About me...Graham Williams

While I'm not 'new' as a subscriber to MWForum I thought I'd contribute
a few paragraphs in response to Wendi's recent 'invitation':

I'm a teacher of elementary-level students at a private [ fee-paying ]
school in the state of Victoria, Australia . I currently work with
students from Prep to Year 6 levels .  My official 'brief' is to run our
Science/Technology program but I'm also involved in special programs for
more-able students.

I first worked with 'the turtle' way back in the olden days of the Apple
IIe and Logowriter. Basically I think Microworlds is the 'best thing
since sliced bread'. ! and my only disappointment is that there isn't
enough time in the school-day to utilise the power of Microworlds to its
fullest potential .

When I took-up my present position I was responsible for providing an
enriched mathematics program for a group of 13 really exceptional Year 6
students . While there were many possible directions in which I could've
'pointed' these students I decided to incorporate Mworlds into the
program . Well - they just 'ate it up' . There isn't space to go into
the details but these students really 'flew' at their own level. I'd
suggest ideas to develop and set tasks and they'd extend themselves [
and me ! ] in the most amazing ways. Indeed, that's one of the most
wonderful things about working in Microworlds - there's no 'ceiling' ,
the possibilities seem to be limited only by one's imagination .
Needless to say I incorporate Mworlds into the curriculum whenever I can
- I have students using it in maths, science, language and art . For
example I challenge the students to write procedures to create their own
art-works or to 'copy/forge' famous art-works [ rather than 'merely'
using the graphics tool by mouse-manipulation] - so that at the click of
a button a painting 'unfolds' on the screen. 

I find the students are virtually never off-task when they're working in
Microworlds - they become so engaged it's hard to get them to shut-down
the computer and move to the next class [ the tyranny of the timetable].
I think it's the most stimulating / challenging / open-ended piece of
software available and it amazes me that it isn't employed more widely
in the schools with which I am familiar. It provides such enormous scope
for catering for kids' individual difference - for fostering 
 creativity and logical -sequential thinking.  My idea of a dream-job
would be to work as a sort of Microworlds Missionary and travel from
school to school spreading the word !  

I frequently run Microworlds workshops for an organisation which
presents programs for 'Bright' students in the vacation and I find that
even thought some students have 'used' Microworlds [ which usually means
they've had the turtle draw a square ] they haven't experienced its full
potential [ and of course neither have I ! ]. There's always a new
challenge , a deeper level at which to work.

One of my frustrations is that I'm by no means proficient at computer
programming and I'd love to learn more [ and more systematically ] about
the conventions of programming in Logo. I'm finding that hard to do -
down here at the bottom of the world ! [ short of enrolling in
university courses ].  I spend a lot of time trawling the web for stuff
on programming in Logo and I do a lot 'reverse engineeering' with
Microworlds projects I find on the net but this is not entirely
satisfactory . I'm so envious of Microworlds lovers who are in a
position to attend the conferences / workshops I see advertised in
cities in the USA - it's just not possible for me to do so [ time,
distance and $$$$$ ].

I've found the subscribers to MWorldsForum to be so, so generous with
sharing their time, energy and knowledge - it's a fabulous resource but
I'd also like to be part of a flesh-and-bones network in my own area but
unfortunately our schools too are caught up in the [ often trivial ]
objectively-measurable-learning-outcome regime and to many school
administrators Microworlds doesn't 'look like ' proper ' maths, or
logical-sequential thinking !!!  The consequence of this is that
although schools may have Microworlds on their systems/networks it's not
utilised by teachers as it could be and there isn't a band of devoted
teachers in a position to 'spread the word' . 

I seem to be writing an epistle here [ sorry! ] but in my own experience
in our schools Mworld's potential is so under-realised that I feel the
need to do something about it on a wider scale,  But what....?

One last thing: yesterday when I opened up Outlook to delete excess mail
I noted a message to the MWForum from one of our Year 5 boys' [ his
parents bought him Mworlds EX recently because he's so captivated ] .
He's working at home on a project incorporating a timer and he'd asked
me the previous day if I could help him but I was dashing off to a
meeting [ yet another - as one does in school these days ] and explained
I didn't have time. I suggested he post a message on the Forum - which
he did . Then a few hours later Daniel A very kindly posted a reply with
a demo.file .  I went to the student's classroom to tell him and he was
SO excited with the news   but what was just as exciting for me was that
he asked if I knew this Daniel person and where he lives !! So I took
the student to the world-globe and showed him where Daniel lives and in
a few minutes the boy learned something more about world geography. A
'small' thing I know - but it was new knowledge for the student and he
was  SO enchanted with the realisation that someone out there in
cyberspace had made contact and helped him .  Thanks Daniel from me too
!

 I think that's a good note on which to finish .  Thanks to the various
people who' ve helped me with my enquiries to the Forum.
 Cheers  Graham