Current Happenings in VI Schools

All Saints Cathedral School
The computer labs at All Saints have been put to good use with lots of student projects. The lower school computer teacher, Mr. Dupigny, has been giving the students a good start by teaching them about internet research techniques, problem solving, storage devices and memory systems, email, word processing, binary, and slideshow presentations, plus more! Additionally, Mr. Dupigny runs an after school program incorporating art and technology to encourage the students creativity with computers.
The upper school students continue to use industry standard programs such as Photoshop and are learning to hand code using html.

Montessori School
Upper school students at Montessori have been working on a stop-motion animation project to go along with their unit on the Middle Ages. The students created characters out of clay and used their knowledge of the Middle Ages to create stories depicting different facets of medieval life. After taking pictures, editing, and adding sound and text, the resulting animations were funny and informative.
The next project that the upper school students will be working on is a documentary film recording their upcoming trip to the Model UN in New York. Plans are to film before, during, and after their experience and then use different documentary techniques to edit their film using iMovie.
In addition, the middle school students have continued to incorporate technology into their lessons, working on tasks such as web page research projects and using their creativity with graphics programs.

Morovian School
Students and teachers at Moravian School have been very busy this year using technology to enhance both student learning and teaching. Two programs that are new to the private schools this year are Connected Tech and Tech4Learning. Both programs have provided teachers with new ways to integrate technology into their daily lessons. Other new things have included setting up a server environment for student file sharing, introducing a grading program for teachers and using a projector and single computer to deliver Internet enriched lessons to the whole class.
Student projects that are currently being developed are a 7th grade documentary on the history of the Moravian School on St. Thomas. 8th grade students are working on creating a school yearbook and a memory DVD to be shown during graduation at the end of the year. Students are learning how to use digital cameras and download pictures then upload them to the server. 7th and 8th graders also enjoyed a session with the Palms and learned how to "Fling" a website to their Palms and reviewed several Palm applications and how to upload their work to the PAMM website. They also had the opportunity to work with a Claymation program and created simple animation videos.
As always, Ms. Vazquez and the rest of the Moravian staff continue to support technology integration and student achievement with enthusiasm and hard work.

Prophecy Elementary and Midle School
A group of students at Prophecy have been involved in a tech club where they have begun work on several projects. Using iMovie, the students have created simple movies using pictures downloaded from the web. Also, the students have learned how to use the web publishing software WebBlender and will begin work on a school web page in the upcoming quarter.
The 8th grade class has also been working on web page projects as a supplement to their reports on famous figures in Black History.

St. John Christian Academy
The 1st through 3rd grade students at St. John Christian Academy have been improving their skills in word processing, drawing, and painting on the computer. Learning tips and tricks in these programs, as well as growing more comfortable with the computer in general, have allowed the students to make many creative projects. The students have written stories, created self-portraits, and made Christmas cards. All this practice will aid the students in creating a school cookbook, planned for the upcoming quarter.

The St. John School on Gifft Hill
The technology teacher at the Pine Peace campus, Katie Zaytoun, has led a push to not only teach students computer skills in computer class but to integrate computer use into their normal classroom assignments. Most recently, students used the Internet to research penguins. They were especially delighted by a live video feed of penguins swimming that the students accessed on the Internet. Other students have researched working dogs like seeing eye dogs and police dogs. Yet another group of students has used clay animations to demonstrate their knowledge of the life cycle of a plant.
Students at the high school campus enrolled in a brand new class entitled "Digital Space" and have been working on three different types of projects since the beginning of the school year using digital media. The first projects were audio only. Students created radio programs with music, narration and sound effects. The second project combined audio and graphics and the students made slide shows and comedy skits, combining digital images, titles, drawings and more. The current and final projects combine audio, graphics and include video. Some students are using musical instruments and Garageband to produce music videos. Other students are producing sports shows with Varsity football game footage and clips from the NBA.
Next semester, the upper school will begin Video Production Class, where the students and instructor, Steve Simonsen, act as a film crew and plan, videotape and edit there own music video.

Saints Peter and Paul School
With the opening of the new library, a group of students has begun work on a library webpage that will provide resources for students, and allow them to search the library catalogue.
Also, the school had a very successful workshop to introduce teachers to new technology programs and resources available including web publishing and graphics using Tech4Learning software, tech tutorials from Atomic Learning, and technology infused lesson plans with ConnectedTech. Although many teachers at the school are already using technology in their lessons (including PowerPoint, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver) the workshop provided good inspiration for even more ways that technology could make learning more fun.

Seventh Day Adventist School
Students at Seventh Day are learning to manage and update their school web page using first class technology like Dreamweaver and Flash. The school web page, already featuring award winning design, will soon incorporate advanced Flash graphics, a slick new interface and updated content.
Following the success of the partner teachers at Moravian and Wesleyan, Seventh Day just welcomed their own partner teacher who will take technology education at the school to the next level.

VI Baptist
Students in the VI Baptist after school program have been working on a wide variety of projects. These include video projects using iMovie, PowerPoint presentations about what they want to be when then get older, creative clay animation stories, and web pages about their hobbies and interests. Their projects cover subjects from Morgan horses to classic cars. By incorporating vital technology skills such as Internet research and uploading files, the projects were fun and educational. For the next quarter the students will continue working on individual projects, perhaps expanding on their iMovie skills and learning Photoshop.

Wesleyan Academy
The Internet connection and speed continues to be an issue at Wesleyan Academy, but the Computer Lab charges on. The Lab is seeing success with the new open times of before and after school, as well as at lunchtime. Students are able to use the Lab for personal use or to complete outside assignments. The response has been tremendous.
All grades are now involved in working with a keyboarding program to teach them the skills and to prepare them for other applications. Rebecca Tucker, a partner teacher in the Lab is especially impressed by the way the 4th and 5th grade classes have shown their desire and ability.
While working with the lower grades in different skill building lessons in word processing and drawing, the 6th-8th grades are in the completion faze of group projects. These were focused on learning PowerPoint or Tech4Learning to present a slide show. The different classes will be moving into individual design and presentation after the holidays.

Zion Academy
Zion students are enjoying their new lab and have accomplished much with the computers. Some students have progressed from knowing little about the Internet or using a mouse to finding information, downloading pictures, and completing their own web pages. The students have also used cell phones, digital cameras and even portable gaming systems in conjunction with their school computers to create projects on a diverse array of subjects.

Current happenings in VI Schools

ST. THOMAS/ST. JOHN SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST SCHOOL
After last years accomplishments with the interviews for Generation Connect, this year the students of Seventh Day are advancing into web design and animation.

With limited success from the last web site creation, Terrance an upper school student has become an educator for a few other grades and ushered some new students into web design. Excellent progress has been made as they worked with an on-line web provider and builder. The provider is Tripod. So go to their site and check out the good connections to their school.

We are working this month on the advancement of animation through Flash, the most popular animation program around. In the next few months we will successfully complete a few animation creations and hopefully some connecting subjects to the upcoming Nutrition Week.

ALL SAINTS CATHERAL SCHOOL
All Saints is in their second year of accomplishing an excellent yearbook DVD. An upper school Tech club has been initiated for those students who have shown advanced interest in technology and video production. With iMovie and Capty DVD the upper students will be completing another successful year documentation of their schools community and educational activities. Mr. Dave Stuedell has been working with the upper school students for a while and through the last few years has taught them graphics design, PowerPoint, web development and even some programming. The design work was used to create Identifying mouse pads for each computer in the lab. PowerPoint was used most effectively for in class presentations from biological dissection of frogs to a comprehensive representation of the history of India's yearly celebrations. The web development is a yearly project with each student expected to create an individual web page representing themselves and their interests. You can view some of their creations at the www.ccue.net website.

Besides the success of the upper school, the lower grades have acquired a new computer lab this year incorporating research projects and reports, education development software, and many new ideas for the rest of this year and next.

ANTILLES SCHOOL
Antilles students working in the arts programs for both the middle school and upper school are creating video projects for their class. The seniors are working on a video yearbook for their senior class, to present to all the students in the final week of school. It is hoped they are able to burn copies for each of the students in the graduating class before they leave to their new futures. Current art instructor, Karen Bertrand and Gregory D'Elia, ETHome/GenYes Tech Educator, have been encouraging with some of the upper grade art students to venture into the challenge of video art or installation work. We shall see if any of them bite. Another independent art student has been working with some excellent on-line pixel caricatures representing each of the students in class. There are also two other students utilizing videography and their creative art skills to develop narrative shorts for their French class. Funny, comical and quickly creative we hope to get them to compile these together for a class DVD.

Through the energized instruction of their 8th grade instructor, these middle school students are working on their own narrative style short film, and a possible on-line gallery of their current in class artwork. These students are lucky enough to have their own digital editing studio in their art class, separate from the main computer lab.

Creative work on the horizon.

To not miss out on the elementary classes, Mr. D'Elia will be working with the 2nd grade instructors and students on design development using Kidworks.

ST. THOMAS/ST. JOHN MONTESSORI SCHOOL
Montessori has been working well with their computer lab as an excellent research lab. Ms. Laura Deacon and Mr. Christopher Dunlap have been encouraging many tech-orientated projects with their upper grades. Recently the 7th and 8th graders completed professional presentations using PowerPoint or Appleworks. Each took their perspective on a particular subject such as stem cell research, animal abuse in the VI, nuclear energy, and then gave points to supporting their theory and a brief explanation of the opposing side as well. They were able to present these findings and their projects to an audience of their parents in a very professional and successful evening. Some of the students are being encouraged to present their PowerPoint presentation for the upcoming Tech Fair in May.

Their evening of presentations was recorded on video and plans are being made to make it available on the Caribbean Computer Users in Education web site.

Montessori students are also working with Mr. Dunlap on the development of their yearbook. Working with Photoshop they are creating layouts and converting images to print format. This desktop publishing project looks to be quite successful this year. Gregory D'Elia, professional tech developer through ETHome/GenYes, will be encourage the already creative minds of these students into developing some new web pages for their current web site.

MORAVIAN SCHOOL
This year Moravian continues it's advancement of technology through the PDA project, where students are given Palms to work on class reports, upload them to the GoKnow, PAMM website and share their found information with other students and teachers throughout the international realm of the internet. Currently, two ETHome team teachers: Meredith and Vicki from Generation Yes, are conducting a project which incorporates joint communication and research exchange with students of Seattle Washington and the students at Moravian. A similar project was initiated with Wesleyan Academy as well.

Also, another group of students from Moravian are continuing the progress of video technology through documentary projects of the competitive Spelling Bee and the appreciation events honoring Black History month. It's possible this school could have their own broadcasting station in the near future. We hope to have completed this year, a DVD compiling all the Generation Connect video interviews, an interview and research on the upcoming Waterfront construction, and a collection of 8th Grader 30 second self-portrait "commercials" to use as possible intros for high school applications and promotions on their web site.

Many thanks Mrs. Prince, Mrs. Harris, and all the teachers involved in providing new and challenging tech ideas to their school curriculum.

ST JOHN SCHOOL
Pine Peace Academy on St. John, has combined with the Coral Bay School, bringing another computer lab for the use with both schools. Mark Brinson has been brought over to the Gift Hill campus as the primary Computer instructor and tech developer for the elementary and middle school. With a field trip to Puerto Rico under their belts, Mr. Brinson will be working with the 4th and 5thgraders on a documentation of the trip and an upcoming travel guide by the students.

Most of the elementary school students are working with educational development programs and on-line research and puzzler education sites.

The current school website is partially developed by many of the high school students from the Coral Bay School. Check it out at the www.ccue.net site.

SS. PETER & PAUL SCHOOL
Ss. Peter and Paul has been going through some changes with an interim principal taking over at the beginning of this year. Dr. Sue Diverio has been an amazing force in discipline, education, and school promotions throughout this year. Their computer lab has been mainly utilized for word processing and some research. Current student and web site aficionado, Vinny Gagliani, has been updating and maintaining their web site and hopes to be instructing some new students into the program. Vinny also was the primary videographer for the school promotional videos being aired on EWTN, a local religious cable channel, this month. These videos have also become short historical documentaries about the schools part of the Diocese of the Virgin Islands.

WESLEYAN ACADEMY
Despite the fluctuation of computer instructors and Internet connectivity at Wesleyan, the addition of Palms for most of their school year added an exciting challenge to the students with classroom technology. Meredith and Vicki, two ETHome team teachers, have worked quite well with the students on getting them focused and excited about the use of technology.

The lab has been utilized, mainly as a research area for students of social studies, science, math and the Palms projects. Principal Mrs. Greene, has been diligent in maintaining access for all the students and teachers. Through the success of the Palms projects and the energized access for computers Wesleyan was recently featured on a news segment for local television news, CH. 2 promoting the benefits of technology and education.

For the continuation of the school year we will be working with the 5th Graders on desktop publishing and web designing hoping to re-ignite their current website through the Caribbean Computer Users in Education website.

ZION ACADEMY
Zion Academy has been working their best on accomplishing some tech projects despite their depressing burglary in December. We are now down to two iMac computers that barely can handle Appleworks, and there's no connectivity to the Internet. BUT we have been able to work out possible print reports. The 7th and 8th Graders are working on specific subjects. We have broken up into three groups, 1 working on music history, 2 researching singers, 1 researching drums and 1 researching DJ/rap lyricism. 2nd group is researching the animals at Magen's Bay. And the 3rd group is each doing a report on a famous or historical baseball player. They are using Appleworks to design or create part of their report and also using World Book Encyclopedia CD to gain additional research.

We would like to conduct an interview or create a baseball promotional video before the end of the year, but we will have to see if any computers capable of editing will be available.

Besides these individual projects, each grade uses about a half hour to an hour of lab time on education programs such as Reader Rabbit, Inspiration, Kid Pix, and other math and reading programs.

We hope to have at least two Desktop Publishing/Print projects completed for the upcoming tech fair in May.

Spotlight

Storming the Beaches - Waves that change the education shoreline

VI ETHome Project Holds Water
Did you ever wonder how it could be 80 degrees in January or how a Salmon can live in both Fresh and salt water? That is what the students in St. Thomas US Virgin Island and the student in Western Washington are researching together.

Teams of 2 to 5 students from each school have chosen topics that are being researched in both locations, documented and will be brought together into Web Quest housed on http://www.my-ecoach.com/. The My-coach web site serves as a "place of work" for both teams to collaborate on their projects. Examples of some of the projects include: Natural disasters and the affects on water; Animals in our watershed; plants in our watershed; season and the affect on water; Pollution and the affects on sea life.

Each team has narrowed down their topic to a specific issue or subtopic. Each team has conducted Internet research on their topics. Each team has chosen a hands-on activity or experiment related to their topic and will create a web quest as their final outcome. The classes have invited speakers to come to their schools to talk with them about water quality issues or other topics related to their projects. Each class will also participate in at least one field trip related to water in their environments.

The teams at Wesleyan Academy have been using Palms in their classrooms this school year and have found them useful in helping them document their findings. As one teacher noticed, "every one of the 6th graders has improved their grades where the Palms have been involved". The project coordinators, Vicki Albrecht and Meredith Blache, agree that the use of the Handheld computers has brought a new and interesting component that has sparked an interested in all of the students.

Although not all of the classes involved are using Palms, this project has catapulted the students learning as they experience, "Project Based" learning, the integration of Technology into the Curriculum as well as collaborative, team and distance learning.

See Albrecht and Blache end results of the Water Project http://my-ecoach.com/online/teacherguide.php?projectid=4286 they hope that other schools will want to participate in the future to keep this project going.

To see more go to http://blache0.tripod.com/usvi.html

For more information about this project contact Meredith Blache at mablache@seattleschools.org

Palm Project
Want to see kids interested in learning? Give them a handheld computer and let them loose. Using the GoKnow.com software package the sixth graders at both Wesleyan Academy and Moravian School learned how to create, edit and share their work on their Palm Handheld computers.

Using Picomap the students create mind-mapping projects that can include an interface with other GoKnow program such as sketchy, an animation type drawing tool.

This Moravian student enters in study materials for her Congressional Election project. During this project the students were able to track who was running for congress in the Virgin Island as well as link related information about each candidate.

Student tech teams were created at each school with the responsibility of maintaining, synchronizing, and trouble shooting the Palms.

Being responsible for making sure all of the Palms are in working order is a big, but welcomed responsibility for the team members.

See what was accomplished http://viethomemor-wes.tripod.com/palm.html