HSE Junior High wins $5,000 Teach Award from Best Buy

Hamilton Southeastern Junior High has received a $5,000 Teach Award from Best Buy Co. Inc. for integrating interactive technology into its classroom curriculum.  Language arts teacher Steffy McCourt applied for the award with her program that paralleled the interview and story-telling process used in Story Corps/NPR across the USA.

If students didn’t have technology at home to record interviews—such as digital cameras, camcorders, microphones and recording software on a computer—they could borrow inexpensive tape recorders McCourt purchased. They then conducted and recorded interviews with people who are very important to them. Results were then presented in class.

“The most special part of this project was that it created a lasting memory for my students,” said McCourt. “Students who interviewed their grandparents or parents will be able to listen or view those interviews much later in life, and they will hopefully still be able to learn something new from the recorded stories.”  McCourt received messages of gratitude from many of the people who students interviewed. The positives of the project were many. She said she had never seen her students so engaged and they cared “deeply about creating their best possible work.” She added that they learned so many 21st century literacy skills.

McCourt credits her principal Shari Switzer for her support. “I couldn’t have done any of this without her! She is always asking us to think outside of the box and to do what is best for the ‘whole’ student,” she said.

Her application asked for funding to cover technology to better equip students to complete the project. Resulting purchases will include sets of microphones, several video and digital cameras, a couple of webcams and a classroom set of iPod shuffles. The new equipment will allow them to record interviews with greater clarity, ensure more lasting recordings and support production of podcasts that will make finished projects easier to share. She said the iPods will allow students to download each other’s podcasts and NPR podcasts from the Story Corps for listening in class. “With this technology they will be given the power of choice. They will not all need to listen to the same NPR stories. They can choose the ones that most interest them,” said McCourt.