Donna Criswell

Donna Criswell holds the position of Curriculum Specialist for Technology for the Sudbury, MA K-8 Public School District. Training teachers, students, administrators and parents in the integration of technology into the the curriculum has been her passion for over 23 years. With an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education and Masters in Educational Technology, Donna has supported technology in grades K-12, in addition to serving as Director of the Adult Education program in her home town. Teaching workshops, graduate courses, modeling in the classroom, writing curriculum and providing resources that help teachers make curriculum connections is what she does!

Donna realizes that teachers, just like students, need to be exposed to new tools in a variety of ways and over a period of time. Adoption takes place after exposure, practice, and ongoing support occurs and the connections are personally meaningful. A variety of methods are implemented to promote unitedstreaming in her district. In her bi-monthly newsletters Donna looks ahead to upcoming grade level units recommendations for teachers. Donna co-teaches unitedstreaming workshops along with the content curriculum specialists in her district (math, social studies, science, ELA and wellness) thereby making the connections all the more powerful for teachers (not to mention strengthening the technology skill level of the specialists!).

"unitedstreaming has reinvigorated my love for technology in the classroom. The ability to use clips in a variety of ways (teacher directed, shared via quizzes and assignments, distributed through our network, or embedded in tool-based applications) that are focused on a specific content is powerful. I am a firm believer in the constructivist approach to learning and what better way to do that than with multimedia and technology? This resource offers students (and adults) a motivating way to gain content knowledge and acquire deeper understanding. It is also a valuable resource to bolster teacher's content knowledge as well. I am constantly amazed at the ever growing resources this service contains, and it's dedication to teachers first!"