Author: Peggy Carbonneau Title: Instructional Technology Specialist Role: K-12 Classroom teacher Location: Westfield, MA Date: 11-14-01 One lesson where I can attribute noticeable results was after I combined meeting standards and authentic learning in a fourth grade technology class. The standard, from the grade four math curriculum, was: Use a spreadsheet to collect, organize, describe, and interpret data. The students worked in cooperative groups to use grocery store flyers to come up a week of family meals, enter the prices for each item on the spreadsheet, and then calculate the total cost. Taking this a step further, I then assigned a different hourly rate for each student in the groups (a low hourly wage, two mid-range rates and one upper level wage) and had them calculate how many hours each of them would have to work to earn enough to purchase the selected groceries. This opened many eyes as to the cost of feeding a family and made the students want to revisit their choices of products and look for the best buy and look for products that they could purchase with coupons. Technology gave them a quick visual account of their spending and how long they would have to labor to make those purchases. It was an eye-opening look at real life.

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