Seasoned and Still Eager
Marge Stemble has been teaching for thirty years, the last ten at Garrett Park Elementary School, on the outskirts of Washington, D.C. A third of the students in Marge's fifth-grade class come from foreign countries. Children from Southeast Asia, Russia, India and Latin America make for a rich cultural mix that Marge finds exciting. "I love it," she says, "You can name practically any country and I've had a student from there." Marge enjoys working with her fifth grade teaching team, too. "It's great. We don't team teach but we plan together. Everyone shares the load in planning the fifth grade program." The work pays off in many ways; Garret Park fifth graders have won their share of awards in state technology competitions.

An Early Adopter
When Commodore PET computers appeared on the scene around 1980, Marge Stemble and her students jumped right in and started programming in BASIC. Today Marge is adjusting to her fourth computing platform, and aids her students in the creation of integrated multimedia science projects on new Dell computers.

Marge credits her facility with changing technology to a persistent interest that started when computers first appeared in schools. Explaining her adaptability, she says, "I've been at it this a long time, and I can draw on the store of experiences I've had to understand some of the broader principles of computing. These help me solve problems as I work with new technologies. I'm a risk taker, too, and I'm not afraid to risk failure when I try something new."

This self-assurance spills into her daily teaching. Marge says she's rarely taught the same thing twice in the same way. "Teaching is a constant process of refinement," she says, "I'll teach something new knowing it won't be perfect the first time. I monitor and adjust my teaching all the time".

Children Lead the Way
Marge remembers the early days of school computing, when she'd take new equipment or software home and set her children to figuring them out while she cooked dinner. After the meal, they'd teach her how her new technology worked so she could put it to use the next day.

Though her own kids are grown, things haven't really changed much. Now it's Marge's students who often lead the way. "I'm always surprised what kids teach me. For instance, I'll pass by a computer and see a student using some feature of the equipment or software that I wasn't aware of. I'll say 'How did you do that!' and they teach me, with real pleasure. We're really all in this together, with the students teaching themselves, each other, and me."

Adapting Curriculum
Rewriting her solar energy curriculum with a technology twist was both an academic and practical decision. Marge taught this science topic for several years, and even with constant refinement, she was never satisfied with the results. It was apparent from assessment during the lessons that her students weren't learning fundamental concepts such as the motion of the earth around the sun. "I could rotate on my axis in front of the class all day and they still weren't getting it," she relates, "I'd try drawing, acting, explaining, and using models, and I'd still have only two kids who could show where a shadow would fall at 2:00 p.m." Her fifth graders saw the topic as being simple and worthy of little effort, while Marge knew it was fundamental, and pretty hard to grasp. "I decided if I applied technology to the problem I'd have yet another means for addressing the content. Also, the interactive nature of computers sustains attention better, so students put in the concentrated effort it takes for deeper understanding."

Practical considerations carried weight, too. Marge has her full year's curriculum laid out in advance, so she knows the order that computer skills that need to be developed. "In the fall we do solar studies in groups, and students learn technology skills they'll apply later in their individual engineering projects."

Problem Solving
Like any "hands-on, minds-on" enterprise, the solar cooking challenge comes with its share of problems to be solved. From selecting a design to final cooking, students learn that asking the right question is both a first and frequent step in working like a scientist. Which design is best? Where will we get the materials? How does insulation work? Why isn't this thing heating up faster? Whether the design challenge is met by some or all, the students in Marge's class have anchored their learning in significant, memorable work. They might even be able to tell you where a shadow falls at 2:00 p.m.


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