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I was rereading my blogs and saw I typed "Gentle Reader" twice when I listed the blogs, sorry about not rereading my work carefully enough.  I have learned that it is best to write down the name before I switch to the next page.  I forget blog names pretty easily.



I am hoping to download some ebooks.  I am presently looking for some picture books that I can use for my students for group reading at the Promethean Board.  I am reading some of Beatrix Potter's books to them.  The pictures are so nice and big on the Pr. Bd.  Plus they are in color, it is marvelous.
  I am trying to find more books that have illustrations that I can read with the group.  It is so nice to have everyone look at the same page at the same time.

World Cat lesson

I looked up the site, I misnamed it.  It is entitled Church of Changing Frontier by Helen Belknap.
I put it into my book bag and then tried to download it, but my computer did not recognize the print, and I  had it search the internet to find the right program, but I was not successful.  I am thinking about trying sections of it at a time, rather than the whole thing.  I thought I would try to email it to myself, and see what happens.  I think some of the chapter titles look quite interesting in the Table of Contents.

notes on reading other blogs for lesson 7

I read through the blogs of "Gentle Reader," "Discover FCS," "Gentle Reader," "Teacher CJ," and "My Library Blog." 
I found that several of them had very similar comments to my own.  I was interested to see what topics they chose and the books and publications they found.  I noticed that they didn't have the same library listed at the top as I did, but we also didn't look for the same book.  I noticed that when I was looking for juvenile literature stories that involved dogs and horses, that Alexander Mitchell Library came up first several times, and Brookings Public Library came up several times.  I decided that they must have excellent children's sections in their libraries.  I have visited the Alexander Mitchell Library in Aberdeen and did find it to be a wonderful place for children's stories.  Since I teach younger children, I am always looking for good picture books and quality stories for children in grades K-5.

World Cat

I did miss this lesson the first time through.
I started by looking up books on dogs  in juvenile boys' literature.  I found the Diary of the Wimpy Kid,.  I also found a cute book about April Fools.  I looked through to see what library had it.  I plan to order the book through the library.  Next, I looked up a book with the title, Sounder.  There are 3,634 libraries that have the book.  Alexander Mitchell Library from Aberdeen came at the top of the list for me.  The Class Description for Sounder is 813/.54.
I looked to see other books written by the author.  I found A Reading Guide Through Troubled Waters, Reading Sounder, and a sound recording of William H. Armstrong.  I checked to see how many libraries had the sound recording, and there were only 4.  It is a cassette, so that would explain why few have it.
Next, I checked the OAIster list of records, and I typed in "South Dakota."  58 records were found for SD.  I looked at the Heart of the Badlands, A Homesteader and his Church Building, and A Farmer's Homestead.
I was interested to see that some of them are very old and have scanned photos from long ago.  I looked through the Table of Contents of the Farmer's Homestead to see what would be available to see without ordering thee information.  They only show the one picture of the farmer's log cabin.  The Table of Contents looks interesting, though, and I think it would be a great book to look through for research on early settlers' homes in the Dakotas. 

Wrap-up session

First of all, I would say my biggest discovery from taking this class was all the online training sessions.  I hope to try to check in on one of these during the school day.  It doesn't always fit our schedule, but I am going to try to make it work. 
I am positively amazed at all of the information available at my fingertips that I can find through the South Dakota State Library.  What a person needs to do is take notes and save them in a special account so I can remember which data base I used for each topic.  I am not accustomed to using this as a starting point, but I am working in that direction as I have my students look up the answers to various questions. 


I had two of my students order library cards today so they can use the online World Book, the practice tests, the ebooks, etc.  I called their parents and explained the purpose of the card and invited them to spend a little time with me to make better use of the card for their families.

I checked the puzzle site with all of the various resources available.  I also looked at the other links listed.
I hope to continue to spend some free time at least once or twice a week to familiarize myself with more of the information so I can refer my students to the correct data bases that I want them to use for the research I assign.

It is good to use a safe site.  I find searching with Google to be quite time consuming for students because there is too much information that does not apply specifically to what they are needing.  Labeling the articles with the ease of reading labels helps a lot.  Using the Google way is often very difficult for younger students because they can't skim for the information fast enough, and they get frustrated.  Using information written at their level will be very helpful for them and their teacher.

Ancestry Archive Library lesson

I was able to find my grandparents and parents in the census collection using this database.  I was unable to find my own marriage license, however.  I tried my maiden name and also my married name.  I was able to find information on my husband's family, too.  I tried to read about some of the families that would be connected to my students, but I wasn't able to find any.  I am assuming it is because I am missing some information that would help get me to the place.  I am going to have my students try it and fill in the information that they know.  If they can't remember it all, they can ask their parents, and we can try it again.

I was puzzled by the fact that I couldn't find my Dad's military record since he was a captain in the U.S. Army in World War II.  I think that I didn't quite get all of the correct information typed in, so the information would not show for me.  I plan to try again to see what I can find. 

It was quite amazing to see all of the handwritten work the people did during the early years to record all of the people in each area.  What a huge task!

Sanborn maps and Heritage Quest

I checked through the Heritage Quest Census for my grandparents, and none of their names came up in SD or IA.  I was beginning to think I was doing something wrong, so I typed in George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  I found information on both of them, so then I knew I was doing the search right.  Next, I checked out Samuel Clemens from Missouri.  I found information on him.  Next, I decided to try my husband's grandfather's family name.  I found information on him!  So I saved a copy to my file to show to my husband. 

I checked through the Sanborn maps.  Tyndall, SD was the closest town to my hometown.  I found the Tyndall Presbyterian Church which I know is still there today.  I also checked out the courthouse at Parker, SD, and found it on three different maps showing how the size of the building increased over the years.  It stayed in the same location.  It would have been fun if I could have looked at maps from my home town of Springfield, SD.  It is a little easier to know where historic buildings are if it is in a person's hometown.

CAMIO Library

I looked through the Paul Revere prints and other pictures.  The thing I found interesting was to compare how various artists depicted historical pictures.  I looked through the pictures, drawings, and paintings of the Sioux.  I saved and watched a slide show of what I kept.  I also looked up famous SD artists from our study in SD history.  I looked up John Audubon, George Catlin, and Bodimer's works.  I plan to show these to the students when we do our weekly lesson on SD Pathways. 
I also typed the theme of "Missouri River" to see what paintings, etc. would be available.  I plan to show the students some of those as well.
I have showed my students different ways of making pictures, and this will give me a way to quickly find examples of the type of art I am teaching about, woodcuts, sculpture, oil painting, collage, etc.

As far as community use, I think it would be good to show it to people that are part of the community library staff so they would know this site is available.  Some times people like to know the history of a particular painting and this site would provide that information for them.

Archive Library lesson

I went to the school and worked on the Archive Library site.  It is an amazing resource. 
I looked at some of the information on Sitting Bull.  I was mostly interested in looking at the texts and abstracts available online in children's literature.  I saw book titles that I have not seen before.  I am familiar with the more common ones, but these looked more interesting for my students since they are quite familiar with the common stories about Sitting Bull.
I checked out other children's stories about George Washington, stories about communism, and American history.  I didn't quite understand at first what they meant when they said "full text PDF."  I thought that meant you could view the book online and read parts of it.  Instead, you get an excerpt from the School Library Journal that gives a review about the book.  The review and short description of the book are very helpful and would certainly help a person make a good decision about whether a particular book is fitting for the child or lesson that the book was needed for. 
It is a great site.  I think it would be the most useful for a person who was not sure of what he/she were looking for, and also for research when the person has to be sure the information is at the level of reading that it needs to be.

Net Library

I made an account with Net Library.org.  I looked through the lists of books.  I was sorry to see that I could not download any to my Kindle, but I can still use my IPod or my laptop to download books.
I do have a question.  I keep seeing the cost of the books.  Does that mean if I choose to download one of those, I have to pay for it, or does it mean if I want to purchase it instead of loan it, that I can?

I watched the little videos, but I didn't hear an explanation of that part.

Gale Reference Library

The Gale Reference Library is very interesting.  I like the fact that a person can look in a whole list of different books on various topics.  I spent time going through books on land forms, looking at well-known rivers of the world. 
I would definitely need to spend some time researching myself, collecting the information that was helpful for a specific lesson.  The information would be great to use on an interactive board, or even set up a list of links that the older students can use to research an assigned topic or a topic of their choice.
I read some other blogs and see that we have similar views on this library.  It is a site full of great information when a person wants to do reading for themselves as well as assisting students in locating information that they are studying.

Proquest

I looked up a topic of interest to me on Proquest.  I read several articles on teaching.  I read several "Teaching Green" magazine articles.  I like the idea of setting up various stations in the classroom with plants, animals, weather, etc and having an observation journal at each site.  I think it would be good for students to work at stations something like this to encourage them to do their own observing with out the teacher standing right there.

I read another person's blogs the first four lessons.  I found their comments interesting and helpful.  I will try to read some other blogs another day.

SIRS Research

I read a series of articles from the SIRS Research section.  I read articles about cyberbullying and Facebook problems.  I also checked out the curriculum sites and found good information that I can use when teaching math. 
I can see that this site is more directed to higher level thinkers and readers.  Students in lower grades might be able to find articles fitting to their research, but they would probably need a teacher or an upper-level student to help them sort through the information.  They would find so much information to be overwhelming.  I would use it by sorting through the material first myself and choosing the articles I wanted them to read.  After that, I would let them check out more information in their area of interest.

Learning Express

I did several tests for grades four and five.  I think they will be very helpful to allow them to review the information they know, and to challenge them to learn more as they try to figure out the problems they don't know.  I think it is very good practice, and it shows them the importance of taking their time.  Reading critically is so important.  I even missed a fact or two in a question and consequently missed a question.  I think it is great to get immediate feedback.  I like the fact that the ones missed are explained rather than just wrong.

1st lesson

I did Lesson one going through the Kids World Book Online and did the lessons assigned.  I was amazed at the information available and found it helpful to have different levels for the students to use according to their age.
I showed these pages to my students at school and had them go through the lesson that I did.  I plan to assign a specific topic for them to make a report for the group.  For starters, I just had them go through the site and see what was available.  I also wanted them to get familiar with the site.