Preview Idaho Technology Teletraining Institute

During the months of December 1997 and January 1998 a crew from Idaho Public Television toured the state interviewing and documenting ten teachers in their classrooms.  These teachers were selected for their "Best Practices" in the use of technology in their classrooms. The videos will be used to train other teachers who might be less familiar with these technology applications in the classroom.    Heide Fry, Cecil D. Andrus Elementary School, Meridian, 1st Grade. Mrs. Fry's classroom has 5 new multi-media & CD-ROM computer work stations. She uses them to teach word processing skills as part or her regular classroom work activity.   Volunteer mothers help students one-on-one after students receive preliminary instruction from their teacher.   The technology portion of this lesson incorporated Internet searches, Encarta research, keyboarding and composition of a letter to Santa. The letter is then sent via e-mail, and Santa responds back to the students through Mrs. Fry. A printed copy of the letter is sent home to the children's parents, just in case Santa doesn't read his e-mail. Sue O'Rorke, Cecil D. Andrus Elementary School, Meridian, 2nd Grade. Mrs. O'Rorke demonstrates the use of report writing, Microsoft Windows and SuperLink to her students who then research and write an animal report.  From their draft, the students create a multi-media presentation with go buttons, pop up text, and hypertext. Each child writes, edits, illustrates and prints their final report, which is turned into their teacher for grading. While the technology lesson is being demonstrated other students, who work in groups, are performing coloring and texture tasks, or working on commercial software at a multi-media work station (Explorerpedia) researching and studying all about tigers. Students work individually on a computer with minimum assistance from their teacher or class aide. Theda Torgerson, Groveland Elementary School, Blackfoot, 4th grade Mrs. Torgerson demonstrates the integration of educational hardware and software into a math lesson on subtraction. Her fourth grade students work individually and in pairs, rotating five children per station every 10-15 minutes. They use a variety of educational materials and software designed to individualize the acquisition and memorization of math facts. Software includes the following programs: "Math Sequences", "Unlocking Whole Numbers", "West" and "Add and Subtract Defenders". Through the use of technology, students are able to work at individual rates. Prompts directing the students through procedures at the initial levels are given and they receive immediate feedback. The one-to-one ratio of 10-15 minutes of drill time on the computer is much more intense than the classroom teacher is able to offer while managing a group of 25-30 students. Reinforcers are immediate and varied. Devon Barker, Prairie Elementary School, Cottonwood, 4th grade Ms. Devon Barker has 11 computers in her 4th grade classroom, mostly older 8088 and 286 models, but has several newer more powerful machines. She integrates all of the computers, based on technology limitations, into her instruction of Idaho history, social studies, reading and group activity. "Devon's Bunch" demonstrate the PowerPoint and ClarisWorks presentations they created for a unit on Idaho Native Americans. This class has been creating presentations, narrating them, and recording them to video tape. The students then take the video tapes home to share with their friends and family. Jolene Dockstader, Central Elementary School, Jerome, 6th grade Ms. Dockstader's students are working on a unit on ancient Americans. They are working in teams of two. In this video we see them in their school computer laboratory as Ms. Dockstader teaches them to use the Ancient Americans HyperStudio stack she produced. Students perform log on, software selection, and navigation within the stack. A unique style to this video is the way Dockstader both teaches her students, then turns to the teacher viewing this tape and gives classroom management instruction.   Dockstader demonstrates the teacher's role of facilitator as she moves throughout the classroom giving directions where appropriate. Geri Harshman, Lakes Middle School, Coeur d'Alene, 6th grade Mrs. Harshman's class was engaged in a multidisciplinary, multi-tasking environment using more than one technology tool.  The focus of their study was watershed.   Students worked in teams in a project-based learning environment, using a variety of technology tools to complete the tasks for their assigned project. As the student groups rotated through three learning stations they worked at Power Mac multi-media stations, AlphaSmart stations and E-mate stations.   Jan Fulk, Bear Lake Middle School, Montpelier, 7th grade Mrs. Fulk teaches seventh grade language arts.  She demonstrates computer skills the students will use to produce their poetry anthologies.  This tape covers setting margins, changing fonts, changing font size, centering text, adding borders, adding graphics, and using watermarks. After reviewing these topics, the students will apply these techniques to their  individual poetry anthologies.   Mike Clabby, Lake City High School, Coeur d'Alene, 9-12th grade This unique graphic arts class is composed of students in all four grade levels. They work on very sophisticated high end Power Mac multi-media stations. The class has been working all semester on the development of a CD-ROM about and for the Idaho Forest Industry.  Students are divided into work groups of 2-4 students.  Stations include Macromedia Director, Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, and Paint programs. Some students research and write the text fields, others shoot and edit video segments, some record audio for sound buttons, others create charts, graphs and special effects. The class next semester will complete the project which will be pressed to CD and distributed through out the state. Tammy Stephens, Bear Lake High School, Montpelier, 12th grade Mrs. Stephens teaches her students how to write a bibliography. This Senior English Research class has just finished researching their first paper. Students have worked on writing and revising their rough drafts and they are ready to begin their bibliography during the video taping. Using the only computer in her room, Stephens explains the format she wants them to use, gives them examples of bibliography entries using Power Point software on a large TV monitor, and answers questions they may have. We then follow the students to the computer lab where they type their own bibliographies. Their goal is to complete the typing and print out their bibliographies and turn them in by the end of the period. Mike Wiedenfeld, Kuna High School, 12th grade We taped Mr. Wiedenfeld giving his class a major physics assignment on the theme "Mechanics", then observed as he walked around the classroom helping individual groups of students working on independent experiments. This lesson demonstrates the use of many technology tools being integrated into one learning assignment.  Some students were using the Internet, others PowerPoint or probeware (accelerometers) or graphical analysis software, and all used collaborative learning.  We even tried to launch a rocket... but alas, it wouldn't launch. Support for Best Practices: Technology in the Classroom has been provided by the State Board of Education in cooperation with Boise State University, Idaho State University, Lewis Clark State College, University of Idaho and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. IdahoPTV           Program Credits and Thank-You's             Learn