Social Studies Teachers Accepted to 21st Century Classrooms Program

A team of three social studies teacher at Burr and Burton Academy has been chosen to participate in 21st Century Classrooms: Connecting the Dots. Social Studies Department Chair Meg Kenny along with Dave Miceli and Kendra Larson received notice in January that their application to become one of 12 teams in Vermont to take part in a challenging project to create 21st century curricular units had been chosen.

The purpose of the grant-supported program is to create student-centered, inquiry-based learning projects using 21st century instructional practices including the effective use of technology. Kenny said that since January the team has participated in online instructional modules and started a blog.

“Since we have started this course, I have not only thought deeply about innovative instructional methods, but have put several into practice,” explained Larson. “I have found that empowering students to fulfill their own educational goals is causing not only more interest from students in their own learning, but the increased interest also causes a higher level of expectations of students for their own work.”

They will also spend one week in June at Champlain College with the other winning teams where they will be expected to present two original units in the Learning Village, an online environment for instructional development and collaboration that offers Vermont teachers the tools to create instructional materials and assessments that are correlated to state and local standards. In addition, it provides online collaboration and sharing for all the members of the learning community.

As part of the award each teacher will receive three graduate credits, a $500 stipend, a flip video camera, and a new iPod touch.

The program is supported by a grant through the Vermont Commons for Information Technology Educators and a two-year Title IID content-based technology integration award administered by the Vermont Department of Education.