy Kasse
Technology can help teachers reach
out not only to students, but to their families.
A
Very Special Use of my Classroom Computer
by Jane Doe
Sometimes the technology, the teacher,
and the student come together at just the right moment.
Using
Primary Source Material in the Social Studies Curriculum
by Shelley Glantz
High school students track down
hard-to-find primary source material with the help of two American history CDs.
Elementary
Databases
by Diana Stevenson
Database activities for primary
students? Yes! New database software offers a lot more than records and fields.
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