leader name

A Letter from Mrs. McKenna

Howdy World,

My class of brilliant and energetic third graders has enjoyed creating Austin's Local Leaders Web Page for your viewing pleasure. Our school, Kirby Hall, is a small private school in Austin, Texas. 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. We hope that you will find the information presented on our web page both interesting and charming (we sure have).

Research on our web page first took the form of local news discussions, guest speakers, and informal interviews of friends, family, and neighbors. We then designed a survey that each child administered to five adult community members. Each completed survey produced the names of seven different local leaders. When the surveys were tallied, we had compiled a list of over 300 well-deserving Austin leaders (that is when the real work began). The list of 300 leaders was narrowed down to 44 by including only those names that appeared on more than two completed surveys. Each student then brought the list of 44 leaders home to be reviewed by their families. The students and their families decided on seven leaders that they felt best represented Austin. The next day the students tallied the results and further narrowed down the list. There were, however, several even ties and some other "too close for comfort" results. To break the ties, each child was given the opportunity to make a case for their favorites. Finally, a final vote was taken... "Eureka", the power of democracy had prevailed and we had agreed upon seven Austin leaders.

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 Unfortunately, many of the e-mail addresses were outdated and some of our messages received no response.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 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.

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:

Max: I loved typing, it is soooo fun! But making an Internet page is hard work!!

Napoleon: I really enjoyed learning about Lady Bird Johnson.

Nugget: I learned that you had to put in a lot of time and effort into the making of an Internet page.

Pretzel: My favorite part was making a tool bar because I like to draw. But i learned that making a web page is not very easy.

Chequers: I learned that you have to have patience to make a web page.

Dusty: I want everyone to see me and our page!

Brownie: The best part was e-mailing Bruce Todd.

Harvey: I had fun writing and drawing in Claris Works.

Pepper: I liked using the computer pen to draw bubble letters

Golden: I learned to concentrate on the computer. I learned a lot and had fun at the same time. It was like a serious talk or meeting creating our page.

Harvey Pig: I learned to operate that computer pen, that was cool!