McGEE'S CROSSROADS, NC - This year the North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA) brought a new round of federal technology demonstration grants to North Carolina schools.

TOP: McGee's Crossroads teachers share the results of projecta. MIDDLE: Lori Sharpe, Kimberlee Robinson and Candy Hughes. BO TTOM: Becky Goretzka.

One of those quarter-million dollar grants went to McGee's Crossroads Elementary, a rural Johnston County school that began its grant implementation by establishing its NCTA Center for Quality Teaching and Learning to promote professional development.

During the year, the faculty have devoted time to training and sacrificed free hours to plan and implement collaborative project. The value of that work was on display as they shared their results at an after-school meeting in the media center.

"It was an environmental shift," principal Terry Weakley said of the collaborative process. Teachers worked across grade levels and content areas to design and implement projects that engaged students.

One project focused on Dr. Seuss books, incorporating speech, writing, story prompts, discussion, and tech tools including KidPix software and digital video cameras. Another had students creating PowerPoint quizzes and tutorials about the measurement of shapes. A team of lower grades teachers let third graders write beginning paragraphs for a story - then had fifth graders go back and add detail and descriptive words to make the sentence more compelling.

Another team built a variety of activities around a children's book: the youngest students retold the story; older kids re-created it with drawings and digital pictures, posters and PowerPoint presentations.

The big payoff for participation will come in the weeks ahead as NCTA provides more new technology purchased with the federal grant money. Teachers will then have more of the tools they used in training available for use in their classrooms.

Principal Weakley says teachers are already using the research-based strategies they learned to apply during the NCTA program. "The kids are interested in what you're doing in the classroom," he says. "It was a tremendous effort on your part to do all this, but you did a marvelous job. You deserve to be commended."

Weakley also expressed gratitude for the NCTA federal demonstration grant money that brought QTL™ training and new equipment to McGee's Crossroads. "I want to thank you for creating a better learning environment for our kids," he said. "It's a better school because of the opportunity that NCTA has provided."