Lucy Gray
Lucy Gray is the Lead Technology Coach at the Center for Urban School Improvement at the University of Chicago. In her current role, she is responsible for the development of a technology professional development program on three University of Chicago Charter School campuses. Lucy also supports technology integration efforts at the North Kenwood/Oakland Charter School.
Prior to her current position, Lucy worked as a primary grade teacher in the Chicago Public Schools and as a middle computer science teacher at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. She holds an M.Ed in Technology in Education from National Louis University, where she also serves as an adjunct faculty member and advisory board member to the TIE program.
Lucy's varied professional interests include the incorporation of Web 2.0 technologies in educational settings, multimedia development, assistive technology, global awareness and urban education. She often covers these topics in her postings to the Infinite Thinking Machine, a group weblog sponsored by WestEd and Google. In recent years, she has been appointed an Apple Distinguished Educator and Google Certified Teacher.
Work Summary
During the course of my work in education, I've developed interests in many areas including global awareness, urban schools, school change, and educational policy. My love of technology came later in my career, and I've grown to view technology as a vehicle for investigating educational innovation. Over the past fifteen years, I've had the opportunity to experience different educational settings which include traditional urban public schools, an elite private school, and now a progressive set of charter schools. Each organization has taught me important and unique lessons, helping me to broaden my vision and beliefs about effective education.
Last summer, I moved across the University of Chicago campus from the school started many years ago by John Dewey to a set of charter schools. My previous work at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools included developing and implementing middle school computer science curriculum, working with kids in a technology after-school program, and helping teachers integrate technology into instruction. During the course of my seven years at Lab, I also supported technology use by sending out a weekly list of relevant web sites to teachers known as the Friday 5, facilitated year-end multimedia projects for three middle school grade levels.
During the summer of 2007, I entered a new stage of my career at the University of Chicago Center for Urban School Improvement (USI). The Center is responsible for establishing and managing a set of charter schools in an unique partnership with the University of Chicago. The primary goal of the Center is to establish a replicable model of quality urban education, and they are succeeding by providing purposeful, intentional and meaningful instruction to students from predominately low-income families.
Technology plays an important part in USI's mission, and I'm thrilled to have been recruited to help shape future plans. My position is divided into two roles as Lead Technology Coach at USI. Part of my time is spent as a tech coach at the oldest campus of our charter school. At North Kenwood/Oakland Charter School, I work with PreK-5 teachers and students and am glad to still have direct contact with a school community. My other role is to oversee the design and implementation a professional development program across our three campuses. This is particularly exciting time for me as I'm collaborating with people, such as Dr. Nichole Pinkard, who are like-minded and I have the opportunity to learn a great deal.
Specifically at USI, I am providing professional development leadership and support to three other tech coaches, developing a professional development community across schools using Ning, investigating professional development best practices, helping with the creation and adoption of a wiki that will showcase our work and resources, vetting technology tools and resources, and building relationships with other institutions that may benefit our mission at the Center for Urban School Improvement. I see my main challenges as developing meaningful workshops and courses for teachers, finding funding for financing an ideal professional development program, and developing a technology professional development vision that will draw various stakeholders.
Outside of my formal job, I am involved with several local and global education initiatives. In 2005, I was appointed an Apple Distinguished Educator and I often present at conferences on behalf of Apple. I also have participated in their yearly institutes, including one where we developed a global awareness curriculum while traveling through Europe. For this year's ADE Institute project, I worked with a team of five educators to produce an Apple Learning Interchange exhibit called Field Trip 2.0. I am also a member of the another educational technology community known as Google Certified Teachers program. This came about from my work with the Infinite Thinking Machine, a group weblog sponsored by Google and WestEd. Here in Illinois, I serve on the conference committee for Illinois Technology Conference for Educators, where I am in charge of organizing keynote and spotlight speakers. I also teach workshops as an adjunct faculty member for National Louis University and serve on the advisory board for their Technology in Education program.
I also have a strong interest in social technologies, the cultures of innovative businesses, and the implications of these two entities in the world of education. I'm an avid collector of RSS feeds, and have personally been blogging at A Teacher's Life for the past two years. I continue to run my Friday 5 listserv via Google Groups, too, and I have established a global education meeting place via Ning called the Global Education Collaborative. My own personal network has grown considerably over the past year with the advent of new Web 2.0 applications such as Twitter, and I'm eager to develop methodologies and messages that will convince other educators that examination of such technologies is a worthy endeavor.
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