Planning Stage
    Cynthia Clark and Zandra Brixey will be working together on .  "Project Get SMARTer generates and disseminates practical research on educational technology and collaborative and project-based learning. The Foundation invites independent researchers to submit project proposals and places SMART products in settings ranging from elementary classrooms to teacher training centers. Our research includes not only strictly quantitative studies but also qualitative projects that demonstrate new and innovative uses of technology in education."
    Cynthia Clark teaches at Broadmoor and Edison Junior Highs in Pekin Public School District #108. I created a class called Communications. Communications is a class that teaches speaking skills with technology. This year I also plan on incorporating some media curriculum. We have evolved from a twelve week curriculum to a nine week curriculum with two minimesters of electives added to the end of year
    Zandra Brixey teaches at Jefferson School in Pekin Public School District #108.  I am a learning center teacher for a school of approximately 400 kindergarten through third graders.  I am responsible for teaching the technology curriculum and for staff development.
    Cynthia and Zandra are going to be working together to apply for this project and to incorporate it into our respective curriculums.  Since this involves us working together on both sections of the major project, we will be following the guidelines of both to insure that we are planning effectively.  We will be working jointly on this project in all sections.
    Here are the resources and refernces that we have used:
 

	This is Cynthia Clark's University of Illinois webpage.
	This is Zandra Brixey's University of Illinois webpage.
	This site lists the "details of various projects including abstracts, pictures, student and teacher comments and final reports."
Web Page Design for seventh and eighth Graders	http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/msennert/FinalProject.htm
Keys to A Successful Project Telecommunications In The Classroom: Keys to Successful Telecomputing Peer and Cross-Age Tutoring	Keys to A Successful Project, continued Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow Research Student Engagement: Views from Technology-Rich Classrooms Multimedia Encourages New Learning Styles New Times Demands New Ways of Learning What Is the Collaborative Classroom?
	Here is a list of gold sites and some activity ideas.
	This is the district where Cynthia and Zandra teach.
	This is Zan's school website.
	This is Pekin Public School's Technology Curriculum.
	This is Pekin Public School's RAP (Research, Author, Publish) Curriculum.
	This is the Illinois State Standards webpage.

    Cynthia Clark and Zandra Brixey will be working jointly to create a curriculum incorporating the SMART Board.  This curriculum will be an extension of the existing technology curriculum.  This curriculum will be used by 420 junior high age students and by almost 400 kindergarten through third grade students.  This project will involve students in both schools and both age groups working together through websites and email in an active learning environment depending on the Smart Board for whole class and small group interaction.
    We will be working together to plan the interactive curriculum while working on our own to plan our individual projects.  However, there will be much collaboration, as the projects are ultimately linked.
    Here are our Curriculum Components. This section will be updated frequently as we continue to work on this project.
 

    Here are the Illinois State Standards that will be targeted.  This section will be updated frequently as we continue to work on this project.
 

	This is a list of all the state standards.
	* STATE GOAL 1: Read with  understanding and fluency. *  STATE GOAL 3: Write to  communicate for a variety of  purposes. * STATE GOAL 4: Listen and speak  effectively in a variety of  situations. * STATE GOAL 5: Use the  language arts to acquire, assess  and communicate information.
	* STATE GOAL 6: Demonstrate  and apply a knowledge and sense of  numbers, including numeration and  operations (addition, subtraction,  multiplication, division), patterns,  ratios and proportions. * STATE GOAL 7: Estimate, make  and use measurements of objects,  quantities and relationships and  determine acceptable levels of  accuracy. * STATE GOAL 10: Collect,  organize and analyze data using  statistical methods; predict results;  and interpret uncertainty using  concepts of probability.
	* STATE GOAL 11: Understand the  processes of scientific inquiry and  technological design  to investigate  questions, conduct experiments and  solve problems. * STATE GOAL 13: Understand the  relationships among science,  technology and society in historical  and contemporary contexts.
	* STATE GOAL 15: Understand  economic systems, with an  emphasis on the United States. * STATE GOAL 16: Understand  events, trends, individuals and  movements shaping the history of  Illinois, the United States and other  nations.
	* STATE GOAL 24: Promote and  enhance health and well-being  through the use of effective  communication and  decision-making skills.

    There are many technology needs that our students will have.  We are fortunate to work in a district where these are supplied.  We hope to be able to receive a SMART Board from .  The individual computers that our students use, the Ethernet lines for email and the World Wide Web are supplied by our istrict.  We will be posting our students work on our websites supplied by the University of Illinois.  The students involved in Technology and Thinking Across Age Levels will be working in Mrs. Clark's classroom or Ms. Brixey's classroom.
Here is a schedule of the project.
 

Mrs. Clark	Ms. Brixey
I will be doing this in the spring with my web page design class...for about 4 1/2 weeks, using the SMART Board to present the information that I am teaching. It will be incorporated into  collaborative projects that the students in both classes will choose together.	I will be doing projects each month that will be using the internet and email to share what the students are learning with the students in Mrs. Clark's class.  They will incorporate all of this into webpages showing the students products from both classes.

    This project depends on many outside resources and staff.  Obviously, it is necessary and advisable to have the support of our respective administrators.  It also depends on the staff of the Tech Center for support of the computers and equipment.  It will be supported and aided by the  staff, also.
    The connections to other curriculums, besides technology is endless.  That will be addressed in this table as the project is developed.  These align with the Illinois State Standards listed above.
 

Social Studies	map skills, history, economics, governments
Math	counting money, graphing, sharing data
Language Arts	writing, reading, public speaking, listening
Science	making hypothesis, experiments, collecting data

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Proposal Stage

Classroom experiences, projects and activities

Learning theories and implications for curriculum, instruction and assessment

Teacher training and professional development

Pre-service (practice) and professional development

New paradigms in organizing, planning and delivering Ergonomic, interface, and cognitive issues

Opening up technology to both genders New frontiers and new visions in technology applied to teaching and learning

We will consider all relevant proposals. If you have a compelling topic not included in the suggested topic list, please feel free to submit a proposal. Proposals most likely to receive a favorable review are those that: Focus on learning, teaching or training outcomes; Will result in dissemination of lessons learned and in replication of successful practices; Are most likely to produce measurable results; Have a strong research component; Use computer technology as a tool, and not as a subject; Involve collaborative and project-based learning and involve innovative use of computer technology

Cynthia Clark and Zandra Brixey will be working jointly to create a curriculum incorporating the SMART Board. Thiscurriculum will be an extension of the existing technology curriculum. This curriculum will be used by 420 junior high agestudents and by almost 400 kindergarten through third grade students. This project will involve students in both schools andboth age groups working electronically in an active learning environment depending on the Smart Board. We will be working together to plan the interactive curriculum while working on our own to plan our individual projects. The short term and long term goals will be addressed in each of our curriculums. Zan's includes the use of the Smart Board to explore visuals on the web, model the use of internet, Word, PowerPoint, and email in whole group situations. Cynthia will use the Smart Board in her web page design class. This will include introducing the students to the SMART Board as a means to access and evaluate good and bad websites before they begin making their own. It will also be used as a platform in which students can learn how to make a web pages and this will include peer teaching. Both classes will be using the SMART Board for whole class and small group instruction.

Background

There will be an interaction of students throughout the year using websites and e-mail to develop a relationship of learning and provide some peer teaching and review. We will be using the resources of the both of our classrooms: numerous computers and the SMART Board. A rubric will be developed with each of the groups. Both of us feel that students need to have ownership of the rubric to make it an effective assessment. The students' websites will also be part of their portfolios.

Learning Focus

This project is important as it will allow for two different classes of students to work together and effectively share their work. It will also provide the students with a platform in which they can demonstrate and show others their skills. This will result in a cooperative community of multi-age learners teaching and learning from each other. The SMART Board will again becomeuseful when the students display their publications.

Results & Evaluation

The outcomes that we expect are a learning of technologies within many different curriculums that also address Illinois StateStandards. Teacher created rubrics and  using the district's technology curriculum rubrics will measure these. The students will be assessed at the end of the year on technology tests that are given district wide. There will be feedback from parents when the children review their portfolios with the parents.

Category

We hope to use the Smart Board within our classrooms to show the district how it can aid in multi-age learning and studentcentered projects over schools that are not physically connected. This is clearly a student centered active learning tool for the classroom.

We have contacted resource staff in our district and our administrators.  We are encouraged by their support of our project. Their letters will be shared here.
Dr. Jeffry Nelson
Mr. Jeff Erickson
Mrs. Sheila Watson

Here is the PowerPoint presentation that will be shared on August 1, 2000.
 

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Curriculum Stage
    Cynthia Clark and Zandra Brixey are teaming together to use the SMART Board to teach technology to junior high students and kindergarten through third graders.  Here are each of our plans for this project.
 

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