LHHS teacher gets coveted spot in forum at Microsoft headquarters

Most people don't know the true story about Lake Havasu City. It's actually 10 miles south of Flagstaff in the beautiful Kaibab forest. It also boasts some of the best snow skiing in the country, which comes as no surprise because it gets about 20 inches of snow each winter.

Those "facts" helped Lake Havasu City teacher Michelle Ravnikar earn a coveted place in an international seminar this month.

Her computer class at Thunderbolt Middle School placed the incorrect information about the city on a special Web site as a class assignment on "truth" in the media.

The project was aimed at instructing students that not everything they read on the Internet is true.

She included that project as part of her application package to attend the Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teachers Forum July 18-19 in Redmond, Wash., a Seattle suburb. She was one of 10 teachers chosen from 100 applicants in the country. Teachers from 26 countries, such as Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, India and Korea, also attended.

The teachers had high hopes that Microsoft founder Bill Gates would visit the seminar, maybe even in a surprise appearance, but that didn't materialize.

Ravnikar, who will begin her second year of teaching business courses at Lake Havasu High School next week, presented the Lake Havasu City parody during the "Best Practices" portion of the schedule.

"We went to lunch after I showed that and everyone was saying, 'Good job,'" Ravnikar said.

Other teachers' presentations varied widely, featuring ambitious projects such as live video streaming of basketball game tournaments with overlaid statistics and an interactive dance video game combining music, video and a dance pad controller.

Ravnikar plans to start a project for Lake Havasu High School students similar to one that Michael Furdyk, a 23-year-old Canadian, presented. It features a Web site that students in more than 3 million cities are using to connect with each other and talk about issues that are important to them.

In her version of the project, Ravnikar envisions her Business Fundamentals class keeping electronic journals and taking digital photos to document their community volunteer work.

As part of the application package, Ravnikar included a teacher recruitment CD her Integrated Computer applications produced last year.

Since she's been back, she has e-mailed three Canadian participants and another from Montana. Participants had many opportunities to mingle and brainstorm with each other, as well as attend presentations.

"It was a great thing to be able to go to," Ravnikar said. "I was surprised and excited to be chosen."

She taught computers for four years at Thunderbolt before teaching high school Word Processing II and Integrated Computer applications. This year, she will also teach Business Fundamentals as one of four instructors in the business education portion of the Career and Technical Education program.

Microsoft paid Ravnikar's event expenses, including her airfare, motel room and food, a value she estimated at $1,000.

You may contact the reporter at sdunham@havasunews.com.