1. Description of Our Community
For this project, our community, is the area of Southwest Louisiana where Hurricane Rita made landfall, especially Calcasieu and Cameron parishes. Our community has changed dramatically since Hurricane Rita. We have been impacted economically and have had many difficult obstacles.
2. Summary of Our Project
Hurricane Rita: Our Loss, Our Gain was about going through the devastation of a major hurricane and coming together as a community to reconstruct our physical environment and rebuild lives. We acted as ambassadors in our local community as we conducted interviews and gathered information. The Mayor of Lake Charles and The Port Director visited with us to tell about the awesome responsibilities of rebuilding a city economy. We also told our own personal experiences and we explained about hurricanes in general. This project reveals how people can work together to overcome any obstacle.
3. Our Computer and Internet Access
A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%
B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6
E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):
Our Internet access is part of the Technology Enriched Learning Center (TELC) One-to-One notebook initiative. Each student has a notebook computer with wireless internet access in the classroom. About 66% of students have Internet access at home. Many take their notebooks home to access the Internet.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
There were many obstacles we had to overcome. Some of them include intermittent Internet connection problems. The district's Websense filter prohibited students from accessing many of the websites needed for research. Another problem was deleted or removed web addresses. In addition to these we had other barriers such as driving to different locations to interview local citizens of the area.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
Hurricane Rita: Our Loss, Our Gain tells the story of how a community of hard-working, courageous people came together to rebuild lives after a devastating natural disaster.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
The content standards we addressed were the 6th grade Writing Standards 2 and 3 from the Louisiana Department of Education. http://www.doe.state.la.us/lde/saa/1840.html#6th The project fit into the technology component of the TELC curriculum in that technoloyg is to be utilized in all instructional practices. Students learned research, Internet, word processing, web publishing, interviewing, and listening skills.
Teacher's note: CyberFair utilizes a constructivist learning approach in that students use group work and social interaction to build or construct individual learning.
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