Julie Brunner
Sixth-grade Teacher, Holden Middle School, Holden, Missouri
Adapted from a full-length article that appeared in Education SATLINK magazine
Remember your last holiday feast, a seemingly endless buffet of tempting culinary delights? That extensive spread is like the vast array of information now available to educators nationwide. Yet, instead of a china dish, I need a satellite dish to help carry the information back to my classroom and students.
Classroom teachers depend on the guidance of experts at national, state, and local levels to guide them through this smorgasbord of information. At Holden Middle School, those experts arrive via satellite. The programming, called TEAMS Distance Learning, comes from the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
It features a teacher in a studio who "team-teaches" science, social studies, language arts, mathematics, and technology with teachers across the United States, though TEAMS also offers programs specifically for teachers and parents.
The excellent studio teachers share tips about technology, student-teacher interactions, and hands-on learning, and all of the lessons emphasize constructivist teaching techniques.
Of course, a teacher can read about a new teaching technique in a book, but most of us need to have someone show us and then stay with us as we try the new method the first few times. That is the method used in TEAMS Distance Learning programs. It gives teachers the confidence to try something new.
Teachers have complete print instructions available before the broadcast, so they are familiar with the schedule without losing the freshness of a live program.
The students in the classroom have a chance to interact with the studio teacher using live phone connections, fax, the World Wide Web (http://teams.lacoe.edu) and e-mail. What a thrill it was the first time a Holden student was featured, answering the studio teacher's questions live via satellite!
One student gained national attention when his detailed drawing of developing snail eggs was held up to the camera in Los Angeles for immediate transmission across the country. The drawing then went from the student's desk to all of California via the superintendent's fax machine.
Holden students were the first to initiate e-mail communication in the TEAMS Integrated Ecology program. The studio teacher used messages composed by Holden sixth-graders as examples to show teachers and students all over the country how e-mail can be used to enhance scientific communication.
The students who participate in the studio are from diverse ethnic groups, which helps enrich the programming for students in participating classrooms as they see the studio students successfully participating in all the activities.
Statistical analysis of the students participating in TEAMS programming showed that Chapter I students, students with limited English proficiency, and special education students all made significant gains in content knowledge, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
Gifted students showed improvement in work quality, self-esteem, subject area interest, and critical thinking. All students improved as they took responsibility for their own learning.
As for the teachers, after participating in TEAMS for several weeks, they begin to emulate the outstanding techniques of the studio teacher.
TEAMS uses its limited funding to develop programs that address common interests, adhere to national standards and guidelines, and are adaptable (at reasonable cost) to local content needs. It is far more cost-effective to produce national programming and deliver it through the technology of distance learning than it is to have each district, consortium, or state agency do it individually.
Perhaps most importantly, TEAMS Distance Learning programs link teachers to the national information infrastructure. Teachers learn about the latest teaching techniques and resources by participating in exemplary classroom activities with TEAMS providing the necessary link between curriculum and technology, a link that demonstrates the value of technology in our classrooms.
