Do you like ukulele music? No, you love it; that’s why you moved to Hawaii. I think my love for the ukulele is born out of the opening chords of “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, sung by B. J. Thomas for the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (also notable for being my favorite film of all time). About six years ago, I started learning to play the ukulele, with my primary goal being to play “Raindrops…” from beginning to end. It’s been too long since I last picked up the instrument, but I’ve recently started again, thanks to help from The Amazing Magical Mystical Technicolor Internet. Because on the Internet, you can learn anything.
Students do plenty of learning online now, in case you didn’t know. Whether it’s practicing math, completing reading comprehension tests, learning a foreign language, or something else completely.
A very simple bit of googling yields results for how to learn piano, investing, trading, math, computer coding, computer hacking, French, British English, HTML (well, nearly any computer programming language, really), guitar, tree house architecture, typing (what you now call keyboarding), art history, biology, chemistry, physics, European history, poker, improving study skills, and chess (which I first thought said cheese, which would be great too).
What do your students do online, without the help of a teacher, that impresses you the most? And have you benefited from online learning yourself? Your opinion matters.
One of my kindergartners brought in a printout of an online Sudoku she had done. She prompted me to explore the joys of Sudoku for myself – now the game is a perfect stress-reliever for me. Thanks, Hannah!