*Greeting Campers!

This week begins our opening orientation and planning for the school year activities. We suggest getting out your Camp workbook, materials, and referring to the online calendar to use as planning materials. Set aside some time to look online at the layers of resources available inside the thematic track/s you plan to use. Please decide what track/s, special monthly projects, parent nights, Internet Digs, and special activities you plan to offer for the year, and then note specific for Sept-December on a calendar to help you attend / implement / join the program features you find most important for your students.

You can chart out activities in a lesson plan book, school year bound-calendar – or – your email account on Camp Internet offers you your own private online calendar where you can customize entries for projects you plan to complete with your students. If your track provides a Teacher’s Journal (spiral planning book we will have provided) that is also an excellent planning tool.

This week you should receive this Campwide Briefing and it will continue to arrive weekly with updates and announcements. You should also soon receive one or more individual Expedition Track briefings. Please make sure you receive both, and at the email address you find you will see them most easily. They will go to your work or home email address (and to your Camp email address accessed from the Teacher’s Web so you have a long term record of postings). The briefings will also be posted online for teacher viewing from any web browser. Please refer to these briefings to get news on special events, and for tips on program implementation strategies. Any requests for corrections or changes to your list access can be emailed to camp@campinternet.net.

*Our Goals for 2003 – 3004

1.   Every classroom will begin and complete teacher-determined assignments that use the great online LIBRARY of LEARNING RESOURCES provided by Camp Internet. These include Reading, Writing, Literature, Social Studies, History, Art, and Earth Science resources. (See the ‘Activities’ link at the top of your Expedition Trail Head for suggested research and learning activities – or design your own.)

2.   Every classroom will participate in weekly or monthly live, INTERACTIVE SESSIONS – do Internet Digs, join in the Q&A with real world experts, contribute work to the student contest and monthly features, or meet a fellow classroom online for a pre-planned inter-campus project.

3.   Every classroom will host seasonal FAMILY NIGHTS to bring the parents into the classroom so students can showcase their accomplishments and projects with pride.

4.   Every classroom will plan one or more related FIELD STUDY project in their school yard, local community, or at a host museum or park agency. And each class will prepare a field report, with digital pictures, GPS readings or short video recording their findings, interviewing their field site host, or recording their own hands-on experiments or research projects. These will then be prepared as a Field Report document, with links to uploaded images, and posted in the FIELD REPORT room to share with the Camp Internet learning community.

*Learning Outcomes

As a result of making good use of the Camp program’s learning resources and interactive activities, online, hands-on, and with families, students will:

1. Gain experience using educational, interactive learning technologies and distance learning content responsibly and productively.

2. Improve their reading, writing, communication, and subject matter skills as a result of regularly using the online learning resources and completing related hands-on projects.

3. Reinforce their love for learning, exploration, and discovery as active, not passive, learners.

*If You Need Support

Camp Internet staff are here for you by email and phone every school day. If you need help finding a resource or planning a project, you are welcome to contact us at camp@campinternet.net, or at 1.800.889.2823. If you need help uploading images for field reports or other technical issues, email us or call 1.888.770.7821. We will be here to help you make excellent use of the program and to help you develop great lessons using our resource materials and unique interactive, live, real time, learning programs. If you would like to mail us student art work to scan and post, or CDs of student work, our mailing address is 1129 State Street A7, Santa Barbara CA 93101. We welcome you to share student work year round – we are a learning COMMUNITY and member participation is what gives it life and adventure!

                                                     Camp Internet Ho!!!

                               Timothy, Marcy, Steve, Gilberto, and Crew