Classroom+Wikis

My name is Dawn Berkeley and I am an educator with the Prince George's County Public Schools. I work at Parkdale High School located in Riverdale, Maryland. I have been teaching at Parkdale for the last 8 years within the school's Science Department. Currently, I teach Advanced Placement Biology and the Academic Validation Program in Biology.

Here, you see me with my two boys, Nehemiah and David. I love children and I am very passionate about education. My areas of special interest are in science and the natural world. My desire as an educator is to communicate and perhaps inspire this passion in my students. This past summer, I participated in an institute sponsored by Bridging the Watershed. During the workshop, I had the awesome opportunity of completing field studies at local National Parks in order to bring my students out to the field to work on various scientific modules. In addition to my work with Bridging the Watershed, I have also participated in the Seminar for Teachers Program sponsored by the University of Maryland College Park, which allows teachers to become "students" for the day and engage in fascinating topics such as Geographic Information Systems, Immigration in the Maryland Landscape, Science and Techology in Film and Literature and Imagining the Exotic in European Art and Artifacts, to name a few. In addition to these opportunities, I plan to apply for the 2009 - 2010 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship which offers secondary mathematics, science and techonology classroom teachers the opportunity to serve in the creation and modification of national policy that impacts our students.

When the opportunity for participating in the Prince George's County Sharing Technology with Educators Program (STEP) team presented itself, I immediately responded, as not only do I have a love for the natural world, but for technology as well. This program will enable me to do several things:


 * discover new ways of infusing technology into the biology curriculum
 * develop and implement new strategies of training students in the Biology High School Assessments with the use of technology
 * become more techonology literate
 * inspire other teachers to become more invested in their own technological expertise
 * become a leader and point of contact for technology users in my building
 * become an advocate for technology accessibility in my school

I am very excited about the opportunity to work with the STEP Team as there are many benefits that I seek to gain from this program. It is my hope that with these benefits, I will be able to better empower our students for the 21st century.