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Less than a week after the last bell rang for the 2006-07 school
year, 22 Wabash Valley middle school and high school educators returned
to the classroom on June 6 to learn how online resources can provide
valuable tools for children to improve science education and meet the
increasing demands of statewide testing.
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Showcasing PRISM: PRISM Community Liaison
Steve Wood (at computer) works with teachers Jason Childress of
West Vigo Middle School and Jodi Bondy of Danville Community
Schools, during a workshop session. |
The teachers participated in a one-day educational workshop
organized by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology's Portal Resource for
Indiana Science and Mathematics (PRISM), which is providing valuable
digital resources for middle school teachers. PRISM is a free website
that provides a digital library of more than 2,300 resources indexed to
the Indiana Academic Standards and cross referenced by learning concept
for use by teachers. The workshop included information on the use of PRISM's
implementation of Moodle and how teachers can create their own online
classroom community. These communities can be used to post Web pages,
interactive assignments, quizzes, forums, chats, journals, blogs and
course-specific glossaries. The following math, science and technology teachers -- selected
through a competitive application process -- will serve as PRISM
advocates, potentially helping to train colleagues at their
institution/school districts during the 2007-08 school year:
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Bill Allen, science teacher at Terre Haute South High School
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Rob Belcher, science teacher at Turkey Run Junior-Senior High
School
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Shannon Belcher, math teacher at Riverton Park Junior-Senior
High School
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Laura Cash Bennett, science teacher at Riverton Park
Junior-Senior High School
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Jodi Bondy, science teacher at Danville Community Schools
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Tom Browning, science teacher at Brownsburg Community Schools
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Jason Childress, technology teacher at West Vigo Middle School
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Susan Eisman, media specialist at Terre Haute North High
School
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Jamie Elwell, science teacher at Northview High School
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John Garner, science teacher at Greencastle High School
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Christine Hedge, science teacher at Danville Community Schools
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Sarah Liechty, science teacher at Northview High School
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Tonya Luckey, science teacher at Avon Community Schools
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Carol McClain, science teacher at Sullivan Junior High School
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Brenda Marina, media specialist at Fuqua Elementary School
(Vigo County)
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Michael Menser, technology coordinator at Riverton Park
Junior-Senior High School
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Wendy Otoupal-Hylton, math and technology teacher at
Brownsburg Community Schools
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Jeff Ransford, technology teacher at North Central Schools
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Steve Steppe, sixth grade teacher at Farmersburg Elementary
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Stacie Stoffregen, science teacher at Greencastle Middle
School
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Lisa Tryon, math teacher at Terre Haute South High School
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Mike Van Rensselaer, math and business teacher at Greencastle
Middle School
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Exploring Educational Resources: PRISM Webmaster Ryan Smith assists
teacher Stacie Stoffregen of Greencastle Middle School to browse through
the many educational resources that are available on Rose-Hulman's web
portal. |
Workshop presenters were Patricia Carlson, PRISM project
director; Ryan Smith, PRISM webmaster; Matt Davidson, PRISM programmer;
and Steve Wood, PRISM community liaison. Another workshop is planned on Aug. 1 to get teachers get
prepared for the upcoming school year. Created in 2002 through a grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc.,
PRISM merges a large, complex and dispersed amount of Internet-based
educational materials into a single portal that is much easier to
navigate, according to Carlson, professor in the Department of
Humanities/Social Sciences at Rose-Hulman. Portal features include
cross indexing by subject and grade level of resources to meet state
educational standards; all catalogued electronic resources have been
evaluated by a board of trained reviewers; additional peer-reviews,
provided by Indiana middle school teachers, add "reports from the field"
and useful recommendations for educators; and a virtual meeting room
supports collaboration and communication, ranging from large-scale
meetings to small, mentoring liaisons between two or three teachers. |
