cdawson

This is Christy Dawson's  Plan of Action As a part of our discussion forum, the parents and I brainstormed ideas for broadcasting the availability and promoting the use of the TEL databases to other parents at their children’s elementary school. We talked about methods that would not only reach the majority of parents but would also effectively relate the value of this resource. The first step will be to ask the principal to include the information about TEL on the resource page in the student handbook. Every student receives a copy of the handbook, and parents are required to sign acknowledgement of receipt and review. While we realize that many parents may sign and return the acknowledgement slip without having read the handbook, it is still a way to disseminate the information to the majority of parents. The write-up could read as follows:

// The Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL) is an excellent resource for your student. In fact, this website has information for the whole family, and it’s free! Anywhere in Tennessee that you have Internet connection, you have access to TEL. To tap into this vast store of resources, simply log on to //[|//http://tntel.tnsos.org//]//. Once you’ve entered TEL, you will be able to search over 400,000 electronic resources. You can browse resources by school grades to take you directly to materials that will enhance your child’s learning. You can also read magazines, watch videos, listen to podcasts, check federal census records, and more! If you have questions about TEL, please contact our school librarian. //

This write-up can also be reprinted in the school newsletter after the school year has begun, and students have settled into their new classes. Another way to share more about TEL with parents will be to provide introductory sessions during the grade level open houses held at the beginning of the school year. If the open house lasts for two hours, it will be feasible to hold four separate twenty-minute sessions. This will provide flexibility for the parents to attend one of the sessions while they are already at school for the open house. To demonstrate how TEL functions as a supplement to student’s learning, the librarian can take one of the state performance indicators and walk the parents through a simple search on TEL. As an example, I chose an SPI from the fourth grade social studies curriculum: 4.1.spi.1. Identify pre-Colonial Native American groups (i.e., Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Aztec, Mayans, Olmec, Mississippi Mound Builders). Starting at the TEL home page and following the links below, I found related information that I believe would especially spark the interest of these parents because it references locations in their home county. This takes parents to photographs and information about the Harpeth River State Park. These locations are less than ten miles from the elementary school. If parents are already familiar with the park, it will be gratifying for them to see it included in the TN History for Kids website. If they are not already familiar with the park, it will be a good introduction to a very accessible physical site that they can visit with their children. By walking the parents through this sample search, we can demonstrate for the parents the ease in finding materials in TEL. This demonstration will also give them an opportunity to view several different pages in TEL, and consequently, will give them some idea of the wealth of information available. Hopefully, these sessions will pique parent interest, and they will explore TEL further on their own or be prompted to ask the librarian for additional guidance.
 * Browse Resources by: School Grades
 * Elementary School Resources
 * Visit TEL4U –A Universe of Free Resources for Grades K-5
 * TN State History
 * TN History for Kids
 * Select Your Grade: 4
 * Part One: Two Worlds
 * Within text, click on link Harpeth River (Cheatham County)