Submitted by:
Pia Bombardier
Research Assistant
Department of Educational Psychology
University of Illinois
1310 S. 6th St.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
v: (217) 244-0537
f: (217) 244-7620
e: m-bombardier@uiuc.edu
Categories:
Education, K12; Education, higher
Keywords:
Innovative or improved ways of doing things; More equitable access to technology or electronic information; Creation of new ideas, products, or services; Leverage of public funding; Partnerships between public and private sector
Supporting Documentation (contact author for more information):
Other: electronic mail messages
The Story:
This story was collected as part of the “Teaching Teleapprenticeships” research project at the University of Illinois, sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
I am the system operator for a FrEdMail node in Illinois. I received a message one day from one of the users asking me if Pia was my real name. They had never heard of any one with that name so they were just wondering. They started the message saying to me that they all had ordinary names and that was why they had to ask me about mine.
Not really expecting this kind of question (usually my questions deal with FrEd stuff like when will I be validated, how do I send a message, etc.) I thought I would really elaborate about my name. If they took the time to ask, then I would take the time to let them know about my name. So I proceeded to tell them that my whole name was Pia Siri Marie Cludette Bombardier. My parents wanted to make sure that I would have a name I would like so they gave me a number to choose from. Well one of the teachers really liked my name and gave his classes an assignment to start a story with “My name is Pia Siri Marie Cludette Bombardier. He wrote to me asking me if that would be OK. I thought that was a cute questions so I said yes. Well little did I know that they were really going to do it. About a month later, I received a message containing the stories the students had written using my name. I was so excited! I never thought they would do it. I have the message on disc so that I can go back and see my name in print whenever I want!
What a neat interaction I had with his classes! I have included just one example.
THE BABY BIRD
by Pia Siri Marie Claudette Bombardier
My name is Pia Siri Marie Claudette Bombardier. You can call me Pia for short. I am 7 years old and Iive in Paris, France with my grandmother. She is poor, so I help as much as I can. She sews clothing for a factory four blocks away from where we live. Because my grandmother is old and frail, I take the clothing to the faactory for her.
One day, as I was on my way to the factory, I was passing by the Eiffel Tower. All of a sudden I noticed a big black alley cat sitting very still, watching something on the ground. Just as I noticed what the cat was watching, I saw a baby bird on the ground as the cat was starting to run toward the bird. I ran and ran and ran to get to the baby bird before the cat. I quickly picked up the bird and scared the cat away. Then I looked up and noticed that I was standing under the Eiffel Tower, and I saw the nest that the baby bird fell out of.
Then I took the baby bird inside the Eiffel Tower and climbed the stairs to reach his nest. I put the baby bird back in his nest and climbed back down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs there was a policeman, standing there looking at me. Then he walked over to me and said, “Little girl, you saved the life of an extinct baby bird and you will be rewarded $l00.00 for your good deed.” So I thanked this policeman and ran home to tell my grandmother. We were no longer poor and we lived happily ever after.