November 20, 2010

http://www.sfmuseum.org/

What did I learn?

Wow, this organization is very informative. I can see how one can use this as part of their teaching components. So much information is presented in this web page about the history of San Francisco. I had previously heard of the famous earthquake that shook San Francisco but besides that I really didn’t know in great detail of other events such as The Great Fire. I like how they provide a whole timeline of the events and how each happen. This organization is suitable for both the students and teachers.

What else do I want to learn?

I do wish to learn and explore a little on how we could organize a similar idea for our city. Even though San Francisco is a big city, I believe it would be a great idea to be able to share a webpage on our city of Mercedes as well. I’m sure that there already exists areas where they mention Mercedes and how it came to be and so forth, but there is a whole lot of other information and events that can be shared the same way as they present it here. This can also be a way to work with students and technology. Maybe a group project for history can be that they come up with a webpage of their own where they present similar information as the sfmuseum.org.

November 13, 2010

http://www.k12connection.org/

What did I learn?

I currently work for a district and often I do see the homebound teacher stop by once in a while to pick up and drop off work to other teachers, but it never really crossed my mind that parents could educate their own children. My thought was that for every home schooled student there existed a home bound teacher who would service them. Through the K12Connection organization I have learned that homeschooling students is becoming a growing issue for teachers because parents are deciding that they are the best suited people to educate their child at home. With the recent elections, and working for a school I really wanted to help and make a difference and go out there and vote for the school board members. Even though I have an idea of what the duties of the school members is, I didn’t quite understand them. However, K12Connection does a great job of breaking down and explaining exactly what the role of the school board members. This organization provides very good and useful information that educators and future educators can look into.

What else do I want to learn?

I was a little intrigued after reading about how homeschooling is becoming a growing issue for the schools everywhere. I would like to learn and research a little more on how this really works. As a parent myself I wonder if I will ever consider this option for children. The two same questions that are used as examples might be the ones I question myself which would be: Is my child happy at school? Is my child reaching his full potential to learn and grow? I would want to find out a little more on how this k12 program works in terms of using it to home school children.

November 6, 2010

http://www.pbs.org/

What did I learn?

I had previously visited this organization before but I had failed to notice that they have a section for kids, parents, and teachers. I had explored and researched what they have to offer for the students, and I really liked that they have all sorts of activities for students to view and learn from. As for parents and teachers they offer resources on how to help out their children and students. What really caught my attention is that as teachers this organization offers plenty of resources to help with their lesson plans and assist in their teaching. To make things easier they offer resources and information for every area of the different grade levels. This allows teachers to focus on their subject area and grade level they teach. Since this organization is a government funded project their work and information offered are very reliable resources.

What I would like to learn?

I have at times actually tuned into the television channel, and together with my son have viewed the cartoons that they broadcast. Surprisingly enough I have seen my son learn and actively engage himself. I do wonder, how much can we incorporate the pbs videos and cartoons into our lesson plans, and use them to teach our students. Viewing through this webpage I could see some items that could be used together with our teaching, and I truly believe that better learning outcomes could happen with the use of these videos together with the lesson plans.