West Junior High Community Connections NEH Interim Performance Report

http://busboy.sped.ukans.edu/~wjhs/connections/index.htm

The vision of the NEH implementation grant is grounded in collaborative planning and projects initiated by participants in the National Endowment for the Humanities Schools for a New Millennium Planning Grant. The planning phase leveraged a process for accessing electronically, primary resources not available within the walls of West Junior High. We now continue to develop a network of representatives from local museums, educational institutions, technology centers, and the print media to organize and digitize local history materials. A database is under design that will provide this information, and simultaneously serve as the focus of student projects. Access to authentic information, professional collaboration and training, and support for student leadership in the area of technology applications profoundly impacts lesson design and the quality of instruction. As the Community Connections project reaches more students, it increases enthusiasm for humanities studies and enhances academic achievement. Continuation of our efforts will establish a prototype for professional best practices in the area of humanities education, through the integration of technology within the core academic curriculum.

Compare actual accomplishments, in both qualitative and quantitative terms, with goals established.
Professional Collaboration

During the planning grant stage eight teachers, the principal, and the library media specialist were involved. Now the core group has been expanded to14 teachers plus the librarian, principal and the project director, a total of 17. This group became the steering committee and will continue to develop the larger vision of the project, develop individual projects, and mentor other teachers. The larger steering group incorporates more areas of expertise and experience. This includes one teacher serving on the district "Technology Cadre", two music teachers exploring ways to connect to the teaching of the humanities, the media and drama teacher, and a math teacher exploring ways to incorporate math in social studies and language arts projects. This group is currently involved in a new vision building process. We have verbalized what we learned during the planning grant, discussed what resulted from the planning grant, and described what changes should take place during the implementation grant. We will continue this process through December , then share this vision of the "Community Connections" project with the entire building staff. Our goal is to gain 70% participation within two years, which would be 45-47 people.
(Appendix 1).

Project-based instruction in an integrated humanities curriculum

We are pleased with continued progress toward this goal. The 9th grade social studies curriculum has experienced great changes as far as variety of resources and student projects are concerned. In fact, one teacher claims "Use of the Internet is imbedded in everything I teach now. I can hardly teach a topic without it." Many assignments have assumed project form. Two used last spring during the Kansas History semester include "Native-American Project" and the "Territorial Statehood Project". "Concerned Constituent" and "Pick a Country" are samples of several projects used this fall during the Government semester.
(Appendix 2)
In March, the "Germans in Lawrence" unit was taught, in its second version. It combines studying local documents with preparation of new resources to make them more useful and accessible to future student researchers. This year several items of interest were transcribed from the 19th century gothic print. Students prepared them as html documents, which will be incorporated into the Lawrence history website. The combination of "local/primary research" and daily practice of language in the German classroom is increasingly effective. This year's field trip was expanded to include working in two research collections: University of Kansas Spencer Research Library Kansas Collection and the Max Kade Center; a tour of the inside of the 1869 Turnhalle (which is currently privately owned and used for storage); and a stroll downtown to look at storefronts with German names.
(Appendix 3)
Over the summer, both teams of 7th grade core teachers spent several days planning a unit of introduction, to West Junior High and its resources and to the public library. Their objectives for the two-week unit included: 1) orienting students to the school, student handbook, library, and core classes; 2) familiarizing students to the diverse resources available to them, both print and electronic; 3) integrating map reading, writing, interviewing, and technology; 4) making connections to the community; 5) reducing stress/anxiety for seventh graders as they begin junior high; and 6) building a sense of community. This unit was very successful and the staff at the Lawrence Public library was very pleased.
(Appendix 4)
Following their introductory unit, one core team used the 2000 Summer Olympics to engage 7th graders in geography and English. They gathered information about Australia as well as about many countries involved.
(Appendix 5)
New curriculum in foreign language has been developed for a course required of all 7th graders starting this fall. While the course introduces languages, it integrates stories, culture, geography, science, math, and comparisons between the languages. French, Spanish, and German are taught through three themes: 1) an imaginary trip, 2) world cup soccer, and 3) animals of the world. Activities organized to be conducted in the language being taught use real information, regularly taken directly from the internet - for weather, soccer scores, and encyclopedic information in the target languages.
(Appendix 6)
Students in Photo 2 completed an historical assignment in March, at the same time they were discussing local history in their social studies classes. Each student selected a house, public building or place of historical significance and took at least one roll of pictures. After selecting the best pictures and writing up historical text, they prepared either a Power Point presentation or a web page using pictures and text. The best pages are being contributed to the Lawrence history website.
(Appendix 7)
The quality of History Day Projects continues to improve. One project, National Prohibition: When the Laughing Water Ran Out received a "Superior" rating at regional competition in spring 2000.
(Appendix 8)
An orientation video for history day projects has been made using Avid Cinema software and the teacher has organized a website for resources. www.blackboard.com/courses/HDWJHS/index.html This year all eighth graders are doing a project on the history day theme for class.
The Underground Railroad project is off to a slow start; however, the magnitude of this project requires that much research be done and groundwork be laid. Creating a network-based collaborative project about the Underground Railroad is being researched (see description below) and planned.

Integration of information and communication technologies

Progress toward this goal continues throughout our building. Routines for taking students to the computer writing labs have 'normalized' considerably. Procedures of assigning student accounts, knowing and keeping passwords, where to save documents, what to do when the server is down, sign-up for use of the two writing labs have become routine. Students begin work quickly, are more proficient on the computer, and use their time on task when seated at the terminal. The computer lab assistant finds that, with added confidence in navigating their accounts and the Internet, students are also more helpful to their peers.
Two teacher have developed prototypes for web pages that all teachers in the building can follow. Keri Austin-Janousek, 9th grade English teacher, now has a useful and informative Web page for her classes. It can be reached through "Community Connections Database of Innovative Lesson Plans" at http://busboy.sped.ukans.edu/~wjhs/connections/lab.htm
(Appendix 9)
Among other things, she provides weekly calendars of class assignments there. There are also prototypes for Photography and German, reached through the address above.
The focus on better use of technology in the teaching of the humanities is already reaping benefits for teachers other than those originally involved in the planning grant. One teacher shares successful activity ideas with another, and the practice grows. Students are encouraged to apply their technological skills. An example of this would be the Advanced 9th Grade English project assignment for reading Dicken's Tale of Two Cities.
(Appendix 10)
"Inspiration" software is now installed to support our building-wide Quality Performance Accreditation goal of improving reading scores through the use of graphic organizers. Teachers can create on the computer and demonstrate graphic organizers appropriate to specific assignments and reading texts. Writing traits and problem-solving skills also targeted for QPA can now be illustrated through customized graphic organizers. Licensing covers all computers in our building.
Two Educarts have arrived. These will be used for teacher and student presentations integrating Power Point, internet, hard copy, and notations written on a white board. Problems with software compatibility between the carts and our network server, enabling teachers and students to work from their individual accounts, are still being solved. Training will begin in the next few weeks after school and on collaboration time.

Professional development

Partly due to her work on this grant, Phyllis Farrar, was named National German Teacher of the year 2000 for grades K-8. This award is given annually by the American Association of Teachers of German in recognition of "service to the language teaching profession; participation in professional organizations; contribution to German language education; and continued growth as a German educator."
(Appendix 11)
"Germans in Lawrence" was successfully defended as a master's project in May. It was then presented as the topic for a three-day immersion weekend for Kansas German teachers in September. Thirty-nine members of KATG attended, worked with these materials, created more activities and materials, and recorded a cassette of songs related to the theme "Germans in Kansas". The Web page for the unit is currently being improved and will then be submitted to the American Association of Teachers of German "super site" for review.
(Appendix 12)
Ninth-grade social studies teacher, Carolyn Derusseau, spent several weeks in summer on a fellowship to research Lawrence's role in the Underground Railroad at Watkins Community Museum archives and at Spencer Research Library. She also received instruction in the use of meta-data (including copyright issues) on the Lawrence history website while working with the two collections mentioned above and with the Lawrence Journal World designers of our coming website.
(Appendix 13)

Student Leadership

The GenY group consists of about 10 students, with two sponsors who are both included in the grant steering group. This group meets three days per week, before school. Each student is working on a project which supports the curriculum. Projects for the 2000-2001 school year include PowerPoint presentations on: Martin Luther King, Jr; diversity; a quiz game for Knowledge Master competition practice; "Welcome to 7th grade geography"; and safe food handling tips. Two Web pages are being created: one for Gen Y and one for a science teacher. An Avid Cinema video is being prepared about History Day, and a video about nutrition and healthy choices is being made.
A 2000-2001 Web page staff of 6-8 students has been formed to develop and maintain the general school website at http://schools.lawrence.com/wjhs/. These students meet twice per week. They will be soliciting student work to be published.
The computer club finished the 1999-2000 school year with elections. New student leadership group is developing again as the 2000-2001 year progresses. Activities include learning basic HTML, creating personal web pages and games, and studying for the Microsoft MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) test.
(Appendix 14)

Community resource development

A Lawrence history website where learners access and contribute information has been in development for the past year. Enough content has been collected to warrant publication; the design is being finalized, and all procedures of digitization, copyright varification, and editing are being reviewed and refined before making the website public. In addition to photos and publications housed at Watkins Community Museum and Spencer Research Library, a new book about the history of the community band and a 1994 master's thesis about German's in Lawrence are about to be published on this website.
(Appendix 15)
Some privately owned documents have also been digitized to be available at this site. Some "work in progress" can be viewed at the following test sites:

http://history.lawrence.com/test/eric/ukans.thml
http://history.lawrence.com/test/eric/haskell.thml
http://history.lawrence.com/test/eric/religion.thml
http://history.lawrence.com/test/eric/bowersock.thml
http://history.lawrence.com/test/eric/littlepamph.thml
http://history.lawrence.com/test/eric/germania.thml
http://history.lawrence.com/test/eric/territory.thml

Watkins Museum internet access and ability to contribute to this project on-site is nearly complete. A computer, scanner, and printer are now available and the location within the museum is wired. One research assistant will be able to work in an area very accessible to the public. Pictures, documents, leaflets, brochures will be digitized and copyright forms will be prepared "while you wait".

Publicity

In April 2000 the announcement of being awarded the implementation grant came to us as the entire faculty was assembled at the end of the team visit for our Kansas state Quality Performance Accreditation. We had just received our accreditation from the visitation team, when our grant director, Karen Vespestad, returned from taking the phone call from Washington. It was welcome news; it also reinforced the belief that our activities related to one process directly contribute to our successes in the other. The article which appeared in the Lawrence Journal World is attached.
(Appendix 16)

Describe any changes that have been made.

In August 2000 we were preparing to hire a project coordinator who could communicate with community collaborators, support teacher efforts, and provide the leadership to keep the project moving forward. This would be a half-time job. When the project director, Dr. Vespestad, was promoted to an administrative position in the school district, all agreed that in order to maintain momentum, someone closely involved in the grant planning stage was needed to provide continuity. Phyllis Farrar volunteered to drop one half of her teaching assignment, photography. Once her halftime replacement was hired in October, she began the role of project coordinator. Approximately one month was spent in "orientation", meeting with each of the primary community collaborators, with the research assistants, and with the steering group of teachers.
Strengths and weaknesses of research assistants have been evaluated. Some duties have been reassigned. Some routines in communication and accountability for documents and copyrights have been changed.
(Appendix 17)
Our digitization assistant was appointed by Kansas University to the position of Digital Librarian at Spencer Research Library. In that position, she became our contact person for requesting items from the Spencer collections for the Lawrence history website. Her insight into the needs of our grant will be beneficial to us, as well as to the mission of the Spencer staff. We are now hiring a new assistant for digitization and maintenance of the Lawrence history website. This assistant will first reorganize parts of the "Community Connections" website, then move it from the Kansas University "busboy.sped" server to the Lawrence Journal World server. There, it will be consolidated with the Lawrence history website, which will then become public.

Conclusion

A group evaluation by the core team was held prior to the writing of this report. The team consensus was that the original goal of enhancing the teaching and learning of the humanities through the infusion of instructional technologies has not only been met, but continues to expand exponentially. An enhanced curriculum has truly been woven into the fabric of WJH. Students and teachers have been energized by the wealth of resources to which they now have access. This access has leveraged the development of an impressive array of creative student performance and assessment options. Thus, a sense of efficacy has emerged among the teachers.
The WJH staff has been able to collaborate with community resources in a way never possible before. Networking among professionals has evolved to epitomize the meaning of the Community Connections grant title.Copright issues have consumed major quantities of time during the planning grant. We have finally resolved most of these issues and can move forward at a faster pace with the web development and posting local resources to the web. A presentation with our collaborators toWatkins Community Museum Board members will be held on January 25th to showcase the accomplishments of this grant. We are anticipating media coverage.
Students continue to take leadership roles in technology to train teachers in the logistics of computer and software use. This allows teachers more time for professional collaboration and planning for the humanities and associated interdisciplinary projects.
We have established best practices for enhancing the core academic curriculum with the integration of technology. This model is being evaluated for district-wide adoption. We are confident that it will continue to be a catalyst for growth and change in our school community.