Local LeadersDescription of "Our Community"
The local community the students will focus on is local leaders and their occupations and roles in local civic government.Summary of Our Project
The students have been exploring local leaders through field trips and class visits. The students will present their findings by summarizing and presenting what they have discovered through their recent investigation into local leaders in our community.
In our social studies and history classes we have been studying communities and leaders. The focus of much of these studies has been on our local community, Austin, the capital of the great state of Texas, and its many notable leaders. Therefore, this project seemed to be an ideal opportunity for us to showcase all that we have learned thus far.
The fifteen students in our class broke up into small groups of 2 to 3 students. Each group was assigned one of the seven leaders to research. Mission in hand, we set out to find photos, articles, books, phone numbers, fax numbers, e-mail addresses, and even web pages that related to our leaders. We attempted to contact our leaders via e-mail and studied many web pages that presented information about them. Unfortunately, many of the e-mail addresses were outdated and some of our messages received no response. Also, some of the web pages were still under construction. It became apparent to us that the information superhighway was still evolving. We were, however, not discouraged by these set-backs. We rose to the challenge and found alternative methods of communicating with our leaders. The most fruitful sources of information were discussions we had with our leaders' assistants, newspaper and magazine articles, and books.
I have used this project to make more faculty, parents, and students aware of our current Internet capabilities. Now we have something for show and tell. Because the students did the work the parents want to see what this web thing is. When they see the amazing work of their children, they become ambassador of technology every time they brag about what neat stuff their child has done on the World Wide Web.
This project is for me, a beta test of integrating Internet into other classrooms in our school. There are many obstacles. Providing all teachers Internet access on their desk and in their classroom required a substantial computer setup.
I have become aware of how few of our parents access the Internet at home. I forget that not everyone is a computer coordinator and that they don not go home and spent the night on line. The project has given me a key into their homes, and provided a powerful example when I try to sell them on the use on Internet in the home.
Our Internet project was a catalyst for our school to develop a school-wide technology plan. The staff, administration, and the school community are all working together to bring our school into the 21st century. Inspired by the Internet experience, my students offered the following comments:
I was adopted by two of Kirby Hall's high school students. They tutored me in the ways of html. At the same time, I worked with my class writing paragraphs and painting pictures in ClarisWorks. The class and I then transferred the paragraphs and pictures we created in ClarisWorks into html. My seven to nine year-old students got to learn first-hand what the Internet was all about and how it all worked. They progressed from merely being aware of the Internet to being "Net Kneeboarders". Many of the students' parents, because of this project, have also been awakened to the wealth of information on the World Wide Web.
- Established a technology advisory committee
- Formalize a technology plan and product a written report
- Host brainstorming sessions about the Internet and Education
- Establish e-mail contact students and faculty at other schools
- Find more Internet Web contest for students