June 3-7

Click on images to enlarge

Leanna Bone explains Teacher in the Workplace

Diane Bennett, Technology Coach, discusses Dell Computer Summer 2001 Experience

Diane Bennett explains TLCF 2001 success in Board Work Session

School board and education committee members use technology in a mock lesson

Josh Winstead films Board Work Session for Channel 9

Another 16 wireless laptops for MJHS integration

Continuing Summer TLCF Activities 

The week of June 3rd began with my meeting with Education Edge for Wilson County teachers.  Leanna Bone, coordinator, asked me to speak to the two teachers from each of our schools who would be going into the workplace for this year's program.  I participated last year and worked at Dell Computers for three days.  I shared with these teachers to take note of what they see, feel, and hear that can change their classroom teaching.  I suggested they keep a reflective journal of each day's events and associate it with specific teaching responsibilities they might have.  I also encouraged them to pay close attention to how technology is used in the workplace being mindful of the significant role it plays in our business world.  I also asked them to consider how that might impact their efforts to integrate technology into their classroom.  I shared with how their future professional development activities will include a significant amount of training in technology due to the new guidelines for technology funding.  It was rewarding for me to participate in this year's kick-off event.

Another significant presentation I made this week was to our Wilson County School Board members as well as members of the Education Committee for our county commission.  It was a work session for them set up by member Ron Britt.  I began by explaining our activities this year related to the TLCF 2001 grant using a PowerPoint presentation with interactive links to the Internet and our TLCF web page.  I also showed them an example of Lisa Whitmire's Design a City Park lesson which won a best practice selection in round two.  I emphasized several points such as the depth of our teacher training program, the quality of our best practice lessons, the wireless technology application to learning, technology support being critical to our success, their contribution of purchasing 300 TI-83 calculators prior to our grant being awarded, etc.  I also discussed the State Department of Education's Summative Report issued at mid-year.  

We then provided a lesson for the school board and two of the Education Committee members.  Lori Sheets and Samantha Davenport conducted a lesson using only the textbook for one-half of the group and a technology-rich lesson for the other half.  We then compared the two.  Considerable discussion ensued over the impact technology can have on student learning.  It was a very successful way of demonstrating to this group of decision-making individuals how our school has effectively used technology resources this year.  The entire event was filmed for Channel 9 broadcasting later in the fall for our community.  Josh Winstead, a student who will be a senior next year, volunteered his time to film for us.

This was also the board meeting where members voted on the final budget to be sent to the county commission.  They voted to continue my position as Technology Coach next year to be funded locally.  We are indeed grateful our Director of Schools and School Board Members see the need for a full-time curriculum coordinator to assist with technology integration.  It will now allow me to make plans for the coming year.

I also spent time this week in organizing materials in my office.  With teachers having submitted printed files for their lessons my office table had become a mess.  I worked on getting things organized and categorized for easy access next year.  I also inventoried supplies to determine the needs for the future.  Even though we will not have many new teachers, I also began to think about how we will structure our on-going training program next year and hoped we earned the bonus award for funding.

I also worked on posting Round Two of our Best Practices.  This was a tremendous amount of web page design work as each lesson had several files to it.  Each file (that was appropriate to convert) was changed to .pdf (Acrobat Reader) which meant links embedded in those files had to be relinked, etc.  Each teacher's home page had to be created, pictures downloaded, links made, etc.  As I did that work, I thought of how hard our teachers had worked this year and how far we had come for them to create such powerful lessons.  I also thought about how proud they will be to be able to point family members to "their" work as they waited for postings during the summer.  I reflected on their student's sample of work and thought about how much the grant impacted learning this year.  I can truthfully say that in all my 25 years of teaching, I personally learned more about teaching this year than any other... and that is not even considering the technology component.  To be able to watch other teachers implement lessons, analyze different learning strategies, see different teaching styles, and share the impact of those experiences has been an awesome experience for me.  I really don't know who learned more, the teachers or me.

I also met with John McMillin who interviewed me for an article in a local magazine to be published in July.  Since he is from Watertown which is the other end of Wilson County, he expressed interest in following how our success could impact other schools in our district in the future. 

Sixteen additional laptops were also delivered this week to add to our inventory.  Dr. Duncan, our Director of Schools, indicated he knew Mt. Juliet High School would make good use of them.

I also finalized July 9th as the date MTSU and Cumberland representatives would meet to determine which of the eleven best practices would be awarded the laptop computer.  Teachers are eager to find out who gets the laptop.

On Monday, June 10, I finished the Preliminary Summative Report and just as I was getting ready to put it all together, Tasha Froelich (Technology Coach at Two Rivers Middle School) called and we decided to go eat lunch and then drive both reports to Jerry Bates at the Andrew Johnson Tower in Nashville.  I enjoyed meeting with her again.  It felt good to submit the report and sit back and wait on the bonus award announcement.  

Per an e-mail later in the week from Jerry Bates, it was learned we had to gather our ACT test score results from our own files as ACT could not provide those by the deadline.  As a result, Jena Nier, our senior counselor, helped me work on that report.  It took a day and then some.  I was elated, however, to find out our ACT scores had gone up by almost two points.  To the best of my knowledge, that meant we had improved in all three of the specified areas during this grant year.  That was exciting news.

As I ended three weeks of work after school had been dismissed, I recalled how busy my year has been.  I don't think I've stopped thinking about the grant or some form of it.  It has consumed me, but I've thoroughly enjoyed it.  I will be taking some time off now until mid-July when I will be in Chattanooga for TETA.