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Cultural connections
Technology helps a dedicated and dynamic Texas teacher unite students virtually in a cross-state classroom. By Doug Adams SCR*TEC |
rina Davis started her career as a math teacher at Herman T. Jones
Intermediate School in Prairie View, Texas. There's nothing unusual about
that. She received her Master's degree in math and statistics right there
at Prairie View A&M University, following an undergraduate degree, also
in math and statistics, from Virginia Commonwealth University. |
 ut what she
started doing at Jones Intermediate was unusual. Trina
started integrating technology into her math classes. She was successful,
and when the position of technology coordinator became available the
following year, she was really the only choice. She is now the gifted
teacher as well as the technology coordinator. Her main focus, she says,
is "to make sure that technology is not just an afterthought, that it is spread
throughout the curriculum." Trina believes that all students should be taught at the gifted level, a philosophy she demonstrates when students show interest in her gifted program, which serves 54 students. She receives students who are not labeled as gifted with open arms, saying "I wish I could have all of them." Trina feels that gifted teachers do a terrific job of accommodating different learning styles and incorporating students' multiple intelligences, so why shouldn't all students be welcome? "We have a big focus on interdisciplinary projects. Some of the stuff those kiddos are putting out this year is incredible. It's amazing. Kids are not like adults! The same information that I model to my kids, they take the ball and run with it. I guess the intimidation factor is not there." |
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Intermediate School is a fifth and sixth grade campus that serves
as a professional development school for Texas A&M University.
Jones was selected by the Texas Education Agency as a Carnegie School
and a Mentor School because of the school's focus on the special needs of
adolescents. A rural school located about 40 miles outside of Houston,
Jones Intermediate has a very heterogeneous student population: 30 percent
Mexican-American, 30 percent African-
American, and 40 percent Anglo.Last year, while she was still a math teacher, Trina Davis started working with two Texas A&M researchers on a telecommunications-based project. Dr. Lauren Cifuentes and Dr. Teri Metcalf had an idea for a cross-cultural project using distance learning and multimedia to facilitate understanding among a diverse group of secondary students. They called it Project Footsteps, and it later became known as Cultural Connections. In this project, middle school students across Texas meet via distance technologies to get to know each other and conduct curricular activities together. According to Trina, "The hope was that we would have some affective issues raised and have a cultural exchange take place, and at the same time we would have the kids immersed in some really high-end curricular tasks." Trina teamed up with Ester Gonzales, an eighth-grade teacher and the distance learning coordinator at Berta Cabaza Middle School in San Benito, Texas. Located in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Berta Cabaza is an urban school located on the fringe of a mid-sized city. Their students--sixth, seventh, and eighth graders--are 97 percent Mexican-American. Esther and Trina team taught that first year, "just as if we were in one classroom." |
 ast
year, one of the most engaging activities involved conducting a
debate during a video conference. Trina's students formulated persuasive
arguments based on Internet research and school-wide surveys that they
conducted. The students found themselves in a compromising position--they had to
argue in favor of mandatory uniforms, when in fact they did
not favor them at all. This dilemma generated quite a bit of discussion.Another successful project involved holidays. Students discussed a St. Patrick's Day story from the book I Felt Like I was from Another Planet, by Norine Dresser. The book addresses multicultural issues, portraying the terrifying experience of a foreign student being ridiculed for not wearing red on St. Patrick's Day. The students then interviewed an older member of their family to see how they celebrated a certain holiday when they were younger. They highlighted similarities and differences between the stories shared by their relatives and the way holidays are celebrated today. Next, the students chose a famous person to honor with a holiday. They used both print and electronic resources to research their person, and wrote a speech, poem, or a letter telling why they chose to honor that person. Some students created multimedia projects for their presentations. One student, Denise, chose to honor one of her ancestors, a man who had worked diligently during slavery to buy his family's freedom. Denise brought in a book written by her aunt, chronicling some of the many contributions her honoree had made to his community. Another student, Matt, created an R.L. Stine Day. He described how much he enjoyed Stine's books, and proposed that on this holiday, school and work would be canceled so everyone could curl up with one of Stine's books. Other projects included regional research projects and a community unit in which students designed redprints and built a model community called Dream, U.S.A. |
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y the
end of the year, students had learned not only about technology,
but about each other--and themselves. One student wrote, "Distance
learning helped me to understand other cultures. I also made friends
through the connection. It helped me understand what the future will
be." Another said, "I interacted with people of different
races. It was fun meeting new people and getting over my shyness for
speaking in front of people." Shyness was a big problem at first, but students quickly became excited about seeing their friends online. Towards the end of the school year, they "seemed like news anchors." One thing teachers have noticed is that on teleconferencing days, students come to school dressed much nicer than normal--and their hair is always perfect. Attendance on these days is almost 100 percent. Although the teleconferencing days were the most anticipated, much of the students' contact with one another came through e-mail. Each student in the project was paired with a keypal. This correspondence was the prime method for students to learn about one another. Although Trina is the gifted teacher at Jones Intermediate, only one of her five sections is involved with Cultural Connections. This allows other students to participate, ensuring that all grade levels and every special population is represented--including ESL, special education, regular education, and minority students. She especially likes to get what she calls "bad boys" into her program, because, after all, they are not really bad. |
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Trina had high expectations from the beginning, and the students
met every one of them.
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ut what
about the results? Trina saw success across the board. Students
involved in the project were excited, task-oriented, and successful.
Communication skills were developed and self-esteem skyrocketed. None
of this surprised Trina. She had high expectations from the beginning, and
the students met every one of them. Trina states that, "The research tells us that that will
be the case, but I got to see it firsthand. I don't have any problems
with telling [the students] how proud I am of them. I tell them at the beginning
that they are going to work hard, but they will have a ball." This year, Cultural Connections has expanded to include 30 teachers, and a third campus has been added to the project, Somerville Junior High, in Somerville, Texas. To train so many teachers and match them up with partners, the teachers involved in Cultural Connections held a Saturday workshop. They showed new teachers their projects and best practices, gave them training on the system, and set aside an entire afternoon for instructional planning. So far, the biggest problem has been with scheduling so many participants. |
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his is not
to say that everything has gone perfectly. Like any new
system, there were bugs. Trina was used to technology not working, but
she wanted to avoid frustrating the students and teachers who might be
turned off by problems. She did that by making sure everyone involved was comfortable with the equipment. Naturally, the teachers did test runs and connected well in advance of their scheduled times. But when the phone lines were down or the equipment wasn't working, not much could be done. Trina's solution? "We would take that opportunity to turn the problem into a lesson for the kids. I'd open the cabinet and explain the equipment and show the kids how we solved problems." |
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rina
credits the efforts of Dr. Cifuentes and Dr. Metcalf of Texas A&M
for much of the project's success. Also, her principal, Sharon Clark,
has been extremely supportive of new technology--she developed the
technology integration model used at Jones Intermediate. But Trina is
sure that teachers who are not as well-supported can still accomplish
much--if they have the passion. Trina Davis was recently named Teacher of the Year at her school. She was selected to attend SCR*TEC's first annual Technology in Education Institute, in Lawrence, Kansas, last summer. |
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