CTER Blog: Anyone want to get involved?

What About Me?

My name is Margie Hay-Ashcraft and I am just about to complete my CTER course work at the University of Illinois. Yeah!!!

This year marks my 11th in teaching, and I must say the time has flown by! I teach at the alternative education program, Eagle Academy, at Rantoul Township High School. Our program is in its second year, and I really think Ihave found my dream job! I work with 30 kids on a daily basis and help them to finish high school on time. Most of our students are way behind and we use a combination of NovelStars, a computer based program, teacher taught classes, and individualized packets for the students. The best part of the day is seeing a student who has had little success in the regular school setting complete a class to earn a credit!

At home, life is a circus! I have a husband, two daughters and two grandchildren living under one roof! My daughters are 20 and 22, my grandaughter is 3 and my grandson just turned 1! My 82 year old mother lives next door, so I am definitely a part of the "sandwich generation". But, our house, while busy and cluttered with trikes and toys, is one that I look forward to coming home to every night! I also have a stepson who left for
Afghanistan in April. We pray that he will return to the states safely in July of 2009.

I am a digital immigrant. I bought my first computer in 1993 and taught myself just about everything I knew about it. I was a 3o year old computer nerd! I was also the first "nerd" I knew! I was in college working on my teaching degree and knew that I wantd to teach with technology. I was one of the first teachers to use power point or show internet video clips in my classroom. I am now a part of our school's first "teaching with technology" team! The process has been slow, but I thinkl we moving forward.

More later... I think some of the circus clowns have escaped and are about to let the monkeys loose!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Anyone want to get involved?

Just wanted to share the following information with my CTER classmates:

I received the following email this morning from the local Regional Office of Education. I found it interesting that they want to revamp the standards for English language arts, mathematics, and science, but mention nothing about technology!
An echo of some of tonight's discussions! But, for any of us who feel the need to get involved in the future of what will be taught in the state of Illinois may find this a very good opportunity to get involved! Without teachers who value the future of technology in the schools, the same old ideas will be brought to the table. We will sit in our classrooms wondering where in the world these archaic ideas come from, and wish for change!

Good Morning
Just wanted to call your attention to the opportunity for your staff to participate on teams of educators who will examine the Illinois high school learning standards in English language arts, mathematics, and science.

If you have teachers with interest and expertise in these areas, please have them apply to work on a core content team as part of Illinois’ initiative with the American Diploma Project to align the high school standards to college and career benchmarks. It would be wonderful to have representation from our area on these teams.

The documents about this are at the links below:

http://www.edseek.org/docs/StateSupt/ADP-Letter.pdf

http://www.edseek.org/docs/StateSupt/ADP-Q&A.pdf

http://www2.learningpt.org/ILDiplomaProjectLaunch/

The deadline for applying is December 19, 2008.

***********************

Jane Quinlan, Regional Superintendent

Champaign-Ford ROE #9