Journal features Calcedeaver Elementary School

Iraq web conference deemed model for other teachers

Teachers at Calcedeaver Elementary School are helping their students understand politics, foreign affairs, geography, and Middle Eastern culture in a personal way. Students in fourth, fifth and sixth grades did a live web conference with a U.S. soldier serving in Iraq. Because of this innovation, the school is featured in the latest issue of the Working Toward Excellence journal.

Working Toward Excellence, the journal of the Alabama Best Practices Center, is published in print and online formats to help professional educators adopt the best ways to teach. The latest edition, "Alabama's 21st Century Schools Are Blazing Trails Through Cyberspace," focuses on Alabama teachers who are changing the way they teach to better prepare their students to succeed in life and the digital economy.

Find the online version of "Alabama's 21st Century Schools Are Blazing Trails Through Cyberspace" at www.abpc21.org.

Calcedeaver Elementary is one of 40 schools that participated in the Alabama Best Practices Center’s 21st Century Learning Project, underwritten by Microsoft Corp. and the Wachovia Foundation. This project does two things for teachers: helps them understand what students need to know to be successful in our ever-changing world, and provides them with the skills and tools to effectively engage their students.

Calcedeaver, a Mobile County school, won notice for using webcams and a free Internet phone service so students could communicate with Capt. John Byrd Jr. Students were shocked by his strangest meal in Iraq – scrambled eggs with sheep brains. The web conference was a collaboration of Felicia Myers, Nicole Williams, Heather Snow, Rebecca Lakes and Heather Byrd.

"Calcedeaver is a pacesetter in this work. Team members have worked hard to expand their use of effective teaching strategies that not only help students learn more, but get excited about learning!  This project is about helping students in a remote, rural community connect to the larger world, and they did it using the same tools business leaders use," said Gassenheimer. "In this Digital Age, in addition to the basics, children will need a broad range of skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving and how to effectively collaborate with others."

The A+ Education Foundation in Montgomery is home of the Alabama Best Practices Center, which receives major support from Microsoft Corp. and the Wachovia Foundation. Since 1991, A+ has advanced policies, programs and initiatives that result in high achievement by every child in Alabama's K-12 education system. A+ believes Alabama's economic future depends on strong public schools.

KEY LINKS

FIND IT FAST
Article featuring Calcedeaver Elementary, http://www.abpc21.org/blazingtrails.html

Digital version, Working Toward Excellence journal: www.abpc21.org

PDF (449 Kb) of the Working Toward Excellence journal's 16-page print edition, www.bestpracticescenter.org

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