May 17, 2002

Filling the Need: ETPDP IMMEX Workshop Attendee Becomes School Web-master

Last September Shelly Gross eyed the IMMEX staff skeptically when it was announced that at the end of the week, each workshop attendee would have a working web-site detailing the content of their classroom. Through a grant funded by the state of California and administered by the California State University system, the IMMEX project was able to offer California's teachers general technology workshops in which they learned to build classroom web sites. Though she had no shortage of enthusiasm for learning the new technology required for building the site, doubt about doing it with limited technology skills and in so short of a time span, lingered. Shelly Gross not only had a functional web-site at the end of the week but as of this May, has built and posted a web site for her school, Sun Valley Middle School. Recognizing the need for Sun Valley to have a presence on the web as a means of communicating with parents, teachers, students and community members alike and armed with her new html knowledge, Shelly Gross took it upon herself to fill that need. It is her enduring enthusiasm for learning and educating with technology which has led beyond the web-master role to her to becoming the go-to person concerning matters of technology at her Sun Valley Middle. Keep up the good work Ms. Gross!