Hi ya from Austin, Texas:-)

Laurie Williams here. I'm a 5th grade teacher at Casis Elementary. Right now I have a class of 21, we started August 13th. It's an international mix of kids. We have kids from Mexico, Ecuador, Iran, Korea, China and Argentina, as well as kids from the US. We've just about finished sending in our Responses, only 8 more to go; >

These kids are all new to the US...some have been here 2 or 3 years, one just came here in June! This is really normal at our school, we have a large international population, because our neighborhood takes in the "Married Student Housing" section of the University of Texas, so their parents are either visiting professors or grad students.

I work for KIDLINK as KIDCAFE-School Manager and on the KIDLINK IRC Technical Operations team, and I'll be hosting a project with Dennis Buccola this year on KIDPROJ called "Math Around Us", which you'll hear about soon. I'm a mom of 2, my son Dan(10), is a KIDLINKer, Sarah is 6. Oh! I'm also "second" mom of a foreign exchange student from Denmark, Tobias, who's dad is KIDLINK's own Claus Berg!!

Our family is really into family history, and I really enjoy getting my kids thinking about their "roots" each year. I'm truly excited that Diane has this project going!

Speaking of IRC, for groups that are registering for IRC, Laurie is the person to ask if you have any technical difficulties.

:)

Laurie

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_ #9; Laurie Williams: lauriew@bga.com *