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.
Lovetoread, we loved to have you along with us sharing your discoveries. I do hope it works out that you can take some of the webinars, as they are very helpful and good refreshers. We constantly hear from teachers that State Library e-resources save students time and frustration in finding good material at their level. We're glad the resources can help you & your kids in that way, too! Thanks for all your comments through these weeks, and CONGRATULATIONS on completing the Challenge!
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