Topic: Dianne Fulton's Springfield project

     Your proposal emphasizes a point that sometimes we don't even know what is in our own backyard. This will give the students an opportunity to get to know Springfield that much better! As for one of your concerns, I have found that once students have had their first opportunity to search on the Internet, there's no holding them back when they get their second chance.
     Have you thought about an additional culminating activity...putting the answers to the questions in a PowerPoint or HyperStudio format to share with
other Springfield (and beyond) classes? It would be an effective way to share with parents too what the class has been doing over the year.
     Here are a few additional sites you might want to consider:
www.springfield-illinois.com
springfieldil.miningco.com
www.springfield.il.us
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic: Mike Marassa's Project

     I found your proposal to be quite complete and will be interested to hear how it progresses. A couple of thoughts...
     You mentioned your desire to have parents engaged in their children's learning, most likely enabled by their access to the web. Have you given any thought as to what you would do if a student's home computer is not hooked up to the Internet? Could you provide the parents with some opportunity to see the students' work? A Family Technology Night or open house or something like that?  Microsoft offers such a night free to a school and it's great PR.
     Also, what are the differences between Claris Homepage and Netscape Communicator? Is one better (or easier?) than another when utilizing the software with 6-8th graders?
     I DO want to know how this goes!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Topic:  Cynthia and Mike's Web Project

     It looks like you have a great start on your web project.  I'm especially interested since it's something I've wanted to do with my eighth grade class as well and just haven't had time to figure out the curriculum and the logistics. Would you have the class work in small groups on particular pages or one student per page?  Would students do the "research" during your class period, while others were working at the computers?  Where would you post the web pages?  Would your ISP give you space on its server or...clue me in! Keep me posted!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Project: : Kristin Zage's Gifted Project

      Sounds like a great idea! Is your topic a bit broad?  Could you have small groups zero in on the specifics going on during a particular decade, such as politics, entertainment, family life, famous people, etc.?  Very timely...the US Post Office website has a very popular section on the different decades, along with stamps, of course. But it gives a brief overview of what was happening in each time period.  In addition, if you contact the Post Office, it has kits that accompany each decade, complete with teaching materials and a CD-ROM, all for free.  Students could utilize the materials for research and or presentations.
http://www.stampsonline.com/century/decades.htm
Good luck!