The teachers at Keith Valley Middle School in Horsham, Pa., are serious about having their students become technology savvy. So they have included learning Microsoft Office, Office Live Workspace, and Bing in their lesson plans for the current school year.
But they also want their students to have fun with technology — and their school to have a mascot. So teachers Diane Heitzenrater, Stacy Rotchford, and Valerie Fasy decided to have some 400 sixth-graders they teach use Office Live Workspace and Office to collaborate on a new mascot for the school.
It was a hit! The Keith Valley Middle School students set up a workgroup on Office Live Workspace to nominate, illustrate, promote, and debate possible mascot names in recent weeks. They used Microsoft Word to brainstorm ideas and write letters of support for their choices to the school principal. They used Microsoft PowerPoint to create charts and graphics and make their presentations.
Once the mascot ideas were nominated, promoted, and presented to all of the students, they voted on their choice for a mascot.
Last week, in front of hundreds of students, teachers, and parents, the new mascot for Keith Valley Middle School was formally announced by Principal Jonathan Kircher: the Keith Valley Kats!
The winning entry was created and submitted by student Anna Hill.
"The students were excited about designing the new mascot and sharing their ideas while actively engaging in learning new software and interacting with new students," said teacher Valerie Fasy.
Now that the school has a mascot, the students will continue using Office Live Workspace, Office, and Bing in their classrooms. Bing has been instrumental in helping the students learn how to use a search engine and to find things on the Internet.
Want to learn more about how these Keith Valley Middle School students are aided by Microsoft technologies in their studies and in choosing a school mascot? See this video.
Here's another video to check out: The Keith Valley students, and some of their teachers, dance to "Bing goes the Internet," the winning song by amateur songwriter Jonathan Mann in Bing's Jingle Contest held earlier this year.
Jim Jin