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My first contact at the middle school was Mrs. Iyoshi, facilitator for the Social Studies program. She was enthused by having another graduate student help her and other teachers with multimedia projects. For the first three weeks, I assisted several students who participate in the gifted program. These students come to Mrs. Iyoshi's class for an accelerated curriculum. Mrs. Iyoshi has incorporated multimedia into this curriculum.

Mrs. Iyoshi told other teachers that I was available to assist in multimedia production and curriculum integration, and I soon began working with Mrs. Johnson-Smith. Mrs. Johnson-Smith wanted her students to create projects on the topic of vertebrates. Her organization of the entire project, not just the multimedia development, played a large role in the success of these students' work.

She first divided the students into groups of three and four, then assigned each group a category of vertebrates (mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, fish, animal adaptations). She then gave the students folders with the criteria for the projects, as well as some references from which the students could begin their research. Each group was responsible for teaching their topic, incorporating several activities. One of the activities was the multimedia demonstration.

As the students created their projects, there was concern over colors, fonts and some other graphical issues. I had given them storyboards to use as a guide during development, but had not set true standards about graphics.

For the second project involving topics on Russia, I gave another group of students storyboards and persuaded them to deal with fonts and colors toward the end. Students worked well at incorporating video and audio files to their projects, as well as including basic information about their topic.

On the presentation days, I realized a different perspective of these multimedia projects for the middle school students. After being 'designers' and 'developers,' they became teachers, who referred to, and took pride in, their creations and new knowledge. Future students can refer to their work and/or get ideas from them, as they create their own projects. My two major concerns are (1) finding a way for students to keep their work, so possibly to have a portfolio of sort to show at the end of their middle school years, and (2) not setting too many standards or providing cookie-cutter templates into which students just drop information. Storyboards should merely provide guidance and serve as an organizational tool, not a template. With enough guidance and organization, I think it is possible.

My work with middle school teachers and students was a gratifying, learning experience.

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