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Throwing the Box Away. Changing Teaching Practice with Cross-Age Cross-Curriculum Projects Barbara Bray, Pat Lusher, Cecelia Nauda. Leveraging Laptops Project. The goals of this cross-age cross-curriculum project focused on integrating technology to accelerate science achievement.
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Throwing the Box Away Changing Teaching Practice with Cross-Age Cross-Curriculum Projects Barbara Bray, Pat Lusher, Cecelia Nauda
Leveraging Laptops Project The goals of this cross-age cross-curriculum project focused on integrating technology to accelerate science achievement. The aim was to close the achievement gap and bridge the digital divide to meet the needs of all students.
Pinellas County Schools 37 eMentors from… • Pinellas Park Elementary • Morgan Fitzgerald MS • Pinellas Park High
Questions Teachers Asked • Six 6 week projects? • 109 eMentors and teachers? • K-12 Cross-Age Projects? • What topics? How do we choose them? • What classrooms would work together? • Who would do what? • How would field trips fit or work? • Who would take the lead online?
Align Standards Across Grade Levels Living Interrelationships Standards • Grade 2 • Grade 7 • Grade 9/10
Look at Gaps/Redundancies • How do you currently teach the curriculum? • What hands-on activities do you incorporate? • What field trip would enhance the curriculum? • How can technology support the project? • Where are students having problems? • Can we create replacement units that engage at-risk students?
Technology Integration Teacher presentation stations with laptop and digital projector. Each school received: • 5 mobile laptop labs • iPods and podcasting stations • Kurzweil software (reading, writing and learning software for all students) • lab sensors and dataloggers for collecting and analyzing science data • digital cameras and web cams
High-Quality Professional Development • Coaching and online facilitation skills (4 days) • Backwards Design (5 days) • Developing and publishing curriculum online (4 days and online collaborative work) • Training on technology tools (5 days) • Ongoing online and on-site coaching support • Access to technology tools and necessary resources • Sufficient time to acquire understanding and skills
How Did This Change Teaching Practice? • Teachers integrate technology into more lessons and activities • Teachers collaborate with other classrooms • Teachers publish and maintain class websites and blogs • Students work collaboratively more often on project work • Students are more involved in curriculum design and teaching other students
Evidence of Success Pinellas was awarded a new EETT grant to add 2 more schools and 6 new projects started September 2008 Weather Grades 5th & 6th Forms of EnergyGrades 4th & 7th Habitats - Life CyclesGrades 1st & 6th Matter Grades K & 8th Ecology - EcosystemsGrades 2nd & 7th SpaceGrades 3rd & 8th
What did we overhear? “This is the best day of my life.” Fourth grade student said when he was working at the middle school 3rd Grade Teacher, Donna Blanton, shares how she and her students benefitted from this project in this podcast