Wish you were here

NEA Today, Apr 1999

In Mississippi all eighth graders are taking a class called Computer Discovery, and many have E-mail accounts. This gives me the chance to assign extra credit and to provide a worthwhile learning experience for my English classes.

Some of the E-mail assignments I like to use are:

Character Postcards. Students go to a greeting card Web site, such as www.kodak.com/digitalImaging/ pictureThis/picThisHome.jhtml, and create a postcard from the point of view of one of the characters in the stories we have read so far this year. Students must ask themselves what pictures that character would choose and what message that character would send. When students finish designing the character's postcard, they send it to me via E-mail.

Vocabulary Puzzles. Students go to www.puzzlemaker.com to make a puzzle from their vocabulary words. They print out an original and an answer key, and they send an E-mail telling me about their puzzle.

Tess Talley

English teacher

Biloxi, Mississippi

Phys Ed on the Web

The physical education department staff at Park View Middle School has designed a Web site so that parents and students can see what we're doing.

The site contains student work, such as poems students have written about physical activity, as well as plenty of photos of students participating in various activities. We update the site weekly to include the top runners and their times, happenings in phys ed, lesson ideas, and plenty of links to health and physical activity sites.

What we've done on this site can be applied to any subject to motivate students with technology. Check us out at http://members.aol.com/pvmspe/ index.html.

Sheila Huggins

Physical education teacher

Yucaipa, California

Science Resources Site

I have amassed an encyclopedic Web site full of links to great science sites, including three Web pages full of research links for students and teachers. The site includes a large resource page and my own Monarch butterfly life cycle tutorial-with digital images captured in my classroom.

I now have about 70 internal html files integrated into the site, and well over 1,000 links I work hard to keep updated. Take a look at http://home. unicom.net/-wamerr/.

Randall Warner

Junior high science teacher

Olathe, Kansas

Cool Use for Screen Savers

I use the Windows scrolling screen saver to display special directions, technology tips, or anything the students might need to know for the day. When they enter the classroom, they just have to look at the screen.

For example, if there's a test scheduled, I use the screen saver to remind students to study their notes and get their pencils sharpened while I take roll.

Or, I might put a technology fact on the screen so the students have something to learn the first couple minutes of class. I later ask questions about the fact for bonus points.

David Ball

Technology teacher

Mount Hope, West Virginia

Video Book Reviews

My students submit their book reports as videotaped book reviews. They must "sell" their most recent library selection to all my classes via video.

Students make their presentations in front of a backdrop that resembles a television news set. We then play back each class's book reviews for the other classes.

This is a great way to give students a chance to openly express themselves in front of an audience. Students tell me that they get good "public speaking" experience-without having to be in front of an extremely large group. Some of my colleagues have edited my tapes to use on our school's closed-circuit television system during the morning announcements.

David Hachey

Sixth grade language arts/

literature teacher

Indianapolis, Indiana