Thursday, June 11, 2009

Idea for Families

As we met this week at ACMS, not only was I thinking of how what I learned I could use in the classroom, but also how could families use technology to help their child learn more and more creatively. In addition, families often want to help a child who is struggling or even who is so smart that his or her learning could grow even more with technology.
So, here is my idea...What if the Global Learners offered a a monthly workshop for families on how they could use technology to help their child learn? Many families now have the internet at home or can find a way to access it. Kids want to be producers and we can show so many more options than myspace.
What if families learned how to help their child create better ways to learn difficult vocabulary by using VUE?
What do you think?

16 comments:

Todd said...

I think that's an excellent idea!!

Anonymous said...

We can each think of something we feel can teach families. What if we made the date, time and place consistent, something like th lat Wednesday of the month?

Penny said...

I meant to leave my name to the last post and spell the and last correctly

Joseph Miller said...

This is a great idea. I could definitely see this being a real draw for our Spanish speakers if we provided resources on how to help your child at home (#1 question parents have asked at the ELL forums).

Penny said...

Could we involve paras or even parent volunteers to help translate? What if we started brainstorming a list of what we could offer? What if each of us thought of at least one thing we would feel comfortable teaching families?

Lisa Kellogg said...

Penny,
I'm sure we will be able to get help interpreting. I think we can also ask our bilingual colleagues for suggestions of Spanish websites.
Great idea.

Penny said...

Hi Lisa,
I am thinking that so many families want to help their child, and we need to make it easy for them. I wonder how many Global Learners are fluent Spanish speakers? Can we get ESL para support and do we have funds in Global Learners to pay paras an hourly rate? What can we do to make families feel welcome and want to accelerate their child's learning and creativity through use of technology?
For me, part of it is showing good reference websites to access, but also teaching families how to help their children create and what resources are available.

doug.abshire said...

count me in...

Penny said...

What ideas does everyone have for workshops? Where do you think the best place to hold the workshops would be?

Joseph Miller said...

Internet Safety (I-Safe) would be a great one. This gives parents basic knowledge about how their children are likely using the Internet and how to be proactive about appropriate use.

Penny said...

I think that is a great idea Joe!

Here is the address of I-Safe.
http://www.isafe.org/

I will read through it later. There is a virtual academy for educators, parents, kids and teens I want to try.
http://www.isafe.org/
Do you think ending each session with a brief reminder of internet safety would be prudent? Would it be repetitive?

Kate Ibarra said...

While formal presentations make me nervous, I would absolutely be willing to translate or present in Spanish. (Much better with my own words in Spanish than translating ;) This was something I had thought about last year and would LOVE to be a part of this year!!

Great idea Penny!

Penny said...

Kate, that is terrific.
I feel that we need to make more of an effort to reach out and welcome Spanish speaking families. So many are using technology as a way to stay in touch with family and also want to help their children.
No one has to present alone and I feel we should not only be presenters, but if possible be at others presentations to help and learn.
I am getting pretty good at the collegeincolorado.org website and could teach how to create portfolios in the site.
Our academic counselor might be willing to help present and I might be able to get someone from collegeincolorado.org to help present.
Although much of this site is geared for middle school and up, it can also work 3rd grade and up to learn about interests and careers.
A 7th grader at KMS won a $1000.00 scholarship from this organization for an essay she wrote.

Dave Tarwater said...

Penny,

That's what I'm talkin about! Great idea, how about you taking the leadership on this one? We can all help in making your idea come to fruition. I think the monthly workshop would be an ideal place to introduce families to the online resources they will have access to via Atomic Learning. Let's continue the discussion.

Penny said...

Dave,
I am good with taking leadership on this idea. Can you please let me know the best place to do the workshops?
I feel every month we come up with something great and new.
How about everyone list something they would like to share with families?

Kelly Berry said...

I would love to help in any capacity! Great idea Penny and let me know if you need any assistance.