Technology & Learning - December 2007 - (Page 8)

LEADER of the f the h Year Visual Arts Open theWorld to Students Leader: Doug Martin Graphic Arts Teacher Mingo Career & Technical Center Delbarton, WV District Snapshot: A fter quitting his job with Disney, Doug Martin returned to his hometown, a small, rural coalmining town, to teach graphic arts at the Mingo Career & Technical Center. An economically depressed area, Delbarton doesn’t see a lot of college graduates, especially among the kids in the vocational education tracks. In his application, Martin said, “Our classrooms can sometimes be the single hope our students can rely on for their future.” And he has taken that mandate seriously. “I believe there is a need for teachers who do more than march students through textbooks. I am a firm believer in the nontraditional 21st-century classroom, a classroom full of creative opportunities that will keep the interest of today’s child with today’s technologies.” Also convinced that technology and creativity go hand in hand, Martin says he “entertains students into learning” by incorporating such visuals as Internet examples, television clips, and commercials. Most of his assignments come from listening to his pupils and discovering the latest “hot topics.” The results have changed the lives of his students. Using cutting-edge The Mingo County School District is graphics such as the in a small, rural coal-mining town, Adobe suite of prodwhere even mining jobs are increasucts and technologies ingly scarce, and most students do not attend college. The student such as Kodak digital population is 230. cameras and Wacom tablets, Martin has turned his students into world-class artists, winning over 40 design and art contests this past year alone. Honors they’ve rounded up include the National Congressional Art Award, a national Scholastic art award, and an EA Kids Sports Web design award. Martin has also focused on instilling in students a sense of self-confidence and a knowledge that they have the ability to compete and win on a global scale. Martin has opened up the world to his kids. When they won the Congressional Art Award, the class traveled to Washington, DC, to meet Congressman Nick Rahall and to attend an awards ceremony. Martin’s class was also invited by West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin to go to the capitol. When there, the students presented the governor with a digital photomosaic portrait they had created of him. Students also gained worldwide recognition through a multimedia tribute (available on CD and viewable on the Web) to the miners who lost their lives in the Sago Mine tragedy of 2006—a tragedy that hit very close to home for this community. Last year 18 of Martin’s students won college scholarships, amounting to almost half a million dollars. Says a former student in a letter of recommendation, “Without Mr. Martin, I’d probably be going to work in a coal mine.” Learn More: http://mingotech.com Last Byte: “Because the generation of students that I am teaching is an instant pudding, drive-through, microwave, download-it-from-the-Internet, media-driven generation, I know that I must be innovative to keep their interest and to inspire in them a creative curiosity.” 8 | www.techlearning.com http://mingotech.com http://www.techlearning.com

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Technology & Learning - December 2007 Contents Leaders of the Year 2007 Awards of Exellence Portraits of Learning

Technology & Learning - December 2007

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