Darcy Nickel

Nickel's winning program, "Put Your Voice Where Your Pen Is" classroom magazine project, is designed for the fifth-grade students at Dever Elementary School to write and publish their own bi-monthly magazine. Once published, the magazine will be a part of every classroom library, the school library and the local neighborhood library. This program will help students develop the ability to communicate effectively in writing, organizing and integrating information from a variety of sources. They will also learn about teamwork and design visual images that connect in a meaningful way to the written work. Outside the classroom, students will have the opportunity to conduct research or interview people in the community relevant to a featured story. Utilizing a computer publishing program, the students will have ownership of designing the magazine that will include student created pictures and illustrations along with the written content. Nickel lives in Chicago.