Sixth-grade teacher Erik Cliff incorporates technology into every lesson at Central Woodlands School in Ada, Michigan. In a unit on global warming centered around The Greenhouse Effect by Rebecca Johnson, Cliff's students read the book, posted summaries on the class blog, interacted with the author and each other on a wiki interface, wrote papers on the subject and produced podcasts of their papers which were posted on the class Web site. Cliff and his co-teacher won an award for this project, the money from which was used to purchase an Elmo projector for the class Smart Board. Cliff and his co-teacher conduct a book club in which parents volunteer to help facilitate small groups of students in reading and discussing a book. As sponsor of the student council for fifth and sixth graders, Cliff helps organize service learning activities benefiting seniors, veterans and others in the community. His students have scored 92 percent or above on the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) in math, English/language arts and science, and have shown improvement in writing and vocabulary on the district writing assessment. Cliff is a member of the school's Anti-Bullying Committee and the Building Advisory Council. He is also a member of both the district and school-level Technology Committees, and often provides professional development to teachers districtwide on using technology such as podcasts, wikis, blogs and interactive whiteboards.
2001 Aquinas College, B.S.
