Featured Teacher: Christina Luce
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Christina Luce 2nd Grade Teacher Nate Perry Elementary School Liverpool Central School District Christina has taught in the Liverpool Central School District since 2002. She spent 10 years in 6th grade and is presently teaching 2nd grade at Nate Perry Elementary. Christina graduated in 1999 from the University of Toronto with an Honors Bachelor of Science Degree with an Environmental Science Specialist. She graduated with a Bachelor in Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto in 2000, and obtained her Master of Science Education from SUNY Cortland in 2004. Follow Christina on Twitter: @ChristinaMLuce. What are some of the innovative ways you are integrating technology into your curriculum? In addition to being a "Connected Educator," Christina is passionate about the integration of technology in the elementary classroom. She believes that utilizing technology to reach out to the school community, as well as the global community, provides teachers with the occasion to extend learning beyond the classroom walls and promote digital citizenship. Based on staff needs and her personal expertise, she conducts workshops or tutorials for her colleagues on topics such as the use of social media in education, iPad applications, web site design, and web related resources to foster a home-school connection. Christina has established a class Twitter account for her 2nd grade class where she has connected to her students' families, as well as other classrooms, practitioners, and authors from around the world. You can follow her class on Twitter: @LuceClassPage. She also uses Remind 101 to connect and engage families in the learning process. After working with Rob Leo, CNYRIC Model Schools Coordinator, she developed a number of lessons in which students created math tutorials with the use of iPads and the free ScreenChomp application. With the ScreenChomp app, students were able to plan and record a math tutorial in which they explained a standard algorithm and provided a worked example. Colleagues heard what Christina's students were working on and asked for assistance in setting up something similar in their classrooms. She provided a workshop on the application, and on the day each teacher implemented the lesson, she was able to send four students that she had trained to assist the teacher and their students during their class period. Experiences such as these are important for all learners as they reinforce the idea that we have much to learn from one another.
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How have students benefitted from your technology integration initiatives?
Using the ScreenChomp app on a shared cart of iPads, students demonstrated their understanding of math concepts, but also the required technological skill set. Students were eager to demonstrate their skills and to share their work with others. Students increased their success in understanding complex material and subject-specific vocabulary. The math tutorials, as created in ScreenChomp, can be shared and reviewed as evidence of incremental growth and overall understanding. Further, they provide an opportunity for students to engage in metacognition, thinking about how they know what they know. Click here for a sample of student work using ScreenChomp and watch one of Christina's 6th-grade students explain how to divide fractions. You can view more of Christina's innovative uses of technology by visiting her classroom web site: http://www.liverpool.k12.ny.us/webpages/cluce/ |
