Marie Pearson
Email: mpearson@campbell.k12.va.us
Phone: 434-660-3248
Hi everyone! Welcome to my wiki page. I am an Instructional Technology Resource teacher (ITRT) with Campbell County Schools in Rustburg, Virginia. Prior to this position, I was a classroom teacher with experience in kindergarten and fourth grade in one of our elementary schools. I’m married to Bill who, with a background in the technology field, has a lot of patience with my technology questions and ideas. I enjoy reading, scrapbooking, and spending time with family, friends, and Sadie, our beagle-mix dog.
We began our ITRT positions in our district in July 2005 and have been pleased at the progress of this program during its first year. With our technology integration program, we work with our classroom teachers who come out of their classrooms to a centralized computer lab for several days a month to learn about integration ideas and the latest technology we have in our district. In addition to instructing in the lab, I am assigned to two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school to work with teachers and their classrooms as needed. It has been a rewarding experience to see teachers and other staff members embrace technology for instructional purposes. Because of my passion for learning and teaching, I am always eager to hear about new ideas and techniques to make the learning process more successful.
Posted at Sep 30/2006 02:45PM:
Marie Pearson: My September professional development...I attended the Ed Tech Academy at JMU and the ITRT Summer Camp in Fredericksburg during the summer of 2006. Having come into the ITRT position from an elementary background, my technology knowledge was limited to only what I used in my classroom. The academy and the summer camp introduced me to new technology tools and offered me many new learning opportunities. I have been especially interested in the digital storytelling, virtual field trips, internet safety, and creating video content. I look forward to sharing these ideas, and many more, with the teachers in my district.
Posted at Sep 30/2006 08:51PM:
Cindy Bridges: Marie - Once again, it was nice catching up with you at the ITRT Summer Camp. I am currently working on compiling an Internet Safety Unit for Middle School that I would be happy to share with you if you are interested. I noticed that you mentioned it was one of the things that you are interested in. Let me know. Also - have you created any virtual field trips yet? If and when you do - would you send them my way? This is something I am interested in playing around with this year. Thanks!
Posted at Oct 01/2006 12:14PM:
Todd Zetwick: I am not an ITRT, I am a regular class room teacher, but I am interested in hearing more about what ITRT's at other schools are doing and how I can help in the same fashion within my own district.
Posted at Oct 01/2006 09:17PM:
Mike Disalvo: Marie, glad to hear from you. Startup was very hectic as usual. Our district IT people changed our servers to an IP system this summer and it caused a great deal of extra work for us. Plus we are no longer supposed to "fix" machines but turn that over to them. Our staff is starting to adjust, but slowly. Hope all is well with you.
Posted at Oct 03/2006 09:39AM:
Goldy Purcell: Marie - great image blender picture. Glad we finally figured everything out and we are now on the "wiki road of success".
Posted at Oct 03/2006 11:59PM:
Helen Partlow: Hi Marie! What integration ideas and technology tips have you shared with your staff. It is always interesting to see what others are doing!
Posted at Oct 04/2006 09:41AM:
Amy Hartwell:Hi Marie! Thanks for reminding me that you were once a primary teacher. I also saw that you are interested in digital storytelling. I am trying to figure out what to do for my project that I could successfully implement with young children. As you know they need a lot of guidance. Do you think this would be a good project that would be realistic to do with 6 and 7 year olds?
Posted at Oct 27/2006 12:27PM:
Marie Pearson: October professional development activity: Using Microsoft Excel, I designed a report card for the Odyssey (gifted) and Title I resource teachers to use in our district. The report card contained fields that were drop-down boxes, fill-in boxes, and fields that were locked so the teachers couldn't change the basic form. After creating and testing the report card form, I conducted training sessions with the teachers to demonstrate how to use the report card. Comments from the teachers have been very favorable.
Posted at Nov 15/2006 11:07PM:
Marie Pearson: November professional development activity #1
Many of the teachers in our district received an LCD projector, Avervision document camera, and InterWrite Schoolpad this year. The early part of November I conducted several training sessions for mini groups of teachers at the schools where I am assigned. During these workshops, I showed how to hook-up the equipment, explained the features of each piece of equipment, and demonstrated features of the InterWrite software. The teachers have really embraced their new tools and are integrating it into their daily lessons. It has been wonderful to witness the teachers’ and students’ excitement with the integration of this technology.
Posted at Nov 15/2006 11:09PM:
Marie Pearson: November professional development activity #2:
Our district recently purchased several Apple MacBooks-a breakthrough for a PC environment. I met with our Apple representative to learn about some of the features of the operating system and the system applications. I have spent, and will continue to spend, many hours reading about the applications, learning how to change the system settings, and becoming familiar with the iLife creation tools by making mini projects. The learning process for the MacBook has just begun. After becoming familiar with the MacBook, I will feel comfortable to share the features with others in my district.
Posted at Nov 15/2006 11:53PM:
Marie Pearson: Goldy and I will be attending the ETL Conference in Roanoke later this month. If anyone from the JMU Ed Tech Academy will also be attending and would like to connect for a "reunion," let me know and we'll see what we can set up.
Posted at Nov 16/2006 01:36PM:
cbridges: Marie - glad to hear that you are creating a portaportal account. My teachers find it incredibly useful. I have also created one for my students to use once they finish their classwork. It has "games" and interesting websites to go on - content area related (mostly). That address is www.portaportal.com - guest access "squeakymouse". As far as advice for creating - just make sure all the links work on a regular basis. I try to check all of them once every two weeks or so.I also tell my teachers to let me know if a link goes down. If you are doing your NETS*T certification - you can use your portaportal to help meet one or more of the rubrics. Have fun at the conference - wish I was going!!
Posted at Nov 18/2006 01:17PM:
Amy Hartwell: Marie, Is the Interwrite School Pad similar to the Wireless Slate? We just got our first Smartboard and an Airliner Wireless Slate. I have been allowed to play with them first to figure out some of the features. I have found the slate to be easier to work with. My students prefer it too. I am talking to our techs about purchasing more and was interested in some of the different types. Any suggestions?
Posted at Nov 21/2006 01:38AM:
Marie Pearson: Amy-I was not familiar with the Airliner Wireless Slate, but after looking it up on the Internet I would say that it is similar to the InterWrite schoolpad. It gives the teacher the flexibility of teaching from anywhere in the room and also involving students from anywhere in the room. The Schoolpad can be used with just a computer and an LCD projector or can be interactive with their InterWrite Schoolboard (whiteboard). Here is a link if you'd like to see the Schoolpad: http://www.gtcocalcomp.com/interwriteschoolpad.htm
Hope this helps.
Posted at Nov 30/2006 02:09PM:
Helen Partlow: Marie, the WVPT Video Workshop in Harrisonburg was attended by teachers from various areas. Paul Grassler was both knowledgeable and entertaining in presenting a great deal of useful video information. The DOE also sponsored a Video Workshop in the Roanoake area last summer in conjunction with a local TV Station. I believe that's a little closer to you and may be repeated next summer.
Posted at Dec 03/2006 02:07PM:
amy hartwell: Thanks for the website Marie. The interwrite looks very similar to the airliner. I was looking at the 400 model of the pad. Have you interacted with more than one pad using the same lesson? I would think that students would be "fighting" for control of the assignment adn that would be a bit chaotic.
Posted at Dec 06/2006 08:32PM:
Mike DiSalvo: I have found the SchoolPad to be an excellent tool. I originally purchased one for one of my math teachers who is wheel chair bound. It has allowed her to do more interactive lessons and board work with the students. The pad was such a hit that we purchased three more.
Posted at Dec 07/2006 04:16PM:
Helen Partlow: You all are such a wealth of information! My list is growing with all the tech things I would like to learn about and possibly incorporate in our school. The web sites and other resources everyone lists are great.
Posted at Dec 08/2006 04:40PM:
Marie Pearson: December Professional Development Activity #1:
I worked with two second grade teachers in my district to conduct some additional training with the InterWrite Schoolpad. To accomplish this training and demonstrate technology integration, the teachers and I co-taught two lessons where they taught or reviewed the curriculum content and I followed up with activities involving both the teachers and the students. It was rewarding to see the excitement of the children, and the teachers, when they were using the Schoolpad. I understand that the students keep begging the teacher to do more. Just think, the students were eager to do more work.
Posted at Dec 08/2006 04:41PM:
Marie Pearson: December Professional Development Activity #2:
I attended the Educational Technology Leadership Conference (ETL) in Roanoke and, as usual, came away with many ideas, websites, and other resources to share with my peers and the teachers at my assigned schools. One of the most exciting sessions for me was the one on podcasting. Since Apple MacBooks are new to me, it was especially helpful to get this information so I can start using the content creation tools. Also, I have submitted a proposal to present a concurrent session at the VSTE conference in February 2007 and am looking forward to preparing for that conference.
Posted at Dec 08/2006 04:41PM:
Marie Pearson: For my final project, I created a virtual field trip on the Eastern Woodland Indians, a second grade SOL. This project was a true learning experience for me because I completed it as a podcast using Garageband, an application that was new to me. The podcast can be viewed on an Apple computer or on a PC as a QuickTime movie by clicking on the URL below:
