— Daily Freeman-Journal photo by Teresa Wood Obed Antonio, Jay Wiese, Reading teacher Laura Seiser, Brianna Wllen and Sean Morgan discuss a Night Time Zookeeper writing assignment. Students work on their iPads and write reports, stories, poems.

BLAIRSBURG – Halloween has passed, but something spooky continues to happen at Northeast Hamilton Elementary School in the 4th-6th grade reading classes – students are actually asking for more writing assignments.

“When have kids ever asked to write?” asked 4th-6th Grade Reading and Title I teacher Laura Seiser. “I have to ask myself, ‘Is this the real world?”

Since the first of the 2018-2019 school year, Seiser’s classes have participated in the Night Time Zookeeper (NTZ) program, a interactive digital writing tool which uses technology to ignite a child’s creativity and gives them a voice worldwide.

Seiser, a 24 year veteran in the classroom, is amazed at how her students have taken to the program.

“This has been incredible,” exclaimed Seiser, who acknowledges that while the students navigate through the program without effort, she’s an Old School teacher who sometimes struggles to keep up with them.

One of the different aspects of the NTZ program is that perfection is not required. That concept flies in the face of conventional writing instruction, said Seiser.

“We are not looking for perfection,” said Seiser. “If the children enjoy writing, they will do more of it and that will improve their skills.”

Seiser admits she’s had to let go of the writing rules she learned in her own youth.

“I’ve had to let go and that allowed them to express themselves,” she said. “Once I let go of the situation, it freed them.”

That’s not to say that proper grammar, punctuation and spelling are out the window. Students must follow NTZ rules which teaches students correct language usage and requires them to use it in their compositions.

All the work is done on the student’s school iPad and is available via their secure password as long as they have access to WiFi. Students have the opportunity to work in every writing genre — reports, creative writing, poetry, editing, book reviews and illustrated drawing. In addition, their work is shared with students around the world.

For each level of achievement, the students are rewarded with game cards which further encourage writing assignments. Each writing assignment will offer options to include in the story. Those options might include an activity, a set of vocabulary words or a chance to play a game on the computer.

Fifth grader Sean Morgan is an enthusiastic learner, thanks to NTZ.

“Sometimes you have a word limit but you can write as much as you like,” said Sean. Since the beginning of the year, he’s written several compositions of over 1,000 words each.

In the last week of October, the NEH Fifth Grade class was designated the worldwide Class Blog of the Week. In addition, Obed Antonio’s The Zombie Graveyard!! was named the NTZ Poem of the Week.

Obed said he enjoys NTZ and was surprised by the honor.

“I had worked hard on other compositions,” Obed said. But in writing The Zombie Graveyard!! he simply put his thoughts on screen.

Leslie Pralle Osborn, Prairie Lakes Instruction Technology Consultant, learned of NTZ at the International Society for Technology in Education conference in Chicago last summer. She asked Seiser if she would be interested in being part of a pilot program.

“The success of the NTZ is two fold,” said Pralle Osborn. “One way would be to measure gains in student enthusiasm about writing.”

With students eager to undertake each challenge that’s presented to them, that goal has been achieved, said Pralle Osborn. The second measure of success is evaluating student growth on NTZ and comparing them to statewide standards.

“The district is working really hard on writing goals in their professional development and I felt like this was a platform that might offer some creative support,” she explained.

While students get to develop their creative writing skills, teachers introduce content on specific lessons. In addition, they can access lesson plans of other teachers from around the globe, she explained.

“NTZ offers a really creative approach to literacy,” said Pralle Osborn. “Not only do they have writing challenges, they’ve also published books that further bring kids into the NTZ world. It’s imagination plus essential skills.”

Each year, the NEH teaching staff sets improvement goals for classroom curriculum. This year, the NEH district is focused on writing skills and NTZ fits into that plan.

“I am excited about anything that gets kids excited or motivated about writing,” said NEH Supt. Mike Kruger. “My/Our expectations this year were that we would all be incorporating more writing at all grade levels. There are great things happening at all grade levels and Night Time Zookeeper is certainly motivating our upper elementary students and getting them excited about writing.”

A course of study may be lauded by the administration and educators, but without engaging the students, it would fail. That is the special aspect of NTZ, said Seiser. The students are as motivated as the teacher.

Sixth grader Braydon Moore illustrates the program’s success and appeal, said Seiser.

“It used to be like pulling teeth to get him to write anything,” said Seiser.

“I would do anything to avoid it,” agreed Moore. “Sometimes I’d just write the same word over and over to get out of an assignment.”

Now enthusiastically writing compositions, some totaling of over 8000 words, Moore is a convert.

“NTZ opened my eyes,” he confessed. “I love writing now.”