Pros:

• I received several contributions from the emails I sent out from several different people of different ages.
• The contributions (especially in the poetry section) were written at a variety of reading levels and offered different aspects of serenity. For instance, one poem was written as a folk lyric about the Brushy Fork Creek, and another was a prayer in the form of verse. Nature, God, Family--these were a few of the different aspects that people considered when contemplating the qualities of serenity.
• Several people who chose not to contribute to the site still emailed me to give me their opinion on the project. Among the comments were:
  • Great site, Misty.
  • I haven't had time to contribute but your web page looks good, like the music, and I enjoyed browsing through it. Thanks for sharing.
  • I think you may have a winner here. You are not asking for too much yet the task of creating and submitting something that has deep personal meaning will engage them. Looking forward to seeing how this evolves.
  • Just got a note from my sister-in-law.... She says she visited your site, liked it, and added stuff to it.
  • I think the project looks great.
  • Good job!
  • Your pages look terrific! Can't wait to view the Serenity pages as they develop. (Okay, this one is from my mom, but that still counts, doesn't it?)
    

Cons:

• My IVHS students didn't contribute to the Serenity Project even though they were offered extra credit points for one essay or poem apiece, leading me to believe that motivation may be a factor in the future with my f2f students.
• Several of my family, friends, and colleagues declined to participate as well. Some of them may have found the project too time consuming, challenging, creative, and/or boring to participate in. Or maybe, they just didn't care to look at it.
• Nobody cared to participate in the essay section. Some revision may be needed there.
• I never heard from anyone through the advertisements at GSN or at THS. Perhaps I need to spice up the ads a little? Or maybe it's just that because it's summer, there aren't as many educators surfing for online projects to use with their students yet.

*Although it would appear that the cons outweigh the pros, the truth is that the project was, overall, successful, at least as far as the trial run allowed.

Since the trial run was relatively successful even though it was tried during the summer when everyone was busy relaxing (isn't that an oxymoron?), I think this project will be very successful with my students during the school year. In fact, I'll probably continue to revise the project until it is basically maintained by my students. Hopefully it will become a project that other schools will participate in and that my students will learn from.