In late 2009, San Marcos Unified School District won a competitive supplemental Enhancing Education Through Technology Grant from the California Department of Education. This program is designed to help middle school students across the district become better writers, increase their motivation to write, and to gain critical 21st century literacy skills.  This project, named the "Writing Social Network," was awarded the 2011 "Classroom of the Future" Impact Award from the San Diego County Office of Education.  On June 1, 2011, the San Diego Union-Tribune wrote a front page news story about the program titled, "English Classes Enter Facebook Era."  This project was also featured in an article by the North County Times on May 1, 2010 originally titled, "Blogging about Beowulf."

 

Click here for an executive summary of the project.

 

For this grant, the district utilizes a free open source course management called Moodle that is available online in a password protected system from any computer. Our PACE Promise Partner, California State University - San Marcos, has moved to a Moodle-based system for their online course management. CSUSM has collected tutorials about moodle.

Standards:

ISTE - Student Standards

ISTE - Teacher Standards

UCLA's 21st Century Literacy Standards

California State Standards for Language Arts

 

 

Powerpoints:

Links:
The SMUSD Moodle/Mahara Site
MyAccess Online Writing Program

Videos:
EETT Overview Video
How to Setup a Netbook Cart
Student Responsibility: What Not to Do with a Netbook
How to Check In and Checkout a Netbook Cart
The Value of Annotating and Critically Interacting with Reading Texts
Why Use Mahara as an Electronic Portfolio

Writing:
Contests for Student Writing

Trainings:
Year 1 - EETT Overview, Moodle for Course Management and Storage
Year 1 - Moodle for In-Class Discussion and Writing: Chats, Forums, and Online Writing Assignments
Year 1 - Moodle Alternative Tools: Wikis, Quizzes, Choice
Year 1 - Six Traits and Technology - articulating the connection between the Middle School Writing Project, Six Traits Training from CSU Professor Laurie Stowell and the EETT Grant
Year 2 - Digital Photostories Using Windows Live Moviemaker
Year 2 - Mahara as an Electronic Student Portfolio; Moodle Review of Best Practices
Year 2 - Reading and Literacy Web 2.0: Facilitating Critical Reading, Text Interaction and Questioning Texts Collaboratively
Year 2 - Extending Beyond: Opening Up the World Beyond the Classroom, Web 2.0 Storytelling, and Continued Beyond the Grant

Presentations:
2010 Classroom of the Future - Poster Session - "Instant Feedback"
Summer 2010 - San Marcos Writing Project - "21st Century Tools"
January 2011 - CSU San Marcos - Aligning for Success - CAL-Pass, "Free Web 2.0 Tools for Approximating Social Networking"
February 2011 - California Association for Teachers of English Annual Conference - "Web 2.0 to teach in a Language Arts Classroom"
February 2011 - BTSA: Using Schoolwires vs. Using Moodle
March 2011 - Computer Using Educators Annual Conference - "Moodle: Student Interactions," "Mahara: Electronic Portfolios"

 

Curriculum Report:

EETT Curriculum Report - 2011

Tours/Hosting:
Oceanside Unified School District (District, Middle School Principals, Elementary Principal, Tech. Director, Teachers)
San Dieguito Unified School District (San Dieguito Academy)
Escondido Unified School District (Rincon Middle School)
CSU - San Marcos (Student Teacher Cohort 2010-2011, San Marcos Writing Project)

Awards and Recognition:
2011 Classroom of the Future, Impact Top Award to be presented on May 19, 2011
2010 Classroom of the Future, Honorable Mention for the Inspire Award, presented in May 2010
2010 California Teacher's Association, Institute for Teaching Inaugural Grant for Augmented Reality
2011 Schooltube Featured School - Woodland Park Middle School
2011 Schooltube Big Game Commercial Contest - 2nd Place Overall 30 Second, 1st Place Middle School Category
2011 California Media Festival - Teacher-Produced Category Winner - "Because Writing Is" - Allen Teng
2011 California Media Festival - Student-Produced Instructional Video Winner - "Day After Day"
2011 San Diego County Office of Education's Innovative Videos in Education Nominated 3 Finalists - "Pythagoras" - 6-8 Mathematics/Science Category, "Mistaken Journey" - 6-8 History/Social Science Category, "From Republic to Empire" - 6-8 History/Social Science Category 
2011 San Diego County Office of Education's Innovative Videos in Education Special Achievement Award Winner - Animation, "Pythagoras"
2011 San Diego County Office of Education's Innovative Videos in Education Special Achievement Award Winner - Authentic Costumes/Accent, "Mistaken Journey"

                 


Link to Proposed San Marcos Digital Media Student Showcase