Welcome to the first issue of the SAU 16 TechLetter

Ellen Johnson, department chair for the World Languages Department at the High School is a clear choice as a Technology Leader in our school system. Ellen, a graduate of the Lesley University Technology in Education Master’s program, has coupled her personal interest in technology with her interest in finding new and innovative ways to teach the world languages. Ellen has produced an extensive web site for her department (available for viewing linked from the department page on the Exeter High School web site at http://ehs.sau16.k12.nh.us). She has shared her interests with her staff and many of them have adopted Ellen’s ideas into their own teaching practices. Ellen shares her ideas with her teachers both informally and also in a more formal way, through offering short workshops for them after school. Her goal in these workshops is to provide teachers with something they can put to immediate use with their classes. For example, earlier in the school year Ellen introduced some of her staff to the web site at Quia.com where they can produce their own games for vocabulary drill as well as online quizzes and self-tests. Ellen has also volunteered to serve as the building “Homework Now” coordinator for all the World Language teachers as well as many teachers from other departments who are now posting homework for their classes with this service. This allows students and parents to access the assignments from home.

As an example of a particularly successful technology based project, Kathy Bean and Michelle Marnicio, who teach Spanish, had their students produce color brochures promoting hotels in Guadalajara, México. Students had to do Internet research to learn about prices and services of regional hotels and then used Microsoft Word and Publisher to produce the brochures, which were printed in color and displayed for all to see.

Other teachers are using web sites such as “Study Spanish.com” where they can have students use a variety of self-paced lessons online. Another online activity Ellen is interested in using is Maya Quest. This is a subscription service that allows students to interact with archeologists in the field who are actively researching the ancient Mayan culture.

In addition to the use of technology, another of Ellen’s goals is to foster teamwork and joint planning among her teachers. Recently, all the French teachers (Jackie Bodi, Rebecca Bullen, Deborah Murphy and Patricia Petit-Phipps) held a Mardi Gras celebration for their classes. Students researched the celebration on the Internet and then produced class floats and held a parade. This activity was documented using a digital camera and pictures will soon be posted on Ellen’s department Web site.

It should be clear that Ellen Johnson is doing her best to see that her teachers are beginning to use the new technological tools we now have at our disposal. Ellen is a great choice as this issues “Technology Leader”.

Looking for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Well this is a good place to begin your search. I found most of these sites on www.nheon.com state website. However many needed their addresses updated.

Personally, I've written a few grants and had them approved through the state and I've written some that came up empty. However, to be a real contender in this arena be ready for a few defeats. Before spending too much time on a grant consult your department head, building administrator, and central office first. Someone might already be working on a similar grant. When it comes to money and number crunching consult with Michelle Coglan in the business office. She has managed many grants and will provide insight into the dollars and sense of grants.

If you really want to get a jump start in grant writing, consider taking Beginner or Advance Grant Writing with Robert Lister, though continuing education in Manchester, NH. A few teachers in district have participated in classes with Mr. Lister. Kathy Sousa might know what teachers participated in grant writing classes. These folks would be an excellent resource too.

Two other publications that I regularly consult are "Technology" and "Learning and eSchool News".

www.technology.com www.echooolnews.org

For more grant resources go to Resource Links

Happy Hunting!

One great way to use technology is to introduce a topic or provide extra exposure and background for a curricular unit. Imagine the excitement generated when students hear Columbus talk about his journey and then can follow along in his footsteps.

If you close your eyes, can you picture a rainforest and imagine its sounds? Stratham’s second grade students can because they used the program Destination: Rainforest to visit the rainforest and learn about all the animal and plant life.

First grade students have become insect detectives as they matched up insect drawings with their identifications by using the pictures and information available on Enchanted Learning’s Insect Pages.

How can students get a feel for all the billions of stars in the universe? What better way than to explore all the wondrous pictures taken by the Hubble Space Science Telescope of nebulas, stars, galaxies and strange stuff in space.

How many different colors of quartz are there? Just take a trip to the Minerals.net website along with the fourth graders to find out for yourself.

It seems like only yesterday we were setting up new servers, ghosting 75+ computers… Maybe it was yesterday… It’s all a fog.

I thought I would run down where the schools have come with their networks since this summer. Swasey Elementary decided their server would crash this year. We were able to find a “loaner” server in the district to take care of their needs. Swasey will be getting a new server this summer!

Stratham Memorial School purchased a bunch of PC’s this year and they are all running on the network now. Mary Jo Spenser (tech coordinator) has worked extremely hard in her school and the state of the network shows it. SMS will also be purchasing a new server this summer.

Kensington Elementary school had a really strange issue this year with FirstClass not running on a particular computer. It took over a month but it’s now happy as a clam!

East Kingston technology coordinator Peter Fennell has kept things running pretty smooth all year! Frankly, the networks has run so well, I can’t even remember what their server looks like down there.

The Newfields building addition is complete with new network drops in each of the new classrooms. Mr. Bennett has been busy collecting donated computer equipment and learning to rebuild the machines for student. use.

Lincoln and Main Street Schools have had an interesting year. We combined the two schools into one network and they have 4 new Gateway servers. They have a gigabit backbone (fiber optics between the schools), which is a first in the district. Although the network runs very well, there have been issues with Macs and Internet connectivity. The issues are expected any time you do a major network overhaul. Their network will be the flagship for the district going into next year.

Welcome to new Exeter High School technology coordinator Richard Pratt. Richard came in as a former end user and biology teacher and is now a legitimate “techie.” Richard is a wiz at the Mac OS and an all around swell egg. We started to implement a gigabit backbone in the EHS and hope to finish it next year.

The Cooperative Middle School received two new servers this year. One was a desperately needed fileserver, and the other was a proxy server so that technology coordinator, Andy Littlefield can monitor the network.

Stay tuned, next month I will fill you in on our summertime projects, and what you can expect to see in your schools in September!

We have scheduled a few popular technology workshops this spring. Any SAU 16 teacher or staff member is welcome to attend. Professional development credit is available. There is no fee for attendance.

Registration information:
Contact: Stacey Hall by e-mail, or by phone at 775-8678
Please provide the following information:
        Workshop name
        Your name
        School
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