Lucky me! In the last school year, I received an Advancing Networks Uses Grant (ANU), a wonderful grant that allowed me to showcase how technology is changing classroom practice  in my district.

I titled my ANU proposal Teach 21, and promised to document 21 classroom examples that would make visible effective integration of technology across grade levels and subject areas. Using an Edutopia-like model, for each classroom visit, I teamed with a videographer (Krishna Harrison-Munoz or SECC’s Doug Niva, Jon Joiner, or Abbey Jaraski). Showing good teaching is always more powerful than simply telling.

So in a year when teacher-bashing in the media has become a common occurrence, I was seeing what the public really needed to see: good things happening in public education.

All 21 lessons – plus a bonus lesson – are available on the Teach 21 wiki. For a quick sampling of the scope and variety, you might want to visit:

• The Life Cycle of the Monarch Butterfly (Grade 2, Sci/ELA)
• Stories from the Heart (Grade 4, ELA/ELL/Soc)
• Scratching the Heavens (Grade 6, Sci/ELA/Soc)
• Communicating Like a Scientist (Grade 8, Sci)
• Beyond Anne Frank: A Holocaust Timeline – and America’s Response (Grade 11, Soc)

Several lessons were greatly extended through the use of interactive videoconferencing (with PORTS, NASA, and Magpi). Many of the lessons also include online samples of student products. All of the lessons tap into technology and extend teaching and learning in ways not possible with traditional textbook-driven lessons.

In a year of mud slinging and deep cuts to public education, I want to broadcast in as many ways as possible the awesome work of my ANU colleagues/mentors/friends. I also want to thank them for welcoming me into their classrooms and for inspiring me in more ways than I could have imagined. The ANU Teach 21 grant truly = my best grant ever:-)