IU
Launches Jill Vorhaus Fellows Program
New
Fellowship Provides Year of Collaboration, Inquiry, and Support
for Teacher Participants
On
June 25, 2001, at the Center
for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley, the eight inaugural
recipients of Jill Vorhaus Fellowships begin a year of supported
work for technology-using educators who are interested in creating
stories about their classrooms and their teaching. The
program was funded last year by Rick Vorhaus in memory of his
wife--a former school teacher--and is an important new addition
to the IU. The Vorhaus Fellows Program is a first step toward
the next phase of IU work--work that will include new programs,
new technology tools for educators, and new opportunities for
participants in IU supported projects.
Storytelling is as old as language. Through stories, people connect
on the most fundamental human level--to embody, share and remember
complex human experiences of facts, emotions, lessons, and moral
dilemmas. Without stories, much of human experience might remain
just a jumble. Digital Storytelling uses computers to create media-rich
narrative presentations, and the Internet to share them with wide
communities.
Teachers
have stories to tell, stories that contain vivid images and recollections
from the daily struggles and successes in the classroom. If a good
novel is, as a famous writer once remarked, a "series of small
surprises," then teachers all carry with them plenty of surprising
experiences that could make good fiction. But, surprises are not
always small, and it can be difficult to wrestle a story into shape.
In the end, teachers' "fiction" can be a vehicle to share
lessons, build collaborations in support of classroom practice,
and, most importantly, improve student achievement.
Beginning
with the week-long storytelling workshop, and continuing over
the course of the 2001/2002 academic year, Vorhaus Fellows will
use tools and learn strategies for introducing artifacts, memories,
narration skills and technology into their classes, they will:
create digital stories about current classroom experiences; conduct
a mini-classroom cycle of inquiry into technology supported instruction;
research and discuss current trends and literature in technology
education; and have access to IU/ UC resources and programs. As
the year progresses, Fellows will collect artifacts and write
and produce one to two additional digital stories about classroom
experiences. The Jill Vorhaus Fellows Program is an important
vehicle for bringing technology to the mainstream of teacher professional
development in content, pedagogy and leadership, and it builds
a foundation for stronger University/school/community partnerships.
The
successful use of technology in K-12 schools--scaled over distance
and across populations--comes from well-designed projects and
programs, but even more importantly, from individual teachers
and scholars who are able to share and spread the value of emerging
benefits from new education and information technologies--benefits
that may not materialize without the right mix of human skills
and access to new opportunities. The Vorhaus Fellows Program recognizes
that successful implementation of technology in classrooms can
only emerge from informed use, and users' ongoing reflection and
analysis.
The
eight local Vorhaus Teacher Fellows were selected to recognize
their teaching effectiveness, experience, and prior use of technology.
Their year-long association with UC Berkeley, and each other through
the IU, will be guided by Francesca Saveri, an Oakland teacher
with extensive experience as a BAWP
Teacher Consultant, and reformer with the Bay
Area School Reform Collaborative; she will co-lead the Fellows
along with IU staff. The 2001/2002 Jill Vorhaus Fellows are:
-
Pat Spencer, Technology
and Instructional Specialist, SFUSD
-
Beth Kim, King M.S., 6th
grade, Berkeley
-
Bev Schmidt, Wildwood
Elementary, 4th grade, Piedmont
-
Marlene Wilson, Fruitvale
School, 4th grade, OUSD
-
Earl Walls, Grass Valley
School, 5th grade, OUSD
-
Gale Ow, Lowell H.S.,
grades 10-12 Social Studies, SFUSD
-
Adam Kupersztoch, Roosevelt
M.S., 6th grade Social Studies & Language Arts, OUSD
-
Roxanna McClendon, Twenty-First
Century Academy, grades 6-8, SFUSD
In addition, new IU Video and Web Producer Rick Jaffe joined the group for the week and the Center for Digital Storytelling.
L-R: Rick Jaffe, Francesca Saveri, Beth Kim, Roxanna McClendon, Joe Lambert (kneeling), Adam Kupersztoch, Marlen Wilson, Earl Walls, Gale Ow, Bev Schmidt, Patricia Spencer
The
IU will continually assess the effectiveness of this program,
and that assessment will inform the design of IU technology, teaching
materials, and professional development activities. While the
program remains in its formative phase, we expect to fund and
formalize the Vorhaus Fellows Program, and hope to build a network of teachers
teaching teachers about the effective integration of technology
into teaching--with an emphasis on using Berkeley research and
learning materials.
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You'll
find these additional stories--and more--featured on the IU
News page:
- Cal Heritage
Hosts Digital Curriculum Expo in San Francisco
- CityBugs Spring 2001: UC Students Teach Kids; Classroom
Winners Tour UCB
- IU Honored as "Outstanding" Example of Project Evaluation
- Links to summer
2001 professional development opportunities
- Read
all the IU News ...
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July 3, 2001 . . . On
campus, crowds are gone, bougainvillea, jasmine and magnolia
are in bloom. Summer quiet is interrupted by construction
at several ongoing seismic retrofits to the campus's most
earthquake vulnerable buildings. And as we celebrate July
4th, there are flares and flashes on the horizon of things
to come from IU Projects and Programs. First, this past week's
kick off of the new IU Jill Vorhaus Fellows Program (our lead
story); second, highlights from an informative and thought-provoking
Digital Curriculum Expo hosted at the Zeum in San Francisco's
Yerba Buena Gardens by BANDL (the Bay Area National Digital
Library)
and UC Berkeley's California Heritage Project (an IU
Internet Learning Community Project). Read about the Expo,
and all the IU News on the news
page.
As in past years,
for many IU Projects, summer is a season of Professional
Development Workshops and Seminars. The BAWP New Teachers
Teaching Writing course (noted in the June IU News) is
in session now through July 6. And the offerings of ORIAS
and CSW take place later this summer. These listings have been carried over from the June news--let us know if there are Teacher
Institutes or other events your project hosts that we have
missed.
The IU News
will publish on the first Tuesday each month throughout summer--with
highlights, events, and other News. Please continue to send
along your story suggestions, recommendations, and any other
comments. Thanks!
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