GREET: thanks; 2nd request; lesson application

[Jeanne Wingate <jwingate@TENET.EDU>]

Dear LMNET colleagues,

(This is a long message. Feel free to hit delete at any time after part
2!)

PART 1-SINCERE APPRECIATION: Thank you so much for the quick response to
my first greetings request on Thursday, March 5. Within 48 hours, you
had sent 70 greetings--67 from the U.S. and 3 greetings from Australia,
Canada, and Spain. By Open House night, March 10, we had received 5 more
greetings for a total of 75. FYI, New Jersey sent 8 greetings, followed
by Pennsylvania and New York with 4 each. Since we heard from all states
_except_ those listed below, we want to ask for at least one greeting
from those states. Our large number of foreign-language children also
want to know if there are any LMNET members from their countries,
particularly Mexico, Brazil, and Pakistan.  Again, thanks to your
cooperation, the project has been a huge success in our school.  The
experience turned out to be so much more meaningful than just a
“bulletin board” for Open House that I feel compelled to share it with
you.

PART 2-STATES WE STILL NEED TO HEAR FROM: Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho,
Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico,
North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia.

PART 3-LESSON APPLICATION
This is how I used the information with the 3rd--6th grade classes. I
plan to adapt the lesson for 1st and 2nd graders this next week. If you
want to use this lesson, please do so.
The learning outcomes that I hoped to achieve were:
*to introduce students (and staff) to the Internet in a real-life
application (communication by e-mail with 9000 of my fellow librarians);
*to show students the location of the messages received (social studies)
by using push pins on the world and U.S. maps;
*to lead students to recognize the importance of continuing to learn
“the basics” of reading, writing, spelling, and social studies.

When I asked the classes to identify the school subjects I had used for
this project, they were able to identify all of the outcomes I had in
mind and also to add some of their own. They pointed out that math
skills are necessary to create the spreadsheet and bar graph showing how
many greetings were received; that keyboarding skills and an
understanding of basic computer operations are needed to use Netscape
and ClarisWorks (computer technology); and that knowing how to write a
friendly letter (language arts), even in this high-tech experiment, is
very important!

I was very proud of all of the discussions generated by this activity. I
also think that the lesson showed even the most “techno-phobic” among
our teachers that I am continuing to reinforce the importance of the
traditional subjects they teach every day.

Jeanne Wingate, Librarian
North Euless Elem., Hurst-Euless-Bedford I.S.D.
jwingate@tenet.edu
KidsConnect Volunteer for the American Association of School Librarians,
a division of the American Library Association

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