From: Don.Demarco@f55.n343.z1.fidonet.org (Don Demarco)
Newsgroups: k12.chat.elementary
Subject: Pen Pals
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 06:40:00 PDT
Organization: FidoNet node 1:343/55 - The Quest, Marysville Wa

Grant:  I would like to apologizie to you for not writing back 
sooner.  Hopefully, this message will make up for all of the 
messages you have wanted to receive but haven't.  I wanted to start 
our pen pal program in October, like you indicated, but I have had 
other responsibilities too, and have not had the time to do the job 
the way it should be done.  I will be ready in January - right after 
the Christmas break.  Since you have a modem at home, you and I can 
communicate with each other over the holidays and set up some kind 
of a program.  I would like to know a little bit more about your 
class of 27 students (i.e. age, grade, interests, whether or not 
there are any Talented and Gifted students within the class, how 
many budding authors there are who like to write short stories, how 
many students understand what a data base is - or could  - and 
anything else you might want to add.  Don't be afraid to send me 
multiple-page messages, just get all of the information to me).
.
.
To let you know a little bit about my plans for after Christmas, you 
need to close your eyes and imagine a block-diagram chart.  In the 
middle of the diagram, place a big square and label it "K12Net BBS". 
Radiating outward from that square should be 3 or 4 straight lines 
that terminate in other squares.  In one of the squares, write the 
words "Marysville School District".  In the next, write "Lake 
Stevens School District".  In the next, write "Arlington School 
District".  Finally, put YOUR school district in a box separate from 
the K12Net BBS box.  What you are now looking at is a map or a plan 
of how to link various schools and school districts to each other, 
free of any costs, whereby they can utilize the K12Net to write pen 
pal letters and messages, have teachers sign various collaborative 
projects that could include developing interstate (or intercountry) 
data bases, developing chain stories that start in one place and end 
up somewhere else, etc.
.
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Immediately after Christmas, I will be linking the above school 
districts together.  Essentially, we will be bringing together 5th 
grade students whose ages range from about 9 through 11.  In each of 
the school districts, we will use only two classes of studes - 
otherwise trying to coordinate something like this could turn out to 
be very difficult.  (One of the Arlington Schools has 10 5th grade 
classes, and I can't even envision bringing all 10 classes on-line 
at the same time.  THAT would be an incredibly big project!)
.
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For the first month or so, all of the students will exchange pen pal 
information about themselves.  My guess is that we will assign 
students in one school to students in another school so that EVERY 
student has someone to write to.  We could do the same with students 
at your school.  Therefore, what I will need from you or Libby 
Culiver is a list of the first and last names of YOUR students, 
their ages and what grade they are in.  Please provide that 
information to me before January.  What I will probably do with that 
list is divide it intthirds and assign out part of the list to 
Marysville, part of it to Lake Stevens and the remainder to 
Arlington.  Then your students will be communicating with ALL of the 
kids in our project.  
.
.
Since I can only use 60 lines per message, I will now close this one 
out and start a second message to you.


--  
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