Don't miss out on this year's Digital Flat Stanley Project!

Just wanted to make you aware that registration for the 2009-2010 Flat Stanley Project is now open (and closes on October 15th!)! We hope that you and your students will participate!

What happens when a normal boy finds himself flattened by a bulletin board and is sent through the mail to places all across the country? Your students can find out during this fun project, based on the 1964 book written by Jeff Brown! Classes across the country will participate in this project and send their Flat Stanleys around the USA to visit different students. Every journey, one school’s Flat Stanley will visit another partner school. Students will take their new flat friend on different adventures near their school and record the adventures on a wiki page. At the end of each journey, partner schools will meet via videoconference for 30 minutes to greet one another, discuss their hometown and experiences with their flat friends. At the end of the project, Flat Stanley will have visited 4 places and - - and so will your students! Last year more than 130 classes participated! Make sure your class doesn't miss out! This project is open to students in grades K-3.

If you participated in the project in the past, there are some changes this year. Due to increase in postage fees and tight budgets, there is NO scrapbook component to this project (so we'll just be mailing Flat Stanleys in envelopes - - no worries about large packages!) Instead of creating physical scrapbook pages, each class will be creating a wiki page for each of their journeys. Of course, you and your collaborating teacher for a journey may choose to send things to your partner class about your location, but this is not required.

We have a new registration system this year as well. In order to register for the Digital Flat Stanley project, you must work with your technology coordinator to get set-up in our new system. Here are the steps:

1. Have your videoconference/technology coordinator go to http://www.magpi.net, click on “log in” and then either log in using their existing MUSE username/password (if they have one) or click on “create new account.” When an account is created, it may take up to 24 business hours for it to be approved before you can register.
2. Your videoconference/technology coordinator must then go to their account information (click on their username which is displayed on the upper right hand corner of the website when he or she is logged in) and then click on the “sites” tab. Your technology coordinator must create a site for every building that wants to participate in this project. This will keep your technical information on file with MAGPI and teachers don’t need to worry about knowing IP addresses!
3. After your videoconference/technology coordinator has created your sites, YOU need to create an account for yourself (so we have your class information on file!). Go to http://www.magpi.net, click on “log in” and then log in using your existing MUSE username/password (if you have one) or click on “create new account.” When an account is created, it may take up to 24 business hours for it to be approved before you can register.
4. Before you can register for a program, you must link your account with the appropriate site in our database. To do that, go to your account information (click on your username which is displayed on the upper right hand corner of the website when you are logged in) and then click on the “sites” tab. Click on “other sites,” scroll to find your site and then click “join.” Congrats! You’re now linked to a site!
5. After your account is approved, you’ll see dates, times and “register now” links on all MAGPI program pages when you are logged into the website. Go to the Digital Flat Stanley project webpage, click “Register Now,” accept the terms and YOU’RE REGISTERED!

I realize that registering for a project the first time using our new system is a bit of a process; however, any time you want to register for a future program – all you will need to do is log in and click “register.”

Please note that if you participated last year, your class wiki page from last year’s project has been archived. We will be creating new templates for registered participants next week - - look for information from me after you register for the program. Please don't go in, delete last year's information and update your old page. We'd like to save those as an archival history of the project!

Thanks! Looking forward to working with all of you on this project and to another fabulous school year!