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I
am Angel, the journalist for this activity. Our project began as
part of our math unit. We
have just moved into a new middle school located on the same
campus as our high school and one of our three elementary
schools. Mrs. Doble, my math and language arts teacher has been working in our school system for over
ten years. She prefers project based learning and our project for
the introduction to geometry unit we are studying required us to
create a park and all of the elements that would be used in it.
Technology
is something Mrs. Doble has been interested in for awhile. She has
a friend, Ms. Davis who is teaching science on another sixth grade team. Ms.
Davis is very interested in technology too. In fact she just
taught some of the teachers in our school system how to use
technology in their classrooms. She taught us how to
use the scanner and digital camera and MSWord, while Mrs. Doble
focused on how
to use our new computers, and Power Point.
As
journalist, I recorded our status for this activity. On October 19th,
we began the project. We discussed the details and effort this
assignment will need. We also discussed how much time was needed
to complete this assignment. We decided that we would meet every
Tuesday and Thursday during the school week.
We also discussed what our park should look like. To figure
out how our design should look, we each made individual designs
and put them together. We also brainstormed many ideas for our
park project, along with that came a name, CapeView Commons.
In the many weeks we have worked, everything has sort of pulled
itself together. Like a domino effect, one thing leads to another.
We decided on our name, then the park, then jobs, and are now
working on different parts of the park project.
November
30, 2000
Today we decided jobs. Sarah, our Media specialist, is in charge
of our correspondence and promoting our web site to the public.
Greg, our Facilities Use Director, directs the activities that
will go on in our park. He is designing a summer events calendar
for his section called "the kiosk". Catherine, our
horticulturist, is choosing the flowers for our gardens. She has
done research at home and found plants and flowers that grow well
on Cape Cod. Our historian, Kristina, collects
information on the history of Cape Cod. She needed this
information to include in for our historical reference page. Jay, our
oceanographer, studies the ocean and/or pond life that will be
included in our project. Finally, we have me, the journalist. I
record our daily issues, progress, and skills we have learned
through out this project.
December
7, 2000
Today we worked on our different assignments. Our different
assignments involve our jobs we received in my previous entry.
All our jobs are showing continued effort from our team members.
Kristina is working on linking sites from our web site to other
web sites containing Cape Cod history. Thanks to Kristina’s
efforts, our historical references will be wonderful! Sarah’s
working on collecting e-mail addresses used for her part of the
project. She is contacting the websites Kristina has found. Greg
is working on special activities such as bands and other fun
stuff! Catherine is working on recipes that are Cape Cod
specialties. As many of you know Cape Cod is famous for beautiful
beaches, shell fishing and vacation. Catherine’s recipes include
what is needed for an old-fashioned holiday picnic on Cape Cod.
Jay is working on the oceanography of Cape Cod. He is researching
sea creatures found just off our shores.
In
conclusion, we are still working very hard to complete this
project. Thanks to our hardworking, wonderful, computer compatible
companions, the project’s looking great!
December
20, 2000
Today we are refining our biographies. We had to fix a
couple of things that needed some fixing, including updating and
checking, to make sure we have no spelling errors
January
4, 2001
Today
we all resumed our jobs after winter vacation. I, of course, did
the same job. Greg worked on writing a paragraph about Family Day.
We have a Summer Calendar ready for his page site called The
Kiosk. Kristina has decided to write journal entries as though she
was living in the period she has researched. She is our historian.
This is an exciting way to learn about the history of the Cape Cod
Canal. Catherine is scanning and saving pictures that will be
included in our beautiful gardens. Jay is working on a paragraph
about Cape Cod sea life. This paragraph tells about the many types
of sea animals that live on the shores and in the depths of our
waters. Please if you e-mail us, say thank you to our coaches Mrs.
Doble and Ms. Davis. Our site graphic designs (backgrounds,
buttons etc) are created by Ms. Davis at home. She and Mrs. Doble are
now trying to teach us how to use a new program called Paint Shop Pro.
January
9, 2001
We
decided to meet on the following days: Tuesdays, Thursdays, and
occasionally Wednesdays through the last few weeks of the project.
Again, today we did our assigned jobs. We are, at this point,
trying to put the project together. It reminds me of making a
quilt, sewing the square patches to together. We are of
course hyper-linking information to the website and making
touch-ups on paragraphs.
January
11, 2001
Today we did pretty much the same thing we do every meeting
now. We consolidated our information to one disk, edited, and
looked for more interesting facts, information, and pictures.
Processing all of our knowledge into paragraphs is not as easy as
it seems. The last few weeks have been exhausting. This project is
a challenge but we enjoy it!
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