FAIRFIELD, California Eva LaMar, a third-grade teacher at Tolenas School in Fairfield, California is out to create a school without wallsone that uses the Internet to take students all over the world. LaMar credits the Intel® Teach to the Future professional development program for providing her with the training and direction she needed to effectively integrate technology into her classroom.
She's succeeding and her colleagues are noticing. LaMar is the winner of the National Science Teachers Association 2002 Barrick Goldstrike Exemplary Elementary Earth Science Teaching award. The national award is given to a full-time elementary school science teacher who incorporates exemplary earth science teaching practices into daily classroom teaching.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Eva LaMar,
Third-Grade Teacher
|
|
|
|
"Intel Teach to the Future connected my classroom to the surrounding communityto other classes, schools, universities, and experts," she says. "This kind of contact is extremely motivating for students. We're accessing a world of resources."
She learned how to access and incorporate many of those resources during her Intel Teach to the Future training. The worldwide initiative provides hands-on, face-to-face teacher-led workshops focused on student-centered, project-based learning and the creation of curricular units and evaluation tools to address state and national standards. To date, over 300,000 teachers in 24 countries worldwide have been trained through the Intel Teach to the Future program.
LaMar has become an advocate for technology in her district and nationally by training additional teachers. Last summer, LaMar was one of 15 Senior Trainers who taught training classes for 1,500 Master Teachers around the country.
"We are pleased that an alumnus of the Intel Teach to the Future program is the recipient of this prestigious award," says Kuni. "She exemplifies the goals of our program by raising the level of student learning and achievement in her classroom through the integration of computers into her science curriculum."
Students in LaMar's class create a wide variety of projects in the physical sciences. To make it easier for her third-graders to grasp geological changes over 40 million years, LaMar uses computer software and clay animation. LaMar's clay animation work has evolved into a complete "geo-literacy" project involving the University of California Berkeley's Department of Geography.
LaMar believes that integrating technology into her curriculum is a huge motivator for her students.
"Technology magnifies and makes their learning visible," she says. "When a student creates a project and puts it on the Internet, the whole community can look at it. It doesn't just go home and get put in the garbage."
Related Link
Intel Teach to the Future Program
