What's Up, Doc? Well, Here's Some Teaching Resources

By Randall Freeman, PhD

Right about now, parents and caregivers are wondering how to successfully help their children with their learning in school. You may feel a bit out of sorts, especially with some new terms and phrases being bandied about. Like Common Core, Extended Learning, etc.

A few years ago, I created a website to help everybody – teachers, parents/caregivers, students – to access the enormous number of educational resources that are available on the Internet. There are so many resources; you may not know where to even begin looking for them.

My website, titled Dr. Freeman’s Educational Site (I know, not much creative thought here), is located at http://drfreeman.webs.com/. I have regularly updated it in order to simplify helping you with your child’s learning. There are sections for teacher, parents, and students.

Hopefully, this column will help you to begin easily navigating your way through my website.
On the main page, there is a yellow pull-down menu at the top. Parents, click on MORE and you will see 4 STUDENTS and TEACHERS & PARENTS. These are the most critical sections for you to assist your child and you with easing learning. There are numerous links to assist you in simplifying your life. Think of these links as your Yellow Pages® to online educational resources.

I have divided the links by subject area and – hopefully – by age groups. These links should assist you in your search for learning and practice.

There are also links to special needs issues, including autism and the like. These links will enlighten you on what families of special needs children deal with on a daily basis. They will increase awareness for us all.

There is a section on the Common Core State Standards. I am not here to attempt to convince anybody to accept or reject these standards. I believe that the majority of us have already made up our minds about CCSS. The fact is that the Common Core State Standards are now required in all public school districts in California, so I am providing (objective) information about CCSS. Check out the links for the benefit of your child and yourself in understanding what they are and are not.

In teaching the CCSS, a particular link is very useful for understanding by both teachers and parents/caregivers. The link is www.teachingchannel.com. It is located under the heading TOP WEBSITES 4 TEACHERS and is the second link from the top. The Teaching Channel provides short tutorial videos for each CCSS standard and is clearly marked as such.

My intention for this column and my website is to make everybody’s job just a little easier. Regarding Common Core, I am refraining from an opinion piece on it, simply providing you with the resources to understand it and how to make your child’s learning somewhat simpler. Even if you vehemently disagree with Common Core, it is good to know your enemy. It is the law for public schools as of now.

Randy Freeman and his family have lived in Menifee since 1993. Randy teaches kindergarten in Perris and his wife Karen teaches first grade here in Menifee at Freedom Crest Elementary School. They are the parents of four daughters: Daniela, 17, and 13-year-old triplets Sarah, Holly, and Megan. Randy earned his PhD in early childhood education in 2011 and has served on the Menifee Union School Board since 2008. As he explains it, this makes him Karen's boss for the first and only time in the marriage. His column will appear here every other Tuesday.

What's Up, Doc? Lessons Learned from 'Star Trek' Series

By Randall Freeman, PhD

“Space, the final frontier…”

I was barely 11 years old when Star Trek first came to television. In the original three-year run, the starship Enterprise and her crew encountered many new life forms and met dozens of new civilizations. She also addressed many of the serious social and political issues of the 1960s.

William Shatner’s Captain Kirk and Nichelle Nichols’ Lieutenant Uhura shared TV’s first interracial kiss in the 1968 episode “Plato’s Stepchildren”. It followed by mere months the murders of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. It ironically appeared on the fifth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Nov. 22, 1968.

Star Trek did not shy away from important issues of any kind. The Vulcan philosophy of IDIC (Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations) was also introduced in 1968’s “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” The idea that people gathered together to accomplish a goal was greater than whatever goals could possibly be achieved on an individual basis was another breakthrough for television of the time. We Terrans can learn a lot from other civilizations if we allow ourselves to listen and observe with an open mind. We are greater together than apart.

As an impressionable 11-year-old boy, I became engrossed in Star Trek. I thought at the time that I was simply watching an outer space show. Upon reflection, I realized that it was much more than that.

Star Trek helped me to realize that prejudice was ridiculous. The episode “Let This Be Your Last Battlefield” showed me the insanity of judging people on appearance only. The entire planet of Cheron destroyed itself because the people who were white on the left side of their face and the people who were white on the right side of their face could not or would not accept these tiny differences in appearance.

There were many more such examples. I learned to realize what my own strengths and weaknesses were and to build upon my strengths while striving to strengthen my weaknesses. I came to realize that guiding young people into realizing their own potential was what my life needed to be directed toward. It took some time, but I came to accept and embrace that I was meant to be a teacher.

As a teacher of young children, teaching the curriculum is only a part of my job. Assisting the children to work toward what they aspired to be was another critically important part of my job. I should make it clear that it is not what I think they should be or what the family believes they should do, but what THEY want for their lives.

Individuals need to decide for themselves what they will do with their future. For those who love and support them, our job is to guide them along their path. Every person has a different path.

This is for me the essence of Star Trek’s message: Boldly Go Where You are Meant to Go. There is no Final Frontier.

Beam me up, Scotty.

Randy Freeman and his family have lived in Menifee since 1993. Randy teaches kindergarten in Perris and his wife Karen teaches first grade here in Menifee at Freedom Crest Elementary School. They are the parents of four daughters: Daniela, 17, and 13-year-old triplets Sarah, Holly, and Megan. Randy earned his PhD in early childhood education in 2011 and has served on the Menifee Union School Board since 2008. As he explains it, this makes him Karen's boss for the first and only time in the marriage. His column will appear here every other Tuesday.