RALEIGH COUNTY TEACHERS USE TCR CONNECTIONS TO ALIGN TECHNOLOGY, CURRICULUM WITH STATE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

TCR Uses Primary Source Information To Help Teachers Integrate Technology across the Curriculum and Build Students' Problem Solving Skills (Beckley, W.Va.)

Adding Web-based resources to classrooms is a great way to create cutting-edge learning opportunities for students. Without the right tools, however, it can also be a great way to create more work for teachers, who must scour the seemingly infinite Internet to locate relevant, appropriate information for their students; connect the information with their curriculum; and then align the Web-based lessons and activities with existing standards and objectives.
Is it any wonder some teachers resist adding new technologies to their classes?

Located in a mountainous region of southern West Virginia, Raleigh County Schools has found a solution to help secondary school teachers easily locate and integrate cutting-edge, digital resources with their curriculum, and meet state instructional goals and objectives....TCR.

West Virginia Instructional Goals and Objectives
Raleigh County Schools is a rural district that comprises 34 schools and serves 12,234 students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. Like other schools across the state, the district must align all its curriculum with West Virginia Instructional Goals and Objectives (IGOs).

The IGOs provide a focus to help teachers teach and students learn the skills and competencies essential for future success in the workplace and higher education. Further, the IGOs span the curriculum, from core academic areas (English language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science) to such subjects as music, foreign languages, and physical education. Technology is integrated throughout the instructional goals, across each curriculum area and grade level.

Integrating Technology into the Curriculum
Because the IGOs are so comprehensive, Raleigh County Schools knew they needed a tool to help teachers integrate technology across the curriculum. But according to Mary Ann Foster, technology specialist for Raleigh County Schools and an educator for more than 17 years, teacher buy-in was essential to the program's success.

"I know from experience that unless teachers want something, they will not use it. They have to have see the meaning in it and try it out for themselves to know it's good. Our teachers and media specialists were very impressed with TCR from the start because of their commitment to our curriculum and staff development needs," said Foster. "TCR has really opened doors for our teachers, especially those who have resisted or had trouble with technology in the past."

Available on every computer in the district's 12 secondary schools (grades 7-12), TCR combines access to a cross-curricular collection of information resources with extensive staff development to help teachers integrate those resources with their particular content areas.

TCR harnesses Internet technology to provide broad and immediate access to information from primary sources around the world (newspapers, periodicals, journals, business and government publications). These primary sources provide Raleigh County educators with powerful vehicles to address real world topics and current issues that textbooks cannot cover.

"TCR has created student activities and lesson plans for teachers to use with their students, and a database that aligns the lesson plans and activities with our IGOs. When you're on the TCR Web site, you can directly link from any student activity to the IGO it aligns with. The recent enhancements make it unbelievably easy.

"There's no excuse for teachers not to use technology because TCR has already done all the hard things for them. Our teachers are amazed at how easy it is. Even those who used to have problems with technology have been totally turned around," Foster explained.

Training the Trainers
Raleigh County Schools employs a "train the trainer" staff development model for technology applications and resources. To implement TCR in the district's 12 secondary schools, TCR trained a core group of 15 media specialists and teachers who then acted as "trainers" for their schools.

In addition to general training sessions, TCR provides training to address each core academic area. Following training, TCR staff visit classrooms to work individually with teachers and help them make the most of the resources available.

Building Information Problem Solving Skills
According to the IGOs, all secondary students in West Virginia are required to demonstrate the ability to obtain and exchange information by using online sources. In addition, they must learn how to select and use appropriate technology and strategies to solve given problems, assignments or tasks. TCR digital primary sources help students develop the ability the locate, evaluate and use information to answer a question or solve a problem. "TCR is much more than a news resource database," said Foster. "There is so much information out there. We want students to be able to evaluate information and think about how they going to organize it so that it has meaning. TCR helps students develop those problem solving skills," said Foster.

"Last year, we went through a tough time with term papers," Foster explained. "Many students thought that if they found something on the Internet, then it must be a valid, reliable resource. But that's just not so. Anybody can post information about anything on the Web, whether they know about it or not. Our students had a hard time understanding that.

"TCR makes it easier for our media specialists and teachers to instruct students how to qualify information - how to look at who wrote the article and evaluate meaning. With TCR, we know exactly where the resources are from and we know they're reliable. Teachers find it very valuable because it saves time on searches and they don't have to worry about weeding out unreliable or inappropriate resources."

Providing Consistency District-wide
By providing access throughout the district, TCR allows for cost-effective, consistent distribution of resources among all 12 secondary schools.

"TCR makes a vast amount of resources available to our schools cost-effectively. There is no way you'd be able to offer all that to your students if you had to put it together piecemeal," said Foster. "Maps are another wonderful gift. With the way things change, it is very expensive and difficult to keep up-to-date maps in every classroom. TCR provides current maps of all over the world for all our teachers and students."

Although they're still at the beginning of their implementation, Foster says everyone involved gives TCR the highest marks. "I'm very impressed with the program. Everybody who has used it feels exactly the same way," she said. "Our administrators think it's a wonderful resource and our teachers are amazed with how easy it is to use. We're looking forward to doing even more with it next year."