Hello YWP participants!
I wanted to thank everyone for their patience in the past week. The site has been slow and a little wacky, but we have been working around the clock to get everything up to speed and up to standard. I would also like to thank all of you who have been scanning the site and reporting bugs through the contact page, and through the forums. With your help, a new database server, and fixing something I don't quite understand called the Forum Access Module on the main site, we will have the YWP site running at a normal speed by the end of the week.
I would also like to let everyone know that this Wednesday, October 10, is the deadline to get your requests in to borrow the 25 AlphaSmart Neos for your classroom. The kind folks at Renaissance Learning have donated 25 AlphaSmart Neos to our Young Writers Program. The Neos are battery-powered word processors that weigh much less than a typical laptop. They can't get on the internet, and getting the text off of them requires that you hook them up to an actual computer. But they're rugged little beasts, and kids love them.
If you believe that your classroom of novelists could benefit from the use of 25 AlphaSmarts this November, please send a request directly to tavia@nanowrimo.org. In the email, please include your name, NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program username, the name of your school or library, and an explanation of why the AlphaSmarts would be helpful to your classroom.
Once we choose a deserving classroom, we will inform the folks at Renaissance Learning, and they will ship the computers to your class free of cost! Plus, we will cover the cost of shipping the computers back to our office. Just send the computers back with a receipt for the shipping cost by December 15, and we will send you a reimbursement check.
All requests must be received by October 10, 2007. Neos will be mailed out to you by October 21.
Warm regards,
Tavia Stewart
