EDUC 2120 Blog #10

I think the Teaching Tolerance website is a great website for teachers. It gives a wide variety of topics to be discussed in the classroom, many different age ranges for the lesson, and good activities for children to do that will help them think as critically as possible about certain topics and issues. One of the tabs on the website is for classroom resources and this page allows teachers to search for any subject they want to give a lesson on. I noticed that with each lesson there is background information, objectives, essential questions, and activities for the children. There was a "What Makes Family" lesson that I came across that was one of my favorites. That lesson is about the different factors that make up a family and the variety of families there will be. For example, a child might be raised by a mother and father, aunt and mother, two moms, two dads, a single parent, etc. There are specific questions like, "What makes a family?" and "What’s it like to grow up with no family?" that will hopefully open children's eyes to the diversity of families around them. That lesson also has them learn about Michael Oher, who was a black teen adopted into a white family, which will also help decrease their narrow view of family. This is a very useful website that helps teachers teach and talk about what people consider the "hard topics." And because it is a trusted website, teachers do not have to be worried about how educational the lesson plan is. This is a website that every teacher and parent should use. Parents can use this website to look for different activities for their children as well as different ways to talk about real life issues children face in their daily lives.