Bowie High School teacher Katherine Grube and her IB Spanish IV students are pleased to announce that they have been selected as finalists in E-Instruction’s Classroom Makeover Contest. If they win, they will receive technology for their classroom worth over $25,000, including a projector, laptop and Interwrite board, in addition to thousands of dollars in licensed software.

The contest consisted of nearly 300 music videos submitted from the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, in three categories: K-5, 6-8 and 9-12. The goal was to demonstrate in a 2.5 minute video the need or desire for technology, and to show how that technology could be used to improve student learning.  Five finalists from each category were chosen, and the finalists were announced on October 31, 2008. At that time, voting began to help select the Grand Prize winner, with the votes making up 30% of the entrants’ final score; the remaining 70% will be determined by a panel of judges.

The IB students at Bowie chose to show how one student’s discovery of technology leads the students to demand more technology, ultimately becoming successful Spanish students.

Students Danh Truong and Paul Bui headed the project, directing and editing the video, with Pat Samermit and Ryan Brown writing the script while Mary Nguyen and Christine Tran spearheaded the musical arrangements. Macey Angecheradil and Nick Engberg were featured as the student and her friend who initially discovered the technology. The students spent almost two weeks, primarily working after school, to plan, film, and assemble the finished video. In addition, the following students heavily contributed to the video’s success.

Amanda Anonthysene                  Crystal Nguyen

Reena Anthraper                             Richard Nguyen

Kenny Cao                                          Michelle Nguyen             

Lisa Ebraheim                                    Trang Nguyen   

Anthony Ho                                        Adanna Okere

Donna Khounvivongsy                   Prita Persaud

Stephanie Loh                                   Cong Tran

Ngoc Ngo                                            Diane Tran

Christopher Nguyen                       Minh Tran

Lamson Nguyen                                               Khanh Vu           

In addition to the hard work and dedication of these students, Mr. Todd Watkins, former Teacher of the Year, graciously agreed to stand in as “the principal” for the school’s real principal, Mrs. Michelle Wilmoth, who was unable to participate.

Mrs. Grube and her students would like to thank everyone for their support and would like to encourage everyone to visit the site to vote at http://eimakeover.shycast.com/contest/1. Voting runs through November 14 and the winner will be announced December 3.

(Special thanks to David Alvey of Richardson, who alerted Mrs. Grube to the contest’s existence.)