TONY ALTEPARMAKIAN
Foothill High School
Bakersfield, California
Cable System: Bright House Networks

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"Cable networks have a wealth of interesting, high-quality programs that engage students and help them develop their own questions by gaining their attention and interest. Utilizing cable programming helps teachers and students in a multitude of ways. Collaboration with other teachers, parents and students can create a dynamic curriculum that includes web-based content such as online videos via YouTube or other websites."

During Tony Alteparmakian's early years in the classroom, dry erase markers, a whiteboard and some scientific calculators marked the extent to which he intertwined technology into his lesson plans. Approximately three years ago, during his seventh year as a classroom teacher, he purchased a tablet computer to use in place of the whiteboard. In the beginning, his text-filled slideshows served as a detriment, rather than a benefit. Students still seemed disengaged from the content. It was only after his encounter with a picture of his school's parabolic-shaped gymnasium that he realized the impact picture and video could have on the students. This, along with his desire to give students access to information outside of the classroom, prompted him to devise a way to make notes available to students at any time.

The result is Alteparmakian's innovative method of documenting classroom lectures. He uses audio and visual devices that record his pen strokes and speech as a video. He then adds class notes, pictures and videos from cable programming and uploads all of it to YouTube for students to access at their convenience. Additionally, he created message boards on his website and quickly realized that many students who normally wouldn't participate in classroom discussions were posting and responding to comments on the web.

Alteparmakian recently won a 2009 Best Buy National Teacher Award. He is a member of the California Teacher's Association (CTA), National Education and Association (NEA) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).