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Tuesday, 26 February 2008 |
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 Staff photo/Mary Bargdill
Third grade students at New Bremen Elementary School Isahaq Shaffer and Erica Niekamp receive instruction from computer lab teacher Shannon Pence.
By MARY BARGDILL
Staff Writer
NEW BREMEN — One local teacher was recently recognized for outstanding leadership in the classroom.
Elementary Computer Teacher for the New Bremen School District Shannon Pence received the Technology Using Classroom Teacher of the Year Award by the Southwestern Ohio Instructional Technology Association (SOITA).
The award recognizes teachers who use technology to further education in the classroom. Pence was one of 30,000 teachers eligible for the award.
Approximately 120 school districts and private schools were eligible for the award.
Pence said she learned she received the award when SOITA called her on Jan. 25.
“I was thrilled,” Pence said. “I had no idea.”
Pence has taught students in kindergarten through sixth grade in the computer lab at New Bremen Elementary School since 2000.
She has been involved with SOITA for 16 years, working with development and attending workshops.
“We look at people who are there trying to promote technology in the classroom and I think she has done that the last five years,” Executive Director of SOITA Larry Pogue said. “She stands out.”
Students in grades second through sixth of New Bremen Elementary School were entered in Create a Book Contest and the Digital Photography Contest.
For Create a Book Contest, the students were required to come up with an original story, type the story on the computer, utilize PowerPoint, and either take photos or draw pictures that are scanned.
Students give up their recess time to work on projects in the lab, Pence said.
“I just think what Shannon has done over these years is make sure the kids have an opportunity to participate,” New Bremen Elementary School Principal Karen Smith said. “It would be easy for a teacher to say ‘I’m not going to do that because it’s too much work and takes too much time.”
Students in grades fourth through sixth participated in a multi-media contest, which they won this year and in 2007, Pence said.
This year’s theme for the multi-media contest was “Our Town.” Students created a video, added text, sound and music, and then edited the video to six minutes in length.
The completed videos were burned onto a DVD and submitted to SOITA for evaluation.
“They did a DVD full motion video on “New Bremen Past, Present and Future,” Pogue said. “It contained interviews with local residents, and video footage and statistics.”
Pogue said technology is vital in today’s classrooms.
“We run a variety of different student contests throughout the year. Consistently students of hers over the years have won,” Pogue said.
Students at New Bremen Elementary School begin keyboarding in the second grade.
They also begin working with PowerPoint presentations and Excel, Pence said.
“I try to take content they may be learning in the classroom,” Pence said.
Fifth grade students studying the periodic table in science class can use Microsoft Publisher for a project in class.
Students can then research information on a Web site that pertains to a certain element. Later, the students used the computer to create a tri-fold pamphlet to complete their project.
“It’s one of those essentials,” Pogue said. “More technology that can be integrated in the classroom the better equipment the students will be in the real world.”
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Last Updated ( Friday, 29 February 2008 )
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