[originaltext]Mike: Let’s start by talking about your somewhat unusual teaching

Mike: Let’s start by talking about your somewhat unusual teaching situation. When I visited your class, you had students from grades I through 5. Why is that?
Carol (Carol Wilson): Since I came back to teaching in 1992, I have been teaching gifted students in a content-based pull-out program at two schools (two days at each school). This past year I partially retired and taught only at Sandpiper Elementary School three days a week. I teach fourth and fifth graders together for two full days and my first to third graders for one day a week. For the most part, I try to cluster students by age, but every once in a while, when we have a suitable project, I bring all the students together. When the students heard you were coming, they asked if they could all be in class that day!
Mike: How is it working with such a diverse group?
Carol: For short periods and for specific projects, working with the entire group is fine. The older students are pretty good at modelling and supporting the younger students, and the younger students enjoy interacting with the older students. But under normal circumstances it’s easier working with groups that are closer in age. Even though the gifted students are more homogenous with respect to their skills, their maturity differences are such that it is in their best interests to spend most of their time with their age peers.
Mike: What role does technology play in your students’ learning?
Carol: Didn’t you once say that we used more chalk than technology in our rooms? That is really true. Ten years ago I had one Apple II in my room! I wanted access to more technology, so I started writing grants. I’ve managed to get enough grants (45 in all) to ensure that we have. access to virtually every kind of technology you can imagine. What is perhaps more important is that it is completely integrated into teaching and learning. We use technology when it’s appropriate, but we don’t force it.
Mike: Can you tell me more about how you use technology to promote student learning?
Carol: Technology is a powerful tool that I use to enhance, enrich, and extend my curriculum. I use a project/performance-based approach where technology is integrated into every area of a thematic study, and technology is used as a student presentation tool, motivational tool, and instructional tool. Our daily learning and integration process includes word processing, accessing information from a CD-ROM and the internet, and designing multimedia presentations and documenting with the digital camera, 35 mm camera, and video camera. The children conduct research, design projects, and create multimedia presentations centered on the integrated curriculum.
Mike: What kind of impact docs this approach have on your students?
Carol: Technology becomes not only fun and interesting, but also meaningful and immediately useful for students in school. They are more engaged in their learning. It is difficult to be bored using technology, because it will drive your students to become more involved in their own learning.
Mike: How do you use technology to evaluate/assess students’ work/projects?
Carol: The students document their learning with an ongoing video and with a photo journal in which they reflect about their work through photographs taken of every project--they ask "What did I do, why did I do it, what did I learn, what can I do to improve?" At the end of the year, the students explain their photo journals and the ongoing video to their parents in a student-led conference. In this way, they really take ownership of their work. Since I have some children for five years, it is fun to watch them mature over the years. They end up with a very long videotape to keep of all their presentations as well as five photo journals. I tell them to save them to show to their grandchildren.
Mike: One of your projects that most impressed me was your Junior Toastmasters project. How did this get started?
Carol: During my second year teaching, a colleague told me about Toastmasters International (a non-profit organization offering people the chance to learn public speaking through participation in clubs). I had a Toastmaster visit the class and teach the program for 10 weeks. The students loved it and we have kept an informal Toastmasters group going ever since. We are not affiliated with Toastmasters International, but my students enjoy emulating the group’s mission of public speaking.
Mike: Um...
Carol: My students would tell you that accomplished speakers don’t use crutch words like "urn" when they speak! Actually, there is probably no better way to integrate reading, writing, speaking, and listening than with Toastmasters. in addition, the students use technology to do research about their speaking topics and to develop their presentations. They present their final speech to parents and peers at our student-led conference. These end-of-year presentations are pretty extraordinary, and the students put an enormous amount of effort into them.