Back Woodville Elementary

Woodville Elementary School is the oldest school in Leon county and is located on the outskirts of Florida's capital city of
Tallahassee. It is a rural community that is very close and caring. We are a Title 1 school and our parents have little extra money to
send their children on long trips to tour our great state and country. The answer to showing our students the world is for them to
take virtual tours. There are many wonderful virtual tours for students to take. In addition to the economics of taking a virtual trip it
is environmentally friendlier than loading up a bus to travel across the country. To attend a virtual tour a student must have a
computer or tablet, internet access, and access to search engines to help them find an appropriate tour. While globetrotting
recently, our students decided that opening up Woodville Elementary School to the world would be a wonderful addition to our
history museum. Our students want to create a virtual tour of our historical school using the cameras and software on iPads.
Woodville Elementary School is the oldest school in our county and is part of a tight-knit community. Our families are close and
work hard to provide for their children. Many of our students have grandparents and great-grandparents that have attended
Woodville Elementary School. We want to share our rich history with the world.

The project we have chosen to complete will show the rich history of our school. Woodville Elementary School began
as a boys' school for the plantation owners in the area. At that time it was called Hickory Grove academy. It then
became The White Church School and provided education for first through eighth grades. Finally in 1907, at a cost of
a little over $3000 Woodville School opened. It became an elementary school in 1964 and in 1966 opened its doors to
African American students, three years before Leon County Schools enacted its Freedom of Choice plan. Our project
would be innovative because of this history and how we choose to share it through a virtual tour of our history timeline,
our current school grounds and our plans for the future of Woodville. A virtual tour of Woodville Elementary and its
timeline can help bind our community and build our students' technology skills.

The project we have in mind fits wonderfully into our curriculum across many grade levels. We will be using writing
standards that cover how to convey ideas, production and distribution of writing, and research to build
knowledge.

(CCSS ELA-Literary W.3.3, CCSS ELA-Literary W.3.4, CCSS ELA-Literary W.3.5, CCSS ELA-Literary
W.3.6, cess ELA-Literary W.3.7; cess ELA-Literary W.3.8, cess ELA-Literary W.4.4- 4.9b; cess ELA-Literary
W.5.4- 5.9b) We will be using reading skills that cover key ideas and details, craft and structure, and integration of
knowledge and ideas. (These standards are CCSS ELA-Literary Rl .3.1 - 3.9, CCSS ELA-Literary Rl.4.1 - 4.9, and
CCSS ELA-Literary Rl.5.1 - 5.1 0.) Speaking and listening skills will be an integral part of the project because students
will be narrating the virtual tour. (This is covered by common core standards cess ELA-Literary SL 3.1 a- 3.6, cess
ELA-Literary SL 3.1 a- 3.6, CCSS ELA-Literary SL 4.1 a- 4.6, and CCSS ELA-Literary SL 5.1 a- 5.6)

Helping students research the history of their school wi ll lead them into a love of history that will see them through the rest of
their academic career and later years. ISTE standards for students are will be covered by the students' group work
and expression during the creation of this project, the research they complete and the critical thinking skills needed to
make it all come together in a final product that can be shared with the community.

This group undertaking will encourage students to learn about the history of not only Woodville Elementary, but the
residents of our community. Woodville is a rural , close-knit community located close to the state capital of Florida. The
parents of our students are hard-working people who want the best for their children. Studies have shown that about
40% of our students do not have access to the internet at home and providing them with opportunities at school is
extremely important to their technological and social development.
Technology is the centerpiece of our project. We will be using the internet to complete research of old records from the
State of Florida's archives and other sources. Slideshare.net is a website that shows our students how Woodville
residents participated in helping our community deal with racial equality. We will be using Microsoft Office and Apple
products to create and present our virtual tour. The iPads we are requesting will be used to take the photographs and
create the slide shows.

Student gain data will be collected through an increase in writing and reading scores with the students involved in the
project. Once the product is completed, we plan to share it during an open house here at the school. This past year the
community of Woodville held its first annual Founder's Day Festival. Woodville Elementary School participated by
serving breakfast, holding a pioneer costume contest, hosting tours of our current history museum, and having
community events on the school grounds. This would be a great event in which to share the virtual tour of our school.
It would then be added to our school website and opened up to other schools and the world to attend. Woodville is a
close knit community, sharing the changes our school has gone through and the progress we have made in many
areas helps to cement the feeling of pride throughout our school and community.