Soon, a website will be available that has student writing samples, and parents will have access to individual student work via the Internet. The broadcast includes events that are of interest to students, class projects that reflect academic work developed by the sponsoring class, and birthdays for the week. Each homeroom selects a Friday to sponsor the show. The students then research and write the stories, sometimes taking polls of fellow students. Two students are anchors, musicians from the class open and close the show, and other students are the technical crew.
Students write all the stories and use each piece of equipment.
Award of Excellence Janet Barnstable, a communications resource teacher at Julian Junior High School in Oak Park, has arranged for students to be involved in worldwide telecollaborations. Every Thursday morning before school students video conference with students in Dublin, Ireland. These meetings have been going on for two years, and the discussions range from fun topics such as Halloween costumes to such serious topics as the bombing of Bosnia. Together, the students have created websites about their schools and towns. Other students participate in a virtual classroom with students from Tokyo and Sydney.