My school is a small private school in Fort Worth, Texas. Our very first Internet experience was a Quest chat last fall. A parent and I found the Quest page during the same week. We had no computers on-line at the school at the time. He offered to bring his home computer to school to enable us to do the chat. That was enough incentive to get "the ball" moving. Over the weekend a parent volunteer set up one computer with the internet.

We have now participated in at least a dozen chats. All of our students from first through sixth have had some participation. Before each chat two things occur. (1.) Reminders are given about how to form an appropriate question for someone who is giving time to us. (2.) Each child reads the biography (or it is read aloud) and writes at least two questions based on the information.

The method that I use is to form small groups within the class/classes. These groups decide on one "group" question to ask the Expert. During the chat each group clusters around the computer and the question is typed in. During the wait time someone reads the ongoing chat aloud. When a group question is answered, the next group submits a question. I always have relevant books available to the children who are not at the computer.

At times the chats come during or right after our lunch time which is a great time for us. The children eagerly await the answers to their questions, but we are not always able to stay until the end of the chat. In those cases we submit our questions, sign off with a "Thank you" and wait until after school to read the archives.

I then copy the chat and reproduce a copy for each child. The next day we highlight our questions and answers during a discussion time. These are then sent home to the parents with the biographies attached. The parents can then read their child's questions as well as the entire chat. Of course, the archive address is also available if they want to use the Internet to read it also.

We are looking forward to having many computers online by mid-April. At that time the participation may be more fun because each group will have a computer to read from at the same time.

The ability to "chat" with the experts is amazing to me, a teacher for 21 years. I can hardly wait to see what will be available next to schools. Please continue to make these available. Our school is very appreciative of these opportunities. We send a "Thank you" to all who are making this possible.

Thank you,
Karen J. Massey