2011-2012 Parkland Technology Integrators
A Parkland Technology Integrator is a classroom teacher who fully utilizes the many benefits technology offers to improve instructional practices across his/her content areas. In doing this, the teacher does not focus on the technology itself; rather, s/he focuses on student learning and uses technology as a tool to support this end. Parkland Technology Integrators are teachers who successfully: 
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engage students in, and have them interact with, the content assist students in mastering local and state standards foster students’ curiosity, creativity and willingness to take risks engage students in problem‐solving activities that are meaningful, often reflecting real‐world tasks  promote collaboration and communication among students  encourage students to take ownership of their work and become more self‐directed in their learning  address the diverse needs of learners This year’s nominees: Sean Flueso Parkland High School Catherine Mantoni Orefield Middle School Kristen Yudt Springhouse Middle School Jodi Barndt Cetronia Elementary Jean Zellner Fogelsville Elementary Tiffany Houser Ironton Elementary Damian Goodman Jaindl Elementary Chanin Yeahl Kernsville Elementary Cathy Crilley Kratzer Elementary Annette Lacko Parkway Manor Elementary Daneen Dex Schnecksville Elementary Sean Flueso – Parkland High School Sean is a dynamic Physics teacher who uses technology daily to engage students and expand the classroom past the traditional school day. Through the use of Moodle, an online collaborative space, students can access course materials, participate in discussions, and post assignments. Catherine Montoni – Orefield Middle School “One tiny ‘tech tool’ has transformed my classroom more than I ever could have imagined! iPod Touch and students ‐‐‐ a perfect union”! When editing their writing projects, Catherine’s students actually ask to edit them so that they can use the dictionary app on the iPod Touch. For research projects, students are constantly asking “May I use the iPod Touch to…” Reading fluency increased through practice because they use the iPod to record themselves reading. Kristin Yudt – Springhouse Middle School Kristin posts daily video lessons to her class website that provide a 10‐15 minute snapshot of the concepts taught in class each day. Students who were absent or students who need additional instruction on the concept at hand find the videos especially helpful. In conjunction with the other 2 SMS 8th grade math teachers, Rick Clee and Kevin Hallman, Kristin co‐
created Parkland's first individualized, virtual mathematics class ‐ Math Prep for Grade 8. After administering a pre‐test to each student, the teachers developed a course plan for each student ‐
prioritizing the concepts in which students need the most improvement. The teachers created video lessons on the top nine 8th grade PSSA concepts, provided guided notes packets, practice, and short assessments for each lesson. Students took a post‐test at the end of the Math Prep course. Jodi Barndt – Cetronia Elementary Cetronia’s technology integrator for this year is Jodi Barndt. She is an exceptional special education teacher. Jodi’s success is because of her ability to adapt lessons to the strengths and limitations to the students in her class. Since the BenQ was installed in her classroom, Jodi adapted a new teaching technique to keep her students engaged while learning. Her goal is to challenge each student but not to overwhelm them. Observe her students actively participating in all core subjects as well as life skills development. Jean Zellner – Fogelsville Elementary Jean has her class use the netbooks for research into different countries for a travel brochure project that each student is working on. The students use World Book online to research facts and create a brochure telling the reader a bit about their assigned country. What she loves about using the netbooks this way is that they allow her to combine activities on her schedule (in this case, it was research time and Dibels monitoring) so that she is able to make more effective use of the teacher’s tight schedule without having to give the kids “busy work.” Jean uses her Starboard to access teachertube.com in order to show a video to her students of a chicken hatching. They are doing a unit on the life cycle in science and have hatched 8 baby chicks in an incubator in the classroom. The video was used because the students missed the chicks hatching (all eight hatched overnight). Jean uses her Starboard to teach her math lesson and her students use the netbooks to complete individual work. Through the web site Pearsonsuccess.net, Jean uses building blocks on the Starboard to teach a lesson in multiplication. Working individually, the student completes problems assigned by Jean, whose solution is then demonstrated on the board as a class. Jean also greatly utilizes the Microsoft Office Suite, using Word, Powerpoint, and Publisher for many different projects. She also is a big proponent of using district provided software, such as Type 2 Learn and Kidspiration, both in her classroom and in the lab. Tiffany Houser – Ironton Elementary From Lyn Smith, Ironton Elementary Principal “Ms. Tiffany Houser, fifth grade teacher at Ironton Elementary School, truly does it all! Her enthusiasm and passion for teaching and learning can be evidenced in many ways as she can be found running in the annual Turkey Trot with her fifth graders, organizing Pi Day and the annual Egg Drop for the entire grade level, and participating in the Annual CLIU Tech Wizards Program and Computer Fair. She continues to be a leader among her peers pre‐implementing the new language arts program, lead facilitating the School‐Wide Positive Behavior initiative and engaging teachers and students with technology. This year, Ms. Houser began a school‐wide Tech Wizards program to accommodate the high number of students interested in learning about new technologies. Her Tech Wizards Team trained approximately 12‐15 additional students who in turn taught teachers and students in other grade levels about Voki's, Big Huge Labs, Audacity, Photo Story, and Screencast‐O‐Matic among other programs.” Damian Goodman – Jaindl Elementary Damian is a 5th‐grade teacher who spearheaded the “paperless classroom” initiative this year. He uses all types of technology, from Kindles to iPods and even Netbooks, to transform his class into a fun, student‐centered environment that greatly appeals to our upcoming generation of digital natives. He is known for staying on the forefront of technology and leading fellow teachers to do the same. Chanin Yeahl – Kernsville Elementary Some of Chanin’s projects include: Partner Power points – Chanin used the PowerPoint program to practice summarizing. Students summarized a novel and created their own PowerPoint presentations to share. They printed them as Handouts/6 slides per page to make them smaller. Students then cut them out and attached to black paper to create a movie "film" look as if they were summarizing a movie script! Alaska in a Box ‐ Students selected a state from the "West" for a social studies unit. They researched and created a box of information using any technology available in 4th grade. Timeline Work ‐ Students used a PowerPoint slide to create a timeline for their biography project. Smartboard Reading Presentations ‐ Students used PhotoStory to create a show about Gloria Estefan ‐ a reading story that is part of the 4th grade anthology. They added photos and music to their show and presented to the class. Wax Museum ‐ Students used technology to research a famous person, type a 5‐paragraph biography, find photos, create a timeline of the person's life in PowerPoint, make a 6‐8 slide Power Point show about the person, and wrapped up by using i‐Pods at the wax museum to show the PowerPoint slides as a slideshow.
Cathy Crilley – Kratzer Elementary Cathy is our K‐2/3 Learning Support Teacher. Throughout the day students are engaged in many activities in her classroom. The Ben Q interactive projectors has been a great asset this year, since she is also implementing our new language arts program, Lead 21. She was so excited to get the BenQ interactive whiteboard projector that she couldn't wait for her board to be re‐surfaced to use it. She placed a large piece of white paper on her blackboard to demonstrate the new projector at Parent Visitation. She uses Ben (as the students in her room as named it) for Compass Learning Activities. Instead of a student working alone on a student computer all the students work on it together which makes it much more fun. When Mrs. Crilley asked the students what is their favorite activity they said, “Vizzle!”, which is an interactive website that Student Services purchased for Learning Support. IPods are also used a lot in this classroom, Mrs. Crilley's students require a lot of repetition. She uses the iPods as a center in her room during reading and math so the students can review facts and sight words. She also uses the iPods as an editing tool. After students have written their writing pieces they use the iPods to correct spelling by using the speech to text dictation app. She is also experimenting with having students record their stories on the iPod then write the words. Mrs. Crilley also has a student from the IU classroom that comes to her room for Math. Having the interactive board has made it possible for this student to participate with activities and answer questions. Annette Lacko – Parkway Manor Annette says: “Technology is an essential part of education each day in my classroom. This past summer, I aligned the available iPod apps to the curriculum we used in elementary school and provided academy workshops for teachers wishing to use the iPods to enhance their curriculum. During homeroom time, our students use this program with the iPods and Study Island to strengthen their basic facts and reinforce classroom instruction. Our class also benefits from using the BenQ interactive whiteboard system for daily language, spelling, grammar, and math. Whether using the programs included with the EasyTeach software, making my own material, or using the projector to interact with the whiteboard, the students always enjoy learning with this technology. The technology available in our district has enabled me to become a better teacher and to reach my students in a larger variety of ways.” Daneen Dex – Schnecksville Elementary Daneen Dex is the Elementary Emotional Support Teacher in Room 32 here at Schnecksville. Many of her students respond well and stay engaged in the learning process when technology is used in the classroom.