Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Off to the Races!
My second graders have been learning about search engines. We have been learning about choosing smarter keywords and using Google's cached (color-coded) search. Today, we had a horse race. I cut out 14 clipart horses and numbered them 1-14. Then, I lines them up on a long set of tables. I wrote 4 Kentucky Derby questions for each team:
1. When was the first Kentucky Derby?
2. What is the date of the 2010 Kentucky Derby?
3. Which horse won the 2009 Kentucky Derby?
4. What do women wear at the Kentucky Derby?
Each team took their question sheet to the computers. They used the skills we had been learning to try to find the answer to their question. For each correct answer, they were allowed to move their paper horse to the next position of the table (I had 4 marked spots). The first three teams to get their horses to the finish line received a sticker that said "I Placed at the Mill Creek Google Derby." It was a blast, and the students were really using the cached search to help them locate their answers faster.
1. When was the first Kentucky Derby?
2. What is the date of the 2010 Kentucky Derby?
3. Which horse won the 2009 Kentucky Derby?
4. What do women wear at the Kentucky Derby?
Each team took their question sheet to the computers. They used the skills we had been learning to try to find the answer to their question. For each correct answer, they were allowed to move their paper horse to the next position of the table (I had 4 marked spots). The first three teams to get their horses to the finish line received a sticker that said "I Placed at the Mill Creek Google Derby." It was a blast, and the students were really using the cached search to help them locate their answers faster.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Keystone Technology Integrator
I was just nominated to be a Keystone Technology Integrator. Now, I have to put together some work samples to see if I am eligible to attend the Keystone TI Summit this summer. I am really hopeful about being accepted to the Summit---then I could share everything I've learned on the blog. Keep your fingers crossed!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Animals of the Rainforest
Animals of the Rainforest
Here is my first Animoto. LOVE this program! Free for short films (30 seconds or less). $30 for 1 year subscription. I am using this as my "topic list" for my first grade rain forest animals research project. They have a matching sheet where they circle which animals they are most interested in studying. The kiddos seemed more pumped about about research than ever before!
Here is my first Animoto. LOVE this program! Free for short films (30 seconds or less). $30 for 1 year subscription. I am using this as my "topic list" for my first grade rain forest animals research project. They have a matching sheet where they circle which animals they are most interested in studying. The kiddos seemed more pumped about about research than ever before!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Sweet Search
Losing funding for Netrekker was tough, because it was a great tool when teaching about reliability. Sweetsearch.com is a student search engine that searches a small collection of websites, but only finds librarian/teacher approved websites. I am going to test it out with my younger friends. I'll let you all know how it goes :)
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