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Qwest
Foundation in Education/AzTEA Grant Recipients |
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2007
Qwest/AzTEA Digital Classroom Leaders
Mary
Lara
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School:
Manual DeMiguel Elementary
District: Flagstaff Unified School District
#1
Project: Pond Animals
Summary of Project: Students will use
laptop computers and digital microscopes to examine animals
from a local pond |
Mary Lara began teaching kindergarten in 1978 at Christensen
Elementary School in Flagstaff. Her mother said that Mary
never spoke of being anything but a teacher. Mary taught kindergarten
for 15 years, first grade for 5 years, a K-2 multiage for
a year, third grade for 5 years and is now in her third year
of teaching fifth grade.
Mary's
love of science blossomed with the Walker Observatory project.
DeMiguel is fortunate to have its own observatory, which houses
a 16" Newtonian reflector, along with several smaller telescopes.
Mary sponsors the after-school Science Club, Astronomy Club,
Telescope Club and High Altitude Balloon Club. She is Arizona's
only Solar System Educator. She is on the board for the Arizona
Science Teachers Association and the Council for Elementary
Science International. She is a 2003 Ambassador for Excellence
and an Aerospace Education Foundation State Teacher of the
Year. She is also a Solutions Team member for the Arizona
Department of Education.
Mary
received her BS in Early Childhood Education and her MA in
Elementary Education from Northern Arizona University. She
has taken over 60 hours of post graduate courses.
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Ruben
Montoya
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School:
District Office
District: Alhambra School District
Project: Geography & Geocaching |
The
"Geography and Geocaching" project will introduce
students to geocaching-an adventure game for global position
systems (GPS) users. Through geocaching, students will learn
how to use a GPS unit, how to read and understand coordinates,
how to locate and create caches (objects hidden at specific
coordinates) as well as how to use descriptive writing to
share with others their geocaching experiences. Students involved
in the project will set up caches all over their school campus
and share the locations of these caches with another school
in the district. The students will take a field trip to the
partner school for the geocaching activity. Student partners
can then use the location coordinates and written clues to
find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the students
with a wide variety of rewards.
I
have been a third grade teacher for the last five years. This
year I began a new and exciting position as an instructional
technologist for the district. In this new position I work
with classroom teachers integrating new technologies that
enhance daily classroom lessons.
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Carrie
Quinn
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School:
Villa de Paz
District: Pendergast
Project: Video Podcast Revolution
Project Summary: Video Podcast Revolution
is a fun, highly engaging project that will improve
students operation, communication, and productivity
with technology. Students will create instructional
video lessons that focus on academic skills they have
difficulty mastering with traditional teaching practices.
The primary focus of the video lessons will be to improve
background knowledge and vocabulary in reading, math
facts and number sense in math, and reinforce the lessons
taught in the Girls Town Boys Town social skills program.
Students
will research, write, videotape, and edit the video
lessons. Once the videos are created students will view
them on a video iPod or the intranet. This project increases
productivity in the classroom because each student will
be a teacher creating a video for another student to
learn from. StudentsÕ technology skills, academics,
and teamwork will improve as a result of this project.
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Bio
about your teaching background: Carrie Quinn is a fourth grade
teacher at Villa de Paz in the Pendergast Elementary School
District. She is working towards her Masters degree in English
and professional writing certificate at Northern Arizona University.
She has taught first, third, and fourth grade over the past
six years.
Carrie
enjoys integrating technology into all subject areas in her
classroom. Her students use the computer lab or mobile lab
cart on a daily basis to enhance their understanding of concepts
taught in class. The mobile lab is a class set of laptops
that allows students to work on remediation and enrichment
activities at their desk.
Carrie
has created her
own website using the Macromedia Dreamweaver program.
Her students access the site daily to work on class projects.
In addition to the AzTEA Grant, Carrie won the Westside Impact
Grant earlier this year to fund a thematic unit on Arizona.
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Steve
Sagin
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School:
Edge High School
Project: Student Service Learning Micro-lending
Project
Project Summary: Using laptops purchased
with Qwest/ AzTEA Foundation grant money, students will
research the profiles of individual loan applicants from
all over the world at Kiva.org, evaluate their needs,
and make zero interest loans using seed money from student
fundraising. Kiva.org
loan applicants are individual entrepreneurs in "Third
World" countries who are are applying for micro-loans
to grow their small business' and lift themselves out
of poverty. Students will also use web based technology
to learn across the curriculum about world cultures, global
socio-economic conditions, and entrepreneurship. I encourage
you to learn more about micro-lending and welcome contributions
to help grow this project into a legacy of economic empowerment
and learning! |
This
is my fifth year of teaching in Arizona after a mid career
change from working in adolescent mental health settings and
in small business. I love the challenge of interacting with
students in ways that promote critical thinking and a greater
world view. I feel especially fortunate to work in a small
school setting with tremendous support schoolwide and where
small class sizes allow staff to better help meet eve! ry
students individual needs.
ssagin@edgehighschool.org
edgehighschool.org
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Reed
Brotherton
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School:
Western Valley Elementary School
District: Fowler School District
Project: So You Want to be an Urban Ecologist? |
The
goal of the project is for students to monitor and observe
a variety of species of birds that are uniquely adapted to
living in the Sonoran Desert. Students will use AlphaSmart
Danas, binoculars and, digital camera binoculars to collect
and analyze data, type observations and keep anecdotal records
as well as observe and photograph birds in their urban ecosystem.
Reed
Brotherton is a fourth grade teacher at Western Valley Elementary
in the Fowler Elementary School District. Before accepting
his new position, Reed taught first and third graders at Machan
School in the Creighton School District. Recently, Reed graduated
with his Masters degree in Administration and Supervision
from Grand Canyon University. While in the classroom, Reed
loves to integrate technology into the curriculum to engage
his students. Outside the classroom, Reed enjoys coaching
and officiating football, playing golf and above all else,
spending time with his beautiful wife and daughter.
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Patricia
Dahlin-Dunne & Karen Sabin
Coming
Soon
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Jack
Kahn
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School:
McClintock High School
District: Tempe Union High School District
Project: The Amazing Race: Ancient Cultures
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The
overall goal of this project is to have students develop and
participate in a DVD game version of 'The Amazing Race,' a
popular reality competition show on television. Through the
use of digital video and electronic media, students will virtually
travel the globe in search of clues and participating in a
variety of student-created challenges that showcase cultural
elements of Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece,
Ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance.
Jack
Kahn grew up on Long Island in New York. He and his family
moved to Pennsylvania, where he attended high school and completed
his BS in Secondary Education from The Pennsylvania State
University in 1992. There he met his wife with whom he has
three young children. He received his MAEd from the University
of Phoenix in 1996 and currently teaches online for Grand
Canyon University and is an online course developer/facilitator
for Tempe Union Online (TUOL).
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Kathleen
Koopman
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School:
La Cima Middle School
District: Amphitheater School District, Tucson
Project: SmartBoard = ArtBoard
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Using
an interactive white board in the art classroom will enhance
and extend students’ art experience. We will use the SmartBoard
to accomplish traditional art history higher-level tasks such
as observing, questioning, analyzing, and diagramming. I also
plan to expand their vision of art in the world by visiting
art museums virtually all over the world.
Kathleen
Koopman began teaching art in 2001 at Prince Elementary School
in Tucson, after a career in book design and illustration.
In 2003 Kathleen moved up to La Cima Middle School and has
been there ever since.
Kathleen
has always been an artist and a creative thinker, and these
passions drive her teaching. She is especially concerned with
developing right-brained thinking in her art classes and it
was this potential that sparked her interest in using the
SmartBoard. In 2005 she presented “Ten Ways to Use Computers
in the Art Classroom” at the NAEA Conference in Boston.
Kathleen
received her BFA and MFA in Fine Arts/Art Education from C.
W Post College/Long Island University. She has taken many
post graduate courses in both art and education-related subjects.
Kathleen spends her spare time working in her home studio
(assemblage, drawing, found-objects) and taking care of her
garden and three cats. She is active in many community projects
and in the local arts scene.
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Amy
Kuhn
Coming
Soon
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Linda
Laneback
Coming
Soon
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Betsy
Wilkening
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School:
Richard B. Wilson K-8 School
District: Amphitheater School District
Project: “Think, Act, Globally & Locally” |
This
project involves studying global climate change. The technology
purchased in this project will
1) Create a global learning community through the International
Polar Year Youth Network,
2) Enable scientific literacy, and
3) Provide the opportunity for my students to make a difference
in the world.
The students will be researching, participating in online
discussion groups, experimenting, podcasting, and documenting
global climate change as it affects them locally and sharing
with students globally.
Elizabeth
(Betsy) Wilkening received a B.S in Chemical Engineering from
the UA in 1982. She worked in manufacturing positions within
petrochemical and high-tech industries for a few years, and
the majority of her engineering career was spent working as
a systems engineer for IBM. After 13 years Betsy left engineering
and took some time off for her family. During that time she
taught science to preschoolers. Recently she received a M.Ed.
in Secondary Science Teaching from NAU. This is Ms. Wilkening’s
second year teaching 7th grade science at Wilson, and she
even has some former preschool students in her class. She
is an ASTA/NSTA member, participates in Project ASTRO and
is involved in the online e-mentoring program through NSTA.
Betsy loves exploring the world of science with her students.
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Stacie
Zanzucchi & Linda Sutera
Coming
Soon
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