| 2003 Design Teams |
A team of four elementary teachers, one graduate student and
a technology integration specialist has focused on integrating
technology into literacy.  Chelmsford
High School, “Science
Across the Disciplines”Carol Bruell, Mindy Lekberg, Erin Mucci, David Steeves (Cooperating Teachers), Marilyn Sweeney (Technology Integration Specialist), Dr. Michael Graves (University of Massachusetts Lowell) Science and technology go hand in hand. Teachers use technology to plan, teach, assess and communicate to students and parents. Students use technology to research, analyze, evaluate and communicate to multiple audiences. By integrating more technology in the science classrooms and labs, teachers will be able to better prepare our students for college and the workplace.
Students from grade 6 at the Comprehensive Grammar School completed a cross curricula technology unit (Social Studies and Science) focusing on river systems and their impact on ancient civilizations. Students used various software applications including Frontpage, Microsoft Works and Powerpoint, to develop products such as a travel brochure, a webpage and a spreadsheet.
The fifth grade classes took advantage of technology to produce and share reports about historical figures of the American Revolution. Each student was assigned a personality before research began in the school’s computer lab. With the aid of pre-determined web sites, the students looked for information about their assigned historical figure. Particular attention was paid to why this person may have been important to the American Revolution. Special emphasis was paid to people who have not traditionally been written about in history books, such as women and minorities. Additionally, students were to include pictures that were relevant to their historical figure, to enhance the slideshows that they developed for presentation to the class.
Eight grade students focused on the “Bill of Rights” by studying this document and discussing how the Bill of Rights affects their everyday lives. Each student used the Internet to research and download information and pictures about an assigned amendment in order to produce a poster used for an oral report to their classmates. Some of the students were videotaped for this presentation. In addition, at the library we researched a specific question ---does someone have the right to wear a confederate flag T -shirt—using the first amendment as the basis for our research. |
In
this last project year of Ready to Teach there were 4 design
teams.
For the first time a high school science team was represented.
One team worked with a GPT elementary methods class
on a literacy project on how
to
integrate some specific language arts software in to the school's
crossgrade literacy intiative. A second design team is a middle
school interdisicplinary team that investigated the
importance
of rivers in ancient civilizations. 
The
Byam School, “Literacy
in the Elementary Grades”
Comprehensive Grammar School, Methuen
The Wang School, Lowell