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RCPS Highlights
Two RCPS Teachers Among First in Valley to Achieve NETS*T Certification
Joe Showker (MMS) and Lillian Dix (JCMES) earn $2,000 in equipment for their classrooms.
Joe Showker, Computer and PE teacher at Montevideo Middle School, and Lillian Dix, 1st Grade teacher at John C. Myers Elementary School, were among the first teachers in the Shenandoah Valley to achieve the NETS*T Certification, thereby proving their competence in integrating technology into the classroom. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) created National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS*T). These standards are above the Virginia-required Technology Standards for Instructional Personnel. To achieve certification in NETS*T standards, teachers must follow a process set up by the Shenandoah Valley Technology Consortium which are detailed at the SVTC EdTech website: http://www.svtc-edtech.org Thanks to a No Child Left Behind Ed Tech grant awarded to the Consortium, teachers who achieve NETS*T Certification earn for their classrooms $2,000 of technology equipment. Lillian plans to order a projection system and a SmartBoard for her classroom while Joe is ordering a digital camcorder, digital camera, and a CD-burner for his.
Joe shows eighth graders some web searching tips.
Lillian shows one of her first grade students how the SmartBoard works
What's involved with the process? Teachers have to submit "artifacts" which demonstrate each of the competencies required of NETS*T. These artifacts are submitted electronically and are then judged by trained evaluators. In some cases, teachers create documents especially designed to match the rubrics associated with each standard. In other cases, teachers can submit files they have previously created for other instructional purposes. For example, Joe submitted files he had previously put together from a NTTI lesson he created called "My Family Vacation Project." He also had a wealth of material from his internet safety project, the result of 4 years of study, research, and refinement, which met some of the certification requirements. "I keep everything I've done over the years in archives, so it was a matter of searching for specific items that satisfied the rubrics." reported Joe. Lillian's NETS*T certification took her 80 to 100 hours to collect documents including easy reader math books that her class published using digital photography, reformat some of them, write new ones, etc., but she says "it was well worth it!."
When it comes to learning, we click!