Enhancement of the Project

Resources funded through this grant will allow four more classroom teachers (for a total of six) to teach this curriculum unit. This year two classroom teachers and the Technology Specialist collaborated to develop this unit. To expand this unit so that 6 classrooms could include this unit in the curriculum, would require that all of the classroom teachers gain increased skills relative to the computer component so that they could lead a computer class independent of the Technology Specialist. Also, through funding we can add a teleconferencing component to the unit.

In order to meet the additional equipment demands that will result if 6 classroom teachers adopt this unit, we need to purchase a computer projection device, digital cameras, printers and additional computers for the lab and respective classrooms.

Staff Development is planned through 6 2 hour workshops (taking place in October, November, January, March, April and May), which will provide training related to the curriculum components as well as teach teachers the Internet and ClarisWorks skills needed to teach students to create their booklets. The units itself is taught during the second semester. Students meet once a week to for discussion and analysis with teachers, and once a week in the computer lab. The initial staff development work shops introduce teachers to the curriculum, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th workshops focus on the computer skills needed for creating the booklet and slide show presentation, and will also allow teachers to share on-going progress with each other, the 5th workshop provides an opportunity to review, evaluate students learning outcomes, and plan for the following year.

Enhancement Timeline:

Purchase hardware and software for presentation, workshops and teleconferencing

Begin staff development workshops for the 6 participating classroom teachers (open to others); (6 - 2 hour workshops scheduled for October, November, January, March, April and May)

Teleconference with Elephant Sanctuary in March

Elephant Biographies Booklet completed in April

Student presentations to other classes and special visitors in May and June

School-wide fair (letter writing, information and raffles) for Elephant Awareness in May and June

Dissemination Plans:

The Technology Specialist and one of the classroom teachers will attend the Superintendents' Conference, the DOE Conference, and the MassCue conference. Additionally, 10 hours of staff development training will be made available to other school systems. A web site will be created to support teachers work throughout the state and also provide for an opportunity to share, ask questions, and post student work. Finally, a teacher's guide to integrating technology through the Elephant Biographies Project will be available. The guide will help teachers implement the variety of lesson plans and activities that comprise this thematic unit on endangered species.

Dissemination Timeline

• Superintendents' Conference (October 11 &12) Project announcement, information, and recruiting of interested teachers and districts
• Elephant Biographies Teacher Resource Web site and Printed Teacher's Guide prepared and completed prior to MassCue Fall conference (notify appropriate search engines and teacher resource sites about Elephant Biographies project page)
• Workshop presentation at MassCUE Conference (November 8 & 9) - recruit interested in teachers and Technology Specialists in other systems or schools, provide them the Teacher's Guide and web address for Teacher Resource web site.
• Provide article about lighthouse project in MassCue newsletter and MassCue web site
• Send mailing to Curriculum Coordinators in other systems re: lighthouse project
• Provide staff development opportunities to other schools in November and December or as appropriate for scheduling
• Presentation at DOE's Spring Educational Technology Conference in April
• Ongoing - update teacher resource web site, facilitate postings, questions and respond to email

Our aim is to provide K-8 teachers with the outline and ideas for using the Elephant Sanctuary web site, teaching materials, email and teleconferencing capabilities to enhance or design a curriculum unit on endangered species. The Teacher Guide and Web Site will include lesson plans and activities we used to guide students through the study of the endangered Asian Elephants at the Elephant Sanctuary, and how our students obtained and analyzed information from using www.elephants.com and a simple drawing/word processing program such as ClarisWorks to create their own Elephant Biographies Book . Off-site teachers who know how to use ClarisWorks (or similar program) to create newsletters and flyers will be able guide students easily through the lesson plans and activities provided, or develop their own related activities.

Off-site staff development could be done at several schools at their site or we can provide one central location depending on response and needs of other systems. Note: though some of the materials we disseminate will reflect the grade level we have taught (first and second grade), related lesson plans, units and curriculum ideas could be easily generated by teachers at K-8. The Elephant Sanctuary itself provides, via the web site, PDF format lesson plans for K-3 Teachers and 4-8 Teachers. The lesson plans incorporate language, math, science, social studies and health curriculum areas.