Read how these Indiana schools are examples of best practices in action as they promote learning in their classrooms.
Teachers seldom know if what they are doing in their classrooms will have a major impact on any of their students’ lives. Wendy Mayo, a dynamic 4th grade teacher, loves to use technology with her 4th grade students at Paul I. Miller School #114 in Indianapolis. She knows first hand how important it is to pass along her love and enthusiasm for technology to her students. She uses every opportunity to provide curriculum instruction that integrates the use of technology tools in her classroom. Her latest strategy of connecting her computer and video projector with an interactive slate continues to perpetuate her enthusiasm about technology to her students while they complete lessons on addition and fractions. Wendy’s technology knowledge also carries over to providing support to fellow teachers and administrators whenever needed.
Wendy’s interest in technology started when she entered the 2nd grade at Indian Creek Elementary. Little did she know her world was about to change due to a funny looking box with a keyboard and a mouse. Wendy’s school was participating in the Buddy Project which provided computers for use in students’ homes. By being part of this project, her school had a lab where she would learn the basics of using a computer. Upon becoming a 4th grader, her excitement grew when she was loaned her own computer to take home.
Wendy’s parents, who had graduated from high school and then attended trade schools, were thankful that their children were given the opportunity to learn what they had not experienced. Everyone in their house learned to use the Buddy computer. Wendy’s younger siblings used the computer to spell words and find information on the internet while her mother practiced word processing which she later used in a secretarial job.
“I was so excited to get home to do my homework and to show-off to my family what I had learned in the computer lab at school that day,” Wendy exclaims.
With siblings born two years apart, her family was able to have a computer in their home for many years. Wendy explains, “It was a sad day in our house when my youngest brother was finished at Indian Creek and the computer had to be returned.” Wendy became accustomed to working on the computer and was very comfortable with its use. In middle school, she enrolled in all the computer courses offered and experienced her first teaching experience, “teaching her own teachers” how to use technology.
Upon completing her Elementary Education Degree with a Technology Endorsement at Indiana State University, Wendy was finally able to do what she had wanted to do since that day at Indian Creek Elementary when she first joined the Buddy Project. A note typed on that take-home computer was displayed next to her college degrees at her graduation celebration. It explained it all: “When I grow up I want to be a teacher and work on computers.”
This article appeared in the ETC...and More! volume 2, number 3 newsletter and is published by the Buddy
Project
(Corporation for Educational Technology), in
collaboration with the Hoosier
Educational Computer
Coordinators (HECC),
Indiana Computer Educators (ICE),
the Indiana Department of Education, and Promoting Achievement through Technology and INstruction for all Students (PATINS).
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4th grade teacher Wendy Mayo's students use laptop computers, connected to the internet, for practicing their math skills.
