User talk:Tuckerwillard

I am applying for a technology grant and need some help of what to add and what to edit. Any additional ideas would be greatly appreciated.

At minimum the proposal must:

Describe the different types of student populations and student grade levels that you serve; Provide the number of students that I serve; Clearly articulate hou you plan to improve student achievement by the integration of technology in to your classroom curriculum through innovative ways; Clearly describe how you will measure student achievement gains as a result of integrating innovative technology strategies into classroom curriculum; Describe any additional outcomes you seek to achieve; Describe how you will measure the success of these additional outcomes; Provide a detailed timeline for the implementation of the grant.

The school that I work for is a rural school with approximately 76% of the students receiving free and reduced lunches. I think that number reflects that socioeconomic status of our community. For many of our student’s the only access they have to technology is what we provide for them in our classrooms. Due to budget cuts and other changes in our district over the past year we have cut our computer classes, and now the school is relying more on teachers to pick up the slack, by bringing more technology in to our daily lessons. The benefit this gives us is that now technology is starting to be integrated more into students’ daily routines and is not treated as a separate entity. The problem we face is getting the technology in the hands of the students. With limited lab space, it becomes hard for teachers to plan lessons around when there are computers available.

I believe we have a problem that faces many schools. Our students are being prepared for the 20th century, when they are living in and will be working in the 21st century. We need to work on getting the tools our students will be using in their hands. With the school being the only place our students will be exposed to some forms of technology, I feel the burden falls upon the teachers to make sure students at our school are not falling further behind than they are already starting.

Our school could truly benefit by getting net books in our school. These are more cost effective than full sized computers and run nearly all the same operations. I would like to start by getting a class set of 20, so I could pilot the use of these computers. I believe once the school sees all the uses of these computers, they will allow us to budget for more of them in the future. There has already been talk about looking for cheaper alternatives to desktop computers, so I feel this would be a good alternative.

I would use this in my social studies classroom. Because there is only one social studies teacher per grade level, I see every seventh grade student in our building. With one class set of net books I would be able to serve nearly 150 students every year. Every student that came through our school system would benefit from the use of this technology in my classroom.

There will be a number of benefits to having this technology at our fingertips. In my classroom we study ancient world history. We will now have the opportunity to contact professionals in these areas. With the built in web cams we could even have face to face discussions with these people. I know these people are busy, but it would be easier to get them to spend five minutes with us online, as opposed to trying to actually get them to come to our school. We will be able to do the same thing with authors that have written books and have done research on these time periods. When we study ancient Chinese dynasties we would have to opportunity to skype students in china and see if we could start a discussion and see what they know.

I think having net books will have a direct impact on student achievement, not only in my class, but in other classes as well. Students will be able to improve their writing by creating wikis and responding to questions I post to the class. We will be able to publish papers to the web, my class will become authors and can have their work published online. They will also improve their critical thinking and editing skills by reading the posts of other students and responding to them. Reading achievement will be improved by providing students with access to more information that is outside the textbook. We will also have the ability to research topics that interest the students in greater detail. When students spend time researching and reading about subjects they are interested in they will be more engaged and more learning will take place.

By having the students blog and produce wikis I will be able to check and see what the students are writing about, this will give me instant feedback to see if students are grasping concepts I am teaching. I will also be able to assess their improvements in writing, and I will be able to work with language arts to make sure the students are using the skills that are being taught in their classes. There will be instant feedback available for me and the students, so we will be able to move through areas quicker when the students understand what is going on.

--Tuckerwillard (talk) 17:59, 27 February 2009 (UTC)Willard

Tucker, the talk page of Wikipedia wasn't the place to post this. In fact, I don't think there is anywhere on Wikipedia this would be appropriate. I would suggest googling something such as "grant writing help" to find a variety of websites offering tips. Personally, I know absolutely nothing about writing a grant. However, I am a professional copy editor, and on that front, I thought I would lend a hand. Your text is copied below with my changes marked in bold. I hope this helps.

I work for a rural school where about 76 percent of the students receive free or reduced-cost lunches. That percentage reflects the socioeconomic status of our community. For many of our students, the only access they have to technology is what we provide to them in our classrooms. Because of budget cuts and other changes in our district over the past year, we have cut our computer classes'''. The school is now placing more of the burden on teachers to pick up the slack by bringing technology into''' our daily lessons. This can be seen as a positive step, however, as technology is now integrated into students’ daily routines instead of being treated as a separate entity. But we face problems with getting the technology into the hands of the students, and planning lessons around the use of computers can be hard because of limited lab space.

I believe we have a problem that faces many schools. (Don't think or believe things. To avoid making direct statements, use "should" or "likely" instead. Is there a survey you could cite to make this point and provide a more specific quantity than "many"?) Without the regular use of new tehcnology, our students are being prepared for the 20th century when they are living in and will be working in the 21st century. We need to work on getting the tools our students will be using in their hands. As the school is the only place many students will be exposed to some forms of technology, the burden falls on the teachers to ensure our children are not falling further behind more well-off peers.

A set of netbooks would be a great benefit to our students. These are more cost-effective than full-size laptops or desktops and are capable of many of the same functions. As a pilot program, I would like to start with a class set of 20. Once school administrators see the value of these computers, they are likely to allow us to budget for more of them in the future. There has already been talk about looking for cheaper alternatives to desktop computers, and a pilot program such as this may help those discussions move forward.

A set of netbooks would be put to use in my social studies classroom. Because there is only one social studies teacher per grade level, I see every seventh-grade student in our building. With one class set of netbooks, I would be able to serve nearly 150 students each year. Every student who came through our school system would have the opportunity to benefit from the use of this technology in my classroom.

Having such technology will provide a number of benefits. In my classroom, we study ancient world history. A set of netbooks would give students the ability to contact professionals in this field. With the built-in webcams, we would have the ability to host face-to-face discussions with these people over the Internet rather than asking them to come to the school in person. We would be able to do the same thing with authors who have written books or done research on our current subject. For example, when we study ancient Chinese dynasties, we would have the opportunity to contact students in China and learn about their culture and history directly. (Would it be possible for you to make contact with such a school beforehand so you can say "I am already in contact with schools in x and y for such a project, pending the avaialability of the needed technology"? It would lend quite a bit of weight to this argument if you had already taken such concrete steps.)

Having netbooks should have a direct effect on student achievement, not only in my classroom, but in other classrooms as well. Students will have access to a new tool to help improve their writing by creating blogs and wikis and responding to questions I post to the class. They will be able to publish papers to the Web, allowing them to become authors as they post their work online. They will also be given the opportunity to improve their critical thinking and editing skills by reading posts from other students and responding to them. Reading achievement should be improved as students gain access to additonal information beyond what is in a textbook. Students will also have the ability to research topics that interest them in greater detail. When students spend time researching and reading about subjects they are interested in, they are likely to be more engaged, allwing for more learning to take place.

By giving students the tools they need to blog and produce wikisin the classroom, I will be able to see what they are writing about; this will give me instant feedback on whether they are grasping concepts I am teaching. I will also be able to assess their improvements in writing, and I will be able to work with language arts teachers to make sure the students are using the skills being taught in their other classes. There will be instant feedback available for me and the students, allowing us to move more quicky through areas the students understand.

Newsboy85 (talk) 19:39, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

I have some suggestions for your proposal
I made some suggestions for your proposal on the Reference Desk where you asked your question. Go to (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Miscellaneous#Can_you_help_me_edit_my_grant_proposal.3F). Newsboy85 has already made some of these suggestions (I did not realize this until I went to the Talk page), but you may want to look at some of the grammar suggestions (about "who" versus "that," for example, and "the students and me" rather than "me and the students").75.89.22.45 (talk) 04:33, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

MfD nomination of User:Tuckerwillard
User:Tuckerwillard, a page you substantially contributed to, has been nominated for deletion. Your opinions on the matter are welcome; please participate in the discussion by adding your comments at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Tuckerwillard and please be sure to sign your comments with four tildes ( ~ ). You are free to edit the content of User:Tuckerwillard during the discussion but should not remove the miscellany for deletion template from the top of the page; such a removal will not end the deletion discussion. Thank you. Psychonaut (talk) 14:07, 26 January 2010 (UTC)