I was planning my 700 hours worth of lesson plans yesterday. (My kids are starting to learn that I exaggerate a lot.) This planning for every subject is ridiculously time-consuming, not to mention the outrageous lesson plan format we have to follow. ANYWAY, beside the point. This week in Language Arts (English, for you old school people), my kids are studying functional text, which includes things like recipes, directions, schedules, signs, phone books, etc.
As I was on my hands and knees yanking the phone book out of its resting place at the bottom of my closet, where it cushions my glassware and boosts up an occasional child, a thought came to me. What is the point of the phone book? When do I ever use it? Clearly, not much. However, I suppose it can still be of use if a person is looking for a plumber or a roofer and doesn't know one. Hence, I will still teach my kids how to use the yellow pages.
However, once a person does know what specific company, restaurant, or organization they want information on, the group's website is much more useful. For that reason, this week we will be locating information on a website as well (which is a totally different skill than using MySpace). I know this may seem like a bit of a no-brainer, but the state standards out there would probably say that I shouldn't be wasting my time on things that aren't going to be on the standardized test at the end of the year. In my humble opinion though, (imho in text speak), it is a necessary life skill that I use all the time. Like I say, though it may be looked down upon by some, I think that is one small thing that contributes toward being a good teacher (even though it may not boost my students' test scores). :-)
1 comment:
I like it. It's real world. Plus the kids have no idea how to look something up on on-line. They always put in full questions and all that. As time goes on, they'll only need to use computers and search engines more and more. Your basically teaching them how to research on-line. You're starting with something small, like how to research a business. To research they need to know how to find something on-line.
(New paragraph) I added a new blog. I even used several paragraphs. Warning though- rampant over use of commas. I learn a little at a time. I LOVE writing. I'm sitting in my house, with all the lights turned off (pitch black) because it's gotten dark as I started writing and I haven't been able to stop! (O:
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