Comments from Tammy Wildemann (High Park School) |
| We are finally finished the project and now have had some time to reflect upon our journey. From my perspective, which is that of a Division II teacher, I felt that the experience was invaluable. Teaching students to write well is often a difficult task. Students can be resistant to revising and editing their work. However, when the students understood that their work would be shared locally and possibly internationally via the web, they wanted to write and to be heard. In fact, even my most reluctant writers were eager to participate in the project. The TOOLS4WRITING PROJECT allowed my students to understand the importance of technology, written communication and of partnerships. They worked together to input and edit their work. They explored tools such as cut/paste and spell check for improving their ability to revise and edit. Most importantly they were eager to receive feedback from others on their work. They looked forward to sharing ideas and were thrilled that they might inspire others to write as well. As a teacher I would love to continue in this project. I would, however, like to make some suggestions to make the project a better fit for my students. First, the project deadlines need to be extended. The students keyboarding skills are weak at this age and longer writing samples take a considerable time to input. Second, the required genres of writing did not match my curriculum plan. In Division II, the majority of our writing instruction is non-fiction. Although we will do narrative writing it was not planned for this term. Our writing must always fit a specific purpose. Finally, solutions must be found for the message board. Perhaps classroom files or school partnerships will solve the problem of the huge volume of messages found on the board. The students were very disappointed when unable to use the board. In closing, I would like to thank you again for initiating this project. As a teacher, it reminded me of the creative possibilities for using technology and forced me to spend more time in the LAB. I will continue to use the program as long as it is available to me. I would like to attach some of the comments written by my students. I know that they as well would like to extend their gratitude to you for all of your hard work. Sincerely, Mrs. T. Wildemann |
[Evaluation of Tools4Writing Project]