Hatboro-Horsham to Go National

Two projects created by Hatboro-Horsham School District teachers will be highlighted at Microsoft’s annual U.S. Innovative Education Forum next month in Washington state.

The projects were chosen among other submissions as being the most inventive and results-driven in terms of student learning. One of the projects was spearheaded by technology integration specialists Kathleen Krupa and Carmela Curatola Knowles, who assist the elementary schools.

The second project came from in the hands of a technology team consisting of Diane Heitzenrater, Stacy Rotchford and Valerie Fasy, as well as Maureen Carroll, who heads the school’s Financial Literacy and Career Exploration class.  

Krupa, Curatola Knowles, Heitzenrater and Fasy will travel to the Redmond, Washington forum in July to share what they have learned with other educators.

Curatola Knowles appreciates the recognition.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to meet teachers from across our country and sometimes even outside of our country and to learn about how they are using the benefit of technology within their curriculum,” she wrote in an email to Patch.

She and Krupa received recognition for their "Rock Out on Rocks" project, where all district third-grade students used an online mapping program to research rocks as part of their earth science curriculum. Students used a program called Kidspiration, a digital organizer into which they entered their research, as well as the Microsoft products Word, Paint and Photo Story to present their findings. They also teleconferenced with a rock specialist in Pittsburgh.   

The Keith Valley team were recognized for their project "Find Your Future," a collaborative effort comprising both technology education and elements from the Financial Literacy and Career Exploration class. The project allowed eighth- graders to meet or videoconference with professionals working in a career field of their interest, after which the students created presentations to showcase what they learned, using such communicative tools as PowerPoint, podcasts, or videos.

As part of the process, students also used smartphones and Microsoft Tag Reader technology in a high-tech scavenger hunt.

“For the first time through the project, the feedback from students, career experts and faculty was extremely positive," Fasy wrote in an e-mail to Patch. "It was evident from discussions and culminating projects that the students gained new insight into possible careers and found it to be a meaningful experience."

In attending the Microsoft’s July forum, the district’s educators will compete for the opportunity to represent the U.S. in an international forum to be held in Washington, D.C. this November.