FACILITATOR
Educators facilitate learning with technology to support student achievement of the ISTE Standards for Students.
"Technology will not replace teachers, but teachers who use technology will replace those who do not. "
~ Unknown
Educators facilitate learning with technology to support student achievement of the ISTE Standards for Students.
"Technology will not replace teachers, but teachers who use technology will replace those who do not. "
~ Unknown
ARTIFACTS
The following artifacts, with an accompanying rationale, can be found on this page:
- SoftChalk Project because it allows students to take ownership of their course goals with an online activity.
- Puzzlemaker Word Search because students can use it as an additional study resource outside of the classroom
- Video list because it provides students with a list of YouTube videos that can be viewed in class or at home for additional instruction.
- A news release I have written about our new welding facility and how it will improve our instruction.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Calhoun Welding Facility Scheduled for Fall 2023 Opening
June 27, 2022
DECATUR, AL. – Calhoun Community College welding instructors and students will be moving into a modern, state-of-the-art facility during the 2023-24 school year. The facility has been under construction for the past twelve months, and school officials say everything is on track for an August 2023 move-in date. The recent boom in welding department enrollment prompted the need for a larger space.
Accessibility for the physically challenged was a top priority for the building’s architects. The new building will be a two-story structure complete with an elevator, something not found in the old facility . Unlike the current welding department, the new facility features an open floor plan that allows for more space to walk from storage rooms to tables to lab booths. Students and instructors in need of a wheelchair, motorized scooter, or other mobility device will have enough space to move about without worrying about bumping into work tables.
The top floor will be reserved for classrooms while the bottom floor will serve as the welding lab and equipment storage room. According to welding lab instructor, Jacob Sprinkle, putting the welding lab on the bottom floor was a “no brainer”. Sprinkle said, “ The bottom floor will be larger so that all of the heavy equipment remains on the ground floor. We will have a lower-floor demonstration area so that the heavy equipment does not have to be transported upstairs for those lessons.” Due to the need to move heavy equipment in and out of the building, a roll-up entrance door has been installed on the bottom floor in addition to the standard-size metal doors. A separate roll-up door has been installed onto the equipment storage room so that persons in wheelchairs and mobility scooters can more easily access it.
Other details of the new facility include emergency safety showers at front and back of the bottom floor, a first aid station in the first floor offices, adjustable height workstations and stools, and an amplification sound system in classrooms and the entire bottom floor. For Sprinkle, the amplification sound system fulfills a long-standing need. A high fever as a toddler left Sprinkle with moderate hearing loss, and as a result, he wears hearing aids. He says a smaller amplification sound system was utilized in his elementary school classes. With such a large lab area, the amplification system will not only benefit him in hearing his students, but will also help them to hear all instructions. “If we had an emergency situation, that system would help us to alert and get everybody out of the building,” said Sprinkle.
One item currently not found on the work plans is a separate dressing/personal effects area. The architects, contractors, and school officials are still determining the amount of space needed for the area. Due to the increasing need for welders in the Madison/Limestone/Morgan region, the Calhoun welding department has the largest student enrollment of any program in the Career Tech division. Currently, welding classes are offered at the Huntsville campus location, but school officials are considering closing those classes so that all welding instruction can take place in the new facility. Another consideration in the size of the dressing area is the steadily increasing number of female students in the program. School officials plan to provide a comparable number of dressing areas for female students as they do for male students.
RESOURCES