Open and Guided Search

I believe that children should always have a guided search, that parents and teachers should use Kid-friendly Search Engines or use  Web-based bookmarks. Another option is to use Google Custom Search. This way we  can control the websites that my students visits (at least in theclassroom). Here is an example of a Google Custom Search that I created for Thanksgiving.



However our students has to learn how to search effectively somehow. It is an important skills that they need to learn in this fast paced world of change. Why not teach them how to use Advanced search then? Using advanced search offers a lot of advantages. One of which is we would have more relevant results by putting in an exact phrase or making sure the results contain a certain word or typing specific words that we don’t want to appear in our search selections. This is important because our students need not be overwhelmed with the number of results that they have to check if they use a regular search. We can also choose to display the results’ reading level, this feature really help if we are looking for materials suited for our class. In addition we can specify the file type or file format that we need for example if you are using Google Advanced Search to look for a presentation choose for .ppt files likewise if we are searching if there are Google earth tours  about the voyage of the pilgrims we can choose the Google Earth KMZ (.kmz) file, if we are looking for video content or educational games related to the topic, we can choose Shockwave Flash (.swf) under the drop down menu of File Type.  We can even specify domains that will be displayed in our results by choosing .edu or .gov for example. We can add filter by clicking the Safe Search option to avoid inappropriate contents in the results displayed. What’s more if we are looking for news or time sensitive content we can use the date option by choosing past 24 hours. If we are looking for an image that we want to modify for the class website we can specify free to use share and modify under the usage right filter. All of this takes just a minute or so and yet we’ll be saving ourselves a lot of time otherwise wasted wading through irrelevant or unwanted results. By guiding the students how to search for a particular topic such as  Thanksgiving, we are giving them a valuable skill that they will need to get to the valuable resources that the web offers.

Improving Writing Skills with Google Drive

Google Drive make it easier to do the draft. Since Google Drive automatically saves, students can write their thoughts down even when their writing is not perfect. Google Drive also allow users to edit collaboratively so students can share their work to their writing buddies at this stage for peer editing. Google Drive also help in the revision process, the third step of the writing process. Since Google Drive allow users to insert comments or see the revision history, whatever the teacher ask the students to use during peer review, the author of the writing piece can think about the comments of his/her writing buddies and edit his work or if they edit it directly, which I think would be confusing for younger students, the author can decide if he/she will or not accept the changes or go with an earlier version of his/her writing piece which can be his/her own version or another students’ who edited it earlier than the others. Since it is easy to share Google docs for editing, obviously, this Google Drive feature lends itself in proofreading and publishing, the fourth and last step of the writing process, the student can share  it to the teacher for proofreading and when the teacher approves the writing piece, the student can publish his work by sharing it to the whole class at this time or better yet if the class has a classroom blog with links to each students’ blogs he can click on the web clipboard button to copy his selection to the web clipboard  then paste it on his own student blog.

The more student write the better they will be at it. Google Drive will help improve students writing because they can save a document limitless times as well as share documents for peer editing. I would introduce Google Drive during center time, students will take turns typing their draft in the class computer while the rest of the group will do their group work. This way when students will have to do the revising part of the writing process, they will have a fresh look after not looking for their output for a while. After everyone has their first draft, I would assign buddies to work together on a classmate writing output (still during center time). The class will probably do the draft for the first week then revision during the second week since there is only one computer in the classroom unless of course I managed to borrow at least five laptops from the teacher center for the first week. After introducing Google Drive in class I can share a book report form that the students can fill up at home. 



The results of the entries in the book report form will display directly on My Class Book Report Entries spreadsheet that is part of my Google docs.

 This way I was not only able to track who took what books home from the class library but also who is not doing this homework. I would of course encourage parents to go to the local library with their child to complete this assignment if they don’t have computer connected to the internet at home or if they don’t have a cellphone with internet connections. 

Applications for PDA's and Smarthphones

Quizzler offer products for Windows, Macintosh, Palm handhelds, and Pocket PCs. Quizzler quizzes can also run on iPhone, iPods. Quizzler provides free Quizzler Reader so you can read any quiz, and play lots of free quizzes from the Quiz Library. If you have have more time on your hands, you can also try creating your own quizzes or flashcards using the simple and easy Quizzler Maker software which is available for demo version.


Mental Math provides interactive math exercises and problems organized by grade and topics.

Teacher Management Tools for PDA's and Smart phones

Handango - offers collection of education software for handhelds and mobile phones. Just explore and look for free downloads for your kind of cellphone. One example is Due Yesterday is a classwork, class information, and grade tracking software for Palm OS devices. Since NYC elementary teachers are provided palm pilot for the ECLAS why not expand its use? Due Yesterday gives you free Due Yesterday desktop software so you can modify, delete and archive your class information on your desktop and then synchronize them on  your Ppalm OS device.You can keep details of all your classwork such as tests, home works, and quizzes organized and easily accessible. Aside from that Due Yesterday provides class grades and overall GPA

If you or your school is willing to spend money, check out the following:
Media-X-Sytems offers education software such as eWalk, Lessons 4 Learning, iNotice, eTeacher, eStudent for K-12 schools and post-secondary institutions on curriculum planning, standards-based assessment, data analysis and student management.

trueID Apps - offers iPhone based apps such as StudentRadar, Roster Recall, TimeLocker to schools. StudentRadar provides instant access to the key data in Student Information System, Roster Recall helps teachers remember their student's names. TimeLocker helps school, tutors track attendance through based based data-eentry and simple, fast, mobile attendance taking application