Reading Review: Part B

It was really interesting and useful to spend time exploring, perusing and scouring online. When you get busy its easy to forget how beneficial it can be to slow down and explore topics that you are interested in. I first began with looking for resources that you could use to help plan and facilitate inquiry based projects with children in the library. I started by using the UBC library database and quickly discovered how long it has been since I have used a university library website.

I searched 'safe online resources for kids' and these three results were found which was not related to what I was looking for. But later, while searching 'inquiry based learning in math', there were a couple of interesting books that I wasn't able to get online but my online library searching skills had definitely improved in a short amount of time. All of this got me thinking about my internet skills in general. When I am planning and looking for resources for teaching it is a specific type of internet searching. I try to be as efficient as possible and know basically what I am looking for. Taking university courses again and having the freedom of time to find some really interesting information is exciting. It also had me thinking about how overwhelming it can be for kids when they are trying to do research on a topic and how important it is for us to teach them how to decide what is relevant or useful and what is not. 

Once I was in this mindset I was able to find some useful resources, like the library and resources website from the Greater Victoria School District. There is a whole section on research and inquiry which lays out useful websites that kids can use. I also came across a website I had seen years ago and was reminded of its worth. 

I am used to using youtube in an educational setting to show children an interesting or relevant video related to what I am teaching. I have never used youtube as a databank of videos that might give ME information about teaching. That was a great learning point for me in my search. 

So overall, it was a great experience to do this inquiry research and find some old and new resources to inspire me. Stay tuned for my next post which outlines these resources I have found.