Tuesday, February 6, 2007

375.001 Curriculum Integration : Thanks for the Memories

One of my favorite things I get to do almost every day in my job is suggest to someone an idea for a topic of study, a book to use to present a concept, or locate an online resource with just the right bit of information to complete a lesson. Just today, in helping a parent with reading ideas for her young child, I got to reflect on all the fun books I used to share with my own two children who are in their 20s now. An added bonus--they are both studying to be teachers so I will get to make suggestions "forever."

A correlate of this activity is getting to do it virtually and make suggestions to other librarians and teachers that I communicate with in the blogging world. Recently, I have been able to share movie and music ideas with a teacher in Arizona who teaches American history and likes to integrate these bits of the social culture of our country along with the traditional "dates and dead people" facts of the curriculum. She poses questions regularly in her blog asking for ideas for topics and I get to sit and think about favorite old movies and songs that fit the bill...and I always get to provide some of the "older" examples...courtesy of the fact that I have lived thru many of them time periods and events she is researching!! Does that make me a primary resource? (So much nicer description than "dinosaur"!)

For every suggestion I make, my mental rolodex spins thru many, many fond memories of movies, music, and books and all the fun times tied to them..both inside the school and out. How many people get to say that about their jobs?

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