NAIS Selects Melissa Poole as Teacher of the Future

In recognition of her "accomplishments as a teacher and innovator," The National Institute of Independent Schools (NAIS) have selected Purnell's own Melissa Poole as one of its Teachers of the Future for the 2010-2011 school year. Ms. Poole, our Director of Residential Life, Technology Coordinator and Literacy Skills instructor, has been chosen for what will be an active role in NAIS's efforts online. She looks forward to the opportunities this new honor represents, finding ways for technology to better interface with the classroom as well as meeting new colleagues dedicated to the same purpose.

She will join twenty other ToF's, as they are called, who like her were selected from a pool of over two hundred nominees. As a 2010-2011 ToF, Ms. Poole will attend, by invitation, the Apple Summer Learning Institute 2010; she will lead a year-long NAIS online educational forum, seeding it with discussion ideas and guiding the discussions themselves; she will create a demonstration teaching unit video for NAIS's online community as well for its page on iTunes U; and she may be one of three ToF's to present at a one-hour workshop at the NAIS Annual Conference in February. "This is a great opportunity for educators around the country to see some of the innovations that Purnell is using," she says, "and a great way for Purnell faculty to get some new ideas and inspirations."

Purnell Head Ayanna Hill-Gill nominated Ms. Poole for her participation and leadership in the school's various technology projects. Ms. Poole is a chief member of Purnell's Technology Cohort faculty group here. The Cohort determines how our technical resources can best assist the student, the teacher and the classroom where student and teacher meet. She also manages Moodle, the school's primary e-learning platform, and is not just one of our prime proponents of educational technology, but one of our leading lights in setting an example. From Media Studies to Literacy Skills, she has employed blogs, glogs (graphical blogs) and a variety of presentation software, on- and offline, to complement her teaching. Her knowledge and experience can only contribute to what she considers the "national conversation about technology in education.

The Purnell School congratulates Melissa Poole for this recognition of a job well done, and of a job that she continues to do so well.