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Theater and technology were a major themes at the Shawnee Educational Foundation (SEF) Hall of Fame Banquet Thursday, as the foundation recognized grant programs and honored Ronny Jones as the 2012 Hall of Fame Honoree.
Jones, a Shawnee native and third generation business man, was inducted into the hall of fame because of his work in community theater and theater owner, among many other accomplishments and honors.
During his 20 minute acceptance speech, Jones thanked his family as well as the educators in his life that had a profound impact on his life and accomplishments.
“Two things in my life have made me the person I am today, first and foremost is my family. Besides this wonderful family support, I was fortunate to have educators who molded my life and taught me lessons my parents could not,” Jones said.
Jones is a lifelong Shawnee resident. He owns the Jones Theatres and is a founding member of the Shawnee Little Theater (SLT), and is also its managing director, the vice president of the National Association of Theatre Owners for the Oklahoma Board of Directors.
During his speech, he kept the audience laughing with stories of his life, as well as the importance of theatre and the arts in education.
“I hope we never cut the budgets so much that we eliminate arts and music in our schools. These areas give our students the opportunity of expression, freedom of creative ideas and make communication truly a two way street,” Jones said. “Thank you for this wonderful honor, I’ll do my best to live up to the expectations.”
One hundred and seventy-five Shawnee area educators gathered at the Geiger Center at Oklahoma Baptist University for the dinner and banquet. Attendees were able to view displays that explained the grant programs that various teachers in the community were awarded. Many of the grants were used to introduce and implement technology in to the classroom for elementary aged students.
“Technology seemed to be the big theme this year, which is cool,” SEF President Laura Newberry said to attendees. “These kids are going to know how to do every kind of iPad, iPod, I-whatever, and not every home in our community can afford this technology and it’s kind of the way of the future. And, if they don’t know how to use it ... then it’s not going to be a very bright future for them.”
Theater and technology were a major themes at the Shawnee Educational Foundation (SEF) Hall of Fame Banquet Thursday, as the foundation recognized grant programs and honored Ronny Jones as the 2012 Hall of Fame Honoree.
Jones, a Shawnee native and third generation business man, was inducted into the hall of fame because of his work in community theater and theater owner, among many other accomplishments and honors.
During his 20 minute acceptance speech, Jones thanked his family as well as the educators in his life that had a profound impact on his life and accomplishments.
“Two things in my life have made me the person I am today, first and foremost is my family. Besides this wonderful family support, I was fortunate to have educators who molded my life and taught me lessons my parents could not,” Jones said.
Jones is a lifelong Shawnee resident. He owns the Jones Theatres and is a founding member of the Shawnee Little Theater (SLT), and is also its managing director, the vice president of the National Association of Theatre Owners for the Oklahoma Board of Directors.
During his speech, he kept the audience laughing with stories of his life, as well as the importance of theatre and the arts in education.
“I hope we never cut the budgets so much that we eliminate arts and music in our schools. These areas give our students the opportunity of expression, freedom of creative ideas and make communication truly a two way street,” Jones said. “Thank you for this wonderful honor, I’ll do my best to live up to the expectations.”
One hundred and seventy-five Shawnee area educators gathered at the Geiger Center at Oklahoma Baptist University for the dinner and banquet. Attendees were able to view displays that explained the grant programs that various teachers in the community were awarded. Many of the grants were used to introduce and implement technology in to the classroom for elementary aged students.
“Technology seemed to be the big theme this year, which is cool,” SEF President Laura Newberry said to attendees. “These kids are going to know how to do every kind of iPad, iPod, I-whatever, and not every home in our community can afford this technology and it’s kind of the way of the future. And, if they don’t know how to use it ... then it’s not going to be a very bright future for them.”
First grade teacher Emily Stinnett combined old and new technology as part of her grant. Stinnett was awarded $816.21 from the SEF, which she used to purchased more than 200 non-fiction books. She also purchased some applications for the iPad that she uses in her class.
“With the money that the SEF provided, I was able to shop around and find exactly the books that would be good for my kids,” Stinnett said. “I was able to buy a few apps that they can put together ... multimedia presentations.”
The students used the class iPad and the apps to create technology driven book report using animation, photos, and narration. Each student creates the book reports over a one week period and presented to the class. The iPad also allowed Stinnett to email the students’ 21st century book report to their parents, she said.
The program has been successful at getting first graders interested in reading non-fiction books as well as helping with their reading comprehension, Stinnett said.
All of the dinner tables at the banquet were adorned with vibrantly crayon colored thank you cards from students who were directly affected by the more than $21,000 in grant moneys awarded to teachers.
Grant recipients, their schools, projects and amounts include:
Linda Moring, North Rock Creek, $1,020 for Tech Savy Research; Charity M. Hobbs, Grove, $1,250, All Aboard: Next Stop Mathematics Learning Stations; Starla Howard and Andrea Brown, Will Rogers, Elementary, $1,200, APP-tastic!.
Beth Vincent, North Rock Creek, $1,245, Laptop Bee Bop: Reaching Kids with Improved Technology; Karen Buss, Grove, $748.50, It’s the 21st Century: Engaging Digital Natives; Neta Lane, Shawnee Early Childhood Center, $1,250, Orff We Go— Discovering the Joy of Music Using Orff Instruments.
Rosemarie Bushong, Sequoyah, $958.94, Math You Can Count On!; Emily Stinnett, Will Rogers, $816.21, Reader, Reader, First Grade Succeeder; Camille Pfieff, Jefferson, $1,003.33, Tech Me To Read; Sherri Thompson, Jefferson, $1,009.95, Quaver’s Marvelous World of Music; Michelle Kirkendall, Horace Mann, $610.334, Getting “Versatile” with Math.
Rebecca Berry, Will Rogers, $699, I can IPAD2; Karen Parker, Will Rogers, $1,250, Our Brains will Pop with Brainpop; Ann Palmer, Shawnee High School, $1,175.96, Bookworms Go Digital; Melissa Farias, Will Rogers, $1,248, Learnercise Math.
Kelli Plumb, Sequoyah, $750,95, Reading: The Ultimate Superpower; Eloy A. Chavez, District English Language Tutor, $650, Apps for Pods; Andrea Brown, Will Rogers, $651, Horsin’ Around; Michelle Wallace, Sequoyah, $810, Think Fun; Kristi Carter, Sequoyah, $1,171.98, Safari USA; Amber Johnson, Candice Gatz and Louise Walker, Sequoyah, $1,250, Teaching to the Times with Technology; Joyce Parsons, Shawnee High School, $392.43, Carakillers, Rattlebacks, and Babookies.
