Jennette Mears
Showell Elementary School
Kindergarten
Worcester County

Jennette Mears helps children become familiar with technology right from the start of their school experience. A kindergarten teacher at Showell Elementary School in Worcester County, she introduces students to Web sites that enhance the curriculum and teaches students to create artworks with software. Her students communicate over e-mail and through the Internet with pen pals at a school in Georgia. Each day, a television in the classroom shows a PowerPoint presentation of the previous day's lesson. To showcase her students' skills, she helped organize and plan a community technology night. Mears' efforts to integrate technology have had concrete results: her students average above grade level on a county technology proficiency checklist. She is a 2006 Disney Teacher Award nominee.