Module 3 Blog Post

Search Engines
Search engines have become a part of everyday life for many people these days. Something Anna Jones, our AMSTI Specialist, said last week has really stuck with me. She said, "We don't need to teach them everything about everything. They have resources readily available to find out whatever they need to know. We need to teach them how to find that information and how to determine if it's credible." This is connected to search engines because we have the ability to Google just about anything. In classrooms today, internet usage is unavoidable. Search engines allow us to filter out some of the irrelevant stuff in our search. We still need to know how to determine if our sources are reliable and interpret data, but search engines definitely help us to weed out unimportant information to find what we need. Both teachers and students need to know how to use keywords to find what they need and how to read the results page.


Website Evaluation Video

This short video would be excellent to use in my classroom to show my student how to determine if a website is reliable or not using the acronym R.E.A.L. This helps students remember the main things they need to check to decide whether or not this website should be used and whether or not it is a valid source. I chose this video because I felt like it talked about the important stuff without too much fluff, keeping it short, sweet, and to the point so the students don't get bored and it doesn't take up too much class time.

Favorite Web Site #1
Scholastic: Teachers

I know some people this scholastic is overrated, but I don't care because I love it! From a teacher's perspective, there are SO many resources here and I know I will be coming here quite a bit when I'm a first year teacher! There are teaching blogs, freebies, daily starters, lesson plans... and so much more! In my opinion, this website fits the bill for a good resource because it has excellent organization and structure. The first page has clear tabs to help you navigate the site. It also has clear texts and graphics and good visual design elements.


Favorite Web Site #2
Mrs. Anderson's Class Wiki

The next website I chose is a classroom wiki. I love this whole concept. We had one that my ninth grade teacher had used for a while, but while we spent a lot of time with it in the beginning, I feel like we never discussed it again after the start of the second quarter. I chose this particular classroom wiki because I feel like it has a lot of aspects I would like to include in my own wiki. I like that it includes information that is good for both parents and students. I really like that at the bottom, you can click on each name of a "contributor" and check out their individual stuff. Also, they have a slideshow of their owl pellet dissection, which we just talked about in AMSTI training on Friday!