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Educational Collaborative, an organization that engages teachers, administrators, artists, cultural organizations, and parents in strengthening quality arts education throughout a region that is known for its cultural and educational richness. This connection led to an additional partnership with the CREATE Lab at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute. These partnerships, and additional community connections, will continue in the 2011-12 school year. They will provide exciting opportunities that will result in some high-impact training sessions for the faculty in the following school year.
Establishing Models Models also provide structures that can be critically beneficial in advancing educational change. A 21st century research-anddevelopment classroom was established in a fifth grade teaching team at Boyce Middle School for this purpose. Under the direction of Karen Brown, Boyce principal, and classroom teachers Matt Henderson and Kristin Cilli, a model of a 21st century classroom was created and implemented by these teachers in the 2010-11 school year and will continue and expand this school year. It is hoped that this framework can be replicated and serve as a model of the ways that time, space, scheduling, and Photos seen throughout this article are of USC teachers and administrators receiving training at the CREATE Lab at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute.
instruction can be enhanced through the effective implementation of technology. Providing the Tools Assuring that the provision of technological tools and infrastructures can support the skills that students need is another area that the District continues to address. While the focus remains on the learning, it is vital that students and staff be provided with the tools that make learning these skills efficient and memorable. Blended Schools is a powerful tool currently being used to accomplish this task. This safe, controlled, online learning environment allows teachers to use the Blackboard platform of many higher-learning institutions to provide students learning opportunities through web tools, including blogs, wikis, journals, discussion boards, and other collaborative and educational tools. Blended Schools allows teachers to extend learning opportunities outside the classroom so that learning can occur at any time, not just during school hours. Students and teachers become partners in the learning process through the integration of this and other vital technology tools. The Upper St. Clair School District will continue to respond to our changing world in order to serve our students and families in the best ways possible. More than ever and in responsible ways, there is a need for education to be dynamic and quick to respond to the world around us. Upper St. Clair School District and its administrators have the confidence that the skills and tools that Upper St. Clair students receive will prepare them, as always, to positively impact our world in great ways. n
Eighth Graders Enter Video Competition
This past school year, two groups of Fort Couch Middle School eighth graders entered the Polio Video competition. Entitled “Take a Shot,” this event was sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Rotary International. The goal of the foundation is to eradicate polio worldwide. After completing a month of research on polio, the students, ventured into the unknown to create a five-minute original film to foster awareness of the disease. The competition proved popular, with 70 high school and middle school entries. At the end of the competition, “maddyeliza1234” received the judges’ award of First Place Honorable Mention. The teams were mentored by Fort Couch communications arts teacher Mary Muffly. To view the videos, log onto www.takeashotcontest.org and go to View Entries. Maddy Rees and Eliza Luxbacher’s video is titled “maddyeliza1234” and Nicole Joyce and Berit Klym’s video is titled “The Dreamer.” n
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UPPER ST. CLAIR TODAY
Fall 2011
Around a sign that pays tribute to Dr. Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine, are video competition participants, left to right, Nicole Joyce, Maddy Reese, Eliza Luxbacher, and Berti Klym