Also, I have received several requests from educators for details on how schools can participate in the Passport to Knowledge program, which Rhonda (along with several other posters) praises. I'd welcome information that I can pass along to them.-Moderator]
For the past seven years I have been a classroom teacher in a rural Georgia
school system. Over 67% of the students at my school receive free or reduced
lunch and many of them know little of the world beyond the boundaries of our
county. Textiles still play a part in the local economy, but the closing of part
of one of the largest mills here has been a devastating blow to many families.
The task I face is enormous. How do I expose these children to the
wonders and opportunities available to them? How do I keep many of these bright
and talented children focused on education? For me, one of the ways has been
the use of technology.
I have had the Internet in my classroom for six years. I have never
received any formal training in the use of computers. I did what many people do,
I purchased a computer for use at home for word processing (lesson plans) and
databases (student records) and for inexpensive communication with distant
friends and I began to see the applications this technology could have in the
classroom. I had to write grants, beg, and borrow to get the Internet to my
room. I will never forget my very first grant for $500. I thought I could wire
my room, buy the modem, and pay the telephone bill and Internet service with
this amount. I will never forget pleading with the operator when I called to set
up my account and she told me I would have to pay the more expensive business
rate for phone service. She explained that schools were not residences. I
offered (and I was serious) to sleep in my classroom several nights per week.
She was apologetic as she explained that these were rates set by the FCC. So I
had to scale down my plans and the school put up some money, though there was
precious little to offer, and I went ahead with my abbreviated first project.
My first project involved a weekly student pen-pal program with my
students soliciting questions from our student body and submitting them to
researchers at Georgia Tech who agreed to answer them. Their answers were
retrieved electronically by my students and then aired over the closed-circuit
inhouse TV system. These were fourth graders.
My modem was stolen which put us out of business for awhile. I won a
state award for the science pen-pal program and the monetary prize kept me
funded a little longer. I was constantly searching for funds. I learned about Al
Gore's environmental education program called GLOBE and applied. I was among the
first group accepted and secured funding for a new higher speed modem and a free
internet provider. Now I wasn't limited in my access to the super highway, I
could reach the worldwide web and a whole new door of opportunity opened.
Students in my class used the Internet like they used the encyclopedia.
I knew the Internet was part of our day when a field trip was threatened by bad
weather and a 4th grader suggested we check the national weather service on the
Internet for their opinion. I will never forget taking my kids to a planetarium
on a field trip and having one of my girls interrupt the person giving us a talk
on downloading images to ask, "Is that ProComm Plus you are using?" The speaker
looked surprised and answered in the affirmative. "I use that at school to
download information," she stated. He invited her to demonstrate and Megan
walked over and easily downloaded an image from a remote observatory. I was so
proud. She was a fourth grader.
I soon learned of another opportunity offered FREE to educators through
NASA and the National Science Foundation. It was the electronic field trip
program called Passport To Knowledge. If there is a single thing I can point a
finger to for change in my classroom it has been this program. I have never seen
anything like the excitement it brings to instruction and learning. Through
this program kids get to know working researchers. They read their journals on
line and have their questions answered by them and then they watch them on
programs broadcast from places like Antarctica, aboard high-flying aircraft in
the stratosphere, or in the bowels of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. They offer
activities which are correlated to the objectives of the program and they aren't
boring--they are purposeful, hands-on pursuits. My students have constructed
aircraft to hold eggs and dropped them from cherry-pickers to simulate the work
of NASA design engineers. They have submersed their hands in icy water to study
the conditions and effects of the cold temperatures at the South Pole. I have
had fourth graders involved in imagery with pixels. They have debated online
with students across the country about materials needed in environmental
exploration. The Passport to Knowledge crew has helped me to become a better
teacher. But I think most importantly they have helped me to show rural kids in
a poor middle Georgia town that they can become scientists.
While I and several other teachers at my school have been able to use
this technology it has caused me much pain that this type of access is not
available to all the students at my school. Last year I decided that I had to
get involved in doing something about this. On the NetDay web pages you will
find an article by Reed Hundt that mentions a letter I wrote to him about
affordable access. I wrote letters and made phone calls and attended NetDay
meetings in Georgia. I am pleased to say that BellSouth recently sponsored my
school and every teacher in my system will soon have Internet access in her/his
classroom and every child at my school will be able to go on electronic field
trips to Mars or Antarctica. It still concerns me that there are many more
systems like my own where this access is not available.
I have conducted training session at my school and at neighboring
districts. This past year as my concern over the need to get the message of
tecnology integration has grown, I have taken this concern a step further. I
left the classroom to take a position as regional coordinator of the Gordon
Georgia Youth Science and Technology Center. I will be conducting teacher
training on integration of technology into instruction. I have seen what it can
do and have been successful with my students. Other students need this
opportunity.
This country has plenty of competent and able teachers who are willing
to go the extra mile. As the Internet and the web are being slowly placed into
Middle Georgia classrooms, I am excited about the possibilities I see for
instruction. I have experienced what it is like to have kids come into my room
and not be able to name a single scientists when asked to do so and to answer no
when asked of they are a scientist. I have cried as I have read their responses
to these same questions after participation in the passport to Knoweldge
projects and had them list not only the names of the scientists they met through
this program but their classmates names as well. They see themselves as
scientists. They see this as a possibility for themselves. Their interest in
science soars when they see it as not something to only be read about in a
textbook, but something they can actively participate in.
Sincerely,
Rhonda Toon
Lamar County Schools
154 Burnette Road
Barnesville, GA 30204
