Professionals: Chris Somers

Chris Somers enjoys being the media specialist at Indian Creek Middle School; her words "I love my job." She is a former language arts and American literature teacher. Chris has been instrumental in incorporating assistive technology into the middle school. She was the co-creator of a state recognized science project called “FrogQuest".

Chris has a special interest in technology that supports the curriculum, in writing grants, and in forming partnerships that will bring funding into the school corporation.  She likes to take a creative idea, build collaborations, find funding, and follow it through to the end.  Creating opportunities for students and staff is what keeps the job interesting and makes the media center an integral and exciting part of the school environment.  “I don’t want my administration to ever believe that they could exist without a dynamic media center that plays a central part in the school curriculum.”

• 2005 After-school Media Center program for students & adults funded by the Library Services Technology Act.
• 2006 Collaboration of middle school math and science teachers plus the media specialist (Chris) with University of Indanapolis pre-service math and science teachers; a grant through PRISM and Rose-Hulman (purchased a classroom set of graphing calculators and facilitatated pre-service teachers from the Univ. of Indpls. classroom visits and lesson planning to incorporate the use of calculators in the middle school).
• 2006 TAH (Teaching American History) grant participant with IUPUI. Chris states that this experience " exposed (her) to some of the best professional development I have ever encountered." She intends to participate again this year.

Chris has been a presenter at AIME, ICE, IMLEA, ISIT and  Indiana NEXT. She has an article published in Knowledge Quest and an online article published by the Big6 e-magazine.

Indian Creek Middle School http://www.nhj.k12.in.us/icms/
Media Center website http://www.nhj.k12.in.us/icms/library/index.htm

Currently Chris is working on a lesson plan that would take students out into the local environment and document some of the historic landmarks in the area. This is to be a collaboration between the media specialist and members of the language arts and/or science staff. She just finished a project for "Civil War Days" at the middle school: A U.S. Sanitary Commission Comfort basket full of Civil War artifacts and lesson plans that can be used in the classroom.