VSTE

Virginia Society for Technology in Education

Awards

2018 Awards Open Now: Recognize Excellence with VSTE

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The Virginia Society for Technology in Education honors excellence in educational technology through four awards given at the annual conference in December. For 2018, the VSTE Awards committee has updated the awards program by creating a new award and changing the process to include more input from the nominees. Awards Committee chair, Terry Lowry, described the process in a recent blog post.

Nominations are being accepted for Outstanding Teacher, Leader and Coach of the Year and Innovative Educator of the Year.

The Outstanding Teacher, Leader and Coach of the Year awards recognize and honor one leader and one teacher who have demonstrated outstanding achievement and leadership in implementing technology to improve education.

The Innovative Educator of the Year award recognizes innovative teaching practices.  Award recipients are selected from a pool of nominations submitted by VSTE members from around Virginia.

Nominations will remain open through early September. Nominees will have until early October to provide supporting evidence to the awards committee and decisions will be made by October 15, 2018. Award winners will be recognized during the opening general session at the annual conference. They are also provided with a complimentary conference registration and hotel accommodations for the annual conference. This year's conference will be held December 2 - 4, 2018, in Virginia Beach.

Revamping the VSTE Awards for 2018

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May is upon us and spring is in the air! The birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming, and the playgrounds are alive with the sound of children’s laughter. In honor of this seasonal revival, the awards committee at VSTE decided to examine some of our annual awards to determine if they, too, couldn’t use a bit of a revival in order to better reflect the vision and mission of effective technology integration.

This reflection has prompted a few changes:

Change #1: The VSTE Teacher & VSTE Leader Awards

These two awards recognize and honor one teacher and one leader who have demonstrated outstanding achievement and leadership in implementing technology to improve education.  Award recipients are selected from a pool of nominations submitted by VSTE members from around Virginia. In order to better capture the intent of these awards, going forward the evaluation of award recipients will be based upon the ISTE Standards for Educators and the ISTE Standards for Administrators, respectively.

Change #2: The Addition of the VSTE Coach Award

We will be adding a new award this year - The VSTE Coach Award. This award will recognize one educational technology coach who has demonstrated outstanding achievement and leadership in implementing technology to improve education. We added this award to provide an additional opportunity to recognize the outstanding work of Virginia’s technology coaches. The evaluation of this awards recipient will be based upon the ISTE Standards for Coaches.

Change #3: Collecting Evidence

While the title for this change sounds ominous, do not be afraid. This simply means that we will be facilitating and encouraging nominees to provide links to documentation (Twitter pages, websites, work samples, etc.) that support their nomination. Unlike previous years, nominees will be notified of their nomination VSTE to make it easier to collect this evidence.

VSTE will also continue to sponsor the Innovative Educator of the Year award.

The awards season will officially open in late May, so be watching for that notice to arrive via VSTE’s weekly emails. The Awards Committee is excited to hear about all the wonderful accomplishments of our Virginia teachers, leaders, and coaches!

 

 

 

Terry Lowry chairs the VSTE Awards Committee. She is the Director of Technology for Wakefield School. 

 

Two Virginia Education Leaders Receive VSTE ‘Making It Happen’ Award

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Dr. Pam Moran, Superintendent of Albemarle County Public Schools, and Dr. Jan Streich, Executive Director of Learning and Organizational Development of Stafford County Public Schools, were honored with the coveted Making IT Happen jacket for their contributions to the successful integration of technology in education in K−12 schools. The Making IT Happen award is provided by the International Society for Technology in Education, of which the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE) is an affiliate.

The Making IT Happen program has made a commitment to work with state and national organizations to identify individuals who are truly Making IT Happen within their respective state or region and to recognize them publicly.

photograph of pam moran

Dr. Pam Moran has served as the Superintendent of Albemarle County Public Schools since January 2006. Under her leadership, Albemarle has been ranked in the top five of all school divisions in Virginia and among the top two percent of all school divisions in the county. The school division has developed a nationally recognized maker curriculum and opened one of the first CoderDojo Academies where the focus is on teaching computer coding and science skills to students. Albemarle County Public Schools is a member of the League of Innovative Schools, a nonprofit organization authorized by the U.S. Congress to accelerate innovation in education. Dr. Moran has been recognized with numerous awards including Virginia’s 2016 Superintendent of the Year.

Dr. Jan Streich has been a leader in Virginia educational Photograph of Jan Streichtechnology for over twenty years. A former elementary classroom teacher, Jan served as assistive technology coordinator in the Stafford County Public Schools during the early 2000s before becoming the Director of Growth and Innovation for the Spotsylvania County Public Schools, where she oversaw a tremendous expansion and improvement of instructional technology and professional learning practices in a burgeoning system. Returning to Stafford recently, she is combining the roles of directors of instruction and professional learning, she continues to work with teachers and leaders to improve student learning and teaching excellence. A regular public speaker and conference presenter, Dr. Streich shares her insights and significant professional knowledge with colleagues around the state and the region.

Moran and Streich join a prestigious group of Making It Happen honorees, including classroom teachers, school principals, district superintendents, legislators, governors, and even former Secretary of Education, Richard Riley. Founded in 1995, the Making IT Happen program highlights the dramatic role educators are having on the learning process by using technology and rewards those individuals for their commitment and innovation. To date, over 500 individuals have been awarded this recognition through ISTE and its affiliates. The impact of this program has been felt at numerous conferences around the world. The focus of the Making IT Happen program is on current practitioners, highlighting their significant contribution and encouraging them to continue their work. Making IT Happen recipients are in the classroom, making it happen for learners every day.

2017 VSTE Award Winners

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Each year, VSTE recognizes exemplary educators through several different awards.  We are proud to announce this year’s recipients who will be recognized at the Annual Educational Technology Conference.

The Outstanding Teacher and Leaders awards are given by the Virginia Society for Technology in Education to educational leaders who has demonstrated outstanding achievement and leadership in implementing technology to improve education.

The VSTE Outstanding Leader for 2017 is Tim Taylor, Instructional Technology Supervisor of Shenandoah County Public Schools. Rebecca Coffman, an ITRT from Shenandoah County who submitted the nomination, describes Tim as a teacher, coach, and mentor. Tim’s approachability, positive attitude and support strengthens teachers’ and students’ confidence in their abilities and empowers them to experiment, implement and succeed even if that includes success by learning from failure. Tim empowers teachers by giving them opportunities to contribute their ideas and put them into practice, while also offering guidance when needed.. His ability to form relationships and communicate with all members of the educational community gives him a unique perspective of what is essential for continual growth.

A few of Tim’s initiatives include:

  • Advocacy of new technology initiatives such as robotics, STEM, 1:1
  • District GAFE accounts for K-12
  • District trips with teachers to Google Sulmmit, VSTE, ISTE, BrainStorm
  • Micro-credentialing
  • Creating and teaching technology courses with our local colleges
  • Tech Tips with Tim monthly instructional videos

The VSTE Outstanding Teacher for 2017 is Nichole Thomas, an Instructional Facilitator for Technology at Liberty Elementary School in Loudoun County. Nichole’s knowledge, collaborative nature and innovative ideas have transformed Liberty into a leader in technology application. More importantly, Nichole has empowered students to become the designers and creators of significant content and develop competencies for their digital world. For this work and due to Nichole, Liberty Elementary was recognize as a STEM Excellence Award finalist this year at FETC (Future Education Technology Conference).

Nichole works tirelessly to align grade-level lessons and project-based learning (PBL) units to the Virginia SOLs and equip students with digital competencies that they will use today and in their future. Under Nichole’s leadership, our teachers routinely integrate technology, such as 3D printing, virtual field trips, coding, augmented reality and more in instruction and cross-curricula PBL and STEM lessons. More importantly, Nichole’s energy and enthusiasm is contagious in our school. Students and teachers love to see Mrs. Thomas in their classrooms or co-teaching a lesson in the Smart Lab. Nichole creates and co-teaches in this innovative learning environment, the Smart Lab, with each instructional staff member. Nichole is an incredibly innovative teacher and leader at our school.

The Innovative Educator of the Year for 2017 is Josh Ajima, an Instructional Facilitator for Technology at Dominion High School in Loudoun County. This award is given by VSTE to highlight and recognize innovative educational practices—especially those that champion the smart integration of technology. Josh has brought technology rich hands-on learning to his school through making and technology enriched classrooms. The major focus of his work is to scale up the integration of Maker Education in every classroom and content area. In the 2016-2017 school year, he led a major push to bring over $100,000 in technology to his school. He led the team that won the US Department of Education’s CTE Makeover Challenge which transformed a traditional CTE classroom into a school makerspace. (http://www.ctemakeoverchallenge.com/dominion-high-school/ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHluQediaIQ) To increase the reach of maker tools into the classroom, he designed mobile makerspace carts that allow multiple-classes to use real-world tools to solve authentic challenging problems. To increase classroom access to technology for digital design, media creation and digital publishing in his school, he helped plan and fundraise for an influx of over 200 new devices to create technology rich classrooms. These devices have empowered teachers in multiple content areas to help fulfill the school mission of empowering vulnerable students.

2016 VSTE Award Winners

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Each year, VSTE recognizes exemplary educators through several different awards.  We are proud to announce this year’s recipients who will be recognized at the Annual Educational Technology Conference.

The Outstanding Teacher and Leaders awards are given by the Virginia Society for Technology in Education to educational leaders who has demonstrated outstanding achievement and leadership in implementing technology to improve education.

Dr. Ann Nash, Instructional Technology Resources Teacher in the Henrico County Public Schools, has been named Outstanding Teacher of the Year. She has been an educator for 18 years, five as a teacher and 13 as an ITRT and instructional coach.  Dr. Ann Nash’s impact on technology use is felt locally, regionally, statewide, nationally and worldwide.

Locally Ann serves her school, Pocahontas Middle, as well as her division, Henrico County Public Schools as an ITRT.

As a Chair of the Greater Richmond-Area Education Technology Consortium (GRAETC) and executive board member of The Virginia Educational Research Association (VERA), Ann leads regionally. Statewide, Ann has attended and presented at many VSTE workshops and conferences, including the VSTE Conference.

The impact of Ann’s work is also felt nationally and worldwide as an Adjunct Professor at Averett University, delivering distance learning instruction to students in 29 states and 14 foreign countries. In his nomination letter,

Jonathan Gregori from The Department of Instructional Technology at Henrico County Public Schools nominated Dr. Nash, commenting, "Dr. Nash’s efforts as a teacher, ITRT, instructional coach, curriculum designer, and professional organization leader, combine to advance the quality of education and work experience for all groups around her."

Dr. Amy Cashwell, Chief Academic Officer of Virginia Beach City Public Schools, was named the Outstanding Leader of the Year Award for 2016.  In the nomination letter, Dr. Cashwell was described as THE driving force behind the division’s digital learning transformation. The school division’s strategic plan, Compass to 2020, includes a digital learning goal of, “using digital learning as a pathway to personalized learning by increasing student flexibility with respect to when and how learning occurs.”  Through Dr. Cashwell’s leadership and vision, Virginia Beach City Public Schools is aiming for personalized learning for all students, with a clearly articulated plan for digital learning as a pathway toward that goal.

From reorganizing efforts around instructional technology by providing an instructional technology specialist in each school to coach teachers in best practices around digital learning; to developing and implementing the division’s Digital Anchor School initiative in which 15 schools serve as laboratories to test both digital devices and pedagogy; to a developing a division-wide reflection guide to serve as a tool for schools to determine readiness in five focus areas for a successful digital transformation; Dr. Cashwell is a visionary whose ideas and actions are always focused on what will best engage and enrich students, as well as maximize each student’s achievement.

Matt Caratachea, Instructional Technology Resource Teacher for Henrico County Public Schools, has been named the Innovative Educator of the Year. This award is given by VSTE to highlight and recognize innovative educational practices—especially those that champion the smart integration of technology.  Mr. Caratachea’s talent as a classroom teacher and his leadership skills afforded him the opportunity to continue his professional growth as an elementary ITRT. In this role, he has contributed to the knowledge and skills that create a culture where technology enhances engagement, instruction and learning. 

Matt has taken the lead on several innovative projects. He spearheaded a 3D fabrication pilot with a professor from Virginia Commonwealth University that  included multiple 3D printers, and a paper fabrication machine. Students created a 3D topographical representation of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, reproduction of an arrowhead recovered at Jamestown, and 3D prints of the students' scaled catapult prototypes.  In addition, Matt was instrumental in the gifted classroom implementation of a coding and innovation pilot.

All three winners will be honored at the VSTE Annual Technology in Education Conference.