Becoming Search Masters
As a classroom teacher, I have seen first hand how students struggle to find relevant information while searching the internet. I have watched them drop in a few words and hope for the best, only use the first two or three results that pop up. It wasn’t until I learned how to search more effectively that I realized that my students needed to know these tips and tricks as well.
Within the past year, I have taken two workshops regarding Google Apps because I work at a Google school, and also because I believe it is a educational friendly tool. From these workshops, I learned that Google has ‘operators’ or filters that help people refine their searches and some helpful tricks like using the URL box as calculator or dictionary. And those are just the very top of a very large iceberg. For my grade 5 students, it is my job to decipher which tips and tricks will be the most useful for them.
As a result I created a Google presentation to introduce grade 5 students to a few of the operators and some of the tools that Google has to help make searches more specific and relevant. This information is something which I will continue to model and review with students.
To see some photos of the student in action, please check out my class website:
http://cwachowiak201314.iics-k12.com/2013/11/20/search-masters/
Claire Wachowiak's Portfolio 