Indian Knoll ES Media Specialist Wins PBS Award

A Holly Springs educator has been honored for her cutting-edge approach to engaging students through a multimedia after school book club.

Indian Knoll Elementary School media specialist Jennifer Lewis was named one of the ten first place winners in the 2012 Teacher Innovator Awards. The awards recognize teachers that engage kindergarten through 12th grade students with PBS and reinforce modern learning.

As a first place winner, Lewis will be sent on a one-week, all expenses paid trip to Michigan this summer to take part in the "Innovation Immersion Experience."

Rather than a traditional book club, Lewis' club relies heavily on Web 2.0, which allows students to discuss books in ways that were not possible in previous years.

Lewis' club reads books on the Georgia Children’s Book Award nominee list and then goes to their wiki page to ask and answer comprehension questions about the material or blog about their opinions of the book. Additionally, students create glogs, or online posters, that advertise their favorite books to a wider audience at Indian Knoll.

"After starting a Web 2.0 book club, I will never go back to having a traditional book club!," said Lewis in her entry. "The online tools motivate our students to participate."

Lewis said she felt thrilled when she learned that her book club students were creating glogs for other classes, taking what they learned in her club and expanding it to another facet of the educational process.

"After being introduced to the Web 2.0 tools, our students were able to apply their knowledge to assignments given in other classes," she said.

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