Karen Giesler

Giesler's "Speaking Our Minds" project is aimed at gifted elementary-age students with writing deficits. Using laptop computers, voice-to-text technology, and special software, students improve their abilities to generate and organize ideas in their written work, while being liberated from disabilities in handwriting, spelling, and other mechanics. By giving access to hard-to-find assisting technology, the project helps students gain confidence in expressing ideas through writing, minimizes their frustration and failure, and improves their performance on tests and district writing assessments.