MECKLENBURG COUNTY — The Google Teacher Academy for Administrators has selected Sheila Beck of Boydton to attend the next professional development program. The program is used to assist poor rural committees and school systems to use free tools offered by Google and only an elite few are accepted.
“I am very excited about receiving an invitation to the Google Teacher Academy for Administrators,” Beck, known to many teachers and students as Ms. Googlz, said. “It is a great opportunity for me, our schools and community.”
To be accepted into the program Beck was required to complete an application, which included a video of how she hoped to use the program to help Mecklenburg County, and her community; to view her video visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzX3Lb9s7NM. The Academy will take place in San Antonio, Texas in March.
“In my application, I shared with the panel that I was not a teacher by trade,” Beck said. “As a retired Global Project Manager for Tyco Electronic, for 35 years, I have begun a second career. After an 18-month retirement I was hired by Mecklenburg County Public Schools as a Google Implementation Specialist. The position was funded by a Productivity Improvement Fund Grant, which was submitted by (former school system Manager of Technology) Chad Wollenberg and school system Director of Technology Ernie Conner.
“She’s in an elite group,” Professional Development Coordinator Dr. Mark Wagner, for Computer Using Educators (CUE), the non-profit contracted by Google to produce the Google Teacher Academy in partnership with Google Apps: Education Edition Team, said. “Sheila is among a very select group of educators to become a Google Certified Teacher.” He said since the program for K-12 educators began in 2006 there are now approximately 550 Google Certified Teachers across the nation. “She is however, one of only four administrators selected for this new cohort, which is all administrators (or educational leaders).” Wagner noted WestEd, a national nonprofit research and service agency working with education and human development communities to promote excellence, is also a partner in the program.
“She’ll be able to use this program to assist the poor rural community (and the school system,” Wagner said. “Google’s tools are world class productivity and collaboration tools-offered to schools for free. Everything she learns at the Google Teacher Academy she’ll be able to return and implement with staff, students, and community completely free. What’s more, any other schools in the region, or anywhere else in the world, can benefit from her model and implement the same improvements, also for free.” He noted that the Academy focuses on innovation in education, so in addition to the tools themselves, Beck will return to Mecklenburg County having been exposed to a wide variety of innovative instructional and administrative methods and strategies and “more importantly, she’ll be connected to a powerful community of innovative educators who can support her efforts in the coming years. Who knows, she might even put the community school system ‘on the map’ as a model for innovative practices.”
As the Google Implementation Specialist Beck worked with Park View High School teacher Chrystal Harris for first pilot with Google Collaboration using it with a Oregon High School As the year progressed, Harris initiated “Create Your Small Business” and it was all done in Google Documents.
Bluestone Middle School teacher Allison Van Dykes class took virtual field trips in Google Earth, published their 4-Way Test essay’s using Google Docs and Sites, built a classroom website with Google Sites and more. Many other projects were performed using Google throughout the county.
Nurse Data Collection for information for permanent records had been captured manually. The School System Nursing Supervisor Ann Switzer had a vision for a better solution to allow more visibility to the students needs. Working with Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Forms and Sites, every school nurse captures each student visit. Beck said the data is automatically graphed for each school and collected monthly at a division level. The software to produce similar results was $18,000.
The Google improvements featured in publications and blogs http://tinyurl.com/schoogle and http://tinyurl.com/MCPSNURSE. There are many more applications. For more details go thehttp://tinyurl.com/googlz.
Beck said a total savings for the school division using Google approached $30,000.00. A large portion of the savings can be captured yearly with the continuation of the process improvement.
As Sheila transitioned to her current position as Park View Middle School’s Guidance Counselor Secretary job, she continued to provide information on Web 2.0 technology and Google. Her blog can be found at CARE (Computers Are Really Easy).
“I am very excited about receiving an invitation to the Google Teacher Academy for Administrators,” Beck, known to many teachers and students as Ms. Googlz, said. “It is a great opportunity for me, our schools and community.”
To be accepted into the program Beck was required to complete an application, which included a video of how she hoped to use the program to help Mecklenburg County, and her community; to view her video visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzX3Lb9s7NM. The Academy will take place in San Antonio, Texas in March.
“In my application, I shared with the panel that I was not a teacher by trade,” Beck said. “As a retired Global Project Manager for Tyco Electronic, for 35 years, I have begun a second career. After an 18-month retirement I was hired by Mecklenburg County Public Schools as a Google Implementation Specialist. The position was funded by a Productivity Improvement Fund Grant, which was submitted by (former school system Manager of Technology) Chad Wollenberg and school system Director of Technology Ernie Conner.
“She’s in an elite group,” Professional Development Coordinator Dr. Mark Wagner, for Computer Using Educators (CUE), the non-profit contracted by Google to produce the Google Teacher Academy in partnership with Google Apps: Education Edition Team, said. “Sheila is among a very select group of educators to become a Google Certified Teacher.” He said since the program for K-12 educators began in 2006 there are now approximately 550 Google Certified Teachers across the nation. “She is however, one of only four administrators selected for this new cohort, which is all administrators (or educational leaders).” Wagner noted WestEd, a national nonprofit research and service agency working with education and human development communities to promote excellence, is also a partner in the program.
“She’ll be able to use this program to assist the poor rural community (and the school system,” Wagner said. “Google’s tools are world class productivity and collaboration tools-offered to schools for free. Everything she learns at the Google Teacher Academy she’ll be able to return and implement with staff, students, and community completely free. What’s more, any other schools in the region, or anywhere else in the world, can benefit from her model and implement the same improvements, also for free.” He noted that the Academy focuses on innovation in education, so in addition to the tools themselves, Beck will return to Mecklenburg County having been exposed to a wide variety of innovative instructional and administrative methods and strategies and “more importantly, she’ll be connected to a powerful community of innovative educators who can support her efforts in the coming years. Who knows, she might even put the community school system ‘on the map’ as a model for innovative practices.”
As the Google Implementation Specialist Beck worked with Park View High School teacher Chrystal Harris for first pilot with Google Collaboration using it with a Oregon High School As the year progressed, Harris initiated “Create Your Small Business” and it was all done in Google Documents.
Bluestone Middle School teacher Allison Van Dykes class took virtual field trips in Google Earth, published their 4-Way Test essay’s using Google Docs and Sites, built a classroom website with Google Sites and more. Many other projects were performed using Google throughout the county.
Nurse Data Collection for information for permanent records had been captured manually. The School System Nursing Supervisor Ann Switzer had a vision for a better solution to allow more visibility to the students needs. Working with Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Forms and Sites, every school nurse captures each student visit. Beck said the data is automatically graphed for each school and collected monthly at a division level. The software to produce similar results was $18,000.
The Google improvements featured in publications and blogs http://tinyurl.com/schoogle and http://tinyurl.com/MCPSNURSE. There are many more applications. For more details go thehttp://tinyurl.com/googlz.
Beck said a total savings for the school division using Google approached $30,000.00. A large portion of the savings can be captured yearly with the continuation of the process improvement.
As Sheila transitioned to her current position as Park View Middle School’s Guidance Counselor Secretary job, she continued to provide information on Web 2.0 technology and Google. Her blog can be found at CARE (Computers Are Really Easy).
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