“ The Day I Was Born’
Discovering Your Place in History

Project Overview by Kathy Evans

       For the past six weeks, students in the Elm Community have taken a trip back in time and become investigators of their past. By interviewing family members for a personal evaluation and examining the world locally, nationally and globally, students researched their place in history on their “special day.” Studying their birthdays led them to find the important, the trivial, the fun, and the interesting events at the time of their birth. The Maine State Learning Results fit neatly into the overall assessment piece. The processes of writing and speaking along with research-related exercises satisfied the Learning Results criteria at many different levels. Providing a concrete basis of study was important to me. I didn’t want kids to just jump on their laptops and start clicking away. They had lessons to learn before their laptops were opened! We took two weeks to prepare for the interviews and study the importance of family photos. Then, using Sound Studio, students took their laptops home and conducted their interviews with Mom and Dad. The parents were cooperative in both the interviews and providing students with photos and baby books. Old stuffed animals, paper-thin birth announcements and tattered baby blankets that had been carefully tucked away suddenly surfaced to be photographed and included in projects. It was fun to see what kids wanted to include! In each of my four classes, student photographers took over to help take pictures.
        The project took place in three separate stages. After the interviews were conducted and information was collected from the Internet, students used their research information to complete an Appleworks Presentation. Each of the ten slides contain a specific requirement. Otherwise, I left the actual design of the slide up to each student. They are always more creative than I am!However, all parts of the project had to be completed to get full credit. They saw an example of my rubric right from the start so students understood how their grade was earned.
        I’ve wanted to do this project with students for some time but the thought of dragging 85 students to a computer lab everyday and fighting to get computer lab time always made me place the project on a back burner. But once everyone in my language arts classes sat before me, each with their own laptop, it was impossible to delay this any longer! The laptop was the tool I needed to insure excitement and success for my kids and minimum frustration for all of us. The projects have turned out to be informative and creative. Students studied and learned the value of family history. They gained insights into their world beyond the boundries of a mere birthplace and in doing so found common threads in life do indeed connect us all. The mighty little laptop brought this world directly into our classroom daily and we all enjoyed the experience.