Nominated by Linda Dyck
Other School Administrator at Master's Academy and College
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

I would like to nominate Brenda Dyck for the 2005 Global Schoolhouse Shared Learning Award for international educators.

I am the middle school administrator at Master’s Academy and College, the school where Brenda Dyck teaches and carries out the role of middle school teacher and technology integration coach. Over the past seven years, I have had the opportunity to observe Brenda move from teacher with limited technology experience to an educator who not only uses technology to drive her classroom program but also uses it to influence her colleagues to embrace this powerful tool for the benefit of their own programs.

In addition to creating projects for her own math and social studies program, Brenda mentors teachers through the process of creating Internet related project work that is aligned to their specific program and mix of students. She maintains a positive, encouraging relationship with staff, and is eager to offer her support to teachers who are willing to explore how technology integration can enhance student learning and motivation. She makes every effort to learn what teachers are teaching in their various subject areas, and then responds by finding relevant information, making suggestions on the effective use of the information and potential online projects for this content.

Brenda has taken on a mentorship role in our school and it is not unusual to find her working after school hours with teachers who have an idea that has the makings of a telecollaborative project. Last year she is worked with a Grade 8 math teacher to develop an online math project called Statistics: A Curiosity Factor http://www.masters.ab.ca/bdyck/Staff/Olson2/ , whereby students used their classroom knowledge of statistics in a relevant and interesting manner. She has shown how promoting one’s project online opens up opportunities to collaborate with teachers and students in other places.

Last year she worked with a teacher to develop a telecolaborative Language Arts-unit based on alternative forms of justice now at work in our justice system. Beyond Wild Justice http://www.masters.ab.ca/bdyck/Justice/ responded to the needs of our students and teachers to connect a strong analytical writing component to a relevant middle school issue of bullying. Seeing students from Arkansas and Argentina working through these activities alongside our students opened up exciting email opportunities for our students and increased student interest in expanding learning outside of their own community. We have also noted a marked interest in learning among the students when they are able to collaborate with each other and use technology in meaningful ways. Using technology to further learning within our school has become a standard benchmark for our teachers, and Brenda brings to our school the knowledge and expertise needed to foster positive outlook on technology integration.

In our school we have a unique program that integrates the fine arts into one subject area. This program is called Communication, Media, and Arts. (CMA). Brenda took an active role in the development of this program and has provided teachers with guidance in how to integrate technology into the Arts. Duirng the first year of CMA our Grade Seven CMA class worked through Brenda’s most project, “The Power of an Image: Freeway to the Heart”, http://www.masters.ab.ca/bdyck/Image/ a telecollaborative project that introduced students to the power of an image, by first using prizewinning Pulitzer Prize photos and then later by creating their own digital photographs. Their photos were published on the project web page along with message or the story behind it. Students from all over the world were invited to join this project.

Brenda’s project, The Eleanor Rigby Project http://www.masters.ab.ca/bdyck/Homeless/ , took the topic of homelessness and linked her Grade Seven LA students, to experiences that challenged their understanding of the complex issues behind homelessness. Through this project, students collaborated with a class of students from Mississippi and and homeless man from Vermont. The learning that resulted was rich and memorable for these students.

Last November Brenda traveled to Rome, Italy to participate as a finalist in the 2004 Global Junior Challlenge. There, her project, We the Children… http://www.masters.ab.ca/bdyck/Rights was honored as one of six winning projects in this international competition.

Finally, I am pleased to be able to recommend Mrs. Dyck for this award because of her interest in continuous improvement of her own skills and abilities. She is a well-known contributor to several education journals and ezines and has shown initiative in establishing a teaching/learning relationship with a variety of people though Internet collaboration. Her ability to see into the future and discover what students will need for this 21st century has made her a valuable member of our staff and an asset to the students we teach.

~ Linda Dyck Middle School Administrator Master’s Academy and College Calgary, Alberta, Canada

The section below lists the testimonials that have been reviewed and approved by the candidate.

1. Testimonial from Bland Campbell (1)
Teacher Middle School (ages 11-14) at Inverness Elementary
United States

Back in October of 2003 I received an e-mail from Marilyn Bowen of the Research and Curriculum Unit at Mississippi State University. Marilyn was passing along information on an amazing web-based project created by Brenda Dyck, called the Eleanor Rigby Project, inviting Middle School students to join the telecollaborative project about the homeless. I visited the web site and was thrilled thinking about the learning possibilities that were there for my students. I immediately wanted my students to join the project. The eight grade Computer Discovery class that I chose to participate in the collaboration project had never before been involved in a web based collaboration project with other schools. These students were highly capable students, who up to that point had settled on becoming underachievers. In the nearly two years that I had taught them, they had always wanted to just slide by and nothing could motivate them to strive for excellence in learning. Their attitude was just to slide by and everything would be all right. School, Classroom, and home work were something to be avoided. I had them navigate the web site and excitingly issued a challenge for the class to join the project. They were intrigued with the web site, the project and its activities. Brenda’s creative, graphic friendly and easy to navigate web site had caught my student’s attention and spoke to them in such a way as to motivate them to action. I did not contact Brenda right away to join the project because I didn’t believe the class was quite ready to dedicate themselves to work hard in an effort to produce quality results. Finally after about 3 weeks of dangling the carrot before them, the students cornered me in class one day and said they were ready to accept the challenge to join the project. I e-mailed Brenda with our desire to become partners in learning about the homeless. The first activity chosen by the students was “Oh Give Me a Home”. The students attacked the activity with an excitement that I had not seen in them before. They started to work harder and smarter than I had ever seen them work. They started coming to class early and not wanting to leave when class was finished. I started to notice a desire to seek and formulate answers rather than be told answers. They even stopped balking at having to research answers. Mindmaps and Affinity diagrams were not new to them, having been introduced to them last year. But the students had no interest in using them. Creating Mindmaps and Affinity diagrams on the topic of homeless opened their minds to learning about the homeless. They began seeing the value of using Mindmaps and Affinity diagrams as learning tools. After completing the “oh give me a home” activity I e-mailed Brenda some pictures of the students working on the project with a synopsis of the students work. Brenda did a great job of posting the students work. The students really became excited seeing their work posted on the web site. Class pride was beaming on the faces of the students. They began feeling well about themselves, their classmates and their work. Brenda in her first correspondence wanted the students to exchange e-mails. This has worked great for the students. Through the exchanging of e-mails they are learning about Calvary Canada a place that they didn’t know existed before starting the project. Last year they learned how to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius and Celsius to Fahrenheit and are using that knowledge to convert Brenda’ students reported Canadian temperatures from Celsius to Fahrenheit. Now when they hear the temperatures reported in Celsius they now whether it is hot, cold or in between and can tell you what kind of clothing you need to wear. The students eagerly await the e-mails. They want to learn more about their Canadian friend’s culture and environment. In the first e-mailings my students mentioned that the area they live in produces more farm raised Catfish than any other area of the world. They couldn’t believe that the Canadian students didn’t know much about Catfish, hadn’t eaten much fired Catfish and didn’t think that Catfish was one of the greatest foods in the world. The power of technology is helping them expand their knowledge and understanding of the world. As of now the students have completed two activities and are putting the final touches on two other activities and are planning the start of their fifth activity. They are proud of their work and eagerly share what they are learning with their parents, teachers, and other students. Attitudes towards learning have been changing. Brenda’s creative use of technology and the web has served as a catalysis for helping my students to further develop and use their creative and critical thinking skills to examine their attitudes and beliefs about an important social issue. The activities that Brenda developed are fun, challenging, thought provoking, and motivating. Using technology to learn and further expand the mind has ceased being a chore to the students. I only know Brenda through our e-mails but I have witnessed her Eleanor Rigby Project touching and changing the lives of my students. It is an honor for me to give this testimonial.

2. Testimonial from Gonzalo Ruiz (2)
Student at
Canada

Just one word to describe her and the hard work she does every single day: "amazing". Since we first made contact, about a month and a half ago, my mind changed a lot, the way I thought right things were and how useful the internet can be connecting people from all around the world, joining them to work in the most interesting projects. Never had I seen such a clear communication between so many people at the same time. I always imagined her sitting in front of a computer just cause she loves what she does and now that have worked with her I do love what I?m doing now. It?s an experience my friends and I will not forget for the rest of our lives. Actually, the way has coordinated us during the time we were working on was extraordinary. I remember once, about fifteen days ago, I sent her an e-mail asking her to explain me one of the activities I had to do. Half an hour later, I checked my e-mail box again and she had replied me. That day we e-mailed three times each other in four hours without any kind of interruption. Quilt of Forgiveness was the project we worked in and we?re still working on. She?s aware of what she does, and she knows how to figure problems out in seconds. Words are not enough to describe the way you learn, how tons of information gets into your head day by day, developing new resources, researching info. But what I most like of this, is that during the time you?re working you don?t realize what you?re really doing till you rewind looking back in your mind for what you?d done before in your life, and that?s when you notice nothings compares to this. That?s when you say: God, this has opened my eyes to an other world, which had been hidden, and now that I?ve discovered it I don?t want to let it go. Brenda was the one told us to keep on working, she also helped us in spite of the distance, and communication between us was perfect. She also know very well how to work step by step, activity by activity.

Gonzalo Ruiz Rivadavia-Mendoza Argentina

3. Testimonial from aukje van engen (3)
Teacher at Master'sAcademy and College
Canada

To whom it may concern,

Brenda Dyck has been my colleague since I came to Master's Academy and College in Calgary, Alberta, three years ago. She impressed me immediately with her knowledge of surfing the web and using the web for educational purposes. Brenda's students have been involved for a number of years in the cyber fair competition. Her projects have used the CyberFair platform to develop students' writing, researching and technology skills and have provided rich extracurricular opportunities. I am most excited about Brenda's "We the Children" project which linked students in Calgary with students in Tel Aviv. Together they collaborated as they explored children's rights in our world. This project received international attention last November when Brenda was chosen as a finalist. She was invited to the Global Junior Challenge in Rome, Italy. There were 50 finalists. "We the Children" was chosen as a winner in its category. You can view Brenda receiving the award when you click on this link: http://www.gjc.it/2004/en/foto_cerimonia_premiazione_08.asp I was so proud of Brenda. I grew up in Europe and know first hand what it is like to live alongside other countries and cultures. I was so impressed with the effect this project had on the participants. Our students were authentically engaged in the project. They communicated with their peers in Israel. Through this interaction, the Canadian students realized that safety is not a day to day concern for most of us in Canada. However, they realized that their Israeli peers were thinking of their safety every day and every moment of the day: when shopping at the market, when going to the movies, when going to the school, when driving in a bus or going on outings with their friends and families. Safety was on their minds at all times. When our students realized the full extent of this, they had a new understanding of and admiration for Israeli children as well as for their own lives in Canada. They were thinking critically about who they were, where they live and how others in this world live. I am sure there was a shift in their perspective of the world. What I personally like to see in growing and developing minds is a tolerance for the citizens of this world. This project created an awareness in the students that Israeli and Canadian children are dealing with different issues in their lives and that at the same time, they have so much in common. This, in my opinion, fosters tolerance toward out fellow human beings, whether we are Jew, black, Caucasian, oriental or native. As this telecollaborative project showed, we can learn so much from one another thanks to our differences. I believe the students who participated in "We the Children" experienced a change in thinking. Thank you for asking me to give a testimonial for Brenda Dyck.

Sincerely,

Aukje van Engen

4. Testimonial from Beckey Reed (4)
Educational Consultant at North Carolina State University
United States

There are those teachers who touch the lives of their students and leave an indelible impression on their colleagues, Brenda Dyck certainly does this and more while stamping her imprint on the Internet. It has been my pleasure to collaborate with such an outstanding educator and to recommend her for the Global Schoolhouse Shared Learning Award.

In the fall of 1999 Brenda was selected from teachers around the world to serve as a MidLink Magazine Editor. She arrived at NC State for the first meeting eager to learn about the magazine and our University's collaboration with K-12 teachers. She immediately connected with the other editors, our faculty and graduate students. She shared her excellent projects from Canada, contributed to lively curriculum discussions and was enthusiastic and eager to use technology to transform her classroom. Her creativity and quest for knowledge continues to challenge this group of teacher editors to enhance MidLink Magazine through her postings to the list, in virtual phone conferences, presentations at conferences and through her online projects.

Brenda's warm personal style and thoughtful writing are assets in the virtual world. Her voice is powerful yet always grounded in the classroom, as she intertwines pedagogy and content knowledge to meet the instructional needs of her students. Challenged by the diverse needs of her students, she engages them in learning while truly addressing their affective needs. We the Children demonstrates her commitment to reaching these students and teaching to their learning styles: http://www.abccharter.com/SchoolWeb/StudentWebIndex/Rights/index.html Since her first MidLink project I'm Leading is Anyone Following? to her latest online creation, “She’s not Just a Pretty Face” [http://www.masters.ab.ca/bdyck/face/], Brenda has clearly been a leader in online learning.

Brenda not only publishes her student projects on the web, but also contributes her knowledge to educational journals at an incredible pace. She skillfully walks teachers through a virtual field trip experience in this article from Meridian, "And the Streets Were Paved with Gold" [http://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/sum2002/fieldtrip/]. She is a master at motivating math teachers to use technology in this article, “When Technology Integration Goes to Math Class” [http://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/sum2003/math/index.html]. Along the way, she provided valuable insights to our graduate student editors at NC State to improve our process in working with international authors.

While at NC State in November 2004, Brenda spoke to our preservice classes. Our faculty members in the College of Education were inspired by her creativity. When she shared with these classes the email exchange with a homeless man and her students during the Eleanor Rigby project [http://www.masters.ab.ca/bdyck/Homeless/], she demonstrated the power of telecollaborative projects in such a powerful and touching way.

Brenda also was a featured speaker at our MEGA event, a network of North Carolina teachers: http://www.ncsu.edu/mega/Training/success/110304/. As she shared her process to develop and implement online projects in her school, our teachers clearly understood connecting with classrooms in Canada and around the world would enhance their teaching and improve student learning.

Brenda is an inspiration to her students and collaborates effectively with educators in her school and around the world with compassion and creativity. Her contributions to the global school community through her Internet projects resound with authentic learning. She deserves recognition for these excellent efforts and it is an honor to recommend her for the Global Schoolhouse Shared Learning Award for 2005.

5. Testimonial from William Bietsch (5)
Teacher at
United States

I am more than happy to recommend Ms. Dyck for this award. As the coordinator and contact of our joint school project (in Spring 2002) for "We the children: Building a Safe Place", she was an incredible resource and made the project easy and enjoyable for my Israeli 6th grade English class. Online projects can be quite difficult to maintain enthusiasm for and her attentive emailing and support kept me motivated through the entire project. Her class in Calgary, Canada and my class in Tel Aviv, Israel enjoyed the project immensely and the the student project work submitted by my students was one of the high points of their semester. They genuinely enjoyed "getting to know" other students and exchanging personal information. In addition to the social aspect of the relationship, the students in Tel Aviv researched information on Canada and the city of Calgary. The students then embarked on a series of mini-projects ranging from poetry to designing t-shirts all revolving around the theme: a safer world for children. Unfortunately, my students in Tel Aviv are bombarded daily with how unsafe their immediate world is. The process of connecting to a student community on the otherside of the world and safely and freely expressing themselves on the topic was a very cathartic experience. The projects were then posted on a website which was constructed and maintained by the students in Canada. It was important for me as a teacher in Israel to work on a distance project with a non-Jewish school to help broaden the horizons of my students. Having been involved in other "partner projects" with schools from the U.S., I can say that this was the most efficient and worthwhile project my class has worked on to date---largely due to the efforts of Ms. Dyck.

6. Testimonial from Melissa McMullan (6)
Teacher Middle School (ages 11-14) at JFK Middle School
United States

I had the privilege of joining Brenda’s “Eleanor Rigby Project” this winter. As a Language Arts teacher in a middle school, I am forever searching for ways to entice my students to read. I have found the best way to do this is to find reading materials that are authentic and have meaning to eleven and twelve year olds. Collaborating with other schools deepens this meaning to students. Homelessness is an issue all students can connect with. In a heterogeneously grouped classroom, it is critical to find material and subject matter that will engage and challenge all students. The Eleanor Rigby Project was designed to enable all students to be challenged and have the opportunity to succeed. The project was extremely well-thought out. Brenda organized the unit into a series of lessons. Each lesson required students to develop skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking. The lesson objectives would also help students meet New York State Standards in English and Language Arts (as well as other content areas). In addition to these skills, all of the lessons offered opportunity for differentiation in a heterogeneously grouped classroom. Depending upon student interest and success with the lesson, each lesson included extension activities for further learning. Working with Brenda on a collaborative project was a wonderful experience for a number of reasons. First, as mentioned earlier, the lessons were detailed and organized. They gave me the freedom to choose each lesson based upon my students' needs. There was no order to the lessons. Consequently, I was able to maximize student interest by selecting lessons that met our interests and our educational goals. Secondly, lessons could be accomplished using a wide range of technology. This was helpful because on any given day, any number of difficulties may arise with our hardware, software or network. Knowing that each lesson could be accomplished without technology (if it needed to be) gave me tremendous peace of mind. Normally when I plan lessons that rely upon technology I have to prepare a back up lesson should the technology fail. In addition, when we had full use of our computers, we were able to learn new technology skills on during many of the extension activities. Next, the lessons provided the opportunity for students to use multiple intelligences. Lessons gave students the opportunity to speak, listen, draw, write, collaborate, etc… Finally, the project was easy to join. This is a critical piece in joining collaborative projects because our time is so limited. The bottom line is, how did students benefit from Brenda’s work? First, the students in my class who have the greatest difficulty reading were able to read, understand and enjoy challenging articles from the newspaper. Using the prereading strategies in Brenda’s lessons enabled these students to enjoy reading far better than they had in the past. Secondly, the students were incredibly motivated to work on the project because of Brenda’s quick response in posting work. Students not only loved to see their own work published on the site, but they relied upon students examples from other schools when they began the writing process. Brenda’s quick response to post work also encouraged students to be proactive about editing and revising work on their own. They wanted to make sure they submitted their best work because they knew others would be reading it shortly. Finally, the topic has gotten students excited about learning. Many parents have commented on their children’s enthusiasm for the project. This project has entailed a considerable amount of reading and writing for the students. It is a testimony to Brenda’s ability to combine challenge and interest that these students have enjoyed the tremendous amount of work they have done. I am incredibly lucky to have been introduced to Brenda’s project through our own Technology Coordinator. I would join another project of hers without reservation having full knowledge that any of her projects will enable my students to continue to work toward state standards and be interested and challenged by the learning process.

7. Testimonial from Trudy Campbell (8)
Teacher Middle School (ages 11-14) at Master's Academy and College
Canada

To Whom It May Concern, I am a middle school language arts teacher at Master's Academy and College. Brenda Dyck has been a school colleague of mine for several years. Her official position at the school is technology integration coach. Through Brenda's mentoring, my technological background and knowledge, has expanded.

Brenda is very encouraging, patient, yet always gently nudging staff towards acquiring new technological knowledge that has opened wide vistas for presenting and working with a variety of material for students.

Canadian Grassroots Funding is a Telus grant, awarded to quality on-line projects. Brenda has presented three projects in the last two years that have been awarded Grassroots Funding. Several years ago, Brenda and I worked on a telecollaborative project, that focused on the various forms of justice, specifically the difference between traditional justice and the native restorative justice circle.

In the project, "Beyond Wild Justice", a variety of quality tools (flow chart, Venn diagram, plus/delta, fishbone diagram) was used to incorporate the language arts strands of reading, interpreting, listening, writing, presenting, and visually displaying. Brenda spent many hours searching for a variety of links that would be appropriate for students to do the required background search for this project.

A call for participation was published on several listservs, on-line education journals and websites. Collaborations were done with classrooms in Arkansas and California.

This has been a wonderful learning experience for me and my students. Brenda's experitse in the use of a variety of technological tools was an invaluable asset. She has been a terrific role model in demonstrating that educators, in particular, need to stretch and always be aware of new and innovative ways to present material to their students. My students emailed other project participants and had on-line debates, debating the merits of restorative justice compared to the traditional justice system. It was a very valuable experience for students to be exposed to perspectives different from their own. This telecollaborative project has broadened my own experience as I have seen that learning can be enhanced by partnering with classrooms in other places.

Brenda Dyck continues to be involved with teachers, not just in the middle school division, but in the elementary area as well. I hereby highly endorse Brenda Dyck for the Global Schoolhouse Shared Learning Award.

8. Testimonial from Karen Kliegman (9)
Librarian at Searingtown School
United States

A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting teacher and MidLink teacher/editor Brenda Dyck when I became a teacher-editor for MidLink Magazine. Brenda has been a role model for me. Although she lives in Canada and I live in NY, her knowledge and passion for teaching has definitely been inspiring to me. She is a prolific writer and thinker; her telecollaborative projects are deep and meaningful and take on issues beyond the mundane. Her projects have been so successful and have garnered global participation and recognition because they are rooted in project-based learning, requiring higher level thinking and self-reflection.

Brenda shares her observations in such publications as Middle Ground, Education World, Microsoft, and Technology & Learning. She is truly one of the most creative, prolific, compassionate educators that I have ever met. She deserves to win this award because her web projects promote global interaction and inspire students to care deeply about the world. She is an innovator who has great energy and dedication to her profession. I have never met another educator like her; she is unique. I have presented with her at technology/education conferences - her demonstrations of her successful projects never fail to motivate and inspire other teachers. Projects like "We the Children," "The Eleanor Rigby Project," and "She's Not Just a Pretty Face," require participants to care about issues of humanity, and are carefully scaffolded to insure understanding. The GlobalSchoolNet award could not go to a more deserving person!

9. Testimonial from Janet Costley (10)
Parent at Master's Academy and College
Canada

Dear Mrs.Dyck: Thank you so much for taking the time to run the Cyberfair for the grade six students this year. The time and effort it took to motivate and keep the kids interested enough to give up their lunch hours two times a week for four months was an amazing feat in itself.

When Blake informed us that he was planning to join this Cyberfair club I thought that it would be a great opportunity for him to improve his computing skills. This is about all I thought he’d learn. Blake was extremely excited to learn how to create a web page and when I saw the actual finished product I realized he had learned so much more.

First of all, the research that was put into this was fun for the kids. The walk through the neighborhood to take pictures of the street signs of the different battles in WWI was just the beginning. Blake then had to use different sources to enable him to retrieve information from the Internet and integrate various applications to make multiple links in a document which he would later apply to his web page. He learned the importance of visual effects and using different mediums such as word, sound, art, and that font style and placement of text and graphics can make a page more visually appealing.

In Blake’s research on the Battle of Moreuil Wood, he had to do a lot of reading, comprehending, composing, revising and editing which was something he definitely needed more practice in. Blake was very excited when they went to the Museum of Regiments, and the experts there took them to the back room and showed them archives of special books and diaries of WWI soldiers. It was an awesome experience for him to listen to the excitement in these men’s voices as they shared their knowledge and stories of what they knew of the different battles that our Canadian soldiers endured. Not only was it a lesson in Canadian history, I think they gained some understanding and appreciation for our veterans and the sacrifices they made for the freedoms and privileges we enjoy today. They also were given the opportunity to do some interviewing of these men at the Museum.

It was exciting for Blake to experiment with different forms of multimedia to help him decide what he would put into his web page. The opportunity you provided for them to go into the recording studio and do a voice recording of an actual soldier’s diary experience. The sound effects of the battlefield as the excerpt of the soldier’s experience was read, created a very somber mood, which I felt was very effective. This also gave him some extra experience in a recording studio.

With all this research from various sources, Blake also learned the need to document his sources to comply with copyright legislation.

Your help, guidance and endless support in this extracurricular activity have given Blake invaluable experiences beyond the computing aspects. He has learned that commitment and hard work produces quality. He also gained more collaborative skills as he worked alongside and shared ideas with his fellow classmates. He learned that working with a deadline could be fun especially when your teacher orders in pizza and pop! Another growth experience for Blake was when you asked the students to present parts of their website to the rest of the school in celebration of their silver medal win. Although, I knew that speaking in front of the whole school was going beyond my son’s comfort zone, he informed me with pride that he did it.

As you can probably tell from the length of this letter, I think that Blake’s participation in the Cyberfair competition was one of the best experiences for Blake this year. He has gained so much and I know he will continue to use much of what he has learned. He as already made another web page of his own and continues to add different links and multimedia to it. He has been empowered.

Thanks Brenda, as I know it was a huge undertaking and the amount of effort you put into this, to make this their project, one that they stayed interested in, and one that they could be proud of. The walks in the neighborhood to take pictures, the recording studio experience, the tour of the Museum, interviews, the endless hours of revising and editing, the pizza party was all a part of the experience. And for Blake, it was well worth it. Congratulations on the Silver Medal!!

Sincerely, Janet Costley

10. Testimonial from Diane Story (12)
Parent at Master's Academy and College
Canada

Dear Brenda: I would like to take this opportunity, as the year draws to a close to thank you for working so closely with Stefanie this year. She has enjoyed your hands on approach to mathematics and has especially loved the time she spent outside the classroom working on the CyberFair project, Stories From the Street.

It was amazing to see what professional results the children could accomplish when they were teamed with a teacher who not only loved to work with technological aspects of the project, but who excited in the students a real desire to learn new information and presentation ideas. I was so impressed to see the students working with all kinds of media and informational sources: computers, music and midi files, video, library books and historical archives as well as conducting interviews at the Museum of the Regiments. Stefanie and her CyberFair classmates were more than happy to give up their evenings and weekends to complete the project.

I just visited the website again (http://www.masters.ab.ca/bdyck/CyberFair1 ) and every time I view the project I discover something new and interesting. Congratulations to all of you on achieving the Silver level and I do hope that the opportunity exists for Stefanie to continue to take part in the CyberFair experience next year. Just imagine what a wealth of knowledge this year's students will bring to the project!!! Thank you again, Brenda, for sharing your love of learning with Stefanie. Sincerely: Diane Story

11. Testimonial from Arnold Pulda (13)
Other District Level Administrator at
United States

I have known Brenda Dyck for about four years. She lives on one coast in one country; I live on an opposite coast in another country ? but given the wonderful facility of communication that is available to us, I have gotten to know her well. She and I are colleagues as editors of an online educational magazine for students called MidLink, and it is through our collective effort on the magazine that I first came to know Brenda and her work. Through dozens of emails, many online chat rooms, regular teleconferences, and annual meetings, I have watched Brenda become an imaginative, truly creative ambassador for telecollaborative projects. I soon learned that she was not only capable of conceiving ambitious schemes and missions for her students, but that she could execute these plans with concrete rubber-meets-the-road performance.

Brenda?s work in applying the content and tools of technology for the benefit of her students is truly exemplary. I know dozens of teachers, and, among them, many who use technology well in their classrooms, and I tell you without exaggeration that Brenda stands out among that group as simply the best. She is self-taught in her broad and deep knowledge of what is ?out there? ? Internet content, best sites, online gear for teaching, guiding, assessing, educational software clear across the curriculum, and she integrates all of these seamlessly into her curriculum. Just as importantly, she does not overwhelm either the curriculum or her students with flashy electronic tricks or distracting toys that detract from the core objective, which is teaching and learning. She uses that which enhances that enterprise efficiently and effectively; she knows what is peripheral, and which content that can be taught best by using more conventional resources.

Brenda thinks big thoughts and conceives ambitious telecollaborative projects in her zeal to challenge her students; she is able to execute these programs by careful planning and intelligent lesson design. One example of an ambitious project was called ?We the Children?? In this project Brenda took over a class of unruly students mid-year and led them into online investigation of the theme of student rights. She ultimately brought them into intimate communication with a fellow class from Israel via email. The entire project, including the extended correspondence with the Israeli students, contributed mightily to turning this class into one which regarded rights and behavior much differently.

Brenda is extremely active far beyond her own classroom. She writes the Electronic Thread, a regular technology column for Middle Ground, a publication of the National Middle School Association. (http://www.sasinschool.com/resource/pages/ethread_back_from_the_future.shtml). For the past three years she has written a monthly column called Tech Tips for Microsoft?s education online journal (http://www.microsoft.com/education/?ID=TeacherTechTipsArchive). She also shares her expertise regarding the power of telecollaborative learning at local workshops and international conferences. She is a model of a teacher who puts her own students first, but then finds time to disseminate what she has learned to other teachers. I recommend Brenda Dyck for the GSN award enthusiastically and without the slightest reservation.

12. Testimonial from Beverly Maddox (14)
Classroom Aide/Assistant at Henderson Middle School
United States

Endorsing Brenda Dyck’s nomination for the Global SchhoolNet's Shared Learning award is a pleasure. A few years ago, through the conversations on the MIDDLEWEB discussion group, I became acquainted with Brenda Dyck. Her posts about the technology-centered projects and activities she and her students undertook stirred me to integrate more technology into my own instruction and the design of projects for my students. While my school was (and continues to be) nowhere near as technology-rich as Brenda’s, nor were my students and I as technically savvy, we felt the lure. Brenda’s explanations demystified so much about technology in the classroom.

Brenda’s influence on my efforts to integrate technology first took the form of my creating sets of bookmarks (many of them recommended by her), which my students could access to complete projects ranging from simply taking notes to synthesizing their findings into answers to thought-provoking questions. The need to enter lengthy URLs manually had stymied and frustrated most of my inner city eighth graders, especially those who had never had a keyboarding class. This rather simple idea revolutionized my class’s periodic computer lab visits as well as their independent use of computers in the media center—they began to enjoy their “research.” Technology leadership is sorely lacking in my school, and I realized that Brenda could be a source for the mentoring required to guide my students in their use of technology. She has proven to be invaluable. Thanks to her influence, I attempted and began to use several instructional resources from Hotlists on Eduhound to a class webpage. Few of my students have internet connections at home, but they delight in visiting the class page during free time at school. My students this year are becoming more adept and efficient in their use of technology and in completing projects in the computer lab, thanks to my clearer, better-designed assignments, based on Brenda’s models and projects. Although we have yet to join formally in one of her telecollaborative projects this year, we are using her projects as models for several units. My students monitored the project she developed centering on homelessness, reading two novels and researching local housing issues. They decided to send two books to her class to give them a more global point-of-view. They feel a connection to the younger Canadians.

Many of us who correspond on the listserv MIDDLEWEB began to seek out Brenda’s articles in Education World, Middle Ground, and MidLink, realizing she is an education visionary. Her posts on MIDDLEWEB in which she mentions her and her student’s use of various software packages to create their technology projects are a steady source for ideas. At the 2001 National Middle School Association annual meeting in Washington, D.C., I had a chance to meet Brenda in person and talk with her about how she uses technology to scaffold the learning of her students. I began tentatively to develop projects on a much smaller scale for my students, who do not have daily access to computers with internet connections. I became very adroit at downloading web pages so my students could access them off-line on computers without internet connections. At the 2003 NMSA meeting in Atlanta last November, we met again, along with other MIDDLEWEB members, to share ideas and projects. All of us were eager to hear what projects Brenda was coaching her students for and to gain her advice on what we were planning. I came home with several ideas to improve the way I use technology in instruction.

Brenda opens up her projects with her students in Canada to other teachers’ classes, and I accepted her offer to participate in the “Beyond Wild Justice” project, which led my students to examine traditional and alternate juvenile justice systems as well as the need for juveniles to come to terms with the consequences of their actions. Although my students did not post material to the Beyond Wild Justice site, their reading and writing on the topics introduced in the unit moved them toward greater fluency of thinking and expression. The class reading of the novel Touching Spirit Bear and the products of research on alternatives to traditional juvenile justice generated rich discussion and writing. The experience of reading and viewing Brenda's students’ work products enriched my own students’ thinking. One side effect occurred: my students scored higher on the spring 2003 literacy “benchmark” tests than any previous years’ eighth graders in my school. They stretched themselves during the “Beyond Wild Justice” unit, and I believe it was the resulting growth in literacy skills that moved them to higher achievement.

For inspiration and modeling, my students use the computer in my classroom and infrequent lab visits to “pop in” on the online projects Brenda and her students conduct. Next year, thanks to improvements in technology in my school, I plan to have my students actively participate in Brenda’s telecollaborative learning projects and perhaps even design one ourselves.

Brenda Dyck deserves the Global SchoolNet award, for not only the motivating, engaging telecollaborative projects she designs for middle school learners, but also for the models and mentoring she provides to so many teachers around the globe as we attempt to enrich our instruction with technology. Through her telecollaborative projects, her articles in Middle Ground, Midlink, and her posts on MIDDLEWEB, Teacher Leader Network, and MWProjects, she scaffolds the learning and practices of so many of her colleagues in a global setting.

13. Testimonial from Donna Thomas (15)
Teacher at
Canada

When a fellow MiddleWebList member, and admired educator, of Brenda Dyck's caliber makes a suggestion to telecollaborate, I listen!

The school year, 2000-2001, found me, a middle school teacher in Orlando, Florida, teaching a group of students who tended to achieve in the "non-traditional" classroom settings. As I began to search out creative ideas and methods, once again Brenda Dyck offers to organize and coordinate a telecollaboration that would have the possibilities of widespread communication of middleschool students and educators. I jumped at the chance to participate in Brenda's "I'm Leading. Is Anyone Following?" project!

The organization of the project was exemplary! It was very evident that each phase was planned and thoroughly prepared. As my students began sharing their thoughts on the criteria necessary for a good leader, we found that our ideas were very similar to those of students from other areas of the globe! After animated classroom discussion, the students set off to explain, in writing, the reasoning behind their own particular choice of criteria. They each wrote a strong opening paragraph to introduce the topic of leadership, as they introduced the person they chose as a strong leader. As the students researched their selected leader they kept referring to organizational worksheets that Brenda had prepared online, to assist the students in keeping the focus on the qualities of the leader. The students were also able to click into the website that Brenda had provided to check find other tools for writing, to read other student's thoughts on leadership, and to view a gallery of leaders. My Orlando students really enjoyed the Student Writing and Displays of other middle-schoolers, particularly because they were "real people" from other parts of the globe, and to see for themselves that others felt it was important enough to post their views of leadership on a website created for this special purpose, and then to witness, with awe, the look of pride on the faces of these young teens and preteens when they first saw the websight, and heard The Star Spangled Banner playing!

Brenda's use of egroups for communication among the teachers was yet another tool to help bring educators together, no matter what the distance is that separates them. I have nothing but praise and admiration for my e-friend's constant striving to share.

Most of my students came to the conclusion that we are ALL leaders, and whether we know it or not, SOMEONE is always watching... A reminder that we each need to be mindful of what kind of leader we wanted others to see in us.