Meet Larry Schirling

Larry Schirling teaches seventh grade social studies (World Geography) at Fort Johnson Middle School on James Island. His personal goals are to develop a love for the subject of social studies in his students and to increase their knowledge of the world in which they live. Larry enhances his daily instruction by incooperating multimedia in the form of video clips, images, and music. In addition, Larry has created a teacher resource with over 3,000 graphic-intensive PowerPoint frames covering various events in social studies.

Another priority for Larry is increased communication with parents and students. At the beginning of the school year, Larry creates a list of parent e-mail addresses and keeps parents updated on student progress. Using the class pages feature of his eChalk website, Larry keeps students and parents informed about student projects and class events.

Larry Schirling's Best Practice Strategies:

• Motivate student interest in social studies through the use of multimedia
• Create a teacher resource of social studies PowerPoint presentations.
• Promote increased communication with students and parents using the class page feature of eChalk.

Lesson Plan Overview:

The focus of this particular lesson is a pictorial study of Spain and France. The students will take a virtual tour of each country via a multimedia PowerPoint presentation, as the teacher explains the "big picture" backgound information. After the presentation, the students will participate in a classroom discussion of how current events relate to the historical events they investigated.

See Larry's eChalk webpage

See an example of one of Larry's PowerPoint presentations

If your school would like additional information on eChalk or to schedule a training session, contact Beth Lovett at 937-6491 or Elizabeth_Lovett@charleston.k12.sc.us