If you're like me, you probably always end up with the losing lottery ticket and come home empty-handed from the Tricky Tray.  So when I was called into my principal's office and heard that Michelle Cook and I had been awarded the ISTE SIGMS Technology Innovation Award in the secondary category, my brain stopped at "second".  As we left the office, I said to Michelle,  “I wonder who won first?” and then was completely embarrassed as she proceeded to question my listening comprehension skills. 

It took awhile for me to believe that our lesson that challenged students to explore the question, "Who owns History?" was the first place winner.  We both knew of great things going on in schools in our local area and throughout the US, never mind the world!  But what we were starting to learn was that you actually have to be in it to win it.

Submitting proposals, filling out applications, and gathering letters of support takes time and energy.  Sometimes it seems like a waste of time.  However, even though there’s no guarantee that you’ll be recognized, I think there is always a reward.  In my experience, the process of applying for any award or grant provides something incredibly valuable to educators – time to reflect and self-assess. It forces you to look critically at your work and motivates you to make improvements.

Even though our lesson was award-winning, it didn’t mean it was perfect.  After reflecting on the lesson during the award submission process, Michelle and I decided to take the project a step further.  So this year, after our students used the interactive, Facebook-like, Web 2.0 tool, SCAN, to role-play responses to the question of whether artifacts should be returned to their home country, they were asked to use the lesson as a model to direct their own learning.  Our students were going to write their own SCAN lessons.

Our students explored nonfiction texts to uncover interesting topics, from which they generated their own questions, such as “Should people be allowed to own exotic animals?” Once a group settled on a question, the group members identified four stakeholders in the problem and each group member then locates resources that support his/her point of view.  As a culminating activity, the “best” project in the class will be uploaded to SCAN and the class will work through their classmates’ project. 

Reflecting on our lesson gave us ideas as to how to improve it, and reading the books we received from ISTE as part of our award has led to new project ideas.  As a result of sharing these books and my experience at ISTE, my seventh grade language arts classes are bookmapping novels in language arts and I’ve refined the digital storytelling projects my teachers were already assigning.  The award also provided us with a cash award that we used to purchase iPads for the media center.  Student volunteers now spend time reviewing and recommending apps to be used by students in the developing iPad stations.

The experience of applying for and winning the Technology Innovation Award has helped me be a better educator, one that self-reflects and continually modifies lessons to more effectively meet the needs of my students.  It’s also made me realize that the easiest way for all of us to improve our skills is to share our ideas, our problems, and our accomplishments.  That’s what I love most about ISTE – I know that when I need an idea or support, there’s an ISTE community or group just a click away. 

Cynthia Cassidy is the Media Specialist at Mount Olive Middle School and awardee of ISTE SIGMS Technology Innovation Award.