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Use of Funds - Teacher Training Workshops
Purpose and Goals:
The sitesALIVE Foundation believes that most schools and teachers strive to provide their students with best education opportunities. When new technology permits an improved learning experience, good schools and committed teachers feel a moral obligation to use that new technology. Yet the majority of K-12 teachers in the U.S. are neither facile nor comfortable with the new technology available to them. State of the art computer systems often go underutilized as teachers lack the technical training to use them and lack the resources to access training. It is estimated that up to one third of all K-12 teachers are unfamiliar with Internet navigation and research and far more are unfamiliar with how to effectively integrate the wealth of material now accessible via the internet into their curricula.
The sitesALIVE Foundation is a non-profit educational organization founded in 2002 to address this problem by providing teacher training workshops to:
- assist teachers in learning how to effectively use the new technology, and
- integrate on-line technology and real-time learning adventures into their K-12 curricula.
The Foundation is a registered 501( c )(3) organization that seeks funding from individuals, foundations, corporations and government agencies to support these goals. Workshops are made available at no-cost to the participants.
Teachers interested in participating in a Teacher Training Workshop must complete the Workshop Application. For a schedule of upcoming workshops please see Workshop Schedule.
The Foundation also provides financial aid to schools to buy access to live Internet content.
Workshop Structure:
Workshop sessions:
- enroll a team of teachers from one school, one school system or individual teachers from a number of schools
- train10-20 teachers
- are held in a location where each participant has access to a computer station with internet connections and browsers for the duration of the workshop
- are taught by an educator who is also certified in the use of and teaching of technology.
Workshop Components:Part I: Introduction to Using the Internet
- introduction to the internet
- introduction to browsers and browser options
- training in the use of browsers
- navigating through sample websites
- how to find and load no-cost browser plug-ins (i.e. Acrobat Reader, RealPlayer and Ipix Viewer) to add video, audio, etc.
Part II: Searching the Internet
- conducting Internet searches
- research on the internet
- locating sites containing educational content
Part III: Effectively incorporating material from the Internet into existing curricula
- developing learning objectives
- developing lesson plans
- adding supplemental activities
- using material across multiple subject areas
- best practices for adapting to specific situations (classrooms with a single computer, classrooms with shared computers, how to best engage younger students)
Part IV: Using the sitesALIVE! interactive online website
- a guided tour of the sitesALIVE! programs
- program design and features
- learn how to use the site’s graphic organizers
- learn how to use on-line lesson plans as an academic resource to teach geography, social studies, math, science and technology
- examples of how teachers are successfully incorporating the program’s components including the Daily Site Logs, journal entries, current events articles, Q&A
- examples of supplemental activities and projects
- access technical support, academic support and keep up-to-date on best practices and new features.
Follow-up and Support:
Participants will be given ongoing access to a website specifically developed for workshop alumni to facilitate the sharing of questions, new features, best practices and problem-solving.Evaluation:
Teachers will be asked evaluate the workshop two times. Written evaluations will be solicited at the completion of the workshop session and again six to twelve months post-workshop.
sitesALIVE Foundation, Inc. is a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.