Ticklers
Listed below are short descriptions of how teachers here in Florida have used
FIRN and telecommunications to stimulate interest in their classrooms. Included
with each listing is the teacher's name and location (including county), and
their FIRNMAIL account so that you may contact them if you want further
information.
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Warren Hunnicut
St. Petersburg High School
Pinellas
Distant Site Research Project -- groups of students in several schools worked
on an ecosystem based, year long research project. Data was shared between
all sites and completed research will be shared at the end of the year. Shared
data will be compiled and bound. Participating sites include Mexico, Canada,
Hawaii, North Carolina, Texas, Washington DC and Florida.
Electronic dialogue between high school freshmen at one school and middle
school students in another school, to assist middle school students with a
better understanding of what the high school experience is all about.
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Stephanie Stevenson
Holley-Navarre Elementary School
Escambia
FIRNMAIL -- stevens
A cooperative research project online with other classrooms on early Indians.
A chain story, online between two cooperative schools
A middle school science teacher in central Florida, posed as an alien online and
described his planet and life to students in class. Answered questions posed
by the elementary students.
Telecommunicated with a classroom in Kamchatka, Soviet Union. Developed
environmental projects with teacher there.
Apollo mission - Academy One space simulation.
Math tutoring online.
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Randy Gordon
DeSoto High School
DeSoto
FIRNMAIL -- gordonr
Cross-age tutoring program -- targeted students had demonstrated a lack of
progress with English skills with regular classroom strategies. Using the
computer and working with students in other locations, an interesting and
challenging way of improving language skills was presented.
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Louise Wise
Hallmark Elementary
Escambia
FIRNMAIL -- wisel
Class hung an enlarged map of Florida near the computer. Students mark the
counties on the map to correspond with the location of classes they "chat" with.
Has enlightened class on time zones in the state as well as other geography
related skills. Most of the chatting classes have been high school and middle
schools which has challenged the elementary class to try harder and write well.
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Gene Syarto
Eau Gallie High School
Brevard
FIRNMAIL -- syartog
Obtain daily weather and forecast information from the internet menu. Post
local weather on a bulletin board in a well traveled hallway in the school.
Building an email net among all Air Force Junior ROTC units in the state.
Envision transmitting newsletters between corps as well as sharing
competitions and operating plans of each unit.
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Nancy Govoni
Holly Hill Elementary
Volusia
FIRNMAIL -- govonin
Each fifth grade teacher in the school was paired with a school in New York,
Australia, Iceland and Israel for email exchange. Classes enjoyed playing
"guess the immigrant" for several weeks.
Used AskERIC to find lesson plans integrating different curriculum areas.
Corresponded with a programmer at the Johnson Space Center who sent a
video tape of his work. Another class interviewed him online.
Used the Library of Congress connection on FIM to find the author of books
which have been out-of-print for a long while.
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Sue Kantaras
Hospital/Homebound
Pinellas
FIRNMAIL -- kantars
Sue coordinates many of the H/H programs listed below. Contact her or the
specific teacher for more information.
James Jones teaches a sociology class of 4 students. Students send in their
work via email before the class meets which insures the students have
organized their thoughts prior to class discussion. The teacher sends updated
material via email since most text books are 5-10 years behind in the
statistics published. The students participate in their own electronic
bulletinboard where they share materials with others.
Barbara Mamouzelos uses FIRN to facilitate progress in the affective domain.
Telecommunications is used as a means of effective communication for
students with motoric impairments or muteness, thus providing a voice to
express needs and feelings. Empowering students with the ability to write and
receive quick responses, has made language arts a much anticipated activity.
Linda Adams is the H/H teacher at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg,
where students range from grades K-12 in all exceptionalities. Students are
hospitalized primarily for medical conditions that require acute care or for
chronic illnesses that require intermittent hospitalization. FIRNMAIL gives
these students the opportunity to communicate with "normal" students. For
a while, they can forget about their problems and talk about things the way
all students do. They establish pen-pals in other countries as well writing
chain stories with students in the state.
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Paige Barker
Manatee Community College
Manatee
FIRNMAIL -- barkerp
Students in her algebra class will be directed to develop an interview tool to
determine the extent of use of mathematics in different occupations or subject
areas. Using FIRN, students will locate 8-10 educators in a variety of subject
areas and interview them on their use of mathematics both personally and
professionally.
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Jay Windspirit
L.A. Ainger Jr. High
Charlotte
FIRNMAIL -- windspj
Uses FIRN for students to be able to do research on topics they cannot
research in Florida. Contact a school where research on mountains can be
done since Charlotte County has no mountains. Can also obtain information
about snow melting, water runoff, weather agents, etc. Students at the
mountain school can obtain information on oceanography, fish, ocean biomes,
etc.
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Sally McCombs
Bay Point Middle School
Pinellas
FIRNMAIL -- mccombs
Students will complete a long term environmental research project, using
FIRN in two ways: 1) using GPC, FIM and email, locate information about
their topic; 2) share research with another school online, using chat and
email.
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Marcelline Clarke
Bay Point Middle School
Pinellas
FIRNMAIL -- clarkem
Using email, students will contact other middle school students and devise a
project that will benefit their individual communities. Locate students in
different parts of the country, and share the entire project with the
sister-class.
In order to expose students to a wide range of career choices, they will be
asked to generate a list of all careers in Florida that seem of interest to
them, but limited to 2-5 careers. Information about requirements, programs of
study, program costs, admissions, etc. will be determined with use of FCIDS.
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Hank Ventry
Barron Collier High School
Collier
FIRNMAIL -- ventryh
Use telecommunications to investigate jobs available in the computer industry.
Students will locate the kinds of jobs available, places where jobs are
available, the qualifications for jobs, and the years of college and
experience required for job placement.
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Mary Carpenter
Raa Middle School
Leon
FIRNMAIL -- carpenm
Mary's eighth grade gifted language arts class students are paired with FSU
English Education students, to study "The Call of the Wild." The idea is to
provide the middle school students with a mentor to bounce ideas off of
and to discuss difficult parts of the novel with. Interaction will be done
electronically via FIRN.
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Gale Tidwell
Charlotte High School
Charlotte
FIRNMAIL -- tidwelg
Student essays are transmitted for correction by a USF student teaching
seminar. This provides practice for the USF student as well providing
varying feedback for students on their essays.
An elementary class in Pensacola sends science questions to her physics class
who researches and finds the answer. They then must write the answers in
a way that will be understandable to the elementary student.