HSD Videoconferencing

On November 4, 2009, Patrice Hazlett and Kathy Johnson participated in the MAGPI videoconference event, “Ben Brewer vs Hamilton Middle School: A Student Right’s Case”. Special interest students from Landisville Middle School and Centerville Middle School were one of four schools that attended the conference. This project was spearheaded by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor which was to provide digital learning tools that make civic engaging appropriate for middle school students. All schools explored the first amendment through the case of Ben Brewer, a student who wore a rock tee shirt to school which was against the school’s dress code policy. Ben was suspended from school and the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. The schools had to decide whether the suspension was justified and then present their class decision and their reasonings behind their decision to the group. Our students were extremely well prepared and did an outstanding job of justifying their decisions!

On November 18, 2009, Courtney Richie and her Anti Bullying Club participated in a videoconference with Brad Tassell, a comedian for over 18 years and the author of the award winning novel for teens and preteens on Bullying titled “Don’t Feed the Bully”. Brad presents for students, teachers and administrators and has shows throughout the US and world wide. He is also a comedian for Carnival Cruise lines. “Don’t Feed the Bully is a self-help book for pre-teens that is disguised as a hilarious, fictional novel. The club was provided with 30 copies of his book. Brad provided practical advice for the club members on the topic of bullying. He delivered the advice to us in a very humorous way! He provided us with definitions for words such as tattling and bullying. Courtney’s students will take the training they learned from Brad and incorporate it into their anti bullying presentations at the elementary and middle schools. The program was designed to build empathy in students and taught them how to move the bully target away from them. Brad wanted the students to learn to create awareness and responsibility for bullying and violence in school. This was a great presentation!

On November 18th, Jess Dengler took two of her Spanish classes to the Cleveland Institute of Music to learn about the history of the flamenco art form and the influence of flamenco on other art forms. The students prepared for the videoconference by viewing a DVD sent to us from the CIM where they became familiar and practiced the hand clapping patterns called palmas. The students then were able to perform palmas with the presenter, Nadia Tarnawsky. Flamenco is a Spanish musical art form created by the gypsies in the 14th century. The most important element of Flamenco is the singing known as “Cante” which was shown through the drama and emotion of the singers. This was a great experience for many of the students, especially since it was there first exposure to videoconferencing.

On November 5, 2009, Shani Evans and her students along with 10 other schools from PA and VA attended a MAGPI event titled “Haunted Poe”. The videoconference event was hosted by Brat Productions, a theatre company in Philadelphia. The students learned about Edgar Allan Poe’s biography as well as some of his works. We were taken virtually behind the scene to observe the process of creating the Haunted Poe production. Short passages and stories were performed by professional actors. I think we were all amazed at the theatrical costumes and props used in the haunted house! Our students had a chance to ask questions of the presenters which included the challenges of creating the productions.

On October 21, 2009, Andy Wise took his Sports Marketing class to the NFL Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH. The students learned about careers in the NFL. This is the 3rd year that Andy has taken his students to visit Jerry Csaki, the Educational Director at the NFL Hall of Fame. Each year, thousands of students physically tour the museum. The Hall of Fame offers distance learning programs to schools nationwide who cannot easily drive to their location. The HOF supplements the videoconferencing event with pre and post classroom activities that are aligned the national standards of education.

The “Careers in the NFL” program examined the importance of education and the hundreds of careers available in and around the National Football League. A 15-minute careers video which examined a wide variety of careers with the Pittsburgh Steelers organization was shown during this session. The 50-minute program was designed to be highly interactive. Once again, all his students thoroughly enjoyed the event!

With fall in full swing, so is our videoconferencing here at Hempfield School District. Some of our upcoming events include:

NFL Football Hall of Fame

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

MAGPI - Pew Fellows/Painting, Haunted Poe, Fleshing the Bones, Cartooning with Blitz, Ben Brewer and the Supreme Court

Holocaust Memorial Center

NASA - The Moon

Bullying - Don’t Feed the Bully

1st Grade Pen Pals Collaboration

Cleveland Museum of Art

The Hempfield School District has been working with staff from the University of Virginia for the last three years to train our teaching staff in Differentiated Instruction, a classroom philosophy that focuses on recognizing student differences in the classroom and focusing on those differences in planning instruction. Carol Ann Tomlinson, the primary researcher and publisher in the area of differentiated instruction, spoke to the entire instructional staff on the opening inservice day via videoconferencing.

Mrs. Goserud took her ELL students to the NFL Hall of Fame on May 27th. Our presenter, Jerry Csaki, provided the students with a virtual field trip to the HOF which included a detailed program on careers in the NFL.  The Careers in the NFL Program examined the importance of education and careers available in and around the National Football League. The students watched a 15 minute careers video which focused on the Pittsburgh Steelers organization and the variety of careers available with the organization. Our students asked great questions and were very well prepared to discuss career options with the Hall of Fame presenter. Visit their website for pictures and more information: http://www.profootballhof.com/hall/DistanceLearning.jsp

Three of Mrs. Buckwalter’s Baking and Pastry classes offered a demonstration of their creative designs on Tuesday, May 12th. We used our videoconference technology to connect with Hoover High School in Ohio, McGuffey High School in PA, and Hillsborough High School in NJ. Mrs. Buckwalter’s class received an overwhelming response from high schools across the country to participate and view the demonstration after we posted her collaboration idea on CILC (Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration) and TWICE (Two Way Interactive Connections in Education). Each class had 5 separate groups who presented the following design topics: Gingerbread Sculpting, Rolled Fondant, Butter Cream Icing, Clear Candy, and Sugar Run-In. The Baking Students provided everyone with the ingredients as well as demonstrated the step by step procedures to create each item. I think we were all amazed at the talents of the class! Videocconferencing was a new experience for many of the students in all the schools who participated.

HHS ELL students participated in a collaborative project designed by the MAGPI Arts and Humanities Fellows team. Each participating school created a video to address the question “Do you ever feel that other Americans misunderstand or stereotype your culture in relation to religion, ethnicity, race, or traditions?” Schools from around the world participated in a videoconference to discuss their projects. Click here to see photos and view the projects created by Hempfield students and the other participating schools.