Assignment #3: Inna's Teacher Tool Box

Much to my surprise, putting together my own Teacher Tool Box was quite an arduous task! I explored different strategies and sites including Google Docs and Page Flakes to see what would work best for me, my students, their parents, and other people in the field of Education. Ultimately, I have come to the conclusion that incorporating a designated page on my website would be the most accessible and practical way to go for all of us. This way, assignments, newsletters, expectations, and the sort will all be located in one simple place (http://innasem.weebly.com/resources.html).

Organization of My Tool Box
This Tool Box is neat and orderly, arranged in the format of lists. It is subdivided into categories that are applicable to my own classrooms: Sunday school Sites, Social Studies Sources, Teacher Tabs, and Family Favorites. In the introduction to the Resource page, I have written that the listed Resources "are carefully chosen based on their practicality and credibility", meaning that I have explored and/or use the website and ensure that it is and would be helpful and educational.

This Tool Box would truly provide tools that would be useful beyond measure. I would use it to:
1. Find lesson plans for myself
2. Share lessons with others
3. Check State Standards
4. Work off of existing templates
5. Access my favorite websites from my own website to use during class lessons

This Tool Box can be shared with others, such as parents and staff through:
1. Our Class Website
2. Email of the specific link
3. A physical hand-out that has been copied and pasted from the Tool Box and distributed to parents
4. The categories that pertain to students and would particularly benefit them, could be provided at the beginning of the school year so they have the resources ready for future assignments and projects.

Three websites that I find particularly useful and/or unique to Middle School Social Studies are:

1. OSPI: http://www.k12.wa.us/

This website is absolutely essential and foundational for all teachers, whether they be public, private, homeschool, elementary, or secondary. It defines different categories of education, their purposes, and provides specific learning standards of the state for specific grade levels. The OSPI website should always be referred to because State standards are mandatory, but also because the website provides helpful information and resources to fulfill these standards. For instance, it was through OSPI that I discovered additional resources for Home School parents/teachers such as the website also listed in General resources, http://www.watchhome.org/.

2. Federal Resources for Educational Excellence: http://www.free.ed.gov/

Any website that ends in ".gov" is a credible and promising resource, including this one! It has valuable primary documents and photographs that would tremendously enhance any Social Studies class. Many of these resources are from the Library of Congress, which is also a deep well of essential information for classrooms. The Library of Congress has a website which also includes wonderful resources for teachers, librarians, researchers, families, and more (http://www.loc.gov/). I would highly recommend these two sites for History teachers in particular. However, they would be nonetheless valuable to Language Arts teachers who are studying a historical novel for instance, or Science teachers who are studying historical inventions, or even Music teachers who are introducing significant songs to their students. Why not use resources that have been opened up to the public from our very own government?

3. Ministry to Children: http://www.ministry-to-children.com/

About a month ago, I discovered this online resource for Sunday school teachers. Among the thousands of religious sites out there, it is difficult to find user-friendly and biblically-based sites that you would actually use on a regular basis. This is one of those rare resources that is updated regularly, applicable to modern classes, vast, and yet detailed. The founder of the site is devoted to his ministry and sends out weekly emails with advice, ideas, and encouragement for Sunday school teachers. Obviously, this resource is not geared toward public education; but some of the ideas can still be tweeked for public schools or used in private Christian schools. For instance, the games he suggests for "dead time" can also be used in any class. His videos, though perhaps cheesy to some, are insightful and personally inspire me to put more effort into my own ministry to children.

I have sincerely enjoyed putting together this Tool Box and reviewing each resource that I have included. I will continue to use them as tools to build my classroom and hope that they would also be useful to my students and their parents as they build their families and futures!