A Trainer’s Story from the Field

MarcoPolo trainers are a diverse group, delivering training sessions in every state and overseas, in person and over the Internet and phone lines.

Dale McCurdy from Texas, Field Trainer of the Year for 2003, has just added one more “road story” to his growing list of MarcoPolo experiences. An activated member of the National Guard, Dale recently used MarcoPolo resources when he was asked to prepare a briefing on Afghanistan.

"I found most of my information from the MarcoPolo Web site!" Dale writes. "I used the search engine and found over 100 links on Afghanistan. The most useful was the [Partner-approved] CIA World Factbook, which had just about everything I needed. So now, about 200 officers and enlisted soldiers have learned not only about Afghanistan, but also about MarcoPolo!"

To read more about Dale's experiences as a MarcoPolo trainer in Texas, see the spring 2004 issue of the Trainer MarcoGram.

And, please, share your own training experiences with us.

NETS Aligned

MarcoPolo's training paradigm and materials are aligned to the International Society for Technology in Education's (ISTE) National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for teachers. View information about the MarcoPolo alignment and learn more about NETS for Teachers.

Field Trainers of the Month Honored

Congratulations are extended to the following MarcoPolo Field Trainers of the Month:

January 2005
Jo Jennings (Oklahoma)

December 2004
Sally Morgan (West Virginia)

All Field Trainers who train a minimum of 30 educators in a single month and earn mean survey scores of 4.5 or higher on a scale of 1 to 5 are recognized through the MarcoPolo Field Trainer Recognition Program. The Field Trainer with the highest mean survey score for each month is named Field Trainer of the Month. In order to be eligible, Field Trainers must complete the four required tracking steps for the training sessions they conduct.

Train and Win!
Contest Winners

Congratulations to the following Train and Win! Contest winners:

January 2005
Debra Loiselle (China Spring, Texas); Anne Ball (Tomball, Texas); and Pam Abner (China Spring, Texas)

December 2004
Sally Morgan (Fairmont, W.V.);Wanda Martin (El Reno, Okla.); and Nan Williams (Phoenix, Ariz.)

November 2004
Gail Gunn (Danville, Va.);Jane Matthews (Franklin, Ind.); and Susan Pendergast (Topeka, Kan.)

The Train and Win! Contest rewards all Field Trainers who have completed the four required tracking steps for the training sessions they lead. For more information, see the new contest page in the Professional Development section on the MarcoPolo Web site.

Three Trainers Earn Certification

Three more trainers have recently earned certification through the MarcoPolo Certified Trainer Program, a professional development initiative that has been implemented by several members of the MarcoPolo Rollout Partner Network.

Newly certified trainers include Theresa McCormick (Auburn University), who was certified through a partnership between the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Alabama Department of Education; Susan Lancaster (Bellarmine University), who earned certification through the Kentucky Department of Education's MarcoPolo Program; and Helen Schulman, an independent trainer who is affiliated with the New York Teacher Centers' MarcoPolo Program.

A majority of the 26 MarcoPolo Certified Trainers nationwide are former MarcoPolo Field Trainers. Close to 100 candidates are currently working toward certification.

For more information on the MarcoPolo Certified Trainer Program, visit the MarcoPolo Web site.

How Do You Use...

...MarcoPolo Search Engine? In the winter 2005 issue of the Trainer MarcoGram, we took an in-depth look at "Getting Results from the MarcoPolo Search Engine," including how trainers can present this tool to help users find content that has been developed, reviewed or recommended by our Content Partners.

Please tell us how you introduced this resource during your training sessions and how your trainees reacted.

Stay Current with Awareness Sessions

Catch up on the latest changes to the MarcoPolo and Content Partner Web sites and resources through our free, hour-long Awareness Sessions, delivered via Web conferencing. Registration for these sessions is open to individuals and groups.

Seeking Success Stories

We'd like to know how teachers are integrating MarcoPolo Internet Content into their everyday classroom experiences. Trainers are encouraged to ask teachers to share their success stories.

Trainers also are asked to share the tips they've learned and the successes they've enjoyed while conducting MarcoPolo training sessions.

New Field Trainer Recognition Page

The MarcoPolo Program has launched a new Field Trainer Recognition page on the MarcoPolo Web site. It is devoted to the various ways the program recognizes the contributions of Field Trainers whose efforts are vital to the growth of the MarcoPolo program.

Bookmarks

Agenda Creator

Audience Inventory Worksheet

Browsable Content Index

Featured Resources and Lessons

Global Considerations

Glossary of Internet Terms

Glossary of MarcoPolo Terms

ISTE Alignment

MarcoPolo Content Calendar

MarcoPolo Search Engine

New Partner Lessons

Partner Site Overviews

Partner Site Talking Points

Plug-Ins and Utilities

Standards Alignment

Trainer FAQ

Trainer Resource Center

Trainer Tips

Training Logistics Forms

WebEx Awareness Sessions

MarcoPolo News is a quarterly e-newsletter that brings "big picture" program updates to members of the MarcoPolo Education Community. It's a great tool for trainers who often are asked general questions about the program and those who integrate program news into their training sessions. Trainers and trainees are encouraged to subscribe. All issues are archived online.

The MarcoGram is written especially for K-12 classroom teachers, principals and trainers. Distributed by e-mail each month, this edition features themed activities to use in the classroom, along with links to lesson plans and other resources available through the MarcoPolo Partnership.

The MarcoGram is a great training tool, whether you copy and distribute it to trainees at your sessions or point them to the online archived editions. Remember to encourage your attendees to subscribe to this popular newsletter!

Recent topics include:

March 2005
Energy: Harnessing the Power of Nature

February 2005
A Touch of Whimsy

January 2005
It Makes Good Sense

Share the Wealth...
and Your Feedback!

The Trainer MarcoGram is a quarterly newsletter that provides MarcoPolo Trainers with tips, activities, news and links to online resources. Permission is granted to reprint and distribute the Trainer MarcoGram for use in a training session or classroom, or on Web sites devoted to the field of education or professional development. All Web addresses and links must be maintained in their original form as they appear in the published version.

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Through its annual Field Trainer of the Year recognition program, the MarcoPolo Program honored a total of 15 trainers for their outstanding efforts in sharing MarcoPolo with fellow educators during 2004. Each honoree trained at least 50 educators and earned a minimum average training score of 4.5 on a scale of 1 to 5, as recorded on surveys completed by training session attendees. (For aggregated results, see the Progress and Results section on the MarcoPolo Web site.)

These exemplary Field Trainers represent six states and hold various positions in their respective organizations. Susan Lancaster of Kentucky was named Field Trainer of the Year for 2004 (see related story in this issue). Jonathan Moehring and Shayne Hamilton, both of Texas, were named to the 100+ Club. The 50+ Club honorees are: Mae Adkinson and Nancy Kuznicki (Florida); Michael Russo (New York); Patti Rozell and Christie Cox (Oklahoma); Sandra Konczak, Faylynn McMahon, Shelley Smallwood, Lane Hunnicutt and Patricia Webb (Texas); and Betty Ivanovich and Jean B. Weller (Virginia).

MarcoPolo sends certificates and letters of recognition to all Field Trainers of the Year, with copies to their local superintendents and chief state school officers. In addition, all honorees receive MCI phone cards and are listed in the Field Trainer Recognition section on the MarcoPolo Web site.

Members of the MarcoPolo Training Advisory Group (TAG) and John LeFeber, project manager for EconEdLink, met by Web conference in January to discuss updates to the EconEdLink Content Partner Web site. EconEdLink was developed and is maintained through a partnership between the National Council on Economic Education and the MCI Foundation.

John provided an overview of the Web site's recent changes and new organizational structure, indicating where to find standards-based lessons with engaging student activities, lessons linked to current events in the news, and up-to-date key economic indicators and statistics. TAG members provided feedback and insights about how teachers and trainers are reacting to the updates.

The Web conference was scheduled as a follow-up to an article that appeared in the winter 2005 issue of the Trainer MarcoGram (see "Explore EconEdLink with Trainees"). The article focused on EconEdLink's redesign and provided tips to help trainers introduce the changes during their sessions.

The TAG is comprised of a cross-section of exceptional active MarcoPolo trainers from across the nation. The group provides feedback and recommendations to MarcoPolo Program Staff and Content Partners on a regular basis.

For more information about TAG or the Field Trainer Recognition Program, please contact us.

MarcoPolo's interactive student resources are currently taking center stage in the program's development cycle as Content Partners continue a rigorous plan to retrofit current lessons with these important components and develop new lesson plans that include them.

We asked Patrick Vennebush, NCTM's new project manager for Illuminations and an experienced professional developer, to explain the benefits of using applets in the mathematics classroom. He also shared tips for introducing some of his favorite applets during training sessions and gave us a preview of what's in the pipeline for 2005.

Q. How do Illuminations applets help explain mathematics concepts?

A. Our applets provide a mechanism that helps students visualize and discover many of the mathematical concepts covered in the K-12 curriculum. The NCTM Principles and Standards for School Mathematics state that students should be able to "create and use tabular, symbolic, graphical and verbal representations." Consequently, math educators often refer to the "Rule of Four,” which recommends that topics should be presented geometrically, numerically, analytically and verbally when appropriate. Since every student typically has an innate strength in one of these four areas, it is important to hit all four types of representations. Teachers are often able to describe mathematical situations numerically and verbally, so our applets describe situations analytically and geometrically, allowing students to explore and actually see what is happening.

Moreover, applets allow students to repeat an experiment multiple times in a short period or to vary certain parameters and investigate the outcomes. This saves time in the classroom, and student learning can focus on the bigger concepts rather than having to repeatedly perform an experiment, create multiple graphs, and so forth.

Q. Can you give us an example of an applet that helps students learn a specific concept such as probability?

A. Our lesson writers recently developed a series of lessons on wildfire prevention. One aspect of these lessons involves students discussing probability in a very abstract way – specifically, what factors cause a wildfire to spread. Factors such as the density and types of trees in a forest, the slope of the topography and the speed of the wind can change the probability of a fire spreading.

The Fire Tool helps students understand this very clearly. A fire will be more likely to spread if there are a lot of dry trees along a steep slope (such as along a mountainside in the summer) than it will if there are fewer trees on a flat slope (such as across a rain-soaked plain in the winter). From that abstract idea, students can investigate the spread of a wildfire by changing the probability in this applet – they can use a 1/6 probability to represent a fire in a wet, flat, no wind area, and a 5/6 probability to represent a fire in a dry, steep, windy area.

This applet was designed to accompany a series of middle school lessons that are scheduled for release in mid-March, but it could be appropriate for high school, too. For example, a formal investigation of the relationship between the probability and the percent of trees that burn would yield a function that students would not normally see until an upper level math class.

When using this applet in a training session, the trainer can first ask participants what factors affect the spread of a fire. Then, attendees should suggest environments where a fire would be unlikely to spread and ones where the fire would spread quickly. Participants can assign a probability to their environments and use the applet to investigate the spread for those probabilities.

Q. Do you have an applet that helps students understand patterns?

A. The Paper Pool Tool allows students to investigate patterns in a game that uses pool tables of various sizes. It is an applet designed to answer the specific question: "How many times will a billiards ball hit the sides of the table before landing in a pocket?"

This applet is intended for use in a middle school mathematics class, but if a teacher wanted to have students represent their findings using symbols, this applet also would be appropriate for an algebra class.

Q. Is there an Illuminations applet that can be used to generally explain a math concept, rather than focusing on a specific problem to solve?

A. The Affine Recurrence Plotter can be used to investigate the general concept of recursion and is most appropriate for use with high school students.

Today's technology allows for investigations of recursion that were previously impossible (or, at least, very tedious and time-consuming). In the past, when studying a recursive relationship it was necessary for students to generate a long sequence of numbers and notice any results. If a mistake occurred somewhere in the calculations, it would be difficult to recognize any patterns. Our applet allows students to generate recursive patterns very quickly and alter the parameters. By seeing a graph of each function, students are able to quickly investigate an entire family of functions.

An effective way to introduce the concept of recursion during training is to illustrate how money grows in an interest-bearing bank account. A trainer can show participants how a small investment will grow over time when invested at a particular rate of return. (This concept is explained briefly at the top of the Recursive applet page.)

Q. What is the process for developing new applets?

A. Classroom teachers are the best ones to suggest applets, since they know how they will be used. Therefore, our process is to ask teachers who write lesson plans for us to also suggest applets that could be developed to complement their lessons. Then, the writer and I develop a list of specifications to be reviewed by a team of teachers, who would determine if the idea for the applet is worth pursuing. If it is, the writer and I work with a vendor to create the applet, which is tested by other teachers who supply feedback and suggest improvements. It's a lengthy process, but one that ensures that we provide the best tools for teachers and students to use when exploring math concepts.

Q. What can we expect from Illuminations this year?

A. The Illuminations site currently has more resources for the elementary level than the secondary level. Therefore, our plan for 2005-06 calls for the development of 100 new lessons, half of them for grades 9-12. Overall, roughly one-half to one-third of all new lessons will focus on various aspects of measurement. We also plan to develop 12 new applets and to develop instructions and activities for all currently available applets. Many of our original applets were posted as quickly as possible after development and testing to make them readily available to educators and trainers, which is why some do not have activities or instructions associated with them yet.

Educators who wish to provide feedback on the Illuminations Web site or submit an original lesson plan based on NCTM standards are encouraged to contact the Illuminations team.

This section of the Trainer MarcoGram offers step-by-step instructions for introducing each of the Content Partner Web sites to your training session attendees. This month, we focus on Xpeditions, presented by the National Geographic Society.

Before Your Training Session

• Register your training session. (NOTE: Certified Trainers and Candidates do not use the Field Training Registration process. Please check with your organization's Training Administrator for assistance.)
  
  
• Familiarize yourself with the look and navigation of the Xpeditions Web site. Download and read the Xpeditions Teacher's Guide, found in Xpedition Hall.
  
  
• Review resources available in the Trainer Resource Center to help in your preparation. Visit the During Training section to access the Partner Site Talking Points, which provide comprehensive overviews of each Partner site. In addition, MarcoPolo Hot Links and Partner Site Overviews will help with exploring navigation and resources with attendees.
  
  
• Ensure the availability of a working Internet connection at your training site, as well as ensuring each machine has the free Adobe Acrobat Reader program. Test out some of the applets to ensure that Java script is enabled both on the presentation station and at least one workstation.

During Your Training Session

• Have trainees Roster at the beginning of the training session or during a break using the new rostering process described in detail in the fall 2004 issue of the Trainer MarcoGram.
  
  
• Begin on the MarcoPolo home page and click the link to Xpeditions. Remind your audience that clicking on a link to a Partner site in MarcoPolo opens up a new window. Remember that you are helping your participants learn the process of finding their way to a resource as well as learning how to use it.
  
  
• Walk attendees through the layout of the Xpeditions home page, especially the five main components: Lesson Plans, Activities, Atlas, Xpedition Hall and Standards. You may need to alert your newer Internet users that, depending on the display settings, links to Xpedition Hall and Standards may be "below the fold," requiring users to scroll down the page. This is a good time to point out the navigation bar across the top of each page and briefly highlight its features.
  
  
• Show attendees the Standards link. This provides visitors with the "big picture" and helps them acquire an overall understanding of how the 18 standards are connected with the six elements of geography. Veteran geography educators are usually already comfortable with the standards, and first-time attendees can use this time to help scaffold their understanding.
  
  Be sure to point out the interactive "standards timeline" since it appears across the top of each Xpeditions page. Explain that it provides a direct navigation link to the specifics of any given standard. Once the attendees understand the organization of the standards, it is much easier to see the correlation between the lesson plans and the activities. Have attendees examine a standard by clicking on the hyperlinked number in the standards timeline. The resulting page offers a greater depth of understanding of that standard and provides links to related resources in the left-hand sidebar. Also, point out the "E-mail this page to a friend" link at the bottom of the page. If you are training trainers, discuss the potential professional development implications of using e-mail as a training strategy.
  
  Some trainers may prefer to start with a specific content example (lesson plan, activity, Xpedition Hall applet, etc.) to engage the audience and then broaden out to discuss the standards. Based on the MarcoPolo philosophy that "the teacher is the final arbiter," you are encouraged to choose what you determine to be the best way to reach your audience.
  
  
• Next, take your trainees – especially if there are many first-timers – back to the Xpeditions home page so they can develop their own "internal site maps" and learn their way to find the resources they need. While on the home page, look at the Lesson Plans area and discuss the featured lesson plan as shown.
  
  From the home page, attendees can go directly to lesson plans for their grade band – K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12. There are now more than 700 lesson plans on the site, including "Weeping Camel," which explores the lessons learned about rituals in the award-winning feature film, The Story of the Weeping Camel. This is a true story from National Geographic World Films and THINKFilm. A winner of the Directors Guild Award for Best Documentary and nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature, the film follows the adventures of a family of herders in Mongolia's Gobi region.
  
  Point out that the lesson plan matrix can be used to differentiate classroom instruction. Since it is quite common for teachers to have students at a variety of learning levels and with a variety of different learning styles in one classroom, they can select from a variety of lesson plans from different adjacent grade bands that all address the same standard and topic.
  
  As an example, a middle school teacher working on latitude and longitude could use "Latitude, Longitude and Mapmaking" for the central lesson plan, "Planning a Road Trip" for students who need a simpler explanation, and "Map Projections and Careers in Geography" for more advanced students capable of greater independence in their learning. After they have examined the structure of a lesson plan, have attendees examine the sidebar on the left-hand side of the lesson plan to find other activities as well as the related interactive learning resource in Xpedition Hall.
  
  
• Move on to Xpedition Hall. As attendees look at the Hall's home page, point out that the page offers three different ways of learning. The left-hand side bar shows the verbal linguistic training that many of us received growing up. The current generation of students will likely be interested in the Java-scripted virtual world shown in the center section of Xpedition Hall. However, geography teachers will probably want to teach the "represented" world by using the interactive map on the right-hand side of the page. It is strongly recommended that you have trainees follow the Read Teacher's Guide link and explore the 20-page document. Be sure to explain the Postcards (page 3 of the Teacher's Guide) and suggest strategies to address accountability.
  
  
• Xpeditions offers an extensive array of Activities that can be easily adapted to various age audiences. Take them to the "Marco Polo" lesson, which correlates with Standard 10 – "the characteristics, distribution, and complexity of the earth's cultural mosaic." Point out the powerful embedded links that feature a wealth of additional resources.
  
  
• The Atlas link invites teachers to explore an interactive array of 300+ maps. If you consider all the variations (detailed versus basic, country borders on or off, etc.), teachers have direct, free access to nearly 1,800 different downloadable maps. Many teachers use the detailed maps for direct instruction and then ask students to complete project-based learning activities or take a final test using the basic maps. Some teachers have had their students insert maps into Microsoft PowerPoint presentations as part of a performance assessment activity. Trainers should take this opportunity to reinforce the importance of teaching students about ethical use of the Internet by showing them how to properly cite information acquired from it.
  
  
• Ask attendees to click on the Search Xpeditions link that appears at the top of every page. Have them click the Browse Subjects link to examine Social Studies topics, including those related to Geography, for which there are more than 7,700 lesson plans and resources.
  
  
• Return to the Xpeditions home page and have participants explore the left-hand sidebar. Under Recommended Links they will find Blue-Ribbon links to Web sites that have been thoroughly reviewed and approved by the Xpeditions staff. Last but not least, examine Xpeditions' other great resources, including Homework Help, Kids News and Helpful Hints (at the bottom of the page). Remind your participants that MarcoPolo Partners are very responsive. The Tell Us What You Think and Contact Us links are ideal for giving feedback or suggestions.
  
  
• Reflect on all of the resources mentioned during the session, leaving enough time to answer questions. How will teachers use these resources? The teacher is the final arbiter. Ask your participants to make their own suggestions for how they would use Xpeditions in their classrooms.
  
  
• Finally, ask attendees to complete the Training Session Survey.

After Your Training Session

• Complete the Training Follow-Up Form.
  
  
• Review the aggregated survey report, which you will receive via e-mail the morning after your session (provided your trainees completed their surveys during the session). Or you may view the survey report the next time you sign in to Rusticello.
  
  
• Send us feedback on how these suggestions worked in your training session.
  
  

All trainers are encouraged to keep their individual profiles up to date in Rusticello, MarcoPolo's program management database. This will help ensure receipt of all relevant program news and publications, including the Trainer MarcoGram.

This process is quick and simple using the Update Profile link in the Trainer Resource Center on the MarcoPolo Web site.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Trainer Resource Center and sign in if necessary. (MarcoPolo Certified Trainers need to use their Certified Trainer IDs and passwords.)
   
2. Click on the "Update Profile" link in the upper right-hand corner of the page.
   
3. Once the Profile Update page appears, edit the desired fields.
   
4. To add or change your organization, click the "Enter Organization Information" link. The page will refresh. Scroll back down to the organization section, enter the ZIP code of your organization (not your home address) into the text box and click the "Search" button. When the list of organizations appears in the Organization Select box, choose the correct organization and click the "Select" button. Users will be returned to the Profile Update page and the chosen organization will be visible.
   
5. Click the "Save" button before closing the window.

Field Trainers and MarcoPolo Certified Trainers are encouraged to check their profiles on a regular basis to update and confirm the accuracy of the following fields: contact information, organization, mailing list preference, grade band, K-12 responsibilities and discipline. Passwords and subscription preferences also can be changed through this screen.