As we walked back to the front office, Mrs. Hammond flashed a smile and said “I love my teachers. Trying new things, especially technology can be difficult but my teachers always take the time to try new things and make it work so the kids receive the best instruction possible.” I hope to visit Webb again and see what new technology applications they are integrating into their classrooms.

www.DonorsChoose.org

With the help of Charles Best, founder of Donors Choose, the Instructional Technology Team is looking to help fund CCISD teachers’ projects that integrate technology. Best was gracious enough to provide each of us with a gift card to put towards the funding of a Donors Choose project.

We want to know about your technology-integrated Donors Choose project . Send your Donors Choose project link to Brandey.Addison@ccisd.us with the title “Fund My Donors Choose Project.” Deadline to submit a project for consideration is March 27, 2016.

Recently the Instructional Technology team heard the founder of Donors Choose speak. Charles Best described his days teaching in a Bronx school and not having the resources he needed to teach his students. He wanted to find a way to help teachers get the resources they needed to engage students in creative and innovative projects. How did he do that? Well...

Donors Choose was started by a history teacher. In 2000, Charles Best, a teacher at a Bronx public high school, wanted his students to read Little House on the Prairie. As he was making photocopies of the one book he could procure, Charles thought about all the money he and his colleagues were spending on books, art supplies, and other materials. And he figured there were people out there who'd want to help — if they could see where their money was going. Charles sketched out a website where teachers could post classroom project requests, and donors could choose the ones they wanted to support. His colleagues posted the first 11 requests. Then it spread. Today, [they]'re open to every public school in America.

To ensure integrity, [they]'re there through every step of every project. [They] vet all requests, purchase each item, and ship materials directly to verified schools.

Donors Choose in TX

Take a Look at the Current Projects posted in Corpus Christi:

Techies of the Month

Veronica Hernandez & Ramona Ward

Having a little money left from a fundraiser, Dr. Jamie Copeland, Dawson Elementary School Principal, purchased wireless keyboards and mice for her faculty. She even hand delivered them. She also assigned the Computers on Wheels (COWs) to grades 4 & 5 and gave K-2 teachers use of the computer lab. This has empowered her teachers to use technology. Veronica Hernandez and Ramona Ward are among those users.

Veronica Hernandez, a 5th grade teacher, picks up a COW every Tuesday . She keeps it in the hall outside her door, and plugs it into an electrical outlet inside a classroom so that the laptops will remain charging. After students begin an assignment at their desks, she will call ten students at a time so that they will pick up laptops that are numbered the same as their names in the gradebook. They know exactly which laptop is theirs, and the process of distributing them takes no more than ten minutes.

Ms. Hernandez ensures that her students use the laptops weekly, using iStation for reading, STEMscopes, and other programs. Before she had access to a COW, Ms. Hernandez used the classroom computers, making sure that her students understood how to take turns using them.

Fridays are reserved for “Enrichment Intervention,” which may incorporate Internet searches. Students who need extra time are allowed to miss 1-2 days of P.E. per week with parent permission. This does not replace their recess their time, however.

Ramona Ward teaches 2nd grade. In order to make technology accessible to her students, she searches for devices that they can use, such as old iPads that will supplement the networked computers. The devices may not be the same, but this does not bother her.

Ms. Ward’s 2nd grade students use online resources to work on addition and subtraction facts, STEMscopes, iStation, Raz-Kids, and Accelerated Reading. They are able to do this because they are taught how to login and logout. They are also taught to type special keys including Caps Lock, Num Lock, and the @ key. Ms. Ward explains that iIf students do not understand the keyboard or proper use of the mouse (scroll wheel), they spend all of their time searching.

She goes into the computer lab on Fridays, but she first teaches mini lessons on the classroom computers so that students can practice in the lab. She plans to create QR codes that will take her students to a site where they will read a book or complete an assignment.

An after school tutoring program makes technology available to students at 7:30 in the morning and from 3:00 - 4:00 in the afternoon. The responsible teacher ensures their participation by rounding up students in the cafeteria and inviting them into the computer lab.

Whether in the computer lab or the classroom, Dawson students have all of their Usernames and Passwords in their folders. They know where to pick up and return those folders at the time of need. The folders (see illustration) contain all information needed to login to the computer, iStation, STEMscopes, or other. This folder is also their hall pass.

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