A Reader From Saudi Arabia Writes...
David,
I've been reading some of the notes you are sending out to kids on the net. Great stuff! Thank you for taking the time and interest in the curiosity of youth . . . the only proven form of perpetual energy.
I am an 8th grade science teacher at an American school in Saudi Arabia and hope to have my students doing some e-mail correspondence with various schools/locations around the world within the next few months. I hope you are still on site (though you probably won't want to be . . . aren't you moving into winter there?) as we will be moving into our Arabian summer which is almost as remarkable in the opposite extreme as your environment. My 10 year old son, Bill, is reading over my shoulder and just asked "Dad, are you really writing to a guy in the Antarctic?"
The net has just tentatively become available to us in Arabia and I'm very excited about opening the outside world to my students. They will be just as amazed at writing to others around the world in places they have only read about just as others will be excited to write to a student living in the Arabian desert.
Again, thank you, Dave, for taking the time to share your experiences with less traveled individuals (kids and adults) around the world.
With great respect,
Jim Perkerson
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
Hi Jim,
I am here in Antarctica for the winter. All the planes and boats have left, and there is no way out. I will be here until about November 1996. Writing to the kids keeps me active in my spare time.
I started writing to the kids at Delmar Elementary in hopes of getting my son's school active. My son, Zac, is 11 years old and goes to Snow Hill Middle School, but they are not very active on the net. Patti, the teacher at Delmar, and I have received mail from other schools wanting to participate. We have moved the dialog onto KIDLINK, which is a listserv, allowing other schools to jump in the activity.
You did not say where you saw things on the net, but it could have been either the web page in the signature line, or the KIDPROJ listserver. If you need information on KIDPROJ and how to join, I will send it along. KIDPROJ is the vehicle for you and your students to participate. This way when one student asks a question, all students can share. If you need KIDLINK information, drop me a note.
Keep cool,
Dave
David Hess NK3T