Learning through Books, Media and Technology

ARTICLES THIS ISSUE:

1993 Administrative Leadership Awards

Accentuating the positive

1993 President's Award Winner

The energy of synergy

This is my country --- an my school

We are the world: our success is yours

Social sciences and technology --- a natural combination

No question of relevance

Inspiring students to speak out

Big ideas prepare students for the future

Open doors, open minds

Good Ideas! Home Page

Good Ideas! is published by CSLA

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Burlingame

California

94010

(415) 692-2350

The energy of synergy

Jane Lathrop Middle School

A tradition of flexibility and individualization at Lathrop Middle School has paved the way for restructuring efforts to replace time-worn instructional models. For example, the desire to integrate technology into the history/social science curriculum has resulted in a lively synergy between classrooms, the library media center, and the computer lab.

A student selects an arty print to use in her presentation

In sixth grade studies of Martin Luther King, a new dimension has been added by focusing on the history of civil disobedience and passive resistance. Biographies, newspaper articles, and pictures are gathered on such individuals as Thoreau and Gandhi for class use; related fiction at various levels of difficulty is suggested; laser disc excerpts entice both reader and nonreader.

Seventh graders study the Crusades beginning with time lines, chronologies, historical maps, and atlases. In the library media center, Sylvia Alderman (library media teacher). emphasizes higher levels of thinking as students begin to analyze the effects of the Crusades and to imagine themselves living in those times. Some students communicate their understanding through art work; others use hypercard; still others print out applicable portions from an electronic encyclopedia and highlight them.

A traditional eighth grade assignment on Supreme Court decisions has been revised to emphasize the research process through use of computerized indexes. Again, new ways of thinking are introduced as students learn about Boolean searching and key words. One teacher commented that this approach "changed my role as a teacher." since she has been able to coach students rather than supply information through lectures.

Since Lathrop Middle School houses programs for hearing and visually impaired students, as well as those who are orthopedically and/or educationally handicapped, branching out into non-traditional modes has benefited students, teachers, and aides by offering such tools as monitor enlargers, laptop computers, a modem connection to the public library, and an image scanner to transfer art and maps to hypercard.

• Jane Lathrop Middle School (Grades 6-8, enrollment 930)
  480 East Meadow Drive, Palo Alto 94306; (415) 856-7692
  Jim Mathiott, Principal
  Sylvia Alderman, Library Media Teacher
  Palo Alto Unified School District