2008-09

Fund Code 170B, Technology Enhancement Competitive Grant , MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (http://finance1.doe.mass.edu/Grants/grants09/awards/170B.html).

Project Title: Math + Web 2.0 = Learning 4 All (M+W=L),

Curriculum Area: Math
Grade Level: Grades 5-9
School: Greenfield Public Schools (District-level)

Project Overview: Hampshire Educational Collaborative together with Greenfield Public Schools and Technology in Education Partnership of Western Massachusetts will partner with 8 additional districts to provide 48 hours of professional development to math teachers (grades 5 – 9). Teachers learn to utilize a variety of web-based free and open source tools to deepen their mathematical content understanding and technology instructional strategies. The technology enables students to work collaboratively and share their work both in and out of the classroom, thereby increasing time on task.

2008

Best Buy Teach Award (http://www.bbycommunications.com/crnew/teachwinners.asp). "At Best Buy we believe technology can excite and engage students, creating a more valuable educational experience. Through Best Buy Teach Awards we provide gift cards to schools to enable them to purchase more technology for their students to use and learn."

Project Title: Making Learning Exciting

Curriculum Area: General Education
Grade Level: Elementary
School: Federal Street School (Elizabeth Musgrave)

Project Overview: We will use our Best Buy Teach Award to purchase new technology so that we can continue to make learning exciting and fun for our students. We are committed to delivering a high, quality, high tech education to our students so that are successful in the 21st century. With the involvement of parents, commitment of teachers and support from community partners like Best Buy, we know our students will continue to grow and learn.

MassCUE Initiative Grants: Promoting Global Understanding With Information and Communications Technology (http://masscue.org/grants.htm)

Project Title: What’s Going on Out There? Bringing Social Studies Alive!

Curriculum Area: Social Studies
Grade Level: Middle School
School: Greenfield Middle School (Jason Schneider)

Project Overview: Social Studies and Geography, according to tradition, are considered to be boring. However, we can easily make Social Studies exciting by making world issues immediately relevant to our students. The Department of Education Grade Six Social Studies standards state that, “Sixth graders systematically study the world outside of the United States and North America by [exploring] political and physical geography and embed five major concepts: location, place, human interaction with the environment, movement, and regions.” An LCD projector, which we hope to purchase with MassCUE funds, would move our classroom beyond the textbook into the living world and would be a tremendously powerful tool for further accomplishing our mission of global exploration and understanding. The projector would transform our classrooms by showing real people, in real time, as they react to and shape world events. Utilizing the full power of the web, with students, would allow us to access the world of immediate communication via nations’ and travel web sites, travelers’ blogs, CNN Student News, network newscasts, National Geographic’s web sites and using the almost limitless web resources. Next, through personal digital photography, I could use the projector to share my own travels around the world. Third, we could present the bulk of “regular” lessons digitally, and eventually have students teach lessons by developing their own digital presentations. Finally, the Greenfield Public School district has access to technology that would allow live conversations with students in other parts of the world. We hope to be able to link this technology for contemporaneous cross-world student contact and conversation.

2007
MassCue Initiative Grant: Funding Innovative Infusion of Technology into Instruction (http://www.masscue.org/announcements/grant_recipients.htm)

Project Title: ABC's and 123's – Keyboarding Strategies K-4
Curriculum Area: Instructional Technology
Grade Level: K-4
Greenfield Middle School (Gabrielle A. Richard-Harrington)

Project Overview: The revised Massachusetts Instructional Technology Standards lowers the age by which many technology skills, including keyboarding, should be mastered. Efficient keyboarding transforms learning by establishing a solid foundation to successful technology integration. Students who are taught to keyboard correctly from an early age are able to use a computer more effectively to access curriculum and spend more time on core content. ABC's and 123's – Keyboarding Strategies K-4 enhances instructional practice through professional development activities that impart the tools and instill the confidence K-4 teachers and parents need to teach and support proper keyboarding skills.

2006-07
Deerfield River Watershed School Mini-Grants Program (http://www.deerfieldriver.org/minigrants.htm)

Project Title: In Plain Site: Flooding and the Topography of the Green River Watershed
Curriculum Area: Science, Mathematics and Technology
Grade Level: 6 and 7
Greenfield Middle School (Gabrielle A. Richard-Harrington, 413.772-1360, X329)

Project Overview: Students learn to read topographic maps and interpret Colrain Hydrostation website data (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ma/nwis/uv?01170100) in order to understand why the Green River flooded in the fall of 2005 and why this flooding affected the residents of Greenfield (many of whom include Middle School students). They also explore the resources available on the Deerfield River Watershed Association website (http://www.deerfieldriver.org/). Science students work in pairs to create cardboard relief maps, which will be connected to complete a scale model of the Town of Greenfield and the Greenfield River Watershed from Colrain to the Connecticut River.

2005-06
Deerfield River Watershed School Mini-Grants Program (http://www.deerfieldriver.org/minigrants.htm)

Project Title: Classification of Atlantic Salmon in the Deerfield River
Curriculum Area: Science, Mathematics and Technology
Grade Level: 4
North Parish School (Christa Gardner, 413.772-1390)

Project Overview: Students investigate the species of fish that reside in the Deerfield River to learn more about the classification of fish as vertebrates. They also identify the body parts of the salmon and create both paper mache salmon models and a paper model of the Deerfield River environment. They take digital photographs of their models to use as illustrations in their PowerPoint reports, highlighting the characteristics of the river as well as the classification of the Salmon and how the two relate to one another. Finally, they examine how flooding creates erosion, how it affects the water quality of the river, and how the complex interplay of these variables directly impact the salmon population.

Additional topics students explore during the project include:

• Water quality needed to sustain a healthy environment for Salmon.

• How flooding causes erosion.

• How erosion adds minerals, debris, and chemicals to the water.

• The importance of “healthy” water chemistry.

• How long the effects of a flood last.

• Flow charts available from the DRWA and USGS to note recent floods in the area.

Using all the information they have learned during the course of this project, students predict if Atlantic Salmon will be able to survive in the Deerfield River this spring.

2005-06
Western Massachusetts Electric Company Science and Mathematics Mini Grant (http://www.wmeco.com/community/partners/grants.asp)

Project Title: Evolution
Curriculum Area: Science and Mathematics
Grade Level: 6
Greenfield Middle School (Linda Sarage, 413.772-1360)

Project Overview: This evolution unit helps students better understand the magnitude of time represented by the geological time scale from the birth of the universe 15 billion years ago until today. Two science classes create timelines 150 feet long that proportionally depict the Earth's evolutionary story. Students create a spiral walk that includes symbols of the major transitional periods of evolution, from the sun's creation to the appearance of humans to the year 2005. They visit the Springfield Science Museum planetarium to view the show entitled Oceans in Space.

2005-06
Western Massachusetts Electric Company Science and Mathematics Mini Grant (http://www.wmeco.com/community/partners/grants.asp)

Project Title: Urban Geometry...What Shape is Your Town In?
Curriculum Area: Mathematics
Grade Level: 4
Green River School (Donna Cycz, 413.772-1385)

Project Overview: In this project, students find a connection between classroom mathematics and real world applications. Fourth graders document the math geometry concepts that are found in their local town's building during a walking field trip with a local architect. The students will take pictures with the school's digital camera transferring them into a geometrical math book for themselves as wells as for other Greenfield elementary school libraries.

2005-06
Enhancing Education Through Technology, MA DOE Fund Code 170-B

Topic: DATA Warehousing

2005-06
Jordan Fundamentals Grant

Project Title: Can you Feel the Beat?
Curriculum Area: Science, Health, Mathematics, and Language Arts
Grade Level: 4 and 5
Green River School (Donna Cycz, 413.772-1385)

Project Overview: Can you Feel the Beat will enhance children's understanding of the effect exercise has on the heart and pulse-rate of their bodies. Students will study the heart and blood during science class, combining these studies with math statistics and data collection of their own pulse and heart rates.

2004-05
Model Technology Integration Grant, MA DOE Fund Code 165

Project Title: Fantastic Flicks!
Curriculum Area: English Language Arts, History and Social Science
Grade Level: 2-5
Bernardston Elementary, Pioneer Valley Regional School District (Mary Leyden, 413-648-9356) and Four Corners Elementary, Greenfield Public Schools (Gail Healy, 413.772.1329)

Project Overview:
Four Corners Elementary School of Greenfield will adopt Bernardston Elementary School's model for integrating media analysis and production into the elementary curriculum in the areas of English language arts and history and social science. The adoption at several grade levels, (2, 3, and 5), will result in a progression of student technology skill development that will prepare elementary graduates for more advanced media work during their middle and high school years. Students will develop skills at all stages of media production: from script writing, set design, and camera and scanner operation, to using editing software, converting file formats, and publishing their classroom project to DVD. This model for technology integration, developed at Bernardston over the past five years, provides classroom teachers with a framework that makes student media production a rich and motivating, yet manageable, teaching tool. Three projects that incorporate the use of familiar examples of modern media will be completed at each school. Second grade classrooms will showcase their newly acquired reading skills through the authoring of their own version of the PBS program "Reading Rainbow." At third grade, classroom teachers will collaborate with the school's music and art departments, making it possible for their students to create their very own illustrated "Hey Pilgrim" music video, through which they share their understanding of the Pilgrim's voyage to the New World. Fifth grade students will apply advanced media analysis and editing skills in their production of a Ken Burns's style, Revolutionary War documentary in which students' research allows them to perform the role of historians.

2004-05
Model Technology Integration Grant, MA DOE Fund Code 165

Project Title: May the Force Be With You
Curriculum Area: Mathematics, English Language Arts, Science and Technology/Engineering
Grade Level: 5-6
Northfield Elementary School, Pioneer Valley Regional School District (Beth Dichter, 413.498.5842) in partnership with Federal Street School, Greenfield (Geri Smith, 413.772.1300) and Butterfield School, Orange (Robert Haigh 978.544.6136).

Project Overview:
This project provides opportunities for students to become engineers, accountants, historians, designers and builders. Students (and teachers) go from hands-on bridge-building to designing and building a bridge to using computers and software to expand their knowledge. The nine-week project allows students to gain a better understanding of how scientists think, the importance of math in everyday life, the breadth of technology and its uses in the real world, and the importance of clear communication, be it verbal, written, or visual. Throughout the unit students are actively engaged in an authentic learning process. Students technology skills are introduced or reinforced from previous years through the integration of web research, use of graphic organizers (Inspiration), multimedia creation (PowerPoint), digital imaging and scanning (Photoshop Elements), and working with large numbers and a budget (Excel). These opportunities address the objective of building on and increasing student technology literacy skills. The unit is designed to meet the needs of all learners, providing differentiated instruction and multiple assessment tools. John Seelen has taught this unit for over 15 years, with a technology component being introduced and refined over the last three years.

2003-04
Model Technology Integration Grant, MA DOE Fund Code 165

Project Title: Becoming Scientists
Curriculum Area: Science and Technology/Engineering, Mathematics, and English Language Arts
Grade Level: 4-6
Greenfield Public Schools (Joyce Mehaffey, 413.772.1370) in partnership with Pioneer Valley Regional School District (Mary Leyden, 413.648.9356)

Project Overview:
This project is a model for successful integration of data collection, organization, and analysis in alignment with the Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Frameworks. Classroom teachers are trained in the operation of handheld computers and science probes and will integrate this technology into the curriculum. Data investigation activities will be incorporated to provide students with authentic experiences for the use of technology in collecting and analyzing data. Students will be introduced to the inquiry skills appropriate for their grade level. Student teams will be created and will conduct research utilizing the technology to increase understanding of topics in physics and biology.

2003-04
Model Technology Integration Grant, MA DOE Fund Code 165

Project Title: A Dash of "Inspiration" - Integrating Technology into the Research Process
Curriculum Area: English Language Arts
Grade Level: 5
Northfield Elementary School, Pioneer Valley Regional School District (Beth Dichter, 413.498.5842) in partnership with Federal Street School, Greenfield (Geri Smith, 413.772.1300)

Project Overview:
This project is a nine-week unit geared to fifth graders. Based on the topic area chosen by the teacher, each student will select a specific area of research. Students are required to use books, magazines, and Internet resources to learn about their topics. As students take notes they begin the organizational process, which will be developed into a concept map created using the software program Inspiration. The concept map leads to an outline, forming the base of students' research papers. In addition to their research papers, students also create slide shows in Microsoft PowerPoint and brochures in Microsoft Publisher. These activities provide multiple opportunities for students to revise their writing for different media. At the conclusion of the project, students present their slide shows to their classmates and answer questions about them. The goals of the project are to increase students' technology literacy; to expand their understanding of the research process through the infusion of technology; to meet the needs of all learners by incorporating materials and final projects that include digital, on-line, auditory, pictorial, and print resources. This research project meets the grades 5-6 learning standards in the Composition Strand as a guide for writing and provides appropriate documentation in a consistent format.

2003-04
Technology Enhancement Competitive Grant, MA DOE Fund Code 170-B

Project Title: Greenfield Area Educational Technology: Science and Math Advancing Relevant Technology for Students GET SMARTS
Curriculum Area: Mathematics, Science and Technology/Engineering
Grade Level: 9-12
Greenfield High School, Greenfield Public Schools (Carol Jacobs, 413.772.1313)

Project Overview:
The goals of GET SMARTS are: 1) to ensure that students are taught using a rigorous standards-based science and math curriculum that embeds technology, 2) to increase students' skills and performance in math and science through the accessibility and use of technology tools, and 3) to increase the technology competency of both students and teachers. Our approach builds on a technology-based curriculum revision process that we began two years ago. We aim to further embed technology into the instruction and assessment components of the math and science standards-based units that are the foundation of all of our courses. In order to effectively implement this project, we will provide math and science teachers with a rigorous and intensive professional development program, including graduate-level course work, workshops, seminars and on-site coaching. The project will focus on the math teachers in year 1 and then expand to include the science teachers in year 2.

2003-04
Technology Enhancement Competitive Grant, MA DOE Fund Code 170-B

Project Title: Access to Success: Specialized/Accelerated Courses for Small Districts
Curriculum Area: Mathematics, History and Social Science, Science and Technology/Engineering, Foreign Languages
Grade Level: 4-12
Hampshire Educational Collaborative in partnership with Hampshire Educational Collaborative - Easthampton, Gill-Montague, Greenfield Public Schools, Mohawk Trail, and Clarksburg (John Heffernan, 413.586.0180)

Project Overview:
This project uses a hybrid distance-learning model of interactive videoconferencing with web support to provide instruction to students and teachers in six districts. The high schools will share specialized courses in history/social science, technology, foreign language, and mathematics. Science units will be shared among small elementary schools in these same districts. Professional development in mathematics will also be provided, with courses in Algebra II and Pre-Calculus for teachers. In addition to content mastery, teachers and students will directly address the Instructional Technology Recommended Standards. Support will also be provided to students located at Greenfield Community College and Baystate Medical Center. The project will expand its offerings in year 2.

2002-03
Toyota TIME (Toyota's Investment in Mathematics Excellence)

Project Title:
Curriculum Area: Math and Science
Grade Level:
Green River School, Greenfield Public Schools (Donna M. Cycz, 413.772.1385)

2002-03
Model Technology Integration Grant, MA DOE Fund Code 165

Project Title: The Nile of New England
Curriculum Area: English Language Arts/History and Social Science
Grade Level: 9-12
Frontier Regional School District (Diana Campbell and Janice Dore, 413.665.1155) in partnership with Greenfield High School, Greenfield Public Schools

Project Overview:
The Nile of New England: A Study of the History of the Connecticut River Valley is an exemplary interdisciplinary American history and Language Arts course for grades 9-12 which is infused with technology. This course is closely aligned with both the pedagogy and core content of Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework, particularly the strands of American History and Government, and Geography, Economics and Civics. This is a rigorous semester-long humanities course that focuses on the study of the Connecticut River Valley over the periods of three turns of centuries in order to teach about the larger themes of American history. Themes explored include economics, architecture, immigration, religion, democracy, the role of women, family life, land use, and industrialization. Technology is used extensively; students use PVMA’s nationally recognized American Centuries Web site (http://www.americancenturies.mass.edu) to find and examine historic artifacts and documents. Like historians, students analyze and interpret the remnants of the past to learn about what life was like in that period of time, and how that related to national events of the period. This combination of pedagogy (inquiry and project-based learning) and technology has been documented to be extremely successful with all students.

2002-03
Model Technology Integration Grant, MA DOE Fund Code 165

Project Title: You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (2002-03)
Curriculum Area: English Language Arts
Grade Level: 2-5
Green River School, Greenfield Public Schools (Betsy Dinger, 413.772.1385)

Project Overview:
This project intends to integrate technology into the classroom that will enhance the written communication skills of all students in grades two through five. Teachers and students will learn the full potential of assistive technology software, Write:Outloud and Co:Writer, and utilize its benefits in practical applications. The second grade teacher scans or types a student's work into Write:Outloud. With the aid of the classroom projector, the entire class watches and listens to the absence of "stops" at the end of sentences, affecting the meaning of the piece. The class directs the teacher to make the appropriate edits so that the story makes sense and is mechanically correct. This powerful mini-lesson can be replicated at any grade level for any objective in writing with this software. Moreover, students learn how to use the software through whole class demonstrations. Students with orthographic spelling difficulties use the software to phonetically spell words. The program Co-writer gives auditory feedback to what is being typed and the students choose the word that sounds like the word they want to type.

2001-02
Lighthouse Technology Grant, MA DOE

Project Title:   A Classroom with a View
Green River Elementary, Greenfield Public Schools (Lisa Sanderson, 413.772.1385)

Project Overview:
This project intends to help teachers, through the use of a computer projector, integrate technology into their teaching while enhancing the learning of all students. Lisa Sanderson, our Literacy Coordinator, helped the fourth grade prepare for the MCAS long composition by teaching lessons on creating a thesis statement, writing supporting details, and creating a concluding paragraph using a computer and a computer projector. Using the projector with Microsoft Word, an opening paragraph with the thesis statement can be written for all to see. Supporting paragraphs for each subtopic given in the opening paragraph are written and color-coded to the sentence in the introductory paragraph for which they support. Students can quickly make visual connections regarding the organization of a written piece because of the color-coding! The same process is used for the concluding paragraph. The visual of the projected typed information as well as the color-coding of the various sections of writing augment the teaching of writing considerably. It visually shows students how a developed composition is composed of supporting details that reflect sections of the thesis statement. Since this was completed on a computer, students can receive a color copy of the work. The teacher modeling, the student created writing, the ability to edit in a way that all can see, the color-coding of the thesis statement with the supporting details, and the ability to color-print a hard copy for each student maintains student interest, helps students with organizational difficulties see the connection between the introduction and the supporting details, helps students with attention problems see the connections between the parts and helps students attend to the instruction.

2000-01
Adopting Best Technology Grant, MA DOE

Greenfield Public Schools (Carol Albano, 413.772.1320) in partnership with the Adaptive Materials Resource Center at the Collaborative Center for Assistive Technology and Training (CCATT)

Project Overview:
Greenfield Public Schools plans to work with the Collaborative Center for Assistive Technology and Training (CCATT) to adopt their model of implementing strategies to maximize participation and inclusion for students in all areas of the curriculum by using technology to access and record information, and communicate this learning to peers and adults. By adopting this model, Greenfield hopes to build their internal capacity for providing curriculum materials and technology support to students with specific needs so that they can have appropriate access to education.

1999-2000
Educational Technology: Assistive Technology Grant, MA DOE

Greenfield Public Schools (Carol Albano, 413.772.1320)

1998-99
Model Professional Development Grant, MA DOE

Greenfield Public Schools (Bill Dornbusch, 413.772.1318)

Project Overview:
With representation from the five elementary schools, it is Greenfield's goal to develop lead teachers in each location who wail promote technology use and use their skills to help other at their site. Emphasis will be on project-based uses of technology.

Please contact Carol Holzberg, Technology Coordinator if you have more information about technology grants awarded to the Greenfield Public Schools.

Page last updated: August 12, 2008

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