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Thirty Educators Receive $750 Professional Development Scholarships
PORTLAND, OR — March 10, 2004
This year's successful applicants included technology coordinators, school library media specialists, college professors and elementary, middle and high school teachers from 18 U.S. states and Australia, Canada, Germany and Zimbabwe. Award recipients use the $750 scholarships for a wide range of professional development activities, including attendance at a conference, training event or professional education course where visual learning is a key topic.
"When we review the scholarship applications, we are amazed at the innovative ways that educators use the power of visual learning to help their students build critical thinking, writing and comprehension skills, and learn difficult concepts," said Mona Westhaver, president and co-founder, Inspiration Software. "This year's scholarship recipients are leaders in their schools and we know that they will use the professional development activities they attend to develop new teaching strategies and to inspire other teachers in their schools to use this proven instructional method."
Educators from K-12 schools, colleges and universities are eligible to apply for the Inspired Teacher Scholarships for Visual Learning. A minimum of one year of service is required and applicants must demonstrate that they have direct contact with students. More than 200 applications were received for this year's scholarships.
The 2004 Inspired Teacher Scholarships for Visual Learning recipients and the ways that they use visual learning to support instruction are: Duncan Anderson, library coordinator for Chinook's Edge School Division in Alberta, Canada, has shared how visual learning supports student thinking and learning with more than one thousand teachers. He recently developed a unit using visual learning techniques to encourage students to use research to support fiction writing. Anderson plans to attend the Educational Computing Organization of Ontario conference in May and incorporate new information into library research activities for students and teachers.
Marcia Applegate is an educational technologist for Darmstadt Elementary School, a U.S. Department of Defense Dependents School in Germany. This year Applegate focused on using visual learning to support math instruction. She plans to share what she learns at the 2004 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in June in New Orleans with teachers at her school and other Department of Defense Schools in Germany.
Michele Carmode, band director for Bernie High School in Bernie, Mo., is also a technology trainer for the district. She incorporates visual learning, including graphic organizers, into her music appreciation classes and presents workshops to help district teachers integrate visual learning techniques into their curriculum. After attending NECC, Carmode will provide technology training, integration ideas and strategies to encourage visual learning throughout her school.
Kathleen Chromicz is the middle school math and technology teacher for Harare International School in Mt. Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe. She encourages the use of technology and visual learning in schools across Africa with teacher training, curriculum development and conference presentations. Chromicz will attend a training institute focusing on visual learning techniques for middle school math instruction and will integrate her new knowledge into the middle and high school math programs.
Jeffery Davis, social studies instructor at Alhambra High School in Phoenix, Ariz., found that visual learning techniques help his English Language Learning students more easily understand class material. He also holds trainings to help other teachers integrate visual learning in their classrooms. Davis plans to attend NECC and share what he learns through online training courses, teacher inservices and student tutoring.
Bonnie L. Dykman is a speech and language clinician for LaFollette High School in Madison, Wis. Through her introduction of visual learning techniques to her special education students, she was instrumental in encouraging the entire school to adopt visual learning. Dykman will apply what she learns about instructional technology and methods from her Supervision of Instruction class at Edgewood College to her work with students and teachers at LaFollette and across the district.
Kathy Finnerty teaches at Lake-Noxen Elementary School in Harveys Lake, Pa. She uses visual learning tools with her special needs students and shares templates she develops with her peers. Her scholarship will support attendance at NECC and she will present the new strategies she learns in workshops for her district and other Pennsylvania teachers.
Jennifer Gingerich, educational technology trainer for the Canby School District in Oregon, developed a district-wide professional development program to ensure that visual learning is an integral part of every K-5 classroom, resulting in an online archive of more than 300 lesson plans with visual learning activities. She plans to attend the Northwest Council for Computers in Education conference in Spokane, Wash., in April, to develop new strategies and ideas for promoting visual learning in her district, particularly with middle school students and teachers.
Richard Geib, teacher at Foothill Technology High School in Ventura, Calif., uses visual learning throughout his advanced placement (AP) English and social studies classes. His Web site includes all the diagrammed notes from his entire course so his students can use them when studying for their AP exams. Geib will apply scholarship funds towards his educational technology master’s degree from Azusa Pacific University and will share his knowledge through teacher inservices and local presentations.
Wanda Gunter is the computer lab teacher at Willow School in Homewood, Ill. She uses visual learning with her elementary students to brainstorm, set-up multimedia projects and organize thoughts for essay writing. With her scholarship, Gunter will attend NECC to gain ideas for using visual learning to improve reading and writing literacy across the curriculum. She plans to share new information with her colleagues during planning meetings, technology institutes and after-school sessions.
Kelly Hammond is a staff development facilitator for Carroll County Public Schools in Westminster, Md. She provides staff development and curriculum integration activities to bring visual learning to the 21 elementary schools in her county. After attending the Maryland Educators Technology Conference in April, Hammond plans to hold an after-school workshop for technology leaders from each of the elementary schools.
Melissa Hardy, media specialist for Flynn Middle School in Sterling Heights, Mich., facilitated the integration of visual learning into her school's improvement plan. She provides training to teachers and demonstrates effective use of visual learning in the classroom. Hardy plans to attend NECC and share what she learns with her student tech team, and media specialists from across the district.
Sue Harris is the technology specialist for Converse Elementary in Converse, Texas. She provides district-wide workshops and curriculum integration sessions on visual learning. After attending NECC, Harris plans to introduce new information during the school's staff development days.
Becky Hicks, second grade teacher at Barbara Blanchard Elementary School in Cape Girardeau, Mo., uses visual learning to teach everything from the concept of the water cycle to writing skills. She will attend NECC and share information with her colleagues through workshops and inservices and also include updates on her Web page.
Lilian H. Hill is an assistant professor and education specialist in the School of Pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Hill uses concept maps in her course, Communications in Pharmacy Practice, to help students achieve long-term integration of knowledge. She plans to use her scholarship to attend the First International Conference on Concept Mapping in Spain in September and will use what she learns to enhance her teaching strategies.
Christine Hussey teaches geography, tourism studies and studies of society and environment at St. Michael's Collegiate School in St. Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. She uses visual learning to help her students brainstorm, connect and organize concepts. Hussey will attend the Australian Computers in Education Conference in Adelaide, South Australia and use what she learns in her classes and through her master teacher responsibilities.
Kevin Johnson is the computer resource specialist at W.T. Cooke Elementary School in Virginia Beach, Va. He designs visual learning activities that include streaming video and other multimedia to support all areas of the curriculum at his school. He plans to attend the 2005 Florida Educational Technology Conference and will integrate his new knowledge into his training sessions and workshops.
Kathy Knight is a chemistry teacher and science department chair at Marinette High School in Marinette, Wis. She uses concept mapping to help students grasp difficult concepts in her chemistry classes. Her scholarship will support attendance at the National Science Teachers Association National Convention (NSTA) in Atlanta in April. As department chair, she will use what she learns to help make science instruction in her district more experiential.
Sharon Manterola is the lead technology facilitator for Grand Prairie (Texas) Independent School District. As coordinator of the district’s instructional technology program, she teaches visual learning techniques through staff development courses, online research modules and lesson modeling. Manterola will use scholarship funds to hold a training session to help district administrators effectively integrate visual learning into leadership tasks.
Barbara Merritt, K-8 resource librarian for Scarborough (Maine) School Department, works with teachers to integrate visual learning and technology into their existing curriculum. Merritt will attend NECC and share what she learns through after-school technology sessions, lesson planning and the district's technology and staff development institutes.
Julia Michaud teaches seventh grade at Reeds Brook Middle School in Hampden, Maine. Her students use diagramming to organize and make connections when reading classic novels such as John Steinbeck's "The Pearl" and to create personal webs that demonstrate their educational accomplishments. She will use her scholarship to attend a Connected Classroom Conference and share what she learns with her team of seventh grade teachers.
Kyle Nielsen, computer technician and specialist at Suquamish Elementary School in Suquamish, Wash., uses visual learning to help her students understand concepts, organize ideas and compare multiple points of view. She will attend NECC to discover more about how teachers nationwide use visual learning with their students and will share new information with teachers in her school and district. Teresa Perrotta is the instructional technologist at the Upper School and North Cliff School in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. She uses graphic organizers with students to help them enhance learning and organization skills. She will use her scholarship to attend NECC and will include what she learns in future workshops, professional development days, tech lab time and in class support.
Siri Pinnock, a teacher at Madison Middle School in Rexburg, Idaho, uses visual learning daily in her classroom to teach everything from language arts to pre-algebra. She plans to attend a Connected Classroom Conference and present what she learns to her colleagues in professional development workshops.
Kathey Roberts teaches science to at-risk students at Lakeside High School in Hot Springs, Ark. She uses graphic organizers to help her students—many of whom have reading problems—learn science concepts such as taxonomy, cell structure and plant propagation. She will use her scholarship to attend NSTA where she is a presenter and will present inservice workshops for her district and other Arkansas educators when she returns.
Deborah A. Rudenko, a learning support teacher/teacher training consultant in the South Side School District, Hookstown, Pa., taught more than 300 teachers to use visual learning instructional strategies and to showcase their own career achievements in professional portfolios. She plans to use the new ideas she learns at the CUE conference in Palm Springs to develop future visual learning workshops for teachers in her district.
Jyoti Sood, program specialist for the Nassau (N.Y.) BOCES Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology, provides the teachers her education service center supports with training on strategies for using visual learning in the classroom. She will use her scholarship to attend NECC and incorporate the new approaches she discovers into future staff development workshops.
William Stepien uses visual learning to teach history at St. Charles High School in Illinois. Throughout the semester, his American history students demonstrate their learning by creating graphic organizers that include questions, ideas and personal connections to what they've learned. He intends to use his scholarship to attend the Association for Educational Communications and Technology Conference in October and will share his new knowledge with other teachers through his membership on the school's technology committee. Dixie West, head librarian for Bastrop Independent School District in Cedar Creek, Texas, teaches information and research skills to students and teachers using visual learning techniques. After attending NECC, West will communicate new information with other librarians through district conferences and with teachers through library lessons she designs.
Lucy M. Young, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the K-12 Teacher Preparation Program at Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling, W. Va. She teaches pre-service teachers how to integrate visual learning methodologies into their field experience. She plans to attend NECC and share what she learns with her university colleagues and pre-service teachers.
The 2005 Inspired Teacher Scholarships for Visual Learning program will be announced in July and applications will be available in September.
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