Susan Hennessey, with the help of videographers from Hen House Media, sat down to talk with one of Harwood’s middle grades students about improved technology integration at the school.

Traveled down to Harwood Union Middle School in Moretown VT on Friday to interview some of the students and teachers about the work they’ve been doing this year. So inspiring to hear how excited they are, and how generously they shared their stories. Thank you, Harwood!

We should all be so fortunate as to say the same.

Valerie Sullivan is the director of curriculum and instruction for the Lamoille South Supervisory Union.

The structure itself provides for point, levels, badges, leaderboards, etc. Certain badges promote some of the other features like “phone a friend” allows for taking turns and swapping resources. The ability to click on individual members to see their badge/ quest submissions also provides for swapping resources and includes hidden elements.

I’m a bit of a skeptic and agree with the concern about badging being an extrinsic motivator instead of an intrinsic motivator. How might this impact other learning opportunities or experiences that aren’t badge centered? If all learning used badging might its novelty and even the extrinsic reward wear off?

If saying ‘great job’ or putting an “A”, check plus, or star on the top of the page is not valid, constructive feedback and as the learning theorists suggest none of these promotes learning, editing, reflection and growth than how is a badge any different or better?

We aim to find out! Stay tuned for details.

Tarrant professional development coordinator Meredith Swallow learning about batch processing files from a 6th grader at Essex Middle School.

Essex Middle School’s Edge team opened their doors to the community May 16th as one of three Innovation schools in Vermont. Students and facilitators discussed some of the projects they’ve accomplished and some of the things they’ve learned as part of this unique environment.

“I’ve learned things high schools seniors don’t know,” commented 7th grader Isaac.

Students spoke to visitors about what they feel are the advantages of belonging to the Edge team.

In attendance on the panel was a parent of one of the Edge students. Her son shared that he had gone from struggling with math before joining the Edge to actually surpassing the grade-level expectation in the subject. His mother added, “The appeal to me was that different types of children could learn at different ways that suit them.”

After the panel, visitors were encouraged to explore Essex Middle School. Among their projects on display, the Edge was manning their working sugar house, had set up a cinema classroom to screen book trailers and had a number of students staffing a gallery of laptop-based projects, including their learning on batch processing, using GPS and night-vision cameras to track animals and some work on weather and recycling.

Visitors to Essex Middle School had the opportunity to chat with students about some of their technology explorations over the school year.

The Edge team has focused on self-paced learning with an emphasis on democratic classrooms and partnering with members of the community to supplement traditional instruction.

The Tarrant Institute is proud to partner with the Edge team at Essex Middle School and want to thank them for a fascinating, innovative year of collaboration.

“Grand Theft Diamond”, a video from Flood Brook Union School’s 6th graders, showing how the popular game Minecraft can be turned into a digital storytelling platform. Check out some more of the Londonderry VT school’s Minecraft projects here.

He’s an 8th grade science teacher at Woodstock Union Middle School, a UVM doctoral student and tweets under the handle @PhySci8. He and his students use twitter in their classroom, and they’re wondering how many other science teachers do the same.

“I’m very interested in how technology, and the web, can be leveraged to provide new opportunities for students to explore, experience and share science. Twitter has proven to be a tremendously versatile tool:

For more information on his project, you can reach Ryan at rbecker@wcsu.net

For my upcoming dissertation research at UVM, I am specifically interested in learning more about how social media is being used by others in science classrooms for teaching and learning. I am reaching out to folks who are currently using social media in their science classrooms. My hope is that feedback from these teachers will help me develop research questions, as well as consider potential study participants, methodologies and types of data, in a more informed way.

If you are using social media in your science classroom, or you know someone who is, please share this survey with them!”

Thank you to partner educator Amanda Bickford for sharing this video about how technology’s being integrated into the Manchester Elementary Middle School classroom, in Manchester VT.

It’s gratifying to hear directly from educators the difference our support is making in their classroom.

Thank you, everyone, for a truly innovative year.

McCarty is an educator at Harwood Union Middle School, in Moretown VT.

“The resource I wish to share is THE STUDENTS and MY COLLEAGUES. Through encouragement by my colleagues I have taken risks with technology and found that the students can run with technology and use each other as resources. I, the teacher, can use them as resources. Here is what happened.

Jodie Curran and Jon Potts had told me about QR codes last year, but I never fully understood what they were until I did a treasure hunt with QR codes at a class last summer. I thought they were interesting, but never found a natural fit for integration into my curriculum.

While we were brainstorming about the Poetry Recitation project and iTraining, Sarah Ibson and I came up with the idea of having students record themselves reading poems (with images to compliment the poems also embedded in the iMovie) and make QR codes to put on their Recitation Poem Posters.

The poem posters consist of a handwritten version of the poem, and typed analysis of the poem, as well as an image that represents the poem. These posters will line the hallways at the final poetry recitation performance — the HUMS Celebration of Learning on May 2.

Here is a link to a student performance (they gave permission to share it and I used it as an example in my classes) which was made in Sarah Ibson’s iTraining class prior to my class project. The iTraining students acted as mentors during the recording and uploading experience — which was essential since I myself did not yet know exactly how to perform these actions.

The students showed me how it was done.”

From the archives and still relevant today: Tarrant Institute director Penny Bishop reflecting on how schools can lead by embracing technology.