"When I came to work at the Educational Technology Training Center (ETTC) four years ago, I had accumulated numerous bookmarks to Web resources that I had used with the students at my former school," Jerrie Cheek told Education World. "My director at the training center wanted me to do something with those resources; hence, Teaching With the Web, my first thematic Web site. Teachers and students worldwide began using those thematic Web pages and I had requests to add additional themes. Instead, I created the Curriculum Hotlist pages."

Cheek is an instructional technology specialist for the ETTC at Kennesaw State University, which serves the 31,000 educators in the Atlanta metropolitan region. Cheek's role is to train teachers to integrate technology into the curriculum by conducting two professional development programs. The two seven-day programs are InTech, an option that meets one of Georgia's requirements for maintaining teacher certification, and WebTech, a follow-up program to InTech that Cheek co-developed.

"My goal for Jerrie's Curriculum Hotlists is to provide teachers and students with quality thematic Web sites that are relevant to the Pre-K-12 curriculum," said Cheek. "Teachers have little or no time to search for Web sites to enhance their curriculum. I've done the searching for them."

Which of the curriculum hotlists are most popular depends on the time of year, reports Cheek. In August and September, the Johnny Appleseed and Apples page is accessed most; in January the most popular pages are 100th Day of School and Snow/Winter. Cheek's newest themes are Spanish Resources, Ice Cream, and China.

"The gratification I receive from building and maintaining this Web site is knowing that busy teachers [and students] can, at a moment's notice, access valuable Web resources that are relevant to their classroom curriculum," Cheek explained. "If I can make a teacher's life a little easier, I feel I have been successful."

Article by Cara Bafile
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