Searchin' and Surfin'

If you're like me "surfing the web" means you type something into the Google search bar, then choose from the top 3 search results.  And then, if you don't find what you want, you give up your search, find yourself browsing through dessert recipes and exercise routines on Pinterest.  When I assign a research paper or project over a specific topic, I find myself bored after grading about 3.  This is because they all say the EXACT SAME THING, they give IDENTICAL INFORMATION, from the EXACT SAME SOURCES!!!  I already knew about a lot of the advanced search tools available through Google, but this was a great review/reminder of how powerful this search engine really is.  I need to start showing my students some of these simple tips and tricks too.  So, even though I am familiar with a lot of the things the Google search engine can do, there were several new things I learned this week that I am really jazzed about!  First of all, did you know your Google search box can be a calculator?  Yep, no more opening up the calculator application on your computer and switching back and forth between it and your web browser (seriously, THE STRUGGLE!).  Also, I found out that you can narrow your search by reading level!  Hooray for instant classroom differentiation!  I have one class of 8th grade social studies students with a wide range of reading skills.  There are 3 students with a 2nd or 3rd grade reading level, and a handful of others who are reading at a 12th grade+ level.  There are materials and articles that would work great for one student, but it would go completely over the head of another.  If I have students researching a specific topic, for example the Revolutionary War, they can type "George Washington" into the Google search bar and then click the advanced search button to narrow their search down to a specific reading level: basic, intermediate, or advanced.  How awesome is that!?  Here is a video that explains it in further detail.

Since we're already talking about research, I want to mention Wolfram Alpha.  Basically you ask it any question and it gives you a well organized answer.  For example, if you type in "compare President Lincoln and President Kennedy", you will get a result that looks like this:

All of that wonderful information from one simple command!  Talk about streamlining research!  Plus, there is a lot of really neat things you can do with Math and Science using this tool.  I'm definitely sharing this one with my colleagues.  I love getting all of these great ideas that I can tell my fellow teachers about and they think I'm a total genius!  :)  Here is the website, you should check it out too!

Ever worry about using copyright materials in the classroom?  I do all the time.  Especially since I have students who constantly ask me, "Did you create that Power Point yourself?"  "Where did you find this worksheet?"  "Who made this crossword puzzle?"  Maybe I'm paranoid, but there are times when I feel like these kids are out to get me!  When I was in middle school, one of my classmates got a music teacher in big time trouble.  He turned her in to whoever our school bought sheet music from because she was making copies of the music for students instead of buying the appropriate number.  Anyway... the kid got a truck load of free CDs, the teacher got a slap on the wrist, and that whole incident stuck in my mind for years.  So, I don't want to be that teacher who gets in trouble for using something that isn't mine.  There is so much out there in the digital world, Creative Commons licenses are a great way for people to share each others work in a legal and ethical way.  From the teacher standpoint, the Creative Commons website for searching content on the web is a wonderful tool.  I don't have to second guess what materials I can and cannot use, I just type in what I am looking for, click on the search tool I want to use (Flickr, YouTube, Google, etc.), and then viola, content that is appropriate for me to use in the classroom shows up in the results! 

As I finish up this final post for the Connected Educator class, I want to propose a New Year's Resolution for myself.  I would like to try and keep going with this blog in 2015, or possibly start another blog that is geared towards communication with my students.  Either way, I think blogging is great, it has been a good outlet for me to express myself, and to share my random thoughts on education with the world.  This is my final course in Baker's MAEd program and in a lot of ways I feel like this class was a perfect way to complete my degree.  I have gained so many wonderful tools, tips, and resources from this course that I will really, actually, in real life, like legit, for real, I will seriously, honestly use this stuff on a daily basis!  Woohoo!  Gotta love that kind of learning!  So, before I close, I want to leave you with one final thought.

    

Well, almost!