Re: Introduction
Kate Cason (kcason@gwi.net)
Tue, 01 Apr 1997 07:52:52 -0500
Hi,
My name is Kate Cason, and I am a fifth grade teacher at Bowdoin Central
School, a rural K-6 school with approximately 300 students. We're
located about 30 minutes from Maine's capital Augusta.
I'm new to this school this year and was so excited to find out that I
was actually going to have an Internet connection right in my
classroom. I also discovered that my classroom was just one door away
from the computer lab. Our lab has 12 computers that are connected. Now
what to do with it? I came from a school that had 400 students with only
12 computers in the whole school! I have a lot to learn! After lots of
trial and lots of error....(and still more to come..) I decided to put
together a website for the students to use when using the Internet to do
the research needed for a class assignment integrated into either
science or social studies for the most part.
<http:www.col.k12.me.us/bcs> The address gets you to the front door of
our school. This is only a start, but I find it's much more successful
than just telling them about search engines and letting them "explore".
I find it takes quite a bit of time and energy to learn how to use the
Internet well, but I enjoy it so I don't mind..... what happens to the
class down the hall where the interest just isn't there or better yet to
the school in the next town over where computers just isn't a priority
let alone the Internet. That large gap in skills is becoming a massive
chasm from district to district.... Content seems to be there at the
whim of the classroom teacher's interest for now...