| Gail
Watson works at John
F.Pattie Elementary School in Virginia as a computer
technologist. She teaches students and teachers various
skills with technology, and believes hands on projects is the best
way for all audiences to learn. The curriculum for computer
technology requires that students at her school learn a wide
variety of computing skills at an early age. By the time
children leave elementary school to attend middle school, they are
supposed to have had a minimum of three years experience at
creating databases, spreadsheets, word processed documents,
multimedia products, Internet use, including web use, email, and
search engines. Students are also supposed to have basic
knowledge of networking and an understanding of server client
relations. Gail enjoys teaching this subject matter, and
often combines several tasks into one project.
Gail's
background is engineering, and she has 17 years experience working
with the government at various locations and various capacities.
Her computer technology experience put her in good stead when she
decided in 1994 to quit government service and try to find work
more compatible with her children's school hours. What is
more compatible than working at the school they attend? That
dream is exactly what happened! Although her own children
have since gone on to middle school, Gail still teaches elementary
students each day with technology instruction inspired from the
world of management. She is a district trainer, and has taught
many subjects to teachers during summer training. Teaching
teachers is something she enjoys very much, and has done this work
now for 3 years. She plans to continue this summer as well.
She and
the John F. Pattie gifted education teacher, Christine Miller,
have coached gifted fourth and fifth graders in the art of web
page creation. Gail teaches students how to code HTML from
scratch instead of using a web authoring product. This gives
the children a good lesson in logical thinking as well as
additional information they learn from researching their topic.
This unique approach to content research has won the teaching team
an award when three students placed in the ThinkQuest Junior
contest in 1999. Gail is busy coaching teams of students for
ThinkQuest Junior this year again in two schools!
The
Virginia Department of Education will be interviewing Gail and
Chris this March for broadcast on the state's "DOE Hour"
broadcast. The "DOE Hour" is a satellite broadcast
sponsored by the Virginia Department of Education which spotlights
a variety of teaching material for Virginia Teachers who are
struggling to deliver Standards of Learning content to students.
Among
Gail's other activities have included participating in the course
development of ECHKNOWLEDGEY ACADEMY, a distant learning course
for teachers all over Virginia. Students from John F. Pattie
school were taped taking web page instruction from Mrs. Watson,
and were able to watch themselves on local television. The
tape is included in the distance learning content. Additional
information found at http://techacademy.pwnet.org/
.
Gail's
life with three children and a husband is never dull. She looks
forward to many years of fun with kids and computers!
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