| Barry Kramer Educational History and Professional Development Activities: Educational Background
East Stroudsburg University, East Stroudsburg,
Penna.
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Penna.
Major Educational Seminars:
Publications:| Learning Circles Projects (Collaborative Online Projects: 1997 to present.).
Student Stories "Poetry and Art in the Elementary Grades," The New Jersey English Journal, The New Jersey Council of English Teachers, Fall 1990. Contributor (illustrations) to the New Jersey State Department HIV/AIDS Instructional Guide for Teachers, December 1990. "Teaching Shakespeare in the Elementary Grades," The New Jersey English Journal, New Jersey Council of English Teachers, Fall 1989. Teaching Employment History
Franklin
Township School, Quakertown, New Jersey
iEARN Professional Development Program run
jointly with City University of New York
Centenary College, Hackettstown, New Jersey Staff Development Leadership Activities: Workshop Presentations: Teacher Recognition Day, New Jersey State Department of Education, Rider University, December 10, 2001, Presentation: "The Digital Classroom and the Future of Technology in the Classroom" US State Department: Civics-Community Voices Collaborative Solutions Regional Conference, Cairo, Egypt, November 10 -13, 2000; Master of Ceremonies, Workshops: Integrating Internet Projects Into the Curriculum, Cooperative Learning and the Power of the Internet, Teaching Methodology and Internet Projects The Seventh Annual I*EARN International Conference, Beijing, China, July 15, 2000. Topic: "Publishing Student Projects On the Internet: I*EARN and Internet Projects" Pennsylvania Educational Technology Conference, Hershey, Pennsylvania, February 14, 2000. Topic: "Catching School and Community Support With a Web or a Net!" Warren Township Schools, Warren, New Jersey, November 22, 1999. Topic: "Using The Internet In The Classroom. Kids Connecting With Kids Worldwide: I*EARN and Internet Projects." Hunterdon County Technology Education Services Conference, Raritan Valley Community College, New Jersey, March 10, 1997. Topic: "It’s All Elementary: A Fourth Grade Technology Curriculum" Hunterdon County In-Service Day, The Hunterdon County Staff Development Consortium and Educational Services Commission, Franklin Township School, Quakertown, New Jersey, October 14, 1996. Topic: "Using The Internet In The Classroom" Hunterdon County Technology Education Services Conference, Raritan Valley Community College, New Jersey, March 11, 1996. Topic: "Kids Connecting With Kids Worldwide: Using Telecommunications To Bring Classrooms Together". Hunterdon County In-Service Day, Bethlehem Township, New Jersey, March 1990. Topic: "Living History Classroom Presentation". Awards: New Jersey State Teacher of the Year Competition, Hunterdon County Teacher of the Year, 2001-2002, Hunterdon County, New Jersey Champion in Education Award, Business and Education Partnership of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties, New Jersey, December, 2001 The Global Schoolhouse/Lightspan.com International School CyberFair Competition: "The Historic Farms of Franklin Township, Hunterdon County": Honorable Mention: 2001 New Jersey Agriculture in the Classroom Grant, New Jersey Agricultural Society, Trenton, NJ: 2000 Governor's Recognition Award for Outstanding Teachers: 1991 Sallie Mae Achievement Award for Outstanding First Year Teachers: 1983 Professional Biography: My desire to enter the teaching profession came out of a natural progression and understanding of who I was as a person. I have always known throughout junior high and high school that I had a natural ability to speak and explain things in a manner that others could grasp. There are also two personal qualities which I have developed that are equally important in understanding my progression into the teaching profession. I have the skill of helping other people to understand their thoughts and the gift of motivation and encouragement. These talents help me to help other people achieve more than they normally would. Further, I feel an inward responsibility to use these talents to make the world a better place. Twenty years ago, my work career actually began in business working for a major retailer. I was progressing very rapidly through the corporate ranks, but I found myself unsatisfied with the direction my life was taking. Dedicating my life to making money lacked the satisfaction of touching another life in a real and human way. The realization came to me that teaching was my calling. My recent passion has been to infuse technology into teaching. I am dedicated to changing teaching so that we teach to children of this digital age. Part of this change includes developing projects that bridge the gap between our school and our school community. My fourth grade class has taken ownership for preserving local history for Franklin Township on the Internet. Our site contains historical research stories for fifty different buildings and sites within the small township of Franklin. We are also involved in a major project called "The Historic Farms of Franklin Township." This project was the first Internet project supported with a grant from the New Jersey Agricultural Society. Now in its second year, it has received a second grant to continue the project from the Education Organization, Delta Kappa Gamma. I am also involved in curricular projects in the elementary school as well as the Distance Learning Grant Committee. I have been transforming the teaching process to incorporate the use of technology. I am working to make my classroom a digital classroom through the use of the Internet, multimedia, and project oriented lessons. I have developed teaching methodologies displayed in projects such as the "The Historic Farms of Franklin Township" that show how students can achieve great success, acquire skills, and produce quality work. In addition, my long term involvement in international collaborative telecommunications projects has provided me with a unique insight into how the Internet can be a portal to open our classrooms to the world. I have been doing online collaborative projects since 1988 and have seen a tremendous amount of change, growth, and progress by having students communicate and work on projects cooperatively by use of telecommunications and the Internet. My association with the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN) has provided many strong international connections that allow me to stay in touch with the international education community. This gives me a strong focus on where we stand and the direction we need to move toward the future. Consequently, a major breakthrough I made with the International Education and Resource Network was to get them to rethink how we publish student work. I was actually the first teacher in the world to take an iEARN international collaborative project and put it on the Internet for everyone in each country to see. This breakthrough has led to a shift whereby electronic publishing is becoming normal, and paper publishing is becoming passé. All the projects my students have accomplished for the past four to five years are on the Internet. At this time, a major commitment in my life has been to expand my role into being a resource for the world community. The Internet has made this possible. My class is regularly involved in on-line cooperative learning projects with schools in other states and countries. This has been an extremely rewarding program. My success with international collaborations has allowed me the opportunity to conduct workshops for teachers at the International Education and Resource Network’s Seventh Annual Conference in Beijing, China. The notoriety of my workshops brought me an invitation from the United States State Department to be a Master of Ceremonies and present intensive teacher training for Middle East teachers at a Civics - Collaborative Voices Conference in Cairo, Egypt. Recently, I have been designing online professional development courses for educators to learn how to integrate project based learning into their classrooms. I hope to continue reaching out to teachers all around the world and sharing my expertise with teachers as we enter the digital age. Similarly, I have sought to pioneer the use of nine and ten-year-old students creating multimedia projects, and recently I have worked on having students become creators of Internet sites that provide historical research information to the community. My goal is for parents and township residents to see that the students can contribute to the community in a very significant and meaningful way. One of the major projects I continue to develop is my classroom web site at: www.ftschool.org/fourth/index.html . I am working to use the Internet and my class web site to bridge the gap between the school and the home. On this web site parents, students, the school community, the township community, and the world community can read a variety of students’ pieces. These include weekly assignments as well as research projects. In addition, my class web site includes learning aids and classroom information. Students can get copies of forms that are used in classroom, ideas for reading projects, and their weekly spelling list from the Internet. They can even review the steps to writing a friendly letter. In the future, a classroom bulletin board featuring homework assignments, practice tests, and study skills are resources that will help students prepare for their work in school. It is this sharing of resources and the use of cooperative learning structures that I want to be a hallmark of my career. My excellence as a teacher is the result of my personal qualities combined with my vision and ability to model the pathway to the future. The personal qualities I set forth are my intelligence and my caring. Hard work and professional commitment have provided me with an understanding of subject matter and performance skills. Furthermore, I add the warmth of caring that helps to open the minds of children. My excellence is ultimately seen in the children I teach. Their accomplishments and growth are my testimony.
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