Guidry
Jo Ann Guidry has taught for over 20 years, most of which
have been spent in a fifth grade classroom. Her interest in
using the Internet in the classroom began in earnest four
years ago. She was awarded a 21st Century Classroom which
gave her $20,000 to spend on technological hardware. Her
students began developing the school's homepage as well as
the Town's homepage. Each year her students developed
additional pages for the school's website.
She has made presentations on Web use in the classroom to various groups including the East Tennessee Educators Association Conference, Tech Corps States Meeting, and the Technological Society of Knoxville, and has trained numerous teachers and students throughout her school system in the classroom uses of the Web. Her students have been asked to make presentations at Local town meeting and demonstrations at WATTec, the East Tennessee Technological Conference and have been the subject of newspaper and television coverage.
In 1996 she was instrumental in networking her entire school: she organzied the effort on one hand and pulled and punched down wires on the other. Today, her 80 classroom school is completely networked with at least one internet-connected computer in every classroom. Jo Ann was recently selected as one of two Tennessee NASA Galileo Ambassadors to Jupiter, and has won various teaching awards in her career.
She is married to webTeacher co-author Mike Guidry. They have a son who is a graduate student at the University of Hawaii and a daughter in high school, and live beside the Tennessee River in Knoxville. Besides working with teachers and students in using the Internet, Jo Ann enjoys cross-stitching and traveling.
Visit Jo Ann's school homepage, or send email to her at [email protected].