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    Connecting With Other Classrooms

    To contribute to the discussion below send e-mail to: jn-talk@learner.org

    journey north

    F. Koontz (fkoontz@cccbbs.com)
    Mon, 17 Mar 1997 00:28:53 -0500

    I teach a third grade in Bowie, Maryland. I am as excited as my students
    with this project. All sixty of our tulips have emerged and the children
    eagerly inspect them daily and report on their growth. We are also using
    your information on the whooping cranes. ( I found you too late to
    participate in the monarch project.) I use the letters from the
    scientist in Aransas as part of my reading instruction. We are going to
    make origami cranes to decorate our library. We have painted beautiful
    tulips that everyone in our school has admired.

    Every Monday a child goes to the library to log into the U.S. Naval
    Observatory to find our photoperiod. We spend time Monday recording our
    data and also graphing the data about the mystery classes. I divided the
    class into ten groups and each group is graphing one class. We have all
    ten (three page long) graphs posted. We are also graphing our
    microclimate data. We are using a soil thermometer to measure soil
    temperature and we also record air temperature and whether the day is
    sunny or cloudy. We only had 2 sunny days in all of February!

    I'm pleased with the new awareness my students have about regions of the
    United States. They are very good at locating particular states now
    because of our numerous mapping activities with Journey North. Their
    charting and graphing skills have become fine tuned.

    We sent a few messages to other schools but this has not continued. We
    only have access to email in our library with all 30 children watching
    one monitor so it's not the best teaching circumstance. I think if this
    technology was available to me in my classroom we would have been better
    at correspondence. Keep up the good work and thank you.
    Frances Koontz
    Rockledge Elementary School
    Bowie, MD
    fkoontz@cccbbs.com