SweetSearch
The Web 2.0 that I really enjoyed was the site called SweetSearch. I have been looking for good search engines that are kid friendly and this one is superb. I was able to add just a few words and instantly received plenty of information. What’s great is that when it searched it merges other website together in the query.
I wish I had known about this website th other day. This website would had made my Internt Search for the 4th Graders much easir to perform.
For instance in my Technology class the 4th Graders had to do an assignment of Famous Pennsylvanians. The students were supposed ot come to my class to do an Internet Search on their chosen person. It just so happen that at the time that the students were coming to research the school’s server was down do to an upgrade. There are 25 students. About 15 of them have computers at home. They chose to do their research and type up their assignment at home. However, there are still a total of 15 students that do not have a computer at home or live near a local library.
I really felt for these kids, especially when some of the students who were able to do their assignment at home bragged to them that they have a computer and printer at their home and laughed at them because they didn’t. I reminded the students that each person financial situation at their homes I different and there will be no bullying or bragging in my classroom. I went home still thinking about those kids who could not go online to research yet alone type up their assignment. So I though up a good solution.
I went out to the Internet and found their research on their Famous Pennsylvania and printer it for them. Then I told them the next day that they will come at my class at a scheduled time to type up their research findings. The students got this data this past Thursday and they will type up their information this upcoming Tuesday. The students were very appreciative of my effort to help them. If I could have won the Powerball lottery I would had made sure that each student who did not have a computer at home would had gotten one along with a printer.
I can relate with these kids because I grew up in a poor family as well. I know that if that was me my family wouldn’t have had the money for a computer as well. Now, today I have a total of 4 computers – you just never know how things turn around in the future.
P.S See my photos of research I found instantly by using SweetSearch.
I will be recommending this website to al teacher at my school.
Jackey
The Web 2.0 that you picked is very important as well. We definitely need access to more search sites than google and yahoo. So I know that I will be using this site as well. Unfortunately, there are students in the school systems that do not have computers and before I left my college, it was mandatory for each student to come on campus with their own personal laptop. Times are definitely changing. It was good to see that you were a problem solver. Some teachers in this day would not have thought twice about what happened in your classroom that day so it was good to see that you did. What a wonderful teacher you are!
ReplyDeleteI thought I had recently posted here. This Blogging thing is a learning experience. I really like this tool. Personally, I have 5 kids, and professionally we are always looking for these types of kid friendly tools.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to using this tool in the future.