TBD

Two of us, at this BOCES (Board of Coopertive Educational
Services) wrote a 'Learning Technology Grant' to provide a
staff developmentally rich opportunity for local Middle
Schools. We received the grant. Consequently, this
summer teachers from 11 local schools will meet for 3-4
days of workshops centering around integrating MS Word,
Excel, and PowerPoint into the classroom. Each school
team will receive a 55 gallon aquarium, chiller (to cool
the water), all necessary accessories, laptop computer and
a set of water quality Vernier probes. In addition to
exploring the productivity software the teachers will
receive some guided staff develpment on using the probes.
Combining, for example, Excel's charting & graphing
capabilities with the probe data will help the teachers
develop the skills to subsequently work with their
students.

Well, the grant we wrote was competitive. Simply, make it
engaging. If the participants find it exciting then the
grant reviewers would probably as well. We also partnered
with the local community. The local chapter of Trout
Unlimited is helping out (some of the needed chillers,
providing trout eggs/fry/food, etc.)

Enthusiastically

At the overwhelming request of the participating teachers
our inservices will take place at the end of the summer.
They wanted to have the experience fresh in their minds.
It was a compelling request. Consequently, the dates were
changed.