Dee Miller joined the St. James faculty as full-time music teacher in 1980. By 1983, she was working toward her Master's degree in science - and becoming enamored with computers! That was the year she initiated the St. James computer program. Ms. Miller taught both computer and music until 1989, when she officially switched keyboards! As Technology Coordinator and computer teacher since that time, she has been instrumental in implementing state-of-the-art technology with an outstanding computer curriculum. The St. James computer program is understandably near and dear to her heart.

The school gained access to the Internet as early as 1987 (using a 300 baud modem), and Dee created our web site in September of 1996. She maintains the site on our in-house web server and Intranet network and encourages classrooms teachers to update their own class pages weekly. In addition to being the inhouse webmaster, planning and overseeing an ongoing campus technology plan, writing computer curriculum for grades 1-6, conducting ongoing inservice training for faculty, and helping maintain the 80+ networked computers on campus, Dee is serving as Interim Head of School this year. She oversees the entire curriculum for St. James - researching, studying, aligning, and directing the updating of any area of the curriculum when that becomes necessary. Curriculum alignment is an on-going process to assure that St. James continues to offer a sound academic foundation to our students, based on a classical foundation but relevant to the changing times.

To better understand the role of technology at St. James, please read
Teachers Teaching with Technology

Ms. Miller holds a Bachelor of Music degree with a major in pipe organ from The University of Texas-Austin and taught music for 10 years in Dallas and Texarkana. In 1986, she earned a Master of Science degree with a specialty in Computer Education from Texas A&M-T. After graduating with a 4.0 GPA, Dee continued to serve as Adjunct Faculty at the University for many years, teaching both graduate and undergraduate courses. She was honored by TAMU-T with the Distinguished Alumni Award for her innovative work in computers and education.
While researching her Master's Thesis, The Use of Computers as an Alternative Method of Musical Instruction, Dee was invited with Dr. Jean Porter to present two papers at one of the first M.I.T. computer conferences for education. Later, she was one of three educators in the U.S. selected to participate in a summer computer fellowship at the University of Virginia. These Fellows and their mentors were charged with developing educational computer tools using the Logo programming language. Ms Miller has since served as a presenter at many state and national computer conferences as well as being guest speaker at local conferences. She has published numerous articles and software reviews regarding computers in education for publications of Scholastic, Inc., and frequently conducts computer training and consulting for various educational and civic groups. In 1996, Ms. Miller was honored as one of the top three teachers in the state of Texas at the Texas Computer Educators Association Conference in Austin, Texas.

Dee is proud to boast three St. James graduates of her own: Bill, (St. James '83) a 1993 graduate of Vanderbilt University and a May '96 graduate of Texas Tech School of Law, is now a practicing attorney in Texarkana at the law firm of Greer,McCasland, & Miller, and is the immediate past president of the Texas Young Lawyers Association. Bill is married to the former Jessica Johnson, also a graduate of Vanderbilt University and a former St. James teacher. They are parents of two 2nd generation St. James students, 7-year-old Davis and 4 year old Austin. Their third son, 2-year-old Mason, says he is not ready for school!
Julie, (St. James '85) a 1995 graduate of Vanderbilt University earned her Master of Landscape Architecture degree at the University of Georgia, where she served as a Teaching Assistant in the School of Environmental Design and graduated with honors. She lives with husband, Silas Mathes,a graduate of Duke University with a Master's degree from The University of Georgia, in Nashville, Tennessee. The Mathes' are parents of three-year-old Greta Laurel and 2-year-old Clara Caroline.
Greg, (St. James '89) a year 2000 graduate of the School of Advertising at the University of Texas - Austin, (guess where Ms. Miller learned to do web pages) is now art director for Inferno Creative, a Memphis, TN. advertising firm, and a recent ADDY winner for the firm. Greg is married to Ms. Amy Tyler , also a UT grad in the School of Advertising and owner of Amy Miller Weddings, a wedding consultant firm in Memphis. Their first child, Meagan Lee Havins Miller, was one year old on July 22nd. Meagan is expecting a brother or sister next February! Greg is still a consult to his mother when she needs help with school computers, web sites, and wiring!

Dee is married to John Greer, a local attorney and long-time supporter of St. James School. She is also proud to report that all of her adult children as well as her husband, continue to use the Macintosh computer in their various careers, firms, and cities!


 ***E-mail Ms. Miller***

Ms. Miller's Philosophy of Education for a New Century
School, as we have known it for generations, consists of a room wherein we expect twenty or more children sitting in identical desks with identical books, to grasp content and concept of subject matter being presented in exactly the same way to each one. Impossible! We further expect twelve to twenty years of this formalized instruction to adequately fill these young minds with facts and theories as well as provide the skills and self-confidence necessary for living in, and contributing to a productive society.The advent of the microchip made this vision of education, and certainly our antiquated teaching methods, alarmingly obsolete.
Suddenly faced with machines we once visualized only in science fiction books can be frightening—or exhilarating! The future sits in our classrooms every morning — future scientists, politicians, mathematicians, artists, performers, religious leaders . . . and teachers. These children, indeed our entire society, innocently assume we will adequately prepare their generation to deal knowledgeably and effectively with life in a high-tech world.
Never again will an individual be able to learn, or even be offered, all the facts at his or her disposal. The frequency and staggering number of new discoveries made possible by computers often renders a textbook out-of-date before it is off the press. Likewise, we now know that no two individuals learn in exactly the same way. As teachers today, we have resources at our very fingertips to help us discover an individual's learning style. Consequently, the classroom teacher can, and should, provide experiences that enable each child to discover and absorb ideas in the way most meaningful to him or her.
Ready or not, we, as educators, must reassess what we teach, how we teach, and why we teach. It is essential to teach concepts, not memorized facts; independent thinking, not passive acceptance. Students must learn to analyze a problem, decide what information is needed to solve it, and where to find that information. Finally, they must learn to put that information to effective use. A teacher should not be judged on how many facts he or she can pour into a child's head, but by how well the child is taught to find, analyze, sort, and use information to solve a particular problem or create something wonderful. The one who helps students use new technological tools for tapping their own inner resources of intelligence and originality is truly the master teacher.
We all know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that what happens to the world tomorrow depends on what takes place when we step into our classroom today. These children arrive in school, at age 3 or 4, already proficient at manipulating a computer mouse. Looking into the bright, expectant eyes of tomorrow's leaders is incentive enough to get on with the business of educating ourselves so that we might successfully educate and inspire our students.This generation will grow up knowing they must continue learning and relearning throughout their lifetime. We, as teachers, should model lifelong learning. Ours is an awesome responsibility. The teacher who does not continue to learn, should not continue to teach.

The Computer Museum

These computers, bought from 1983 - 1990, were moved out of the storeroom and received new life as the 6th grade class of 2000 restored as many as possible to working order. These computers, along with software, were then shipped by St. James Episcopal Church to St. Vincent's School for Handicapped Children in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Year 2000 6th graders conducted a guided tour of our "computer museum" for grades one through five. Classes rotated through the museum in the Middle School Commons and played with age-appropriate software that was sent to Haiti along with the computers. 

Fr. Casseus, Director of the school, was delighted to learn of this project...especially since the school now has electricity for 16 hrs/day instead of just 8!

This was a joint humanitarian project with the Outreach Committee of St. James Episcopal Church, Texarkana, Texas. Chairman of the program was Dennis Landreaux.

Mayflower Movers, courtesy of Bob Torrans, handled all of the packing and moving of the computers to the shipyard in Florida.