Lori Mayo

Jamaica High School
Jamaica, New York

You can reach me at: lmayo@lmayo.net

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Dear Diary: Welcome to Cyber English

Though computers are uncharted waters for many of us, our students have grown up with them. They know much more than most of us and are able to solve technical problems that we can't even begin to understand. And they love the new shift in power.

Day One - I was so excited to tell my kids what we would be doing this semester. After the initial housekeeping (checking program cards, trying to match faces and names, assigning seats) I gave them the news that we would be working on the Internet to create our own web pages with links to all of the writing we would do during the term. Some kids looked scared, some looked puzzled, but most looked ecstatic that this would not be business as usual. By the end of the day, the word had spread, and other students were stopping by to ask me if they could get their programs changed and sign up for my class.

Day Four - "How do I make my home page colorful like yours?" was the question asked by kids as they rushed to their stations. Before the semester began, I had set up a page that had links to help the kids get started and find their assignments. I called it "Welcome to Room 218." It contained a style sheet, with information for designing web pages.

I could see already how the wired classroom would operate in a much different way than the traditional classroom: kids worked at their own pace, kids collaborated to help one another, and I was no longer the expert.