Application for Model Classroom 2005-2006

Name: Marianne Causey

Grade: Check all that apply

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Subject: Check all that apply

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Your vision of a 21st Century Classroom

1. Please list exactly what hardware and software you are requesting. How you will use the requested technology with your students on a daily basis?

2. How will you evaluate the success of your project?

3. How will this project support the goals and/or action steps of your School Improvement Plan? How does this project impact student achievement?

4. How does your vision align with the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS*S)? With the NETS*Teacher standards? Be specific and complete. See

5. How will you disseminate the results of your project? (grade/department, building, district, state, national)

  1. How will you share the hardware resources with other members of your teaching staff?
  1. Have you attached 3 recommendations? X Yes No

Application for Model Classroom 2005-2006

Marianne Causey’s Vision of a 21st Century Classroom

  1. I am requesting 23-25 of the newly recycled “teacher” laptops. My class size ranges between 23-25 for social studies and language arts in the 7th grade.

I will use the laptops every single day in my classroom. Based on what the lesson involves, the students will use their computers to augment teacher instruction. Examples: Kidspiration (Inspiration) for graphic organization in taking notes from text or from lecture; Internet sites (teacher researched) that are directly linked to the lesson. This may involve a virtual tour,

an interactive site of some kind, a picture, an online newspaper with current events, or sites that go more visually into depth than does the student text.

Laptops will be used for student note taking, for creating power point presentations and for being able to view videos from United Streaming (also called Peachstar.)

For the past year, I have kept my website current and used it as the jumping off point for most of my lessons. (I had the old Hilsman laptops last year. Having those computers totally changed my way of teaching. It feels archaic to teach without students having daily and individual access to a laptop.) I could be teaching about apartheid in South Africa, direct students to a specific link on my website and provide them with ten times the information than a straight lecture/book could offer them.) Using the box light, I could facilitate them through so much neater, interactive information than I had ever imagined. I could go on and on about this. This is without-a-doubt not just the wave of the future but is mostly the wave of right this very minute.

  1. I will evaluate the success of my project partly by watching the students become totally engrossed in learning. Last year, using the Hilsman laptops, I could tailor-make a link that matched the needs of students. I was able to see students who were not able to sit still, go through a 55-minute lesson without looking up. My classroom test scores increased. I know we’re all about increasing test scores. Exposing students to history, social science, current events and geography in more meaningful and interactive ways will slowly begin to pay off. I am 52 years old and have been teaching since God made hair. It is antiquated to “just use the book” ever again. That is no longer an option. I am committed to raising not just test scores, but in piquing the interest and passion in students to want to learn more. I will evaluate my project by hearing a student say, “Look Ms. Causey! You can write you name in hieroglyphics here!” Do we have time for us to do that??

I will evaluate my project by knowing that my students have to be pushed out of my door when social studies class is over. I cannot think of one topic that I teach that is not able to “come alive” without the help of maximizing the use of computers. I know that I still have so much to learn. I am open and ready.

  1. Last May, we all received an email attachment from Lynn Johns that included information regarding the “scientific evaluation of web-based resources used in classroom instruction and their positive effect on reading performance among middle school students.” My across the hall colleague came running over shouting, “Marianne, you have used some of these exact lessons this year!”

I am convinced that having students take notes, conduct research, create projects and investigate topics more thoroughly and meaningfully raises reading scores and increases basic knowledge. Our School Improvement Plan focuses on raising reading and writing achievement in all of the content areas. Because students are really interested in not only what they are learning but also in howthey are learning, access to academic use of laptops will only facilitate student achievement.

Last year I wrote a $1000 grant that gave CMS a site license for . This is a test-taking practice site for all grades and all subject areas. Having individual laptops allowed students to practice test items any time they had finished other work. That is just one example of how there is no downtime in a classroom when there is other relevant and appropriate learning right at their fingertips.

  1. I would like to think that my lessons and use of the computers in my classroom address each one of the NETS for students. With the varied ways in which students are taught what is available to them, skills are built step-by-step and they are all intertwined. Basic operations and concepts (Standard #1) are needed to use Microsoft word as the students investigate a website or take part in the note taking for a web quest. The social, ethical and human issues (#2) involved in computer use are on going and tend to change almost as quickly as we can interact. Students are taught how integral their lives and learning is to the rest of the entire world (via the internet.) As teachers, we model ways of staying “safe” and help kids decipher how to be discriminate about all with which they are being bombarded. I have not found a student yet who does not have a positive attitude about technology (#3). In fact, I have to guard against holding them back technologically. Creating newspapers, researching and creating power points, using the Microsoft drawing, and Kidspiration, all are tools that students love to dive into as part of their research. Mostly I feel like there is not enough time to allow students to fully research the content we are studying and also allow time to create neat and creative products to accompany the research.

Using technology as communication tools (#4) is one of the most profound rewards of using computers in the classroom. Not only are students able to create and publish work they had never thought possible, working collaboratively encourages all types of kids to work together. Sometimes having the computer as the focal point makes the kids forget that they are different. Even students who tend to never get along will stop and show each other something they have found on their computer.

Using technology as a research tool (#5) is a must. Any classroom that is not using technology is already behind and is missing out on so much. Part of the teacher’s job is to help students weed through all to which they are exposed and to alert them and engage them in healthy, in-depth, related and relevant elements of the World Wide Web.

Technology is a critical tool in helping students deal with the real world. We have voted online along with students all over the United States in mock elections. We have seen up-to-the-minute pictures of tsunami victims and have made choices to hold fundraisers. We have seen children ravaged by Aides and have written to our congressmen. With the world at our fingertips, problem solving and decision making (#6) allows students to see how they fit in to the bigger picture in life.

Specific uses of the computers might include: creating Word documents; creating power points; research using the internet and teaching the students how to access Galileo and other excellent online resources. Students draw, take notes, read, write and publish. Students can view portions of videos that link directly to their course of study. Students take virtual tours and are able to complete a wide variety of web quests. In addition, they can visit all of the websites of each of their teachers to find assignments.

NETS for Teachers

I am techno-geek in progress. As quickly as I learn something, things change. When I am shaky on being able to demonstrate a sound understanding of technology operations (#1), I ask for help through your staff. (#2) I am confident that my lessons are effective and that they provide experiences that are meaningful and relevant while being supported by technology. It has gotten to the point in my teaching that if I am not using technology, then I feel as if I am short-changing the students. I want to learn more, do more, use more technology to maximize student learning (Standard #3.) Currently I make use of the hundreds of rubrics available to us in evaluating students. In addition to those, I currently take advantage of a wide variety of student assessment that I find online. (Standard #5): Make me your guinea pig. Share with me all of the technology that can be used in a classroom, and I will try it. I want to be productive. I want my students to be productive. In regards to ethical, social, legal and human issues, I do my best to stay “current” with what is acceptable and legal. I honor and respect all rules regarding this sensitive area.

  1. I will disseminate not only the results of my project but the materials used with my project each day on my website. Last year I actually created lessons for other teachers and posted them on my site for anyone who wanted them. Word would get around and two or three of us could use the same lesson---with modifications. I would like to have much more communication with all of the seventh grade teachers in CCSD. I am more than willing to not only share what I do, but go through the steps I go through to create lessons that use the computer. My classroom is open to anybody---any time. I think I am the perfect candidate for being granted laptops because I am still in the learning mode and my struggles and questions are like those of other real teachers. I am not so “out there” that I have left others in my dust. I will post my lessons on our school required lesson plan site: I am not quite sure how that will work, but it is my understanding that these will be public information. Honestly I do not know about disseminating the results of my project statewide or nationally. With effective lessons, I will offer them to the DOE website for use in other 7th grade classrooms around the state.
  1. Any teacher in my school who would like to collaborate with me would be welcome to share the computers. Immediately, three other teachers and I already work together and have done computer-related activities this year in the computer labs. Having computers in the classroom saves time and set up from class to class. In all honesty, I would be reluctant to let other teachers take the laptops to their classrooms due to security reasons only. I am careful to lock and protect the equipment in my room; others may not share my vigilance.
  1. I co-teach three classes with three different teachers. So, there will be four of us spreading the word about the incredible stuff we are doing. I am open to sharing with any teacher who wants to share. I often send out emails to the whole faculty extending help or offering information about things that I have found that work. In our small Whole Faculty Study groups, I routinely report on what I am doing with computers. I will share my resources.