NARRATIVE, SUMMATIVE, & DISSEMINATION

of the TECHNOLOGY FAIR

NARRATIVE:
As the coordinator for a STEM exploration academy (150 students mostly white, 20% ED,
50% gifted labeled.) and Innovation Specialist for North Hall Middle School (950 students
mostly white, 40% ED, 10% gifted labeled) I realized that my county does not have a forum
for students to showcase STEM products. Therefore, I wished to implement a regional
technology fair. Not only will this experience give my students an authentic audience,
connect them with potential mentors, and introduce them to like-minded gifted and talented
peers with same interests, I feel that this opportunity will tie into the curriculum of our state
standards, curriculum and programming for the gifted and enrich authentic opportunities.
Opening up the fair to the students of Hall County will bring awareness of gifted pedagogy as
it relates to current curriculum. The fair involvement will connect parents and the
community to our students. Further, the opportunity to participate in a STEM competition
could ignite a passion and interest of STEM learning in our culturally diverse, economically
disadvantaged and female students. Winners of our regional fair will be eligible to
participate in the Georgia Technology Fair held in Macon in March.
In the course of the last semester, I have worked long hours with a team of teachers and
parents to produce a regional technology fair for the technology talented and the technology
to be discovered talented students in our county. In order to host this event, I first had to
convince a teacher to coordinate their own school event with my teams help. This was a
giant leap of faith for so many and I am proud to say that out of 33 county schools 19 agreed
to participate this inaugural year hosting their own event and then sending their winners to
our regional event in January! My logistics goal is being met! I will host the Regional
Technology Fair January 13 and 14 and then send our first place winners to the State Fair in
Macon on March 7, 2015.
Another goal was to serve on the State Fair Committee for the next three years. I am serving
as the Hall County Regional Director representative to the State and will be part of its
governing and steering board for the next three years.
I have experienced many wonderful moments so far (and the regional fair hasnt even
happened yet!). I wanted to share a few of my favorites and how they related to my goals.
First, my own school fair has been a great experience. I had several teachers and parents
who really supported the experience and event, but the amount of student work has been
amazing. This was not a mandatory registration and we have approximately 50 + entries for
our middle school. In order to facilitate mentoring for the interested fair participants, I
created an after school workshop with mentors. While I didnt have as many mentors as I
had hoped, the students were thrilled with the experience! They quickly bonded with
students they didnt know and found the most knowledgeable other. Vygotskys premise
of the zone of proximal development was on display after school in this workshop! As his
research was cited on the website, International Center for Educators Learning Styles, 2014,
When a child is interacting with the people in his environment and in cooperation with his
or her peersthe child internalizes these processes, (and) they then become part of his or her
independent developmental achievement. This he termed the Zone of Proximal
Development. Clearly this was evident as the students begged me for another workshop to

NARRATIVE, SUMMATIVE, & DISSEMINATION

of the TECHNOLOGY FAIR
be with peers that shared their interest and they wanted time to learn from one another as
much as the mentors present. I am witnessing students who are growing because an outlet of
theirs is now tied to school and that is so exciting to me. My goal of establishing mentors for
each of the categories of student interest is developing and I realize that this will take time. I
am grateful that we have found so many judges and some community members who are
willing to mentor. I feel that as the event grows the level of mentor involvement will as well.
I believe that in the future, I will ask for a committee member to head this area of the fair, as
it is a vital but time consuming element and needs to be its own area.
Another moment for me was judging an elementary schools fair event. The 5th graders
that I had the pleasure of meeting were so polished! I realized that they had more to gain
from the event than just the technology infused into their studies. These students had
obviously worked on their presentation skills and had been counseled about what to wear and
how to act. I was delighted to see that this event reinforced the presentation standards that
are present in every grade level! This was a bonus goal for me! With confidence and
experience these students will develop over the years and there is no telling what they will
accomplish by their senior technology state fair!
We cant wait to celebrate our own students achievements on Tuesday with our school fair
event! I am sure I will have more moments to share!
Recent November and December activities:
Produce program of events and registration
Secure volunteers for manning rooms and hospitality
Order medals
Create technology literacy test for competition
Attend state directors conference PRE
Secure mentors for NHMS tech fair students
Design rubrics for judging
Determine blurbs for incorporating tech projects into classrooms
Assignment Sheet for students and judges
Produce school mini fair at E2 academy and for NHMS for selection
to regional fair
FUTURE EVENTS:
Main high school and elem/middle regional fair Jan 13 and 14
Attend state directors organizational meeting March 6
Judge State Fair March 7
The most amount of time regarding the above has been the scheduling of the judges, the creating
of the literacy test for the school and regional competition and the designing of the rubrics. The
rubrics needed to be updated in order for better understanding of the requirements both for the
students and the judges.

NARRATIVE, SUMMATIVE, & DISSEMINATION

of the TECHNOLOGY FAIR

Personal accomplishment reflecting in-field efforts that you are most proud of:
I am most proud of the way I helped students showcase a passion of theirs and
connect with peers that have the same interests. My own gifted students are
already so enthusiastic about the fair that they are talking about it non-stop and
working on their projects any time they have a spare moment. I have already had
students from all over the district emailing me about the fair even before their
school was contacted! This fair is completely voluntary but students are signing
up; that tells me this fair is supplying a need of our gifted students. That makes
me very happy and proud! 75 students from my school participated in the school
level competition. I am expecting 400 for the county fair.
Final Summative Ratings:
4 = Met and exceeded goals set forth
3 = Very effective in meeting goals
2 = Effective in meeting goals
1 = Marginally effective in meeting goals
0 = Ineffective in meeting goals

Logistics(4): Implemented a school fair and am in the process of a

regional technology fair for the gifted and talented Hall County students in
grades 5 12. Together 19 of our schools are joining this event. Our
regional event allows a pathway to the Georgia State Technology Fair.
Enrichment gifted outreach tied to curriculum (2/3): While the
information was available to teachers and students with ways to integrate
technology tools in the classroom and how to build on curriculum and also
to tie technology to student interests, I needed to find a volunteer to head
this endeavor. I do think that I allowed many students though to tie their
interests with technology and curriculum, however.
Mentoring(2): Allow outreach of community volunteers both college
students and adults - with passions and interests in technology related
fields to connect with Hall Countys gifted students, hopefully establishing
connections and mentorships. While the event has many volunteers and
judges that allows an outreach, I would like to see this blossom into a
tremendous resource that continues throughout the school year with
events after school not just for the Regional Technology Fair event.
Service (4): Serving on the Georgia State Tech Fair Advisory Committee
for 3 years minimum as a committee member and fair judge.

NARRATIVE, SUMMATIVE, & DISSEMINATION

of the TECHNOLOGY FAIR
Dissemination-Implementation Plan:
The logistics to the fairs have been so tremendous that I hope to recruit the new school
coordinators to join the Regional Steering Committee and take ownership of the
components of the Regional fairs growth with me! As stated above, I wish to have
committee members take over the mentoring and curriculum (connection for our
teachers) aspects of our school level fair. I am going to produce a video for all of the
schools highlighting the regional fair for this year, and seeing the video will also serve
as a catalyst for other students and schools to participate next year.
It has been a great experience and we are looking to host over 300 students at the
Regional (January 13 and January 14) with over 75 volunteers!