As a result of this Teacher Workshop, teachers will:

• examine and understand the 4 Kidlink questions, their role, and importance
• see connections between their required curriculum and the 4 Kidlink questions
• acquire new strategies for motivating students to submit reflective and appropriate responses within possible constraints of limited time in a computer lab

1. Have run continously since 1990
2. Teachers can do the 4 questions in their classes at any time.
3. Students are to submit their answers to these questions: Who Am I? What Do I Want To Be When I Grow Up? How Do I Want The World To Be Better When I Grow Up? What Can I Do Now To Make This Happen?
4. The questions main pedagocial function is to motivate students to read and write by inviting them to do something they find very meaningful.
5. While individual youth cannot be older than 15 years to use Kidlink, students through the secondary school level can partcipate when participating in a class.
6. If you want to spend more time on the 4 questions, dig into our Who-Am-I? program's first module. You can do this module any time during the year.

For more information about how to submit the answers, see this page.

• Math: Using tables and spreadsheets to analyze data.
• Social Studies: Learn geography, maps, cultural diversities in the world, history.

• Idea: Divide the class into 7 small groups. Each group will be in charge of a different continent. Localize the seven continents on a large world map. Give every student in each group an individual map. Choose any country on your assigned area and go to the Kidlink Nations page. Check to see if there is someone from that country registered in Kidlink. If there is, mark the spot with a blue letter K. If there is not any child from that country try to explain to your group why this may be so.

• Reading: Develop comprehension and analysis when reading questions and stories.
• Language Arts: Writing essays, short stories to express their ideas.
• Fine Arts: Music, dancing to express their feelings.
• Computer Education: Use the computer as a learning tool for writing, communicating with others on real-time, making research and constructing web pages. You may also use the module as a resource for teaching how to use Word, Power Point, etc.
• Life Skills: Self-awareness; understanding own needs & desires; increasing self-esteem and self-responsibility. Make informed choices (decision making skills; goal setting.)

Computer literacy/math: [spreadsheet]

Go to the Response archives and browse through one week of Kidlink entries. You may choose the week so that you and your classmates cover an extended period of time. Make a table or spreadsheet with the information you find: name of student, gender, age, country, career choice, and, if given, kind of pet, type of music, name of favorite singer, etc. Compare your findings with other groups of students in your class. Use spreadsheet functions to sort your data to answer such questions as:

1. In the week you examined, are there more female or male entries? Do you wonder why you see the results that you see? Do other members in your class see the same results?
2. What is the average age of new entrants in your group? What is the range of ages? What age group has the most entries?
3. How many different countries are represented? Which country has the most new entries for your week? Can you think of a reason why this might be so?
4. How many names would you not be able to identify as a male name or a female name if you hadn't seen the "gender" given in the entry?
5. What are the most popular career choices? What are the least? Are there any unusual (in your eyes) careers listed?
6. How many students list pets in their response? What is the most popular pet in the group you are examining?
7. How many students list music as a favorite enjoyment? Can you tell from the entries who the most popular music entertainers are for the group you examined?

Go to the Response archives. Choose a week for your data gathering. Open a spreadsheet and make columns for:

1. name
2. age
3. gender
4. country
5. career

Examine all the messages sent by students for your chosen week and enter the data in the correct column of your spreadsheet. Save your spreadsheet and then sort it by: age, gender, country and career

***

Make a graph for each category. See the sample graph showing data about the ages of these new Kidlink students. In the sample graph there are:

age 11 3 students
age 12 6 students
age 13 2 students
age 14 0 students
age 15 1 students

Write as many statements about the data as you can. Include at least 4 sentences.

The age range is 11 to 15.
There are no 14 year old students in the data.
There are more 12 year old students than any other age in the data.
Most of the students in the data are clustered in the 12-13 age range.
Most of the incoming Kidlink students for this week are girls.

After discovering the favorite singers for any given time in Kidlink's RESPONSE archives, (see lesson under "Music") locate the prices for CDs of these singers on various websites. Compare the prices. How many CDs could you buy for $100 (or a similar amount in your money)? If your money isn't the currency on the website where you can buy CDs, go to the currency converter to see how your money converts to this currency.
The sample spreadsheet above has a list of CDs and their costs. Make a similar spreadsheet and complete the information by searching online, in newspapers or in local music stores. Be sure to comparison shop and be a wise shopper.

This sample Venn diagram is based on the response below:

1. Who am I?
Name/Age/Gender: Amanda, 12, Girl
Country: New Zealand
Date: 30-Dec-2001

Hi all, My name's Amanda and I have black hair and brown eyes. I love reading, chatting, hanging with friends, shopping, etc.

2. What Do I Want To Be When I Grow Up?

I want to be 3 different things. They are Lawyer, Tour Guide or something in travel/tourism or a fashion designer.

3. How Do I Want The World To Be Better When I Grow Up?

When I grow up I want to have a litter free world and world peace. That'd be great.

4. What Can I Do Now To Make This Happen?

I can start by puttin MY rubbish in the bin and encouraging others to do the same. I could also pick up others rubbish too. For world peace I could start by making friends with everyone that want to be friends.

Once the data is entered into the spreadsheet sort the data by:

1. gender: How many girls and how many boys are in your search results?
2. age: What is the age range of the students in your search results?
3. . country: How many countries are represented by your search? Can you limit your search to only one country? Do you think this would give you similar results or perhaps different results?
4. favorite singer: Who are the favorite singers in your search results? Do you know these singers? If not, how can you find out more information about them?

Search for more information about singing stars whom you don't know.

Sample spreadsheet searching Response for "favorite singer" between January 2001 and December 2001: 12 matches

• It is student centered.
  1. gives students an audience and a purpose for writing
  2. brings real world meaning to classroom tasks
  3. promotes and supports engaged learners
  4. broadens multicultural perspectives
• It supports your teachings
  1. provides discussion questions and classroom activities
  2. facilitates interaction with global colleagues
  3. includes curriculum connections

Tell your students:

1. Kidlink's mission is to help kids and youth get friends, and build inter-personal networks with peers around the world.
2. When you have submitted your responses to the four questions, other students around the world can find your self-presentation. Therefore, write your answers so that those looking for friends with your interests and hobbies can find you. Provide as much information as you can. Success may depend on what you write.
3. Your answers to the four questions may help you meet interesting persons, but is rarely enough to get a new friend. After all, you need to "talk" with those you meet to find out if they are what you think they are.
4. When your responses have been approved, you will receive a personal user name and password. With password you can search the response database to find people with your interests and hobbies, and also join Kidlink's various chat areas.
5. Keep this password secret, or risk that others appear on Kidlink's chat channels pretending to be you.
6. Do this one week in advance, and show them examples. Consider to give it as a home assignment. Emphasize the importance of submitting reflective rather than sloppy responses.

• If a student's response is sloppy (e.g., writes just one word by each question), then a response moderator may write back to the kid nicely asking it to do a better job. This also applies if a group of students in the same class submits similar responses to the last four questions.
• If a response is blatantly inappropriate (e.g., just contains a sequence of curses), then the response moderator may decide to delete the submittion without returning any explanation.
• When the response is approved, the student will receive a confirmation with a secret personal user name and password. The password will give the student access to services that are exclusively for kids and youth, like the interactive "chat" channels, and the contact database of responses submitted by others.

• Upon approval, the student's response will be stored in a database that is accessible only by other kids and youth who have submitted their responses. In this way, others will be able find your student's full name, and email address.
• A part of the response will be forwarded to Kidlink's public response server, which is accessible for any Internet user. Personal identification data beyond your student's first name and country will not be included, unless the student has entered such data in the answers to the four questions.

Safety on the Internet is important to Kidlink.

1. Kidlink is a volunteer network of concerned adults. We help kids and youth connect with peers in other countries, to exchange views and ideas, learn about other traditions and cultures.
2. We attempt to protect our young participants from any covert collection of personal information by outsiders.
3. We do not collect home addresses, telephone numbers, race data, family income, social security numbers, as such information is not needed to realize our goal. All participants in Kidlink must use their full name. We ask for this because your full name indicates personal identity, responsibility, and commitment to Kidlink participation and ideals. Use of fake names or aliases ("unfriendly" nicknames) is not permitted.
4. There are no advertisements on Kidlink's web site, and we never look at the specific usage of our website by identifiable individuals.
5. Generally, Kidlink does not link to external web sites, except when such will enrich our educational programs and activities.

Select a path below depending on the age of your students:

1. Very young students with perhaps no typing skills
2. young students who can type but not very much.
3. students aged 8-10 who may not have time to finish the 4 questions at one time on the web form.
4. answering the questions in a computer lab setting
5. answering the questions in a classroom with only one computer

Very young students - perhaps with no typing skills - may submit their responses to the four questions as a drawing (scanned or created on a computer).
The teacher, another adult helper, or an older student must usually help the students with the mechanics of submitting the individual responses.

How to submit their responses

Logon to Kidlink's web, open the response form in your browser, and fill out for each student:

1. "Full name".
2. "Nick name". For simplicity, enter first name plus first letter in second name. Example: HafizR. No need to make a note about the nick name as it is not likely to be used.
3. "Password:" Any word will be find. No need to make a note about the word as it is not likely to be used.
4. "E-mail:" If mail to your students all come in through a common email address, use this address. Responses with no valid email address cannot be approved.
5. "Age, Birtday, Gender, City, State, Country, School"
6. By each of the four questions, there's a "Please select a picture if you want to upload one:" This is the one you want to use instead of submitting text. Click at the "Browse" button, locate the art file on your local hard disk, and submit it.

   Your art should be either in .GIF or .JPEG format, and we will appreciate if you could reduce the size of the file so that it does not get very large. Large pictures are rarely viewed by others. Pictures at up to 20 KB will be fine. The picture at the top of this page is a .GIF file at only 3.318 bytes. It illustrates that pictures may be made small without loosing much of the original quality. Generally, scanned drawings will usually be smaller if saved as .GIF, but please check if in doubt. When using Windows Paint, select GIF as save option. In Windows 98, click on the little black down arrow at the end of the "save as type" box. Choose the .gif file option and give the file a filename. Then click on "save."  Otherwise, the art is likely to be saved as BMP, which is not supported by Kidlink. Mac users may find Graphic Converter to convert graphic files between formats.

Some teachers use a template, and let the students fill in the blanks at home with parents. See an example of questions 1 and 2 from Patti Weeg's class by clicking here. This is an easy way for teachers of 6 year old students to handle the 4 questions.
Note: It is a good idea to alert the Response team before submitting these responses because the answers appear to be "the same" in format. (Yes, they are. :-)
Finally, review our hints about submitting art for "Very Young Students".

Students aged 8-10 may not have time to finish the 4 questions at one time on the web form. Then what? They can't save their work, and then continue the next time.
The best way is to let teachers answer the four questions in a word processor, and then use copy/paste into the web form when they are ready.

There is a big difference in how teachers or leaders prepare students for composing text and typing it in the lab. Preparation is key!
The lab is an environment full of distractions, so we advise you to let your students go to the lab with answers already prepared on paper.

If you have only one computer in your classroom, you'll need some clever organizing and planning but it can be done. This is so even if your computer is not online in your classroom.
Here are some tips to help you manage the four questions with only one computer in your classroom:

1. Read all about the four questions, and summarize it for the students.
2. Make a display in your classroom for the response project. Post the blank web form, and sample responses.
3. Have your students prepare their responses on paper. Let them use the same format as on the blank web form. If there's not enough space for their answers in the blank fields, let them continue at the back of the paper.
4. Have a student type your students' answers (or you type them, if you prefer), and save them in a wordprocessing file. In some schools, they have assigned students to do this after hours.
5. When it is time to submit the responses, use copy/paste into the web form for each individual student. This activity may also be "delegated" to some trustworthy students after hours.

If you are not online in your classroom, save the responses to a diskette. Take the diskette to the computer in your school that is online, or to your computer that is online at home.