FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 9, 2008
Contact: Joshua Hollis
(662) 329-7119

Students and teachers exchange ideas at MUW summer camps

COLUMBUS, Miss. – Students enrolled in the Crossroads Program were given the opportunity to do something they might never have: grade their teachers. When discussing plans for their respective Mississippi University for Women summer camps, Ivey Ivy and Richard Holden realized both programs would match up well, giving teachers enrolled in TEAM AIMS (Technology Education and Mathematics Advancement in Middle School) and students participating in the Crossroads Program a chance to interact.

“The teachers are using new technologies to motivate students and tell stories using math, to show them that math is usable in everyday life,” said Holden, an associate professor in the College of Education and Human Sciences.

Richard Baliko, a seventh and eighth grade teacher at BF Liddell Middle School in Macon, said the week-long pairing was beneficial because it helped the teachers catch up with what the students already know.

"We’re living in a digital age now,” he said, adding that students today are more technologically savvy than they used to be.

Shanterra Kidd, a ninth grader who will attend Columbus High School, said she learned some real world applications, such as budgeting funds.

Kidd said her favorite part of the camp was “grading” the teachers. She said she went easy on them because they all explained things well.

Students enrolled in the Crossroads Program, led by Ivy, rated the teachers’ presentations on scales of 1 to 5, with students ranking how fun the presentation was, how the lesson related to the real world and how much the lesson made them think.

TEAM AIMS is funded by grant that helped teach and equip approximately 15 middle school mathematics teachers from seventh through ninth grade in using innovative technology in their classrooms to aid in teaching. The technology equipment primarily included electronic Mimio whiteboards, Office 2007 graphic presentation software (PowerPoint) and TI-84 graphing calculators.

Crossroads is designed as a “comprehensive support program” targeting seventh through ninth grade students from Columbus Municipal School District, and is funded by a “21st Century Community Learning Centers Continuation Grant” awarded to MUW Center for Creative Learning.