The “Great Teaching; Great Tools” gift card giveaway is still going strong, thanks to an anonymous donor who has given the Westerville City School District two $50 gift cards per month to use in a random drawing for teachers submitting ways they are integrating technology into their classrooms. The winners of this drawing were Julia Stout, a music teacher from Fouse Elementary School, and Jill Shaffer, a speech therapist at Walnut Springs MS.
Stout said, “I use Pinterest as a cloud for music examples to show in class. Almost every lesson that I do anymore uses a video clip that I saved onto Pinterest to demonstrate that lesson. Most recently while teaching my fifth grade music students about musicals, I was able to quickly show them a dance sequence from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Before Pinterest and having equipment in my room to project images from my computer, I could tell them about a musical and play a music selection, but not show them. Now my students get the opportunity to see how musicals are a combination of singing, acting, staging, costumes, and dancing. Their understanding of Broadway musicals has greatly expanded their appreciation of the genre.”
Shaffer said, “I recently used an iPad and an app called Conversation Builder Teen to engage a group of students with pragmatic language weaknesses in an activity promoting appropriate conversational skills with their peers. This activity helps students improve their ability to collaborate with their peers during group discussions in the classroom, which is an essential part of the Common Core.”
Teachers and staff who would like to submit an entry for this month can do so by clicking on this link: http://tinyurl.com/GreatTeachingGreatTools.