 My name is Laurie Scarpelli, and I teach elementary comprehensive music to grades kindergarten through six. I teach at Lake Louise Elementary School in Palatine, Illinois. Our project is called Music and Digital Storytelling to Support Literacy. And it's a cross-curricular project. We designed for fifth and sixth grade students. We're going to combine technology, music, and literacy. And when I thought about what I wanted to do, I knew that the best way to do it would be to have iPad twos in my classroom. And there are no funds available, so I decided to apply to the NEA Foundation for a grant, a student achievement grant, with which we could purchase nine iPad twos. And with these nine iPads, we will be able to do this project with all our fifth and sixth graders. Our primary goal will be for the students to create e-books to share with younger students as teaching tools. They will be in small groups, which is a great learning experience to work in a small group and collaborate. I learned that when you work as a group, you need to have lots of patience and cooperation because some of the group members might have something else in their mind. Okay. I learned that when you're recording the voice or song, it's hard and you need to try it more than once and sometimes you don't sound like yourself, so you just have to keep on at it and try no matter how much and know that it's going to work sometime. Everything about this project had to be done right and done well so that they could teach the younger students. They did the artwork, they put in the text, and they recorded their voices reading the nursery rhyme, and then they played them on the piano and sang. They created fantastic projects that aren't just projects to get a grade. They're projects that I can use to teach the younger students. I love the world so high. The big bonus is the excitement and creativity that this technology fosters in the students. They've all said, what are we doing next? What are we doing next? Do you have to come up with something really good? So thank you NEA Foundation. We feel like we've just gotten started and whatever comes up next is going to be exciting for us and for the children, so thank you.