Learning Express

1. A fourth grader who needs help with reading comprehension should be shown to the reading skills improvement page and the 4th grade reading practice showing him/her the comprehension practice exams. I would also show this student that after they take the exams that they can go back and she what the correct answer is and why. 2. on improving office manager skills I went to job search & work place skills and went into the locating info practice test. This was a nice little test that gets you familiar with reading charts, graphs, invoices, etc. Although when I was going through the test I did find a typo. Is there any way to contact them and let them know? But this would definately help brush up on some of the skills you may be called upon to do as an office manager. 3. A student looking for info on nursing or pharmacy, I went into Jobs& Careers under nursing and caree guidance and found a downloadable book about the nursing field. I didn't see anything in there about Pharmacy and when I did a search it just came up with pharmacy exams.

1c - World Book Foriegn Language

I tried the spanish version and tried to search for house using the english word and I didn't get the proper results, I could browse and eventually get there, but that took awhile. In the browse feature, I clicked on the A-Z and then I was able to search in English, which made things easier to get to where I wanted to go. I again couldn't get the text to speech feature to work, so I might have to try a different computer. I think this is a great offering for Spanish speakers, that we can offer them some help in their native language.

1B World Book Public Libraries

1. World Book Online kids - I went into Science Projects had some great ideas for simple science projects that you could incorporate into class time or even kids could try at home. I thought the translate button was very nice, but I couldn't get the text read aloud to work. 2.World Book Online InfoFinder - I tried the Virtual tours of the Titanic, and it had some great information in it. This could be very helpful for students who have a hard time reading that they still could get facts and information. 3. World Book Online Reference Center - This is the same as the World Book Advanced so see previous post.

Lesson 1a: World Book School Edition

1. World Book Kids - I went into the games & activities and found a lot of different games in different subjects areas. I went into english and tried the parts of speech matching game. I can see this being a fun resource to use to have kids practice their parts of speech. Anytime you can do these activities in a game format, I think kids enjoy it more and stick with it better. 2. World Book Student - I went into Behind the headlines and thought this would be great for current events. They had great information on the inauguration. You could also play a game that reviews some of the current events. How Cool! 3. World Book Advance - This would be a great resource for books! I really liked that you were able to download the ebook, so you don't have to be online the whole time. Also it was nice that it does quite a bit of work for you by tying in Web pages and content standards. I really liked the Back in time articles. 4.World Book Disscover - I really liked the how to research. This would be great for students and teachers. Students learn some of the basics of how to do a research paper and the teachers side, gives you guidlines on how to set up the papers so they are more plagerism proof. Neat!

Wrap-up

I have really enjoyed this class! I had taken classes on one or two of these before, but you always learn something new, like that there are several databases in Worldcat! This has been a great refresher and has inspired me to keep pushing the databases at our library. Thank you!

Genealogy Resources

I have spent a lot of time on Ancestry doing my own family research, it is amazing on what little nuggets of information you can find on Ancestry. When I try my name the only thing that I can find is my phone #. But I love to go through the census to see what kind of information they asked, like do you own a radio? I also like to learn what their occupation was. One thing that I have learned through my own experience is to keep coming back and checking for new information. It is amazing how much information is added to this site. Also, if you cannot find a name in a census in Ancestry then try Heritage Quest. They have different indexes and sometimes they will spell things a little differently, giving you the ability to find what you are looking for.
When I tried the Photos and maps using the keyword South Dakota, I found a lot of interesting items, like baseball players? Didn't know we had any from SD. It was fun to snoop around, although there were a lot of hits either on South or North, so the use of quotes would help.

Heritage Quest
For family research, I haven't had much luck with this program, although if you are doing research on a famous person or event, this would give you great references of where to find information.

Sanborn Maps
I enjoyed looking at the Sanborn maps of my home town of Parker, to see what is different and what is still the same. I never knew that at one time there was a Presbyterian Church on Main Street that was heated by coal and had gas lights! If you would be doing any sort of research on a town's history, these maps would be a wonderful asset!

Learning Express

I love Learning Express! It has so many useful exams and lessons available. I also like that you can access this from home. The testing format is easy and you get feedback immediately. I like that it also explains why you got a problem wrong, so you can learn from your mistakes. I neve saw that ebooks were available! How cool is that, to be able to have study help available on the same site! There are so many ebooks, it's a wonderful tool for anybody who needs to take an exam!