Newsletter Article

NEH Ed Tech

Leslie Pralle Keehn

Over the last two months I’ve been working on a self-designed internship for my graduate coursework that is based in educational technology.  As a part of this project I have gotten to be a part of some amazing projects with the teachers and students at Northeast Hamilton. The following are some examples of the kids’ work.

(See example in previous post)

These are word clouds that Owen Jones (K) and Lillian Chamness (9th) and Rylee Keehn (K) and Kyler Rapp (9th) created. The Kindergarteners read books to the 8th and 9th graders (who practiced new technologies and citizenship skills) and created hats shaped like the hat from the Cat in the Hat to go along with their study of Dr. Seuss and word families. The third graders joined in on the fun, as well so they could learn about making this type of word cloud in the future.

The first and fourth graders have been working on writing stories based on pictures they found in magazines. Mrs. Schimp, Mrs. Smith, Dylan Greenfield, and myself are getting the students set up to load pictures for their stories onto a computer program called Little Bird Tales so the students could record their stories to share as e-books. The Kindergarten will be working on a similar project using Mr. Bunny and his journal so that they can all share in his adventures. 

Several teachers were also able to get together to Skype with Shannon Miller from Van Meter school district to learn about the different types of technology that they are using in their one-to-one school. 

Mrs. Leksell has created a Wikispaces page for her English students to use for discussion and collaboration, Mrs. Brandt uploaded her concert videos to her teacher page so that her students could view them and reflect on the concert, and the 8th graders are creating Google Maps that encompass the highlights of the Civil War. These are just a few examples of the ways that NEH teachers and students are coming together to use more technology in the classroom to really enhance student learning.

The Trojan Tech Team also came together to work with the teachers at their professional development meeting earlier this month. Several members, including Jacob Brim, Tristan Nicholson, Hunter Dilley, Tyler Dilley, Dylan Greenfield, Taylor Olson, and Mark Frohwein came into school early to lead sessions and work with me to offer training in Google Apps, Wikispaces, and Twitter. These students have also stayed after school to work with teachers in a one-on-one setting.

I have had a lot of fun getting to work with new classes and different teachers over the last two months, and I cannot thank the students, staff, and administration enough for the experiences. Seeing students creating, leading, and volunteering has truly been the highlight of this process, but it wouldn’t have been possible without our amazing staff, who have all stepped up to the challenge of including new opportunities for students in the classroom.