I’ll have to say, that at first, I was not too excited about learning and researching pirates. However, after I got started with internet workshop, I had a change of heart. Before participating in internet workshop, I did not really know a whole lot about pirates. I do not really remember learning much about pirates when I was in school. Most of what I know, or thought I knew about pirates, came directly from movies and television. Most of what I knew was not historically accurate. I learned that pirates rarely buried their treasure, and their treasure was not really gold and silver. Most of the time their treasure was food, clothes, alcohol, etc. I had a lot of misconceptions about pirates and exactly what they did. I also did not know much of anything about the different types of pirates there were in different locations. Most of my exposure to pirates was through Johnny Depp, Jack Sparrow, in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I found it very interesting how four different websites had different information about buccaneers. All four websites stated different ways the buccaneers got their name. There were many discrepancies found when comparing the four websites to one another. One thing that was pretty much the same, was the location and time period of the Buccaneers. I guess there are discrepancies because it happened so long ago, and may have not been documented the same or at all. I think it is important to teach kids that there can be discrepancies, but that does not mean that the information is inaccurate. I really learned a lot of good information that I can use in my classroom. Internet workshop is a great tool to teach students, as well as teachers, all about pirates. I am glad that I got to participate in this experience, which will help me greatly when I become a classroom teacher.
