Diane Heitzenrater: Finalist for PA Teacher of the Year!

Rich Pietras reports for The Intelligencer that one of the 12 finalists for Pennsylvania's Teacher of the Year is from Keith Valley Middle School in the Hatboro-Horsham School District. Diane Heitzenrater has taught technology to sixth, seventh, and eight graders for the past 8 years and if the praise from her peers is any indication, she has a great chance of winning.

Heitzenrater incorporates technology into middle school studies to show students how these tools can help them learn and make learning more fun. She really enjoys middle school: "I especially love teaching middle-school students. At that age they are all about changing. They are very exploratory and very clever. They are really starting to find out what their interests are."

Heitzenrater was nominated by fellow teachers, parents, community members and students. A committee of former finalists and PA Teachers of the Year chose 30 semifinalists then the 12 finalists, including Heitzenrater. She says she was "honored and thrilled" to make it through the process. It's no cakewalk -- the committee takes several months to make its decisions.

The principal of Keith Valley, Jonathan Kircher, calls Heitzenrater "an outstanding, student-centered educator" and a "teacher leader" who "works hard to help students be successful in their learning." He praised Heitzenrater and the whole technology department at Keith Valley for the help they have given teachers and students over the past four years to integrate technology into the curriculum.

The Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year will be announced in October at a celebration ceremony in Harrisburg. The winner will be the state's nominee for the national Teacher of the Year. The winner will also serve as a spokesperson for fellow teachers in PA.

Break a leg, Diane!

SOURCE: "Keith Valley teacher finalist for state's top honor" 06/19/08
photo courtesy of Wesley Fryer, used under this Creative Commons license

NASA Connect

Another great, free program from NASA is NASA Connect, a series of math, science and technology programs made just for students in grades 6-8. Math, science and technology are blended and directly related to work done at NASA by researchers.

NASA Connect offers a series of programs each year that have three different parts:

1. a thirty-minute television broadcast that your students can watch live or that can be recorded for later use
2. a hands-on activity
3. and an interactive web activity to promote use of technology on your classroom.

All three components are created to work together to show how math, science and technology are combined in real-life situations and research. NASA Connect shows are available on 130+ PBS stations, Channel One, and some cable access channels. A search box at the NASA Connect site can help you find your local station. The shows are also available online at NASA's Learning Technologies Channel. Video copies can be ordered from the NASA Educator Resource Center in your state or the NASA Central Operation of Resources for Educators. You can copy and show the shows multiple times as long as it is strictly for educational or classroom use.

NASA Connect is produced by the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA and is endorsed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). As with many NASA educational programs and initiatives, the main goal of NASA Connect is to "establish a 'connection' between the mathematics, science, and technology concepts taught in the classroom and the mathematics, science, and technology used everyday by NASA researchers."

Once you register, you have access to the PDFs which describe the hands-on activities for each unit. Unfortunately, the site shows no new programs since April 2006 but the archives are available of past programs such as "Breaking Barriers: Solving Linear Equations©," "Team Extreme: The Statistics of Success©," and "The Right Ratio of Rest: Proportional Reasoning©." Hopefully, new programs are in the pipeline.

SOURCE: "About: NASA Connect" 2007
photo courtesy of Gaetan Lee, used under this Creative Commons license