Most teachers have the luxury of planning how they will present a topic, what choices they will give students, and if publishing to a web site, how the final products will be selected and displayed. In other words, it can all be invisioned in advance by the smart teacher.

A poor little old support person, like me, has to keep the word "flexibility" uppermost in daily planning. Even with my own children attending this school, I have become resigned to the fact that I have only a hazy, misty idea of what actually goes on in the classrooms. Yes, I do see all students in the school for at least 45 minutes a week, but to know what they will produce in the way of, say, a geology project assignment is beyond my crystal ball.

So, when I roped in three 5th grade teachers and one 2nd grade teacher to be a part of this project, not a person in the world knew what would happen. It has been a marvelously uplifting experience for all of us!

A good web master knows that structure is the key to a good site and that there are vital questions to be considered:

• Does the site have a good entrance?
• Are the choices clear and enticing?
• Is the topic divided clearly into sub topics?
• Does the site meet the needs of all the intended audiences? In our case these are: our students, our parents, other students, and other teachers.
• Is there variety?
• Is there a balance between text and graphics?
• Is there something to attract return visits?
• Is copyright considered?
• Are the two personalities of visitors gratified: "get there quick" vs. "stop and explore"?

Imagination on the run was my key. As the teachers began working their magic in the classroom and student work began pouring in, I had to plan what the structure might become. This is a backwards approach from the purist web master point of view, and has been a most interesting experience. All the items of a good web site still had to fall into place by the deadline.

Encouragement to students is another key. Kids themselves can think up exciting and different things to put in a web site. All the graphics and diagrams are student originals, all the photographs were taken by students, the rotating earth animation shots were taken by a student, and then Kelly Knight of the Franklin Institute put them together in an animation. All the video scripts were written by students, and the 2nd grade clamation was a product of a whole class effort, a very patient volunteer father, plus good old Kelly Knight's magic.

Speaking of volunteer parents, I was privileged to have three of the most versatile, patient, and encouraging parents involved with this project.

Mr. Sobey in particular had a rough time when his group of "game" boys were told to use The PuzzleMaker web site to create their games. The web site was down for the entire afternoon, "volume too high", so he had to give his crew a quick lesson in spreadsheet, sprinkle the kids out around the school, set them to typing, keep track of them all, and then bring me the final products saved on a single disk! In spite of this, everybody except one finished their particular game! I've often wondered what he did that night when he got home...

Mrs. Davies was given the task of nurturing and encouraging a big group of aspiring artists, some of whom had adequate materials, while others didn't. The students were told to bring what they owned, and when some had better tools than others, she had to deal with the concept of sharing, dividing and friendship. Difficult concepts at any age, to be sure, but she also kept their spirits and good moods alive in the process. What talent!

Mr. Clemmons was another wonder parent. He was in charge of choreography, production and photography for the second grade clamation, and also had to deal with the multiple personalities of the "actors" who had their own ideas about how to make clay dinosaurs come alive. I was not there to see this process, but I heard a wild time was had by all. Kelly Knight, as usual, did his magic and the result is a fabulous dinosaur film.

In conclusion, all I have to say is watch for my other two projects coming up in February and May. I'm just getting my sleeves rolled up on this one!