The+Inspiration

=The Inspiration= The [|Alabama Best Practices Center] designed a two-year professional development program that engages educators from participating schools in powerful conversations about [|21st Century Learning]. In 2005, with support from Microsoft, ABPC recruited small teams from 20 forward thinking schools across the state and established a virtual learning community built around an online curriculum called, “Keeping Up with the Net Generation.” Twenty more schools were selected to participate for the 2006-07 school year. Schools that had begun working the previous year continued their professional development in an “advanced strand” of the project. Winterboro School was part of the initial program and Fayetteville Schooljoined in 2006-07.

Teachers Amaze Their Students
Arme​d with their new learning, a group of teachers from Fayetteville School begin using a variety of web tools and other technological tools to teach. Wikis, blogs, and other fascinating web tools provided teachers exciting methods for engaging students in learning. Students quickly adapted. They were more than willing to follow their teacher's lead. In a matter of months, these teachers were being recognized by the Alabama Best Practices Center as leading innovators in educational technology.

Fayetteville teachers were featured in the Alabama Best Practices Center's online newsletter, //[|Working Toward Excellence]//. Pictured: Joan Doyle, (former) Principal; Karen Pemberton, Robbie Stewart, Jennifer Barnett, and Amanda Spurling, Teachers.

Students Amaze Their Teachers[[image:5th_Graders_work_on_wikis.jpg width="294" height="177" align="right"]]
These teachers recognized the bigger change that was happening. Students engaged more when using digital tools and methods. They understood that students want to own their learning and create products that illustrate what they know. Amazed at the quality of student work, these Fayetteville teachers were anxious to shout about this discovery from every mountaintop around.