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As one of the more educated neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area, opportunities for inspiring your students in Westwood are limitless. Westwood, with the third highest population concentration of people with a master’s degree or more in the United States, has plenty of human and physical resources for inspiring your students to reach new heights academically and beyond. At Hair Whisperers, the trusted name in lice removal in Westwood, we want to help you take advantage of these opportunities. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best opportunities for educators to enrich their students academically including:

• Increased Cultural Awareness
• Connections to the Outside World
• Access to Additional Academic Resources
• Improved Academic Skills

As you use these resources to bring your teaching and lesson plans to the next level, we’re sure your students will find more inspiration to succeed academically and beyond.

LA Public Library

With the rise of affordable sites for books like Amazon, we have a tendency to forget the incredible value that public libraries add to our academic lives - as both educators and students. The Los Angeles Public Library has over 6 million books, periodicals, and more for you and students to access for everyday academic enhancement. Additionally, the public has access to over 120,000 historical photographs, maps, and other collections for local historical research. These physical resources, in additional to resources for writers and teachers, allow you to bring the value of a large collection of written and digital works to your classroom.

Enrichment Ideas:

• Take Students to Westwood Branch: Get students out of the classroom and introduce them to all the library has to offer. Learn about how to find books and resources and all the fun activities the library offers.
• Free Art Classes for Kids: Include in your weekly newsletter offerings at the library like free art classes. Meet your students and their parents there after class to encourage greater parent teacher communication and outside the classroom creative enrichment.
• Local History Projects: Use the library’s collections to do a class-wide local history research project. As your students learn about Westwood history, they’ll also learn how to access historical documents that can’t always be found on the internet.

UCLA

With a large, prestigious university in your own backyard, our list of resources for educators in Westwood would be incomplete without mentioning UCLA. Ranked US News & World Report’s #1 Public University and #19 overall for National Universities, UCLA has a variety of resources available to educators of students of all ages.

Enrichment Ideas:

As Westwood remains one of the most well-educated areas in the United States, be sure to utilize resources to enrich your students’ academic experiences, including:

• Campus Tours: Everyone’s first college tour is a little bit overwhelming. Prepare your students for their college search by breaking the ice. Organize a group tour for your high school students where they’ll learn the types of questions to ask, proper tour etiquette, and create a baseline for determining what they look for in a college or university. UCLA also offers tours for children in kindergarten through 8th grade, allowing them to be introduced to higher education early on.
• Workshops: UCLA offers a variety of workshops for younger children as a way to enrich their speaking, writing, and critical thinking skills outside the classroom. You can find a variety of great workshops on their website and encourage students to get involved.
• University Pen Pals: As a great way to foster written communication skills and spark early interest in higher education, create a pen pal program with UCLA club or fraternity/sorority organization. Student organizations are always looking for ways to get involved in the community, and your students will be excited to talk to their pen pals each week!

Hammer Museum

Opened to the public in November 1990, The Hammer Museum has been a hub for art and ideas in Westwood for nearly 30 years. Functioning under the assumption that art delivers insight into some of the most pressing cultural, political, and social issues in contemporary society, the Hammer Museum is a great place to start when looking to foster inquisitive, higher-level thinking in your students through the arts. Best of all, this museum is completely free, making it an extraordinary opportunity for students and the community to get involved in.

Enrichment Ideas:

• Tours of the Hammer: Since the Hammer Museum is completely free, it’s a great place to explore on a field trip. Explore the exhibits, enjoy the educational and thought-provoking tour, and use your new cultural knowledge to inspire lesson plans for the weeks to follow.
• Workshops at the Hammer: As a staple in the Westwood cultural community, the Hammer offers workshops for kids to explore their own creativity and ask analytical questions about the world. Ranging from art workshops to zine creation workshops, kids will have create lasting memories and academic advancement through the thought-provoking activities they take part in.
• Museum Design Activity: After exploring the museum themselves (or simply studying it), create an assignment where student propose a museum of their own, creating the framework for a museum confronting a social issue they are interested in, a celebrity they are a big fan of, or a subculture they identify with. As they design their own museum, allow them to ask the hard questions - the type of analysis a museum inspires, including cultural influences and long-term results of this piece of culture - to further their analytical understanding of the cultural world.

Living in the third most educated area of the United States brings a bit of pressure to ensure that your students achieve academically. Luckily, Westwood is in no shortage of resources for enriching your students’ academic lives. As you work to help them succeed, make sure they’re never held back from a lice outbreak. Get them back in the classroom immediately with the help of Hair Whisperers - the experts of in-home lice removal in Westwood.