Following your review, scroll to the bottom of this page to submit your application. All applications must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern DST on October 12, 2008.

Best Buy store name*

Gainesville FL

Store number*

424

Distance from school to Best Buy store*

34

Step 1: Contact Information

School name*

Chiefland High School

Address*

808 N. Main Street

City*

Chiefland

State*

Florida

Zip code*

32626

School phone number*

352-493-6000

School fax number

352-493-6018

School's EIN - Federal Tax ID number

School district name

Levy County School Board

Principal/Administrator's first name*

Pamela

Last name*

Asbell

Email address*

asbelp@levy.k12.fl.us

Teacher/Applicant's first name*

Christina

Last name*

Smith

Email address*

smithch@levy.k12.fl.us

Is this school a previous recipient of a Best Buy Teach Award?*

Yes

Number of years teacher/applicant has been working at this school*

One year or more

How did you hear about Best Buy Teach Awards?*

BestBuy.com

Step 2: School Information

Category that most accurately describes your accredited, nonprofit K-12 school*

Public

Category that most accurately describes your school's grade levels*

High School (9-12)

Total number of students enrolled in your school*

561

Diversity of students in your school

Asian/Pacific Islander*

2%

American Indian*

0%

Caucasian/White*

80%

Hispanic/Latino*

3%

African-American/Black*

14%

Other*

1%

Percentage of students in your school who qualify for free or reduced lunch*

35%

Step 3: Use of Interactive Technology

Date project or program was first implemented in your school*

August 2003

Grade level(s) and number of students from each grade level who directly benefited from this project or program in a single school year*

K - 0 Students
1 - 0 Students
2 - 0 Students
3 - 0 Students
4 - 0 Students
5 - 0 Students
6 - 0 Students
7 - 0 Students
8 - 0 Students
9 - 116 Students
10 - 81 Students
11 - 60 Students
12 - 34 Students

Total number of students who directly benefited from the project or program in a single school year*

291

Subject area(s) your project or program supports*

Art
Business/Economics
English/Language Arts
Health
History
Home Economics
Humanities
Math
Music
Physical Education
Science
Social Studies
Technology
World Languages
Other

Technology products your students have used in connection with the project or program*

TVs
VCR/DVD Players
MP3 Players
Digital Cameras
Film Cameras
Camcorders
Notebook Computers
Desktop Computers
Printers
Scanners
LCD Projector
Overhead Projector
Wireless Network
Internet
Video Conferencing
Video Games
Movies
Music
Global Positioning System (GPS)
Graphing Calculators
Microscopes
Science Lab Probes
Smart Boards
Other

Tell us about the project or program. In the past, how have your students used the technology products identified above in creative, fun and hands-on ways to learn the curriculum in the classroom? Describe only past history of the project, not what you are planning for the future.

Within our Business and Technology programs our students ideally choose what technology products they wish to use in many of the projects that they create. These projects are created to fit the needs of each student that will benefit them the most. Projects vary from video trails of a novel, state brochures, travel brochures, family calendars, and it also includes a variety of PowerPoint’s to include frog dissection, jeopardy games, accounting and business concepts, careers, and animated graphics that they create. Projects also incorporate web site design to include FrontPage, Macromedia MX and Adobe CS3 Premier Package. Students many times choose software they want to learn outside their academic classes such as MusicMatch, Pinnacle Studio, and Home Designing software to create their own projects. Within the program itself students are assigned jobs that revolve around many projects for the school, such as creating Banquet programs, Band Presentations, Senior Baccalaureate, Newsletters, and the Chiefland High School Web site. Students in the Business Academy create a business that includes a business card, brochure, logo, slogan, flyer, and a detailed business plan. Students in the Graphic Design Academy create something similar without the business plan and create a business web site and commercial using animated software. The businesses the students create are unique to each class, but are relevant to each individual student. Students not only learn technology but job skills that will better prepare them for the world of work. Students are involved with all activities of the school, making them have the desire to improve not only themselves but the environment in which they live. Their final project is to create an ePortfolio that incorporates their learning and technology experience of the skills learned throughout high school, as well as to emphasis on their future career goals. With their resume and ePortfolio in their hand they are ready to face the world.

Step 4: Impact of Using Interactive Technology

Has the hands-on use of technology in the project or program improved any of the following areas?

Students' engagement in class*

Yes

Students' comprehension of material being studied*

Yes

Students' class attendance*

Yes

If you answered that student engagement, comprehension and/or attendance have improved as a result of being able to use technology hands-on in the classroom, describe what the impact has been. Include specific statements students have made about the project or program.

Chiefland High Schools Business and Technology programs over that past 10 years have provided a multitude of fun hands-on ways to learn that are concurrent with the latest up-to-date technology that is relevant to student’s individual learning needs and career goals throughout the curriculum. It has taken years for this program to grow to what it is today.Our numbers have quadrupled this year alone, as we continue to provide programs that are motivating, fun, rigorous, and relevant to each individual student. Whether they want to be an accountant, engineer, nurse, lawyer, graphic designer,or business owner there is never a dull moment in the most sought after Career and Technical program at our school. "In all of these programs, Ms. Smith has discovered ways to make it fun and exciting to learn these things”(April Geiger, student. These programs continue to grow and are now implemented through our Graphic Design and Business Academy. Motivating students has been the key to our successful teaching of our Business and Technology programs and by providing fun hands-on projects has not only impacted our programs but the entire school in integrating technology. Our programs provide a real world work environment of current technology that has driven our students to stay in school and obtain the skills to compete in today’s world. “This is like doing a real business” (Danielle Parish, student).The impact of new technology everyday can change in an instant in education. Cuts in funding can only equate to inadequate education among today’s youths. The Best Buy grant would not only motivate but educate our students as technology changes. "This grant would be extremely helpful because technology changes all the time" (Nicole Davies, student). We had an increase in 40 Occupational Completers this year, students who have completed three courses in a sequence in our program. They now can qualify for a Gold Seal Scholarship. It also impacts our school by additional funding.

Step 5: Award Budget

Best Buy Product	Quantity	Cost/Item	Total Cost
Wacom - Bamboo USB Tablet with Cord	14	$70	$980
Wacom - Bamboo USB Tablet with Cord	14	$70	$980
Init® - Leather Office Chair - Blac	11	$90	$990
Init® - Leather Office Chair - Blac	11	$90	$990
Init® - Leather Office Chair - Blac	6	$90	$540
HP - Laserjet Print Cartridge - Mag	1	$87	$87
HP - Laserjet Print Cartridge - Yel	1	$87	$87
HP - Laserjet Print Cartridge - Cya	2	$87	$174
HP - Laserjet Print Cartridge - Bla	2	$79	$158
Cumulative Total:			$4986

Step 6: Impact of Teach Award

How will the products included in the budget improve your existing project or program described in this application?

The first item of $980 would be 14 Graphic tablets. It would enhance the Graphic Design program by using the tools of a graphic designer. We have several students that use them and they are just a great tool. The increase of technology increases the student’s motivation to want to learn. This would provide my student to share in the tools, but it would be a great start to give the students the hands-on practice with a tool that is fun to use. In many cases it is very difficult to draw on a computer with a mouse and the graphic tablet provides a more user friendlier tool and allows the student to pursue their more creative talents. This tool would also provide them the needed skill in obtaining the articulated college credit at our local community college. Without the experience of using the tool, they will surely fail the test given at the college. With success being a motivation to the key to teaching and the students learning. The second item of $980 would be 14 more graphic tablets. The additional graphic tablets would enable every computer to have a graphic tablet. All students then would have access and serve as a more convenient way to learn and allow them more time to implement their own unique graphic designs more frequently. It would also make the lab a concise fully equipped uniformed computer lab. The third item of $990 would be 11 chairs that would replace the many chairs that are over 7 years old and are falling apart. I keep screwing them back together only for them to fall apart the next day. As an academy I would like a professional looking computer lab and give the students another glimpse of what business is all about. The look of the lab also increases the motivation for the students to want to be in that environment. First impressions can make a difference when students decide what courses to take and as the lab gets more current so does the students and so does the desire to be in that class. The fourth item of $990 would be for 11 more chairs. It would almost complete the set for the entire room. It would create a more concise fully equipped uniformed computer lab. We are so close to being an almost perfect computer lab. It would be truly the first of its kind in Levy County, a classroom we all dream about. As I get closer to that dream I get more excited and it rubs of on the students at CHS. It is an incredible feeling to start something good and see it through the last 10 years. The fifth item of $540 would be to include the remaining 6 chairs, along with printer cartridges at $408.00. This would complete the remaining set of chairs of the chairs that are needed. Allowing the chairs in one computer lab to replace the broken chairs in the other business lab and again provide a concise uniform equipped computer lab to both business teachers. The ink would be used for the printing of student’s projects. Currently, it is very difficult to print with a cut in our budget and no money to purchase ink. Students have to e-mail me their projects and vary rarely do they have the opportunity to print. The final request would make the dream a reality, a concise fully equipped uniformed computer lab. As we tell our student’s dreams can come true. In conclusion we are in a rural area where many students are not provided with the opportunity to even own their own computer and they find that school is a place to learn, experience, and succeed so that they may create a better future for themselves.

Step 7: Certification and Signature

By submitting this application, I acknowledge that Best Buy, acting through Scholarship America, will select recipients of the Best Buy Teach Awards based on criteria as set forth in the program guidelines and that all decisions are final.

I understand the Best Buy Teach Award is issued in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and is awarded to the school based on the application submitted by the educator. All equipment purchased with the Best Buy Teach Award Gift Card is the property of the school and is to be used by the educator to enhance and support the winning program or project. Gift Cards cannot be redeemed for cash and may only be used to purchase products in Best Buy stores or at BestBuy.com. By accepting the Teach Award, the educator, the school and its administration agree to support the winning program and use the Best Buy Gift Card to purchase technology outlined in the application to enhance the program or project.

Once submitted, this application becomes the property of Best Buy. The contents of this application may be used by Best Buy for promotional purposes of the Best Buy Teach Award program, which may include but is not limited to, its website, in-store signage, newspaper advertising and inserts.

I certify I meet the eligibility requirements of the program and the information provided is complete and accurate. I certify that my school's administration has approved this application request, my school is a charitable or tax-exempt organization and that all information is accurate and verifiable.

I authorize release of all data from my application, including personally identifiable applicant information, to Best Buy for their use in selection of recipients and for use in publicity.

By typing my name, I agree to the terms and conditions for submitting an application to the Best Buy Teach Award program. I also grant permission to use my name for the purpose of advertising or trade in Best Buy publicity. I understand that this is an electronic signature that has the same legal authority as my handwritten signature.

Teacher/Applicant's signature*

Christina L. Smith

Date*

10/11/2008

Print Your Application

It is recommended that you print a copy of this application from this screen to keep for your records and for reference should the project or program be selected for a Best Buy Teach Award. You will be able to log in until the application deadline to print a copy of your application once it has been submitted. However, you will not be able to make any further changes or additions after it is submitted.

Print Application

Submit Your Application

You have completed the entry and review of your Best Buy Teach Award application. Changes must be completed before you click on the Submit Application button below. After you submit your application, no revisions can be made.

Thank you for applying for a Best Buy Teach Award.

Submit Application

Your Application Status: Submitted.

Thank you Christina Smith!

You have now been logged out of the system. Recipients will be notified of their status in mid-February. Please check your email regularly!

You can still log into your account to print a copy of your application.

For your reference, your Scholarship America ID is BBTeach-012061.

Should you have questions, email: bestbuyteach@scholarshipamerica.org