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Qwest
Foundation in Education/AzTEA Grant Recipients |
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2008
Qwest/AzTEA Digital Classroom Leaders
Patti
Hulet and Mary Rozum-Pratto
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School:
Playa del Rey Elementary
District: Gilbert Public Schools
Project: Playa Butterfly Garden - Awakening
a Living Laboratory |
Project
Description:
The
Playa Butterfly Garden will create a living laboratory for
our K-6 students to gain an understanding of and appreciation
for the ecosystem. It will include a variety of interdisciplinary,
standards-based lessons across all grade levels. Our plan
is to create and nurture an environment of exploration and
discovery where all students and teachers can develop new
skills and cultivate a life-long connection with nature. We
hope to increase students' achievement and develop stewardship
responsibilities while strengthening our school spirit. Technology
will be the key thread that intertwines our learning. Our
Playa Butterfly Virtual Classroom will co-develop with the
garden and provide a place to share our project's progress
while collaborating with our community of learners.
Amount
Requested: $8,280
Bios:
Patti Hulet has worked for over twenty-six
years as a Library Media Specialist, starting in Mesa and
now in Gilbert. She earned a BS in Education at the University
of Idaho, a library endorsement at the University of Arizona,
and a MS in Education from Arizona State University. Her vast
background as an educator includes serving as an independent
library consultant and as a consultant for primary (K-2) gifted
and talented students. She has had a number of articles published
and a book entitled, Library Games Activities Kit. Having
been an officer for many professional organizations, she currently
is chapter VP in the American Night Writers Association. She
was named 2007 Arizona Teacher of the Year from USDA Agriculture
in the Classroom.
Patti
has always loved nature, wanting to become a forest ranger
when she was in high school. As a youth with her parents she
spent her summers camping around the United States. She and
her husband have fostered the outdoors and served the community
as they volunteered with the Boy Scouts of America. She loves
reading, writing, weaving, sewing, and being the mother of
three children.
Mary
Pratto is an instructional technologist for Gilbert
Public Schools working with teachers and students at Playa
del Rey along with other elementary and junior high schools,
integrating technology into teaching and learning. She has
a passion for helping teachers use technology to capitalize
on the interest of their students. Her prior experiences in
her 20 plus years in education include three years as a reading
teacher and ten years teaching junior high language, special
ed, and computers. She has also worked in the private business
sector developing educational software and staff development.
Currently she is excited to share project ideas and lesson
activities she has found successful in the virtual classroom
environment. She has co-authored and facilitated several on-line
district classes, including GPS Virtual Classroom-Getting
Started, Learning for the 21st Century, and Making Connections
with Primary Sources.
Mary
received her BS in Elementary and Special Education along
with a MA in Education Administration from Arizona State University.
Mary spends her spare time hiking, running and gardening;
generally anything outdoors. She also loves spending quality
with her husband, Pat and young adult children, Adrien and
Anthony.
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Laurie
Burrell
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School:
Richard B. Wilson K-8
District: Amphitheater School District
Project: "Bats, Bridges and Biosphere
3" |
Project
Description:
Our project will open up three after school elementary science
clubs at disadvantaged sister schools near Wilson K-8. These
schools include, Harelson, Donaldson and Walker Elementary.
The Bats, Bridges and Biosphere 3 project invites six elementary
schools in the Sonoran Desert to conduct a cross-border endangered
Sonoran Bat migration and climate study. We will partner with
the Desert Museum, Kartchner Caverns, Colossal Cave, Arizona
State Game and Fish, the University of Arizona, Biosphere
2, one school from Kyrene School District in Phoenix, four
schools in Amphitheater School District and a school in Hermosillo,
Mexico. Students will "harness the collective intelligence"
of the Internet to compare students’ live data on our wiki
and consult with our expert partners to address the following
issues: are bats roosting under bridges in Tucson, is the
pollination of the endangered Saguaro cacti impacted by global
warming, what are future scientists and conservationist doing
to reverse the decline of our bat population, how can we increase
the pollination of the endangered Saguaro, and dispel myths
about Sonoran bats.
Amount
Requested: $9,809.36
Bio:
Laurie Burrell is both an educator and a scientist, she left
a small med-micro lab in an Air Force Hospital in Wiesbaden,
Germany to enter the field of teaching. She says she continues
to experiment on her little "carbon units or students" each
day! Laurie has taught 4th and 5th grade students at Amphitheater
School District for the last 4 years. She spent time teaching
in Deer Valley School District in Phoenix, Tucson Unified
School District and Friendship School District in Lubbock,
Texas for a total of 10 years. She has a passion for science
and makes sure she infects everyone she comes into contact
with an appreciation for "hands-on, minds-on" science instruction.
Laurie was recently recognized as an Ambassador of Excellence
by the Arizona Educational Foundation, as one of the top 5
representatives for Arizona Teacher of the Year. She is a
highly committed professional educator who relishes the combination
of education and science. She has traveled around Arizona
to share her passion for science and discovered the great
need for forgotten future scientists. Thanks to Qwest and
AzTEA, many of the bright minds that will be solving our problems
of tomorrow, will have an opportunity to solve problems today!
She has a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a Masters of
Education. She is married to her college sweetheart of 23
years, an Air Force pilot Paul Burrell and has 3 children
who keep her busy and proudly attend Amphi schools; one at
IRHS and two at Wilson.
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Robyn
Rice
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School:
Maricopa Wells Middle School
District: Maricopa Unified School District
Project: Utilities Planning for Mini
Cities
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Project
Description:
The students will use a SmartBoard to create a miniature city
that is built to scale. The city will be constructed from
cardboard and glue. Then, the students will use the SmartBoard
to create a vertex-edge graph to determine the most cost-effective
route to supply their city with water.
Amount
Requested: $9,917.62
Bio:
Robyn Rice began her teaching career in 2001, teaching 4th
grade. Since then, she has taught math and science for 6th
and 7th grade. Currently, she is teaching 8th grade Pre-Algebra
and Algebra. She is in her 7th year of teaching, with 6 of
those years in middle school.
Robyn
is the Math Department Chair at Maricopa Wells Middle School.
She is also a mentor teacher and serves on several school
committees. Robyn is excited about the opportunity to incorporate
technology into the classroom to increase the achievement
of the math students at Maricopa Wells Middle School.
Robyn
has a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from Arizona State University.
She also has her MA in Curriculum and Instruction from the
University of Phoenix.
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Sheri
Marlin
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School:
Borton Primary Magnet School
District: Tucson Unified School District
Project: Language Learning Live
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Project
Description:
Learning Language Live will create a portable language learning
lab made up of laptop computers, digital cameras, digital
voice recorders and projection capability for use with multiple
groups of students learning English. Daily access to technology
will allow for unprecedented frequency and accuracy of student
assessment. Progress toward the English Language Learner standards
defined by the state will be monitored using learner artifacts
created by students in programs such as Photo Story III, Movie
Maker and Inspiration and will be reviewed tri-weekly by teams
of teachers to determine progress toward achievement of state
standards. Learning Language Live will make language learning
technologies available to students on demand in multiple locations
throughout the school.
Amount
Requested: $7,907
Bio:
Sheri Marlin is the Instructional Coach at Borton Primary
Magnet School. Over the last 24 years she has taught students
at all levels from preschool through graduate school. During
the last seven years while working at Borton, Sheri has worked
as a classroom teacher and now supports all staff in the building
as an instructional coach. Since Borton became a Waters Foundation
Demonstration site in 2005, Sheri has worked along with the
staff at Borton to find new applications for Systems Thinking
tools in the primary classroom. Students and teachers have
benefited greatly as students have learned to make their thinking
more visible. For more about this work visit the school’s
web site at http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/smarlin/systems_dynamics.htm.
Sheri holds a masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction
from the UofA and has worked as a school principal and curriculum
director.
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