Tumblebook Library was my favorite discovery. Many of the other resources were more like things that I expected to find. I did not know that there were so many elements for children to use on Tumblebook.
I can see sharing Tumble book with the little people in my life. I also have plans to share Ancestry with family members who are interested in our family origins. I have had the opportunity to educate a friend on Mango Languages when she was needing translation.at the South Dakota State Library.
Thank you for the opportunity to learn more about E resources.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Week 9- Ancestry
I am totally loving this lesson! Genealogy is definitely an interest of mine.
1. I searched for myself. I checked exact name, birthdate, and city where I was born. Zero. .I changed the last name to my maiden name. Zero. I was thinking that if I gave it all the information as exact it would narrow it right down to me.-not the case.
By now I wanted to see anything, so I typed in my dad's name and birthdate. Bingo. There he was in the 1940 US Federal census with his siblings and parents. He was 6 months old in the census. Now I know my aunt's middle name and I have the address of the house where dad was born.
At this point I will share a story that one of my aunts told of the night Dad was born. The rest of the family took their beds outside and slept under the stars, so not to be in the house while he was being born. Fortunately for them he was born in early September. However this record tells me that they were around 4 and 6 years old at the time of this census, so I question if they would really remember such an event, but it does make for a good story.
Dad and his family members were also listed in the 1945 census and he showed up in a listing in the USD Coyote year books in the early 60s.
The US public Records Index 1 shows his current address, Index 2 shows his current address, but with an extra digit.
Finding all this so quickly about him, made me want to find ME.
I put in my exact maiden name, birthdate and that I may have lived in Iowa. Zero. I took out my middle name. Zero. Put in my married name, and Pierre as exact. Zero. I only left the birth year and took out Pierre, 1 hit! Yay. US Public Records Volume 1. I clicked on see more and 3 more addresses came up. The last two were dated 1992 and 1995.I continued to switch the variables around. I never did find my marriage information, but I know it happened. I found my in-laws marriage information. It was an index only record but it offered to let me order an original record.
Finding this information encouraged me, so I went back and searched with my first and last name, with only the birth year as exact. 7717 records. The first record was me. The next 4 were my husband's cousin, who shares a name with me. The 5th record was my brother-in-law's obituary. I was listed by name as his brother's spouse.
The next record was US Phone and Address Directories. It indicated that I could view the names and addresses of neighbors. That gave me 313,280,580 results and I had lived in a small town of 350 people. Time to move on to #2.
2.)Searching for a grandparent. I searched my grandmother with both names as exact and listed my grandfather's name as spouse.
It found her on the first try. An item of interest is that it listed her date of birth as abt 1907. I'm thinking that this may confirm that there was always a question about the exact date of her birth. Her mother died in childbirth or shortly after so no one could say if she was born on the 20th or 21st.
The 1940 Census had a button for ABOUT. I clicked and saw the actual handwritten page from the census. There is my mom! She was 3.
It listed my aunt as Ealnor, though her name was actually Denise Elenore. Makes me wonder about the qualifications to be a census taker in 1945.
I scrolled down the page and found Great Grandma. It said that she could speak English( she was born in the USA-seems like an odd thing to record) it also said that she did not attend any school but could read and write.
3.)I typed South Dakota in the search box. 296,591,754 results! On the left side I selected Pictures; There were lots of categories. I selected US History Post cards. 115,977 results. I tried the shortcut key thinking I could refine my search, but was unable to. With more time I'm sure I could figure this out. Having to do this at the library does limit me.
4.) Heritage Quest
I searched 1890 Veterans Schedules- Got 130 results from my Exact (maiden) name, Wing.
I searched Revolutionary War pensions. Wing. I found an application for benefits from Gideon Wing, and later for his widow Abigail, There were copies of the original paperwork. The results were from the National Archives .
5.) Sanborn Maps
I selected South Dakota and Pierre. I was able to find St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church on the May 1941 map. There were notes indicating that it was built in 1941 of fireproof construction with conc floor and RF conc posts, tile, Br faced walls. It would be interesting to find a photo of the original and compare it to what it looks like today.
This has been my favorite lesson.
1. I searched for myself. I checked exact name, birthdate, and city where I was born. Zero. .I changed the last name to my maiden name. Zero. I was thinking that if I gave it all the information as exact it would narrow it right down to me.-not the case.
By now I wanted to see anything, so I typed in my dad's name and birthdate. Bingo. There he was in the 1940 US Federal census with his siblings and parents. He was 6 months old in the census. Now I know my aunt's middle name and I have the address of the house where dad was born.
At this point I will share a story that one of my aunts told of the night Dad was born. The rest of the family took their beds outside and slept under the stars, so not to be in the house while he was being born. Fortunately for them he was born in early September. However this record tells me that they were around 4 and 6 years old at the time of this census, so I question if they would really remember such an event, but it does make for a good story.
Dad and his family members were also listed in the 1945 census and he showed up in a listing in the USD Coyote year books in the early 60s.
The US public Records Index 1 shows his current address, Index 2 shows his current address, but with an extra digit.
Finding all this so quickly about him, made me want to find ME.
I put in my exact maiden name, birthdate and that I may have lived in Iowa. Zero. I took out my middle name. Zero. Put in my married name, and Pierre as exact. Zero. I only left the birth year and took out Pierre, 1 hit! Yay. US Public Records Volume 1. I clicked on see more and 3 more addresses came up. The last two were dated 1992 and 1995.I continued to switch the variables around. I never did find my marriage information, but I know it happened. I found my in-laws marriage information. It was an index only record but it offered to let me order an original record.
Finding this information encouraged me, so I went back and searched with my first and last name, with only the birth year as exact. 7717 records. The first record was me. The next 4 were my husband's cousin, who shares a name with me. The 5th record was my brother-in-law's obituary. I was listed by name as his brother's spouse.
The next record was US Phone and Address Directories. It indicated that I could view the names and addresses of neighbors. That gave me 313,280,580 results and I had lived in a small town of 350 people. Time to move on to #2.
2.)Searching for a grandparent. I searched my grandmother with both names as exact and listed my grandfather's name as spouse.
It found her on the first try. An item of interest is that it listed her date of birth as abt 1907. I'm thinking that this may confirm that there was always a question about the exact date of her birth. Her mother died in childbirth or shortly after so no one could say if she was born on the 20th or 21st.
The 1940 Census had a button for ABOUT. I clicked and saw the actual handwritten page from the census. There is my mom! She was 3.
It listed my aunt as Ealnor, though her name was actually Denise Elenore. Makes me wonder about the qualifications to be a census taker in 1945.
I scrolled down the page and found Great Grandma. It said that she could speak English( she was born in the USA-seems like an odd thing to record) it also said that she did not attend any school but could read and write.
3.)I typed South Dakota in the search box. 296,591,754 results! On the left side I selected Pictures; There were lots of categories. I selected US History Post cards. 115,977 results. I tried the shortcut key thinking I could refine my search, but was unable to. With more time I'm sure I could figure this out. Having to do this at the library does limit me.
4.) Heritage Quest
I searched 1890 Veterans Schedules- Got 130 results from my Exact (maiden) name, Wing.
I searched Revolutionary War pensions. Wing. I found an application for benefits from Gideon Wing, and later for his widow Abigail, There were copies of the original paperwork. The results were from the National Archives .
5.) Sanborn Maps
I selected South Dakota and Pierre. I was able to find St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church on the May 1941 map. There were notes indicating that it was built in 1941 of fireproof construction with conc floor and RF conc posts, tile, Br faced walls. It would be interesting to find a photo of the original and compare it to what it looks like today.
This has been my favorite lesson.
Monday, March 23, 2015
Lesson 7 Ebooks on EBSCOhost
I searched for Kite Flying. I found many, many non relevant books. Finally I stumbled across the magic combination of selecting all source types, all search terms, expanding to apply related words and no limits that finally got me relevant results to my search. I had given up.
I was able to find 3684 results with similar criteria when I searched Constitution Day. I'm going to mark September 17th on my calendar. I had to adjust the search criteria to eliminate sources not available on the internet. A source called We The People had information on when and why we have Constitution Day as well as who introduced the bill and which president signed it into law. Now I know why I did not learn about it in school!
The final search I did with Ebsco Host was an advanced search of a publisher. I selected Nebraska. I got 88 results from the University of Nebraska press. Subject included Political Science, Travel, Social Science, Sports and Recreation, Education and History.
I was able to find 3684 results with similar criteria when I searched Constitution Day. I'm going to mark September 17th on my calendar. I had to adjust the search criteria to eliminate sources not available on the internet. A source called We The People had information on when and why we have Constitution Day as well as who introduced the bill and which president signed it into law. Now I know why I did not learn about it in school!
The final search I did with Ebsco Host was an advanced search of a publisher. I selected Nebraska. I got 88 results from the University of Nebraska press. Subject included Political Science, Travel, Social Science, Sports and Recreation, Education and History.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Lesson 8
Yep. I'm skipping over lesson 7 which has convinced me that I cannot find relevant topics that EBSCO covers. I will come back to it at a later time.
Lesson 8, World Cat.
After clicking the Advanced Search Screen tab on the 2nd toolbar, I searched for Mark Twain. I selected keyword author, defining it to personal name. I wondered if I would come up empty, since his name is actually Samuel Clemens. Wow. 31,194 records in 2880 libraries world wide. 18,267 in English.
Next I went back and chose the title search and clicked on the limiter for Books. I searched for Huckleberry Finn. Results:6511 records, 4339 of which are in English. The first item was The Oxford book of American Light Verse by William Harmon. When I clicked on the author I got a list of 91 books. When I clicked on American Poetry in the Descriptor list under the subject heading there were 101498 records, of which 70736 were books. I found the call numbers are LC:PS586 and Dewey:811/.07. 2772 libraries have this book, the top library is Alexander Mitchell Library.
This reminds me that there is a Mark Twain book that I was interested in reading- something about a suitcase? So many books, so little time.
I added OAIster to the databases I searched. Searching with South Dakota as a keyword I found 138225 records in OIAster and 125027 with World Cat. I think this could be valuable site for students needing facts and statistics for debates and speeches.
Lesson 8, World Cat.
After clicking the Advanced Search Screen tab on the 2nd toolbar, I searched for Mark Twain. I selected keyword author, defining it to personal name. I wondered if I would come up empty, since his name is actually Samuel Clemens. Wow. 31,194 records in 2880 libraries world wide. 18,267 in English.
Next I went back and chose the title search and clicked on the limiter for Books. I searched for Huckleberry Finn. Results:6511 records, 4339 of which are in English. The first item was The Oxford book of American Light Verse by William Harmon. When I clicked on the author I got a list of 91 books. When I clicked on American Poetry in the Descriptor list under the subject heading there were 101498 records, of which 70736 were books. I found the call numbers are LC:PS586 and Dewey:811/.07. 2772 libraries have this book, the top library is Alexander Mitchell Library.
This reminds me that there is a Mark Twain book that I was interested in reading- something about a suitcase? So many books, so little time.
I added OAIster to the databases I searched. Searching with South Dakota as a keyword I found 138225 records in OIAster and 125027 with World Cat. I think this could be valuable site for students needing facts and statistics for debates and speeches.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Lesson 6 Gale Virtual Resource Library- GVRL
With the GVRL you can search many subject areas across the entire collection at once, 24/7. It has read speaker technology and can be downloaded in MP# format. You can book,mark, translate and cite.
In the upper right hand corner I clicked on the Title list to view the titles in the collection. I selected an book on the American Civil war. It had 5 volumes that I could browse. I selected biographies from the Table of contents and found an article about Pauline Cushman, a Northern spy. There were a couple photographs and information about her work as a spy as well as some history about her life after the war. This book is a good reference to Civil war biographies.
I did a search for Zinc. There are 960 articles in the basic search. Within the subject of Zinc I searched for Foods High in Zinc and found 4 articles. Narrowing it down once more with a search for Zinc as a nutrient, I found 3 articles. I used the listen feature and learned how important Zinc is our bodies. A female 12 years or older should have 12 mg/day according to the USRDA. There is information about using Zinc for the common cold and various infections. I figured that this is a good time to check out my One A Days- 15 mg. Looks like I've got the Zinc covered,
I would like to read Inferno by Dante Alighieri. I can find may great articles about the poem and the author, but have not been able to find the 34 stanzas that this information is all about.
I checked out McCleve and kelcy25's blogs. I am glad that others can use this information with their students.
In the upper right hand corner I clicked on the Title list to view the titles in the collection. I selected an book on the American Civil war. It had 5 volumes that I could browse. I selected biographies from the Table of contents and found an article about Pauline Cushman, a Northern spy. There were a couple photographs and information about her work as a spy as well as some history about her life after the war. This book is a good reference to Civil war biographies.
I did a search for Zinc. There are 960 articles in the basic search. Within the subject of Zinc I searched for Foods High in Zinc and found 4 articles. Narrowing it down once more with a search for Zinc as a nutrient, I found 3 articles. I used the listen feature and learned how important Zinc is our bodies. A female 12 years or older should have 12 mg/day according to the USRDA. There is information about using Zinc for the common cold and various infections. I figured that this is a good time to check out my One A Days- 15 mg. Looks like I've got the Zinc covered,
I would like to read Inferno by Dante Alighieri. I can find may great articles about the poem and the author, but have not been able to find the 34 stanzas that this information is all about.
I checked out McCleve and kelcy25's blogs. I am glad that others can use this information with their students.
Lesson 5- Proquest Research and Discovery Library
I began by clicking Full Text Only. In my searching I did not find any options to create an alert.
I did a basic search of something of interest. I started typing in Kissing the Blarney Stone. I got a drop down list with the whole phrase, which I selected. There are 41 results from newspapers, trade journals and magazines. There was a box with related searches. None of the items in the box appeared to be related to anything that I was looking for. I read a nice magazine article about kissing the Blarney Stone from Hispanic Magazine. There were a couple articles about an Irish Bar in Yongkang Lu. Words in the search were highlighted in the articles
I read a few blogs by other E Challenge participants. I like the pink wall paper on Alice from Wilmot's Blog and the fact that she will be able to use the lesson to help her students. Meade School District used a very small font. Librarian Lil looked up an armadillo in Lesson 4. Why didn't I think of that?!
I must say that the photo of Leonardo DiCaprio in the Arts, Film and Music Subject box was rather distracting. I'd like to look up some articles on him. This is why it takes me forevvvver to get my lessons done. Ha.
When I clicked the Publications tab at the top of the page, I learned that Proquest has 5073 publications from December 12, 2009 to the present. I typed Eagles in the search box. Zero publications. Then I looked at the assignment again, type a profession- ok. Falconer and Bird breeder both got me zero results. Thinking about the summer deck construction project at my house, I typed construction worker. Then I noticed the second box on this line. I went back to eagle and one at a time selected In subject, In title, Title begins, with zero, zilch results. Fear not! I selected In publication summary. Bingo! 3 hits, one each from a newspaper, a scholarly journal and a magazine. However none were about a profession dealing with eagles.
Did I mention that I am easily distracted?
I figured that I should try this with a profession, as our lesson requested. I checked Orthodontist-nothing. I was able to get 2 articles when searching Librarian. This looks like a good place to stop.
I did a basic search of something of interest. I started typing in Kissing the Blarney Stone. I got a drop down list with the whole phrase, which I selected. There are 41 results from newspapers, trade journals and magazines. There was a box with related searches. None of the items in the box appeared to be related to anything that I was looking for. I read a nice magazine article about kissing the Blarney Stone from Hispanic Magazine. There were a couple articles about an Irish Bar in Yongkang Lu. Words in the search were highlighted in the articles
I read a few blogs by other E Challenge participants. I like the pink wall paper on Alice from Wilmot's Blog and the fact that she will be able to use the lesson to help her students. Meade School District used a very small font. Librarian Lil looked up an armadillo in Lesson 4. Why didn't I think of that?!
I must say that the photo of Leonardo DiCaprio in the Arts, Film and Music Subject box was rather distracting. I'd like to look up some articles on him. This is why it takes me forevvvver to get my lessons done. Ha.
When I clicked the Publications tab at the top of the page, I learned that Proquest has 5073 publications from December 12, 2009 to the present. I typed Eagles in the search box. Zero publications. Then I looked at the assignment again, type a profession- ok. Falconer and Bird breeder both got me zero results. Thinking about the summer deck construction project at my house, I typed construction worker. Then I noticed the second box on this line. I went back to eagle and one at a time selected In subject, In title, Title begins, with zero, zilch results. Fear not! I selected In publication summary. Bingo! 3 hits, one each from a newspaper, a scholarly journal and a magazine. However none were about a profession dealing with eagles.
Did I mention that I am easily distracted?
I figured that I should try this with a profession, as our lesson requested. I checked Orthodontist-nothing. I was able to get 2 articles when searching Librarian. This looks like a good place to stop.
Lesson 3-Learning Express Library
I set up an account with Learning Express Library and watched the getting started tutorial. It was helpful, with very detailed step by step instructions on how to navigate the site and what is available.
I tried to get the adult GED exam, but wound up getting a Flash review of 600 most tested terms. It was recommended that a student not cram for a test, but break it down into several daily sessions.
I found a High School Biology Success in 20 minutes a day. I took that test and once I received my score, I realized that I will have to do some major studying if I wish to make a career change in that direction.
In the career resources search box I typed in photographer, movie star and tour guide and got no matches. When I searched 'teacher' I was able to launch Best Careers for Teachers.
I did not get finished with this lesson in February and have been having issues with being able to access it. I have reset my password, was in, and now it is giving me a message that I am not authorized to access this portal.
I still need to add a course to my center, but I am going to move on to my next lesson. Frustrated.
I tried to get the adult GED exam, but wound up getting a Flash review of 600 most tested terms. It was recommended that a student not cram for a test, but break it down into several daily sessions.
I found a High School Biology Success in 20 minutes a day. I took that test and once I received my score, I realized that I will have to do some major studying if I wish to make a career change in that direction.
In the career resources search box I typed in photographer, movie star and tour guide and got no matches. When I searched 'teacher' I was able to launch Best Careers for Teachers.
I did not get finished with this lesson in February and have been having issues with being able to access it. I have reset my password, was in, and now it is giving me a message that I am not authorized to access this portal.
I still need to add a course to my center, but I am going to move on to my next lesson. Frustrated.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Lesson 4- SIRS Discoverer and Issues Reasearcher
SIRS Discoverer is for Grades K-9. It contains selected full text magazine and newspaper articles that meet today's curriculum needs. The articles included have been selected as safe, trustworthy and non commercial.
1. I searched Kangaroo in the subject headings. It brought up 365 articles, of which 43 were newspaper, 266 magazine, 51 reference, 37 graphics and 0 webfind sites. I wanted to look at a graphic and scrolled down to an article titled Koala Chaos that was not about Kangaroos at all, but about Koalas that had been relocated to Kangaroo Island. It did have images of Koalas.
2.Using the Database features, I selected Country Facts. It displays 3 different choices- Country Facts, United States Facts and Canada Facts. When I chose Europe, an alphabetical drop down of over 50 countries was displayed. I selected Ireland. There were basic facts about languages, capital city, size etc., but also references and a link that took me to the subject heading page, where I found 15 articles.
Back at the Database features I opened Maps of the World. I selected United States. This includes Territories. I selected Iowa. It gave me a simple map with several labeled cities. It included railroad lines and the names of surrounding states. It did not allow me to cross over the state lines and get similar information. While some bodies of water were shown, it only identified 2 of the rivers.
Another Database feature that I explored was Activities. It listed 22 categories with projects to make or do. I opened Jokes and Riddles. How does a bunny keep his fur looking good? Thank goodness the answers were provided. My dad will like this one.
SIRS Researcher is for student's grades 6-12. It has an A-Z list of leading issues that students may research.
1.Clicking on Banned Books brought up a page with a topic overview and definition, and tabs for quick search, advanced search, topic browse, database features and common core correlation. It has a box with Pros and Cons and some articles to support each and an interactive link to a video .
2.When selecting Pathfinders, 6 courses are offered; Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, Fine Arts and Health . When investigating Health, I found it divided into 4 Courses with 3-6 areas in each. 17 research ideas, a health related How Do I? question, the name of a notable person in health and 2 interactive videos were also included.
I guess you are still wondering about that riddle in SIRS Discoverer. ...Hare spray. Groan.
1. I searched Kangaroo in the subject headings. It brought up 365 articles, of which 43 were newspaper, 266 magazine, 51 reference, 37 graphics and 0 webfind sites. I wanted to look at a graphic and scrolled down to an article titled Koala Chaos that was not about Kangaroos at all, but about Koalas that had been relocated to Kangaroo Island. It did have images of Koalas.
2.Using the Database features, I selected Country Facts. It displays 3 different choices- Country Facts, United States Facts and Canada Facts. When I chose Europe, an alphabetical drop down of over 50 countries was displayed. I selected Ireland. There were basic facts about languages, capital city, size etc., but also references and a link that took me to the subject heading page, where I found 15 articles.
Back at the Database features I opened Maps of the World. I selected United States. This includes Territories. I selected Iowa. It gave me a simple map with several labeled cities. It included railroad lines and the names of surrounding states. It did not allow me to cross over the state lines and get similar information. While some bodies of water were shown, it only identified 2 of the rivers.
Another Database feature that I explored was Activities. It listed 22 categories with projects to make or do. I opened Jokes and Riddles. How does a bunny keep his fur looking good? Thank goodness the answers were provided. My dad will like this one.
SIRS Researcher is for student's grades 6-12. It has an A-Z list of leading issues that students may research.
1.Clicking on Banned Books brought up a page with a topic overview and definition, and tabs for quick search, advanced search, topic browse, database features and common core correlation. It has a box with Pros and Cons and some articles to support each and an interactive link to a video .
2.When selecting Pathfinders, 6 courses are offered; Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, Fine Arts and Health . When investigating Health, I found it divided into 4 Courses with 3-6 areas in each. 17 research ideas, a health related How Do I? question, the name of a notable person in health and 2 interactive videos were also included.
I guess you are still wondering about that riddle in SIRS Discoverer. ...Hare spray. Groan.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Lesson 2
This week we explored 3 sites. I started with Chilton Library for Auto Repair Manuals. The first car I looked up was my husband's '63 Dodge 880. There was a repair link, but nothing on maintenance, recalls or labor estimating. Then I tried my 2013 Honda- not much there either. I hit the jackpot of information when I searched for the 1999 Seems-Like-Always-Broken-Down red pickup that lives in my driveway. There were 335 items to choose from! I entered maintenance schedule for 30,000 miles. Hopefully way back then, someone replaced the air cleaner and filter, serviced or inspected the accessory belt and replaced the automatic transmission fluid and filter. The earliest technical bulletin or recall that I found was in 2002. Figures, right about the time a 3 year warranty would expire. The last bulletin was 12/5/14 about tire vibration.
The repair information is presented in a 'tree' configuration. This is the path I took from BRAKES.
Brakes
Brake Operating
Brake light and switch
Removal and installation
At the end was a great video showing how to remove the old switch and install a new one. I think I could do it. However the brake light switch on this truck actually works. If it were up to me, this truck would be for sale!
This is a good site for someone who would like to know more about the guts in an auto than I.
Next site- Mango Languages.
This site would be helpful in learning 60 different languages. It has webinars, but none were available when I was checking it out. There are nice photographs of the places where each language is spoken. Each language has lesson tutorials broken down into scenarios or topics. First you see the text of a conversation written in English (or the language you are translating from.) As the dialogue is spoken, the text changes to the other language. There is a repeat button so you can easily go back to listen again and practice.
There is also a function that will let you translate a few words or short phase. I will recommend this to my friend Sharon and my daughter Suzy. Sharon likes to order hot tea with cream in the language of the country she is traveling in. Suzy just says Cheers!
A Vietnamese student can improve her English with Mango Languages. I think reading and hearing English helps students learn pronunciation and sentence structure in a private, non judgmental environment. The repeat option allows for convenient repetition.
My favorite part of Lesson 2 is TumblebookLibrary.
I chose the storybook I Have To Go, by Robert Munsch. There was a description of the book, a book review and reading levels listed by accelerated reading, grade, Lexile, and Common Core. I could listen and follow along the highlighted words, or muting the sound and reading it myself. I could turn the pages or let the program do it. The story was read in animated voices with lots of expression. It was fun to listen to while looking at the pictures.
After 'reading' the book a couple ways, I put together a puzzle depicting one of the pages in the book. I do not think the difficulty of the puzzle matched the appropriate age of the reader, but there was applause when I finally finished. If there had been a timer function, I may have tried it a couple more times to see if I could improve. This is a great resource for anyone with children. Beginning readers can follow along or read themselves. Children can entertain themselves while Mom is making supper or giving the baby a bath. I like the option to make a favorites list or playlist.
I am looking forward to Learning Express next week.
Stay warm!
The repair information is presented in a 'tree' configuration. This is the path I took from BRAKES.
Brakes
Brake Operating
Brake light and switch
Removal and installation
At the end was a great video showing how to remove the old switch and install a new one. I think I could do it. However the brake light switch on this truck actually works. If it were up to me, this truck would be for sale!
This is a good site for someone who would like to know more about the guts in an auto than I.
Next site- Mango Languages.
This site would be helpful in learning 60 different languages. It has webinars, but none were available when I was checking it out. There are nice photographs of the places where each language is spoken. Each language has lesson tutorials broken down into scenarios or topics. First you see the text of a conversation written in English (or the language you are translating from.) As the dialogue is spoken, the text changes to the other language. There is a repeat button so you can easily go back to listen again and practice.
There is also a function that will let you translate a few words or short phase. I will recommend this to my friend Sharon and my daughter Suzy. Sharon likes to order hot tea with cream in the language of the country she is traveling in. Suzy just says Cheers!
A Vietnamese student can improve her English with Mango Languages. I think reading and hearing English helps students learn pronunciation and sentence structure in a private, non judgmental environment. The repeat option allows for convenient repetition.
My favorite part of Lesson 2 is TumblebookLibrary.
I chose the storybook I Have To Go, by Robert Munsch. There was a description of the book, a book review and reading levels listed by accelerated reading, grade, Lexile, and Common Core. I could listen and follow along the highlighted words, or muting the sound and reading it myself. I could turn the pages or let the program do it. The story was read in animated voices with lots of expression. It was fun to listen to while looking at the pictures.
After 'reading' the book a couple ways, I put together a puzzle depicting one of the pages in the book. I do not think the difficulty of the puzzle matched the appropriate age of the reader, but there was applause when I finally finished. If there had been a timer function, I may have tried it a couple more times to see if I could improve. This is a great resource for anyone with children. Beginning readers can follow along or read themselves. Children can entertain themselves while Mom is making supper or giving the baby a bath. I like the option to make a favorites list or playlist.
I am looking forward to Learning Express next week.
Stay warm!
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Lesson One World Book Online
The first challenge (after figuring out what my library card password was) was to go to World Book Kids and search for information on a mammal. I searched for groundhogs. Here is a picture of a groundhog, more commonly known as a woodchuck.Woodchucks are mainly found in Canada and Northeastern United States. They live in dens or burrows. A video with the answer to the age old question 'How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?' was included.
Then I searched Groundhog in the World Book Student. There were 4 encyclopedia articles, up from 2 in the Kids. Of the 4, only one was about the mammal called a groundhog. I find it interesting that both the Kids and Student World Book had an entry about Bill Murray under the search for Groundhog. The Student edition also had a cute video and a link to a magazine article where I found that Punxsutawney Phil is correct less than half the time.
As a student, I would have a difficult time writing much of a scientific report on groundhogs from the information in these 2 sources.
The next source I checked was World Book Advanced, where I searched for Ireland. There were 849 items. The left column had 16 subcategories. When I clicked on each of these, the list of items in the category came up on the right. There is an option to 'save to my research.' Back in my youth, we would put a slip of paper, a pencil or our fingers to mark a section that we might want to go back to when doing research. I think I like this.
In World Book Discover I needed to find American government. The topics have photos by them to help students or patrons who are English reading challenged. There is a language translator toolbar to change the language of the printed text and a read aloud feature that allows the reader to listen as they follow along the highlighted text.
When looking up my groundhog again in World Book Public Online for Kids, it had the same information as the World Book Student but also had the read aloud feature, text language translator, and definition option.
In the Online Public Libraries Info Finder I found a link to the Rapid City Journal. Unfortunately I am easily distracted when exploring. The information on Mr. Groundhog looked identical to that on the World Book Student.
The information on Ireland was the same in World Book Advanced and World Book Online Reference.
I found a picture of Marmota americana in the Spanish Language encyclopedia. It looked like it had the same information as the English articles about my groundhog. It even included that sentence on Groundhog's Day.
Looks like I'm out of room. Until next time. Lynda
Saturday, January 10, 2015
January 10, 2015
Today is the beginning of my first blog. I am taking on
The South Dakota State Library’s E-Resources Challenge.
Let thefun learning begin.
The South Dakota State Library’s E-Resources Challenge.
Let the
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