*+ESA+Project+Integrate



My name is Kristin Mulder and I am the Technology Integration Director for Sioux Falls Christian Schools. I have been in education for 17 years. I have taught middle school math/science/reading, 4th grade, undergrad and grad level educational technology courses, and educator workshops. My current job allows me to combine a little of all of those experiences! I feel very blessed by my job.

I chose to take part in Project Integrate because it is my desire to continue learning new technology tools, software, and integration ideas so that I can adequately assist my colleagues in their very important work of educating today's students.

"The need to know the capital of Florida died when my phone learned the answer. Rather, the students of tomorrow need to be able to think __CREATIVELY __: they will need to learn on their own, adapt to new challenges, and innovate on-the-fly." Anthony Chivetta, HS student in Missouri ([])

Action Research and Baseline Data:

Sioux Falls Christian Schools is in the on-going process of creating a K-5 computer curriculum for our teachers/students. This process has been a combined effort of the Technology Integration Director (Kristin Mulder), the Elementary School Principal (Matt Covey), and several of our elementary classroom teachers. Currently our school does not have a hired elementary computer teacher and so the duty of teaching computer skills falls on the desks of our classroom teachers. As support staff, it has been the desire and the goal of Kristin and Matt to offer the classroom teachers various workshop training sessions, lesson plan ideas, and electronic curriculum options to assist them in their efforts to lead the students in technology training and 21st Century Skills integration.

This school year (2010-2011) Kristin and Matt chose to focus their efforts on training the fifth grade teachers in the integration of some new technology tools. Our decision was based on two main criteria: the reflection of the scores from last year’s 21st Century Technology Skills on-line test that the fifth grade students take each year, and our desire to start from the “top” and work our way down in training grade-level classroom teachers in the best-practice methods of meeting their students’ needs in the technology and 21st Century Skills areas. We decided to focus specifically on the area of “CREATIVITY” when choosing the technology tools because this was the area in which our fifth grade students showed the lowest scores on the 21st Century Technology Skills on-line test. We also decided on the area of “CREATIVITY” because it is a staple in many of the SD Technology Content Standards, the ISTE/NETS Standards (for both students and educators), and the 21st Century Skills Student Outcomes.

Lesson Plans:

**__November/December__** – Animoto ( [] ) Lesson 1 – Matt and Kristin led each of the three fifth grade classes through the introduction of the Animoto website. Students all followed a pre-designed lesson to mimic the steps in creating their own video.

Lesson 2 – Matt and Kristin mentored the three fifth grade teachers as they assisted the students in creating their own Animoto videos using pictures from the school’s Homecoming events. The pictures were located in a shared drive on the school’s server. Students were allowed to choose their own music (from a music gallery within the Animoto site) as well as their own background and picture selections.

Lesson 3 – Classroom teachers led their students in creating a third Animoto video. Students were given a rubric which included various items that were required on the final project. The topic of this project was “Early American Explorers,” a fifth grade Social Studies unit that was being studied at this time.

* Sample Project - student video created by Ellie []

**__December__** – Wordle ( [] ) Lesson 1 – Matt and Kristin led each of the three fifth grade classes through the introduction of the Wordle website. Students all followed a pre-designed lesson to mimic the steps in creating their own Wordle word cloud.

Lesson 2 - Classroom teachers led their students in creating a second Wordle word cloud. Students were given the topic of “Christmas” and were asked to create a word cloud using at least 15 words that were related to the Christmas season. The Christmas story is a very large focus of the Bible curriculum during this time of year and that is why this topic was chosen for the Wordle project. Fewer restrictions were placed on the design of this assignment because this website encourages and allows for greater creativity and it was the desire of the teachers to see what the students would create with this open opportunity.

* Sample Project – student word cloud created by Jordan []

**__February/March__** – Microsoft Publisher Lesson 1 - Matt and Kristin led each of the three fifth grade classes through the introduction of the Microsoft Publisher program. Students all followed a pre-designed lesson to mimic the steps in creating their own Microsoft Publisher publication. In this particular lesson, students were introduced to the wide variety of publications that are available within Publisher to help someone create a visually appealing piece of printed material. Some of the publication templates that were introduced included: signs, cards, flyers, calendars, and brochures.

Lesson 2 - Matt and Kristin mentored the three fifth grade teachers as they assisted the students in creating their own Publisher __sign__. The students were currently studying “weather” in their science curriculum, with a specific focus on God’s control over the weather and its patterns. Students were given a list of 10 Bible verses that centered around the weather theme. Students were asked to create a sign using the Publisher program and were required to include: the Bible verse, the scripture from that Bible verse, and a picture (captured from the internet) that visually represented the Bible verse they had chosen. Students were allowed to assert their own creativity in the selection of their sign template, color schemes, placement of text and image, and font schemes.

* Sample Project – student Publisher sign created by Adam

Lesson 3 - Matt and Kristin mentored the three fifth grade teachers as they assisted the students in creating their own Publisher __brochure__. The students were currently reading the novel “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” in their Language Arts class. In the novel, the children run away from home and hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, located in New York City. Students were given a rubric of the requirements for the creation of their brochure, centered around information and artifacts of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The brochure was 2-sided and students were given some restrictions as to what needed to be put in each of the six panels. However, students were allowed to be creative in their selection of the artifact images they used (all images were taken from the Met’s website - gallery of artifacts), the color and font schemes they used, and the overall template they chose for their brochure.

* Sample Project – student Publisher brochure created by Noah

Lesson 4 – A week later, the fifth grade classroom teachers independently created a second brochure lesson, centered around a Social Studies unit on Native American Tribes. The teachers created a rubric for the brochures, introduced the lesson to the students, did all troubleshooting, and wrapped up the lesson on their own. Matt and Kristin were not in the lab at all during these computer lab periods.

* Sample Project – student Publisher brochure created by Emily

**__April__** – Microsoft Excel Lesson 1 - Matt and Kristin led each of the three fifth grade classes through the introduction of the Microsoft Excel program. Students all followed a pre-designed lesson to mimic the steps in creating their own Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and graph. The topic of this introductory lesson was “Temperatures in March.”

Lesson 2 - Classroom teachers led their students in creating a second Excel graph. The topic selected for this lesson was “Student Enrollment.” The students were studying graphs and charts in math class and as we proceed to the end of the school year it was interesting to allow the students to compare the size of each grade level K-12. * It was discussed and agreed upon by Matt, Kristin, and the fifth grade teachers that Excel would be better placed at the beginning of the school year in 2011-2012, due to the placement of the graphing unit within their math curriculum/textbook.

* Sample Project – student Excel project created by Kassidy

Reflections: May 2, 2011 - Post-interview with Mentees