Just today I started teaching a group of fourth graders in an after school program for academic enrichment. That might be a fancy way of saying these are kids that need a little extra help or could benefit from some one on one time with a teacher in a less hectic atmosphere than the daily classroom. One of the first things I like to do is to ask kids to tell me about themselves. The questions are never exactly the same but the gist is what's your favorite, what's your least favorite, what is your very best thing, and where do you come from?
It's important to know where you come from, because it might give you some answers about where you are going to. Family-Mingle is a Web 2.0 tool website that wants to help you figure that out. It's an extremely user friendly interface that will have you setting up a family tree in less than a minute. Students as young as my fourth graders should be able to use this site with no problems at all. It's point and click at its friendliest. The only setback would the need to have the names and dates of the people in your family and their births and/or deaths.
It would be extremely easy to make a very simple lesson plan for a 2 generation family tree, just including the parents and siblings of the student, but this in turn might spark an interest in the family to try and continue the tree once the see the ease of the program at home. The student could take home a printout and show the parents on the home computer how simple it is to add information. What easier way to convince an adult than watching a 9 year old manipulate the keyboard and mouse?
http://www.family-mingle.com/ really is worth trying for five minutes. I originally intended to spend five minutes, and twenty minutes later I was calling my mother for my grandparents birthdates. It can be very addictive, and educational as you learn about yourself and where you came from.
Plus...it's free!
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