Back before the 4th of July, I blogged on a new site that would be available this Fall, one I thought would be a good free resource for students, teachers and homeschooling parents. TeacherWrite, the creation of Nancy Ramsey, an award winning middle school English teacher, promised to eventually offer an entire school year of writing assignments on the site. Last summer Ms. Ramsey started her site with the idea of sharing lesson plans and enrichment activities she designed for her real world classroom with on-line teachers and learners.
I remember Nancy's disclaimer on the site warning that building this resource would be a slow process, because she would be using real lessons created and taught in real time. So I thought I would check back in with Nancy at www.teacherwrite.com this week and see how her site is developing. Only a few weeks into the school year, I was impressed to find a significant amount of useful material available at TeacherWrite. The site is easy to navigate and the menu bar takes parents or teachers to the areas of Bell Work, Reading Activities, Writing Activities, Writing Process, Enrichment Activities and several other choices.
Nancy has posted six goals under Mission Statement, the first of which is "help parents teach their children grammar and writing skills." The grade levels of the lessons are middle school; 5th through 7th grades. I can see however the possibility of the materials being used with some younger children and also having a value to adult learners who need to learn basic writing skills.
This is a valuable free resource that will continue to develop. Congratulations Nancy.
Copyright 2009 Creekside Education & Susie Williams
Contact me: creeksideeducation@gmail.com
Contents of this Blog are copyrighted by Creekside Education and Susie Williams and may only be used or reproduced for non commercial purposes and must include the following credit; "This information is copyrighted by and used with the permission of Creekside Education Blog by Susie Williams."
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Home School Websites for Ideas & Inspiration
We have a twitter account on which we follow and are followed by several hundred homeschooling families. As a result I get alot of tweets that lead me to the personal homeschool website of some of these families. I don't have to tell any educator that there is every species of homeschooling family out there that one can imagine, with almost as many philosophies of education. And, of course, you parents know that, too.
What I find wonderful about the websites that I visit as a result of the tweets I receive, is the variety of point of view and ways of handling the children's education. And it is all free. The diversity in families and motivation and thought leads to an abundance of differing activities and directions. I love to read about their lesson plans or lack of and the activities they pursue, the imagination they show and the sincere desire that all of the parents have to do the best they can for their children. They are sharing their experiences, successes and failures, free on their websites.
On two sites I saw just today, which I particularly liked for different reasons, the primary teaching parent was the mother. The first family indicate that they are Christian, the second is non theist and they intend to educate and raise their children without religion. The first mother has been using public information films from the mid-fifties to teach her children valuable lessons and tweeted today about a film from the 50s on how radar works. She and her husband have made these old films into pod casts, which they make available on their home school website for less than a dollar. This family says they are an eclectic homeschooling family with an eclectic homeschooling website, http://hmhomeschoolers.com/. The site name is "Homemade Homeschoolers." Check out their podcast on how radar works and others on their site.
I had to go on the website of the second family just because of the title, "Raising Three Thinkers." Yes, they have three children. I love that play on words. Go to http://www.raising3thinkers.com/ and at the top of the September 24, 2009 post you will see this quote from Albert Einstein, "I never attempt to teach my students; I only attempt to provide the condition in which they can learn." That is an educational philosophy, I can embrace. There is plenty to appreciate on this site as well, with some very interesting links.
On both as on many homeschooling family sites you find inspiration and creativity and a desire to share the educational experience. In my experience this is the time of year homeschooling families really get serious and parents begin to look around for support and resource. I recommend checking out homeschooling family websites whenever you run in to them, for the free ideas and inspiration, whether you are a homeschooling parent or a professional educator.
Copyright 2009 Creekside Education & Susie Williams
Contact me: creeksideeducation@gmail.com
Contents of this Blog are copyrighted by Creekside Education and Susie Williams and may only be used or reproduced for non commercial purposes and must include the following credit; "This information is copyrighted by and used with the permission of Creekside Education Blog by Susie Williams."
What I find wonderful about the websites that I visit as a result of the tweets I receive, is the variety of point of view and ways of handling the children's education. And it is all free. The diversity in families and motivation and thought leads to an abundance of differing activities and directions. I love to read about their lesson plans or lack of and the activities they pursue, the imagination they show and the sincere desire that all of the parents have to do the best they can for their children. They are sharing their experiences, successes and failures, free on their websites.
On two sites I saw just today, which I particularly liked for different reasons, the primary teaching parent was the mother. The first family indicate that they are Christian, the second is non theist and they intend to educate and raise their children without religion. The first mother has been using public information films from the mid-fifties to teach her children valuable lessons and tweeted today about a film from the 50s on how radar works. She and her husband have made these old films into pod casts, which they make available on their home school website for less than a dollar. This family says they are an eclectic homeschooling family with an eclectic homeschooling website, http://hmhomeschoolers.com/. The site name is "Homemade Homeschoolers." Check out their podcast on how radar works and others on their site.
I had to go on the website of the second family just because of the title, "Raising Three Thinkers." Yes, they have three children. I love that play on words. Go to http://www.raising3thinkers.com/ and at the top of the September 24, 2009 post you will see this quote from Albert Einstein, "I never attempt to teach my students; I only attempt to provide the condition in which they can learn." That is an educational philosophy, I can embrace. There is plenty to appreciate on this site as well, with some very interesting links.
On both as on many homeschooling family sites you find inspiration and creativity and a desire to share the educational experience. In my experience this is the time of year homeschooling families really get serious and parents begin to look around for support and resource. I recommend checking out homeschooling family websites whenever you run in to them, for the free ideas and inspiration, whether you are a homeschooling parent or a professional educator.
Copyright 2009 Creekside Education & Susie Williams
Contact me: creeksideeducation@gmail.com
Contents of this Blog are copyrighted by Creekside Education and Susie Williams and may only be used or reproduced for non commercial purposes and must include the following credit; "This information is copyrighted by and used with the permission of Creekside Education Blog by Susie Williams."
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Learning from Family & Death
My last post was July 29th and I apologize to those who have been waiting for the 8 weeks for another. In a way, I have been on sabbatical doing research on our subject; free educational resources. I think there are lessons in my experience over the last 8 weeks that parents and educators can. I know there is the lesson of faith, hope and love and the resilience of the human spirit.
Over the last two months I have experienced one of the most effective free learning experiences of my life, that of giving time, energy and support to a family member. On July 27th a member of my family had a long feared seizure that marked the beginning of her body's systems succumbing to a malignant brain tumor. She had bravely fought this tumor for an unbelievable 3-1/2 years, but finally ran out of treatment options in April.
From that point, for some of us life became a waiting game. For her, there were several months free of doctor's appointments and the nausea from chemo therapy, several months of having the opportunity to evaluate her life, say good-byes and to feel almost normal again. After the seizure, each day brought the loss of function, until on her 62nd birthday, she was bed bound, partially paralyzed, unable to swallow or speak, but able to communicate love with her eyes and the squeeze of a hand, just hours before she passed.
I moved into her home and for eight weeks with her husband and the help of their local hospice organization, became her caregiver. It is not the first time I have helped someone through the final months or weeks of life to their death. I have been a hospice volunteer for 20 years helping people I did not really know and their families through this experience. I was also the primary caregiver for my mother for several years.
Through each of these experiences, my admiration for the human spirit has been renewed. I've always found the individual who is facing death to be generous in spirit, more concerned for those around them than for themselves, courageous. With this death, my loved one passing so young, there was an opportunity for questioning and bitterness, impatience with those around her, lack of care for others; but none of that was ever presented. In the last days, when she could no longer communicate at all verbally, when she could only communicate through her eyes and a squeeze of weakened fingers, she still showed love and concern and incredible courage.
There were many moments of enlightenment for me at her bedside. Throughout the eight weeks, I saw many examples of her courage, faith and generosity. It will take me awhile to process them all. What I do know is that though I was afraid, I felt compelled to be her caregiver. My heart told me, I should volunteer. As a result I learned many things from her in the journey to her death. I know these are lessons I will understand as time passes and that I will use the rest of my life. However, the one lesson that I recognize now, an old lesson, free to all of us, is "follow your heart."
Copyright 2009 Creekside Education & Susie Williams
Contact me: creeksideeducation@gmail.com
Contents of this Blog are copyrighted by Creekside Education and Susie Williams and may only be used or reproduced for non commercial purposes and must include the following credit; "This information is copyrighted by and used with the permission of Creekside Education Blog by Susie Williams."
Over the last two months I have experienced one of the most effective free learning experiences of my life, that of giving time, energy and support to a family member. On July 27th a member of my family had a long feared seizure that marked the beginning of her body's systems succumbing to a malignant brain tumor. She had bravely fought this tumor for an unbelievable 3-1/2 years, but finally ran out of treatment options in April.
From that point, for some of us life became a waiting game. For her, there were several months free of doctor's appointments and the nausea from chemo therapy, several months of having the opportunity to evaluate her life, say good-byes and to feel almost normal again. After the seizure, each day brought the loss of function, until on her 62nd birthday, she was bed bound, partially paralyzed, unable to swallow or speak, but able to communicate love with her eyes and the squeeze of a hand, just hours before she passed.
I moved into her home and for eight weeks with her husband and the help of their local hospice organization, became her caregiver. It is not the first time I have helped someone through the final months or weeks of life to their death. I have been a hospice volunteer for 20 years helping people I did not really know and their families through this experience. I was also the primary caregiver for my mother for several years.
Through each of these experiences, my admiration for the human spirit has been renewed. I've always found the individual who is facing death to be generous in spirit, more concerned for those around them than for themselves, courageous. With this death, my loved one passing so young, there was an opportunity for questioning and bitterness, impatience with those around her, lack of care for others; but none of that was ever presented. In the last days, when she could no longer communicate at all verbally, when she could only communicate through her eyes and a squeeze of weakened fingers, she still showed love and concern and incredible courage.
There were many moments of enlightenment for me at her bedside. Throughout the eight weeks, I saw many examples of her courage, faith and generosity. It will take me awhile to process them all. What I do know is that though I was afraid, I felt compelled to be her caregiver. My heart told me, I should volunteer. As a result I learned many things from her in the journey to her death. I know these are lessons I will understand as time passes and that I will use the rest of my life. However, the one lesson that I recognize now, an old lesson, free to all of us, is "follow your heart."
Copyright 2009 Creekside Education & Susie Williams
Contact me: creeksideeducation@gmail.com
Contents of this Blog are copyrighted by Creekside Education and Susie Williams and may only be used or reproduced for non commercial purposes and must include the following credit; "This information is copyrighted by and used with the permission of Creekside Education Blog by Susie Williams."
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