Weekly Tech Tip

Google Power Search:  You can get better results out of your Google search by following these steps. 

Go to the Google Home Page.  www.google.com

Find the advanced search link.

This window will come up.  Fill in as many of the blanks as you can. 

Here is an example:

Babe Ruth =

Normal Google:  Results 1 - 100 of about 1,280,000

Exact Phrase Box:  Home Run King  Results 1 - 100 of about 32,500

Without the Words Box:  Bonds Aaron  Results 1 - 100 of about 755

Return pages Written in: English Results 1 - 100 of about 732

Don’t return results from the site www.baberuth.com: Results 1 - 100 of about 727

Keep setting up rules and you keep getting different results.  We are down to 727 results from over a million.  Now we can get down to the Nitti Gritty of research. 

You can find even more Tips about Google Searching by clicking the Advanced Search Tips link in the top right corner of your Google Advanced Search page. 

Last weeks Tech Tip about Cartooning started some interesting buzz.  I’ve heard of several teachers using a Cartooning site with their students for writing.  If you found www.toondoo.com to be difficult to work with, found objectionable material, or you just didn’t want to create an account here are two others that you can use.  These are also free and do not require you to sign up for anything.  http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/

http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/comic/index.html

Here is a link to a lesson that someone created for comic strips in Second Grade. http://www.glc.k12.ga.us/BuilderV03/LPTools/LPShared/lpdisplay.asp?LPID=15747

These two sites have several lesson plans for 3-5^th grade. http://comicsintheclassroom.net/xlessonplans2.html

http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001222.shtml

There are lots more lesson plans out there for Comic Strip Lessons.  Google is a good thing.

Again with any site “you” preview it first before you let your students on it. Be Safe!

Btw: www.toondoo.com is working on a student version for kids.  I’ll let you know when that comes out.

This week’s new Tech Tip is more inspirational than it is a tip.  The George Lucas Educational Foundation’s Edutopia web site is a site for education and technology.  It has a video that dignifies the use of technology in the classroom.  It is 5 min long and worth it.  Let it inspire you to use technology in your classroom.  http://www.edutopia.org/video/frame.php?id=Art_1127&keyword=137

By the way, www.edutopia.com is a great site for learning more about technology integration.