Capstone: ISTE Certificate Program

The International Society for Technology in Education partnered with PBS to provide certification in Technology Standards through the Capstone program.

Capstone 1 Jamestown Unearthed: Connecting Literature to Colonial History

My exhibit for Capstone I featured a webquest, which I later learned was far too involved to truly be a good webquest. It was still a good unit and I can continue to use it every year as is.

Capstone taught me to use a variety of assessment tools and introduced me to websites

Capstone I gave me the push I needed to learn how to make effective PowerPoint presentations and model ethical use of information.

I learned of Mozilla Firefox and it’s Assistive Technology capabilities. The fourth page of the website is the process. I used color coding to provide assistance to struggling readers ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY was emphasized.

Capstone I encouraged me to attempt tools such as this wiki. Students were more engaged in learning as a result.

One of the highlights of the Capstone class was sharing with other educators through the discussion board and reflecting on my own teaching practices and how I can incorporate technology more effectively.

Capstone 2 Global Connections: Crossing the Language Barrier

Global Connections In my Capstone 2 exhibit, I selected technology standards from the NETS-T 2008 emphasizing global awareness and collaboration.

Teacher: Tyrone Santiago Escola Parque Teacher: Cathy McDonald Lovejoy Technology Academy I partnered with a teacher from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

Escola Parque Salvador, Bahia, Brazil This is Escola (School) Parque in Salvador.

These are some of the Brazilian students with whom we collaborated.

Escola Parque displayed our projects and exhibit at the T&L Conference.

This bulletin board is displayed in the halls of Escola Parque. Students from both schools worked to share with authentic audiences in their schools, their communities, and their partner country

Escola Parque was recognized in a major newspaper. Mention of our collaboration was a part of the story.

Lovejoy Technology Academy Lovejoy, Illinois Meanwhile, back at Lovejoy…

Students anticipated problems with the coming collaboration.

Students downloaded the free program, Before You Know It.com. This was just the beginning of them taking charge of their own learning. As they did this, our classroom became less teacher-centered, and I became more of a facilitator.

Students are gathered around the webcam talking to students and teacher in Brazil.

Students used SKYPE to communicate with Escola Parque.

Students selected groups and projects to exhibit their work. This allowed for differentiation of instruction which is research based. It also

This poster was created by students using MS Publisher. It was displayed in the classroom, at the Education Excellence Fair at the T&L Conference in Seattle, and on the bulletin board in Escola Parque.

Students created a timeline comparing slavery in Brazil to slavery in the US. The teacher and students discovered together that we could save Publisher documents as jpeg files for easy transmission online or upload to websites. In the process of figuring this out the teacher modeled learning and the students became the teacher.

Lovejoy students wanted the Brazilian students to know exactly where they lived.

One group created a brochure to show places to visit in the St. Louis area.

We used Google Translate to translate text from the Portuguese blog into English.

We shared the excitement of the presidential election and the celebration we held the day after the election by uploading pictures to Orkut.com.

Students shared projects through Orkut.com.

This is a snapshot of the Escola Parque Orkut site where they shared pictures of their bulletin board.

Students also communicated using a blog. The morning after the election, we arrived at school to find that our Brazilian friends had already posted this picture of President-elect Obama on our blog with a message of congratulations.

E-mail from Co-Teacher in Brazil I have cried a lot since I saw your celebration of Obama's victory at your school! And I am also proud of our job together. I would say to you that it is the most special moment in my professional life! Everything has been special to me: the usage of technology; ethnical problems regarding our audience. The comparison of the goals black people reached in the US and how black people here live. Let’s see if Obama's reference changes things here in Brazil! Anyway, I have been very happy at the same time! Tell your students not only the United States have lived a special moment in their lives but also the whole mankind with Obama's election!

I have cried a lot since I saw your celebration of Obama's victory at your school! And I am also proud of our job together. I would say to you that it is the most special moment in my professional life!

Everything has been special to me: the usage of technology; ethnical problems regarding our audience. The comparison of the goals black people reached in the US and how black people here live. Let’s see if Obama's reference changes things here in Brazil!

Anyway, I have been very happy at the same time! Tell your students not only the United States have lived a special moment in their lives but also the whole mankind with Obama's election!

Capstone – Worth the Journey! It forced me to take the time to make the effort to implement all the neat “toys” we had acquired and to explore the many avenues of expression through technology. It forced me to take another look at research to validate what I am doing. It made me aware of technology standards for teachers and students and compelled me to strive to attain proficiency in those standards.

It forced me to take the time to make the effort to implement all the neat “toys” we had acquired and to explore the many avenues of expression through technology.

It forced me to take another look at research to validate what I am doing.

It made me aware of technology standards for teachers and students and compelled me to strive to attain proficiency in those standards.