Principal’s E-Pals Keep Up on Trip

Foxborough Elementary Principal Karen Clay will take interactive teaching to a new level this week when she sends her students daily e-mail from the bottom of the world.

Clay decided to share her second vacation to Antarctica with her Aliso Viejo students after the overwhelming reception she received after her first trip.

“I couldn’t get through the door without students trying to tell me how much they knew from their lessons about Antarctica,” Clay said about that 1997 trip.

So Tuesday morning, more than 100 second-graders will gather around their class computers to read their first message from Clay in Antarctica.

They will hear what Clay and PeeWee the penguin, a stuffed traveling companion named by students, are doing aboard a cruise ship. Then, on a daily basis, Clay will send e-mail reports on PeeWee’s “studies” of real penguins and ice cliffs, and what scientists and naturalists on the ship are studying. Students will e-mail back with their questions and comments.

Clay’s enthusiasm for her students infected the crew of the Marco Polo, and they set up Internet access for her and all the ship’s passengers.

All of this is making geography come alive for Foxborough second-graders, who have been “aboard” the Marco Polo for a week and are following its progress on maps. Students already know what they plan to ask in their e-mail. Christian Cooksey, 7, of Laguna Hills wonders if it ever gets warm in Antarctica. Melody Lung, 7, of Aliso Viejo wants PeeWee to find out how many kinds of penguins live there.

And Clay is as excited as the students are.

“I get a wonderful vacation and I get to share my experiences with them,” she said last week.