Mr. Matt Olson and Val Patterson accept gift card from Best Buy

Spring -2007

I’m extremely pleased to announce that our school has been recognized for its exceptionally creative use of interactive technology to make learning fun. Not only did we win a $2,500 Best Buy Teach Award, but we are one of only 50 schools from throughout the country to receive an additional $15,000 Best Buy Teach Award. With this generous award, we will be able to further expand how we use technology in the classroom to strengthen our children’s education. Best Buy understands the importance of providing experience and expertise in technology which is why they’re committed to supporting schools who are using these resources to enhance the learning experience. The Best Buy Teach Award program is designed to recognize innovative and effective uses of interactive technology in the classroom. Our awards are part of the $4 million Best Buy Teach Award program to reward K-12 public, private and parochial schools in the United States. This year 1,300 schools were selected to receive a $2,500 Best Buy Teach Gift Card, and then, based on the creativity of the applications submitted, we were one of only 50 schools who received regional awards of $15,000 each. Now our school district, along with the other districts with $15,000 Teach Award-winning schools has the opportunity to compete for a $250,000 National Best Buy Teach Award to benefit the entire district.

What Will the Money Be Used For? The money from this award will be used to do 3 main things. The first part of this is to improve the science projects that already heavily use technology. That would include a weather forecasting project where students gather data and create a "Newsweek" weather report. The other project is a space project where students use blue screen technology to teach the class about a planet from that planet in a short movie. The next main item will be to expand this idea to create a school wide news channel. Students will report the daily news at the start of school, display work digitally, provide weather reports, and even show highlights from sporting events. The news channel would be broadcasted from a new "Studio" and watch on computers or TVs in every classroom.

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