Featured Teacher: Chris DiFulvio
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Chris DiFulvio 8th Grade ELA Teacher Homer Junior High School Homer Central School District Chris DiFulvio is an ELA teacher at Homer Junior High School. He currently teaches 8th grade and is in his third year of teaching at Homer. He has six years of teaching experience overall. What are some of the innovative ways you are integrating technology into your curriculum? For the past year, Chris has been making an effort to implement a paperless classroom. With the help of online tools like Google Drive and Edmodo, he has been able to set-up a work flow for his students to communicate and collaborate on-line. When students arrive to class, they have access to a class set of Google Chromebooks. And since Homer Central Schools is a Google Apps for Education school, it is easy for Chris and his students to work in the cloud. Using Google Drive, Chris has set up a shared folder to distribute materials to his students. They are able to open and edit documents, add comments, and turn their work in to a shared folder. Click here to view a screenshot of two of Chris's students commenting on a document using Google Docs. Chris has also established an Edmodo group for his class. Students are able to submit work, complete assessments, and reply to posts. By leveraging online tools like Google Drive and Edmodo, Chris has extended the reach of his classroom presence, so long as students have access to the Internet. Case in point: Chirs's first period class leverages Skype to interact with an American student living in Brazil! ^ How have students benefitted from your technology integration initiatives? For the past year, the CNYRIC's Instructional Technology Team has had the pleasure of working with Homer teachers and administrators to support the integration of Chromebooks, iPads, and other learning tools by working directly with the Homer faculty. It is evident that Chris's efforts have not been in vain. In addition to reducing paper duplication in his classroom, Chris has been able to help students meet the Common Core Learning Standards through avenues that they can relate to. Edmodo, for example, has been called the "Facebook for Education" and the learning curve for students is minimal. Further, Chris is able to monitor student progress and provide feedback quickly as student revisions to Google Docs are readily available for him to view. |
