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EDUCATION
Middle
school STLP groups
will
compete at state level
BY:
Jessica Singleton
For 12
Bowling Middle School students, months of hard work have paid
off.
They have earned a trip to the state finals.
The students are competing in the Student Technology Leadership
Program (STLP). Student groups created projects designed to help
the schools and the community. They presented these projects to
a panel of judges at a regional showcase on Nov. 2. Three groups
from Owen County, with four students each, earned the right to
continue to state. The competition will be held at the University
of Kentucky on May 6-7.
The Student Technology Leadership Program is designed to motivate
students to create leadership opportunities through technology.
Jenna Gray began the STLP program at the middle school three years
ago.
“They have worked very hard to make a difference in our
school and community,” Gray said.
When Rianna Gayheart, Jenna Harris, Alexis Ellis and Lita Swigert
started looking for ideas, they found inspiration in photography.
“We saw that people were wearing photo buttons,” Gayheart
said. “We wanted to expand on that.”
They started a business, Making Memories, to sell their photo
products. Making Memories sells buttons, magnets, key chains,
photo packages, and videos. All of the responsibility for the
business is on the students. They control the inventory, expenses,
revenue and profits. Profits from Making Memories will be given
to charity.
A second group of students decided to create an instructional-based
project. Dots to Dots is a tool to help teach math. Julie Spaulding,
Madison Gamble, Andi Wash and Abby Osborne found that the idea
hit close to home.
“A lot of us have parents who are teachers,” Madison
said.
They used the game “connect the dots” to simplify
math ideas. Weeks of work were spent creating the instructional
units using technology. Dots to Dots completed projects with Mrs.
Spaulding’s kindergarten and Mr. Kessler’s seventh-grade
class.
“We went to the kindergarten and taught the students how
to use (the computer program) Paint,” Julie Spaulding said.
The students are working to expand the program for each grade
level.
The third group to qualify for state started a community service
project. They discovered the school action plan included a goal
to improve communication between the school and parents. Gracie
Roberts, Katie Haines, Meredith Marston and Leah Forsee decided
to tackle the problem.
“We want to have better communication between parents and
teachers,” Haines said.
The students use an e-mail distribution list to send weekly announcements,
calendars and fliers of upcoming events. They have also done public
service announcement videos.
“We had received a lot of positive feedback from parents,
over 75 e-mails,” Gray said.
According to the Department of Education Web site, STLP uses project-based
learning to empower students.
The six goals of STLP are: to develop activities which enhance
the academic, social and emotional growth of the student; to provide
leadership opportunities for all students; to participate in multi-age
collaboration by forming innovative learning partnerships; to
form learning partnerships among students with different technology
skills; to develop activities which benefit communities and to
develop instructional activities which integrate technology and
benefit the school and support KETS (Kentucky Education Technology
System).
The program is open to all grade levels in every school in Kentucky.
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