Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference

Connect guidance and technology through imagery, writing and self-discovery by sharing a Middle School project that is easily adaptable to other grade levels. For technology, students take pictures of each other that are then uploaded to a free online digital manipulation program. They'll make changes to their images through effects that help their audience visualize a change from who they are now; to the person they strive to be in the future. Once those images are complete, they are transformed into a 'jigsaw puzzle'. This becomes the base for them to add describing words to finish their project. The 'finale' is when the students go one 'step' further by creating a digital 'footprint' to help them become aware of the presence they project on the web and how their 'footsteps' will follow them... forever. In guidance, students engage in activities requiring them to think about their personalities, interests and strengths, and how they hope to change in the future. They complete a Circles of Myself chart, with their names in the center and circles radiating out that each contain an identifier the student feels is important. Then they share stories about a time they were proud to be in one of those circles, and a time it was hard. Students also take 'multiple intelligences inventories' to find strengths they may not have been aware they had. Let us share their wonderful creations with you and you too will want to do this fun project! (Presenter(s): Jimi Emery, Education Tech Integrator/Coordinator, Josiah Bartlett School, and Jennifer Bailey, Bartlett)