HEROES AMONG US
A
project intended to help mili- tary students in the Muscogee School District has succeeded
far beyond expectations, reaching 113 countries and achieving unintended tri- umphs with other children in the area as well. “It’s tough on military kids because if
you move from state to state, you’re not only in a different place in the book, a lot of times you’re in a whole different text- book,” said Tina Cross, grant writer for the district. “Just about every teacher I know spends time aſter school tutoring, but it’s not enough because sometimes kids have missed whole chapters.” In an effort to increase support for chil-
dren in military families, Cross partnered with the Coca-Cola Space Science Center to create a series of podcasts and make them available to students on the Internet. “We did not expect it to take off the
way it has,” Cross said. “It’s wonderful, but when we came up with it, no one even knew how to do a podcast. Te guys
at the Space Science Center are brilliant, and they’ve taken care of the technologi- cal aspects from the beginning.” Aſter three years, the website they cre-
ated now has almost 1,000 podcasts filled with material for students at every level. Rosa Williams, professor of astronomy
at CSU, said the podcasts have a visual impact other media don’t have, so even though the videos were intended for use
in the Muscogee School District, she oſten uses them in her college classes as well. “Tings that are aimed at high school
students are either a very good review for college students or a lot of high schools don’t offer astronomy classes, so they may not have experienced the material at all,” Williams said. Neal Garner, a teacher at the Space
Science Center, said the podcasts have helped his children as well. “As a parent and an educator, I can tell
you it’s a good resource,” Garner said. “My own son has benefited from them, and I’ve had multiple people say they’ve used them, their children have used them, teachers have used them in their classes. Nancy McCrary, grant clerk for
the
Muscogee school district, said it’s also helpful
for parents who need a quick
review before helping kids with their schoolwork. “I use the podcasts to help my grand-
kids do their homework,” McCrary said. “It’s been 40 years since I’ve been in school, and when we were dividing frac- tions, I had no idea how to do it. I went on the website and it shows you everything step by step, so I was able to turn around and help them.” Teachers aren’t the only ones creat-
ing podcasts, however, as the grant gave schools the technology for students to make them as well. Patrick Knopf, former principal at
River Road Elementary, said this devel- opment benefited special needs students in unexpected ways. “For us, one of the unintended conse- quences of the podcasts was that a lot of
28 Columbus and the Valley AUGUST 2013
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