While researching information about owls to include in my webquest, I realized that I kept clicking on the same links and wasn’t finding what I was looking for, even though I didn’t really know what I was looking for. I just knew that I’d know what I needed when I found it.
While volunteering at my kids’ school’s Book Fair this week I had a good chance to chat with the librarian, Margaret. I love libraries. I love the smell of books and the feeling of holding them while I read them. I love the roughness of the pages of old books and the thin, smooth feeling of new ones. And I realized that I was standing in a place that, while being focused on my learning online, I had completely overlooked. She pointed me to the section where I’d find the books about owls and I happily borrowed 3 books to get information from. I have started to compile facts about owls onto a Word document and am starting to think about how I will ask the children to apply their learning. I am leaning towards a booklet that they will use to record their learning but am not completely sure about that, yet. I met with the teacher who I will be working with and we will chat again next week to talk about the progress that I am making and to start to formulate a timeline for me to implement this project with her students.
And while my project started with me learning how to build a webquest, it turns out that I am also learning a ton of things about owls that I didn’t know. I’ve always liked owls. My Grandparents had a Great Horned Owl in a huge pen in their yard when I was growing up. “Oscar” was found by my dad, having fallen out of a nest and after a long time with no parent showing up. Right or wrong, Dad “saved” the owl and brought it to his in-laws’ tree nursery where they built a huge wood and chicken-wire enclosure for him. I remember visiting Oscar daily and feeding him raw liver. No one ever got too close to Oscar, but we loved the idea of having a “zoo” in my Grandparents yard.
I am looking forward to learning more about owls as well as the process of developing the webquest. My project seems to have evolved into a more diverse one!
To Learn and Connect ~ Trina Crawford 