Thing 3

Well, since this is going to be a very busy week with the end of the quarter and all, I thought I'd use my lazy Sunday afternoon for something productive. So, yes, I did thing 3.

Research is one of those things I really enjoy about teaching history. There's always so many things you can do, so sometimes I really need to think about the outcome of what do I really want my students to know leaving my classroom?. What is easy for me about research is coming up with the ideas for research assignments. I am an idea person, so that part of teaching has always been very easy for me.

The challenges for research, and I think many teachers would agree with me, is getting students to learn how to do quality research. I know that they can google something, but if what they are looking for is not in the first site, then they are not patient and say its not there, I need a new topic. Well, of course they don't get a new topic, but yes, I can definately use some tools to help my students research.

As I am doing History Day for the first time this year, I am glad that I am taking the MILI course. It has made me stop and look at all the things available for teachers and students to work on research projects. Yes, I am interested in the project calculator, and I did see some hand-outs that I believe can assist students with this project. While I believe the project itself is signifcant, overall I think that students will this year be getting better research skills along the way-- thanks to this class. I am also setting up a wiki for History Day students, not only for questions, but also for writing about how this process is going once a week.

I am trusting that teaching better research skills will have my student's trips to the media center be more productive. Hopefully, this will assist me in helping all these students' projects.

As for support, I believe that our media specialist is awesome here, and she's willing to use these resources as well. In all, I think that just like anything else you try with students, you just have to try some of these resources and see what works best for your classes.