Technology & Learning - January 2008 - (Page 28)

» Profile Series By T&L Editors Multiplying Success A Kentucky teacher who gets creative to fund her tech budget. Vickie Maggard Elswick’s first teaching job was showing students how to use a manual typewriter. Thirty-one years later the tools of the f the h have changed—and so has she. “That’s probably why I’m still teaching,” says Elswick, a computer instructor at Boyd County Middle School (BCMS) in Ashland, Kentucky. “I have been forced to periodically relearn my craft and that has made all the difference.” Situated near the banks of the Ohio River in the northeast part of the state, BCMS has an array of equipment—student workstations in every classroom, two 31-station computer labs, one 15-station lab in the media center, and five mobile computer carts—but a surprisingly spare technology budget. Other than district and state funds used to purchase computers and a $150-per-year stipend for supplies, there are no funds for technology. So Elswick gets creative. She pursued federal vocational funds, which allowed the school to purchase software such as Inspiration and HyperStudio as well as digital cameras, scanners, printers, and a robot. An essay she wrote won first place in Samsung’s Hope We’d like to thank Atomic Learning for Education contest; the $20,000 prize was and netTrekker, used to buy flat-screen televisions for the sponsors of T&L’s school’s seven teaching teams. “Every new 2007 Leader of piece of technology that’s placed in my the Year program. school has meant that my students have a LEADER Year new opportunity to Leader: Vickie Maggard Elswick learn, to achieve, and Teacher, Boyd County Middle to communicate their School, Ashland, KY competencies at a highSchool Snapshot: Serving 725 students, Boyd County er, more sophisticated Middle School is one of seven level,” says Elswick, schools in the 3,400-student who in addition to Boyd County Public School District. Fifty percent of the teaching a full load of school’s students are eligible for classes maintains the free and/or reduced lunch. Honored as a 2007-08 “School school’s Web site. to Watch” by the National Forum Recently, Elswick to Accelerate Middle-Grades wrote and won a Reform. $1,000 Target grant that funded a field trip to a local art museum as part of an 8th grade interdisciplinary project. Elswick has also filled a void in the area of professional development. What began as ad hoc tech training for colleagues has evolved into a combination of monthly workshops, self-instructional modules, and e-mail newsletters she offers to anyone in the district wanting to sharpen his or her technology skills. Cost to the district: $0. Elswick says her impact is best reflected in her students, from her middle school charges—including those with special needs—who take top prizes at regional competitions to the “multiplier effect in every teacher I train who can then use technology appropriately.” Her reach extends beyond the district as well. In her course for pre-service teachers at a local university, she gets students producing Web pages, designing technology-enriched lesson plans, and engineering WebQuests. She says she’s proud that her pre-service students “will enter their classroom as first-rate technology integrators.” Learn More: www.boyd.k12.ky.us/bcms/index.htm Last Byte: “My impact and my greatest pride are my students and what they can and will do with the technology skills I’ve helped them develop.” 28 | www.techlearning.com http://www.boyd.k12.ky.us/bcms/index.htm http://www.techlearning.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Technology & Learning - January 2008

Technology & Learning - January 2008 Contents Editor's Desk News & Trends Product Guide Reviews Cover Story: Ten Top Tech Trends ERP Makes a Comeback Tossing Out Textbooks LOY Profile Series Higher Ed How To Bottom Line What's New Emerging Tech

Technology & Learning - January 2008

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