A Qualified Teacher
Lisa-helen came to teaching several years ago, after being employed in a variety of jobs. "I worked in a myriad of different fields before finding myself," she says. "Right before I went to school to get my degree in teaching I worked in retail. I also worked with severely handicapped children in Rochester New York. I worked with several AIDs organizations in my area as well. I don't know if any of these life experiences have made me a better teacher, or if it's something that you just have, or if it's just age... I like to think it's a little bit of all three." Lisa-helen continues to develop professionally. She is pursuing a master's degree in education technology at Johns Hopkins, and works as a master trainer in the Intel® Teach Program.

Systematic Technology Choices
Teachers at Washington Grove help students use an AGOPP (Ask, Gather, Organize, Prepare, Present) research strategy to guide their project work. This overarching structure makes choosing how and when to use technology fairly easy for Lisa-helen. "I look at the separate phases of a project, and determine how technology is going to be helpful to me or support the students' learning. I consider the skills and the content of the curriculum, and I use the ISTE National Education Technology Standards, and it comes together naturally. My goal is for seamless integration, technology flowing into a project invisibly. I don't let technology take over, and I never use technology for technology's sake."

Early Learners and Technology
In first grade, Lisa-helen knows technology choices need to be thoughtfully made and developmentally sound. Lisa-helen introduces technology gradually in small measures, starting the year with demonstrations of the various tools. Over time, students take on more electronic tasks themselves, and by the end of the year they are pecking out words, navigating, creating files and saving their work. Whether it's keying survey data in a spreadsheet or producing a slideshow, students have been introduced to a wide variety of tools they can use at every phase of their learning. The Internet becomes a useful resource, too. Lisa-helen focuses her students' efforts by building closed Web sites that guide them to useful, age-appropriate resources.

Pond Water and Pollywogs
This progressive accumulation of technology skills culminates in the "Pond Water and Pollywogs" study. "This unit is a natural fit," Lisa-helen reflects, "Because the separate skills that are taught and developed through the year come together in this project." During frog habitat studies, students take digital photographs of frog habitat, use thermometers and water quality test kits, see their data put in spreadsheets to make graphs, and contribute their ideas to slideshows and newsletters. "Kids are so empowered. They can work like scientists, and they can produce work that shows what they do is important, because it's polished and professional looking."

Hurricanes! Hooray!
Project work is important to Lisa-helen and her team. "We see more discussion, true discussion about important matters—the way kids interact, it's almost adult-like." An engaging project focuses student effort, and using computers focuses it even more., "At times, it's harder for me, especially at the planning and preparation phases," Lisa-helen says, "And when projects start I'm tearing around facilitating lots of activities at once. Project days are harder than paper and pencil days, but the kids are so charged, so deeply engaged, it's worth it." Lisa-helen was getting ready to write a hurricanes Web quest over the weekend "We'll have a bunch of happy little hurricanes experts when we're through," she says.


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