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.
Dr. Helen Crompton is the 2015 Outstanding Leader of the Year. Dr. Crompton is an assistant professor of Instructional Technology in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Old Dominion University. She has dedicated her life to improving educational technology at all levels: local, state, regional, national, and global. Locally, Dr. Crompton has brought K-12 and university educators together. In collaboration, both practitioners and scholars have worked to ensure that our future teachers go out into the Commonwealth, and beyond, prepared with the technological knowledge, skills, and tools they need to educate 21st century children. Globally, Dr. Crompton is working with two divisions of the United Nations to educate the public regarding the benefits of educational technology. Dr. Helen Crompton works tirelessly to enhance the lives of learners at all levels. She is an outstanding advocate for educational technologies and is an outstanding candidate for this award.
Kim Harrison is the 2015 Innovative Educator of the Year. Kim is an Instructional Technology Specialist based at Indian Lakes Elementary School in Virginia Beach. Kim is truly an innovator. She has a passion for sharing virtual environments and was the innovator behind Virginia Beach City Public Schools bringing Minecraft into the elementary classroom. Kim has shared her passion for bringing Minecraft into the elementary classroom in her school, throughout the division (through division-wide professional development courses), and across the state of Virginia (as she serves as Chair for VSTE's new Virtual Environments Professional Learning Network and leads sessions at the VSTE conference each year). Another pet project is VSTE Island in Second Life. She can always be found "in world" leading a book study, modeling to a newbie how to walk around (as opposed to appearing as a floating head), or just hanging out. Kim is always ready to jump in and answer any questions from those of us who "just don't get it!" Kim’s passion for this technology and dedication to bringing this awesome new technology to her young students impresses all who know her.
