Background: At the end of the Community Holiday Card unit, Susan had all of her students complete a short self-assessment exercise. Because the unit ended up being a very collaborative group project in the end, we wanted the students to recognize and write about their own personal contribution to the cards. When we mailed the cards to community members, each card was composed of artwork and writing by several different students. We also wanted the students to write about and evaluate the software. At the beginning of the unit we were concerned that Illustrator would be too difficult for the students to master, but they proved us wrong. We wanted to know what challenges they faced as they learned to use various drawing tools, what frustrated them the most about the software, and what they still wanted to learn more about. It was very interesting because in general, the tools that frustrated the students the most were the same tools that frustrated me the most as I was trying to learn the program only a week before I taught them. Also, the tools that students found most difficult and most frustrating were the very tools about which they wanted to learn more! At any rate, here is what one student had to say in response to the self-assessment questions.

WHAT NEW TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM ILLUSTRATOR?
Luis (student) says: "Because of this unit I even stayed after school where I learned to draw a picture in three dimensions. I drew the picture with a number of tools such as 'zoom.' I was most interested in the 'zoom' tool because with it I could use my other tools more closely because the 'zoom' let me bring the view very big and then very small again. I learned to use the 'brush' tool to make a more convincing snow-covered ground because the 'brush' tool gives you more control over the color you are using. I also used this tool to create a snowing effect. I used the 'gradient' tool to create the shining on the star. To make the background I used the rectangle tool, made a box and filled it with a color. I also used the rectangle tool to make the buildings adn window. To make all the windows the same size, I used the 'selection' tool to pick one, held down the Option key and the mouse, and then made a copy which transferred to another place on the building. I did the same thing with the snow. I used the 'freehand' tool to help in the stars' shine."

WHAT WAS YOUR PERSONAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE HOLIDAY CARD?
Luis (student) says: "My personal contribution to the Christmas card is a picture I drew with Adobe Illustrator. The picture is of a city in the winter. It is night time and there are stars shining, but there is one star in particular that is shining ever so brighter than the rest. It is the North Star or Christmas Star and it is protecting the people in the city as they sleep. In the back there is an illumination of a holy glow to bless the new year."

Kirsten says: "I think there is just so much charm to Luis's answers. He really worked hard to use a new tool to create artwork that reflected his feelings, ideas, and thoughts. When I look at Luis's picture on one of the cards, I think about that student and how he made his neighborhood of urban Boston look beautiful and, as he said, "holy." It is hard to show an entire Web audience the magnitude of this assignment, I think. It is hard for them to know the background of our kids and their struggles for academic success. With this project they really created something they were proud of - and those cards were direct reflections of the kids' personalities and ideas - from Michael Thompson's "Community Christmas Rap," to Shay Grady's artwork entitled "Ghetto Snow Family," Stephanie Woods's African American Santa, and the whole group's letter to the community, I learned more about their lives and their intelligence than they learned about desktop publishing - that is for sure!

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