Week 10 Wrap up

Week 10

Nothing like squishing 10 weeks of class into 3!  Once I got started, it was fun to see what was next. 

Many of these resources I remember from working at the SDSU Library during college and more extensively during library school when working on my MLS.  Of course, at that time they were all paper or microfiche formats.  It’s much easier to find things with the digital format so less frustrating. 

Since our school does not have an in house library, these resources are very important to our student’s education.  Directing students and teachers to these resources when someone has a question will be very helpful in our attempt at integrating education with technology.

My greatest discovery was finding the actual census records of relatives. Somehow, just being able to look at a copy of an actual document made the history come alive. 

Week 9

Week 9: Ancestry Library

Searching myself, I found a list of all the addresses I have had since 1984.  That was kind of cool and scary.  I couldn’t find my birth certificate or marriage license but I did find information on several other relatives.  This could be quite addictive.

I was named after my grandmother so I searched for her.  I found an actual census that listed her, my grandfather, my dad and brothers.  I could actually look at the actual census document. I did discover that not only was I named after my grandmother but I also got married on her birthday which was new to me.

I typed in the family name for pictures and found a picture of my uncle in an SDSU yearbook and pictures of my cousins when they were in Middle School.  Lots of fun and the time flies as you explore.

Heritage Quest

After trying several different places, I finally had a hit with Toms River, NJ. I have relatives there so it was fun to try to find pictures of places I remember or recognize. I did find the graveyard where my grandparents are buried.

Sanborn Maps

I choose Flandreau, SD, since I spent a lot of time there when I was a kid.  I was able to find the houses where my Great Aunt, my 2^nd cousins, and my Great-Grandparents used to live. I also looked at the 1950 Sioux Falls map and found the block where I grew up.   I was disappointed that many of the towns I wanted to look at weren’t listed.

Common Core: 8^th Grade Algebra 1

Ancestry Library: This could be used for S.ID Interpreting Categorical & Quantitative Data. Students could search for pictures of family members and we could make represent the data with histogram (S.ID.1)

Sanborn Maps: I could overlay a coordinate grid on the map and students could use the maps to draw lines between places and then find the equation of the line. (8.F.3)

Heritage Quest: 8^th Grade Math 8.G.2.  Students could look for congruency in 2 or more objects in a picture.

Week 8

Week 8: Archive Grid

I learned that Sitting Bull’s name was actually Tatanka Iyotake or Tatanka Iyotanka or Ta-Tanka I-Yotan and that he was the leader of the Hunpapa Sioux.  That was new to me. 

I searched ‘Silence Dogood’ hoping to find the originals letters but found nothing.  Then I searched ‘Benjamin Franklin letters’ and got several hits. When I clicked on the first one, it said ‘this page does not exist or has been renamed.’  I tried several other hits and most said ‘contact an archivist to learn more about access to materials in this collection.  This would be great for social study classes and history buffs.

CAMIO

It was fun to see pictures of items that Paul Revere made as a silversmith.  The details on the tea urn and spoon were beautiful. There were also covered bowls, more urns, a sugar bowl and cover, all exquisitely made. 

‘Sioux’ brought up pictures of Native American clothing, pipes, and many pictures of NA life.

I was disappointed that ‘Harvey Dunn’ brought no results but neither did ‘Terry Redlin’.  ‘Van Gogh’  brought up 48 pictures of his paintings.  The pictures were of good quality.

Since we do not offer art classes at our school, this would be a way to explore art and expose our rural students to the world of art.

It was nice that the slide show of the images looped.  It was easy to move the images around and compare them.  I didn’t try the Web page feature but it looked easy to use.

Common Core:  8.SL.5 Integrates multimedia and visual display into presentations… For math, students could look at pieces of art and find mathematical images within them such as circles, squares, parabolas.  They could also import the images into a graphing calculator and find the equations of the parabola.

Week 7

WorldCat and More FirstSearch Indexes

Great Resource for librarians!  I’ve used this database for the information to put an entire library online and also for cataloging 2 church collections. 

I used the advanced search feature to search for a book I remember reading in grade school ‘Runaway Alice’. There were lots of hits.  Item #1 showed 16 copies worldwide. The top library is the Hartford Public Library in Illinois.  The LC call no. is PZ7.M9532. The subjects descriptor only had one:  Children’s stories.  I did see and alternate title ‘A nickel for Alice’.  Using the information I found, I searched online used bookstores and found a copy for myself.  Can’t wait to read it! Again.

Searched the WorldCat dissertations and theses and found that my uncle’s dissertation is in the National Agriculture Library in MD if I should ever want to read it.

In the OAIster database, I found an actual letter written to a lady in Minnesota from Sinclair Lewis talking about his journey through North and South Dakota. It looked like it was and actual scan of the letter.  Very cool.

I found the book ‘Digital Teaching Platforms : customizing classroom learning for each student’  and lo and behold, the top library is the South Dakota State Library.  May have to check that one out this summer!

Enjoyed this resource very much and spent way too much time looking for old books I remember.

Common Core:  If you can think of it you can find it.  8.W.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively. 

Week 6

Week 6:  I used EbscoHost a lot when it was still NetLibrary.  I have a friend who is a paleontologist and I went to here to read some of his books. I searched ‘T-Rex Sue’ and found a book on Sue’s history from discovery to the government’s confiscation and eventual home at the Chicago Museum.  Some of the books I had read earlier were no longer in the collection.  I am able to find books here that I would like to read but do not wish to purchase.    The 15 minute non active checkout time is good but I get dumped a lot. 

Searching ‘Constitution Day’ in all text fields brought up a lot of titles but nothing that seemed relevant.  When searching in Subject or Category, nothing was found.  Not the best resource for this type of search.

Searching ‘Oklahoma’ as publisher brought us several titles.  The Rapid City Indian School, 1898-1933’ was one I found interesting.  I had never heard of it.  I also liked the ‘Frontier Army in the Settlement of the West.”  I added it to my folder to peruse later.

Common Core: 8.RL and 8.RIT could both be covered here since the eBooks collections consist of both fiction and non-fiction.  

Week 5

Week 5: Gale Virtual Reference Library

I chose to look at: Ancient Europe, 8000 B.C. to A.D. 1000, 2004.  I read an article about Stonehenge and then searched Vikings within the text. The Vikings started invading England around 789 BC and they started the town of Dublin, Ireland.  The information was more archaeological which was not what I expected.  I found much more information when I searched the correct volume.  I found it easy to read and suitable for HS students and possibly JH students.  I see this as useful in a history classroom rather than a math classroom.

I tried searching ‘flipped classroom’, a hot topic in math but nothing came up so I tried ‘mass customized learning’ which yielded 2 articles about education and then numerous articles on steroids which didn’t make sense.  I opened the article ‘Technology in Education’ from the Encyclopedia of Education and was pleased that it was exactly what I was looking for.

The listening feature is great for students who are poor readers but I found it slow for my reading speed.  I did like that I could download the article to my eReader for later. The citation tools were great, too.

I know the GVRL also has many titles for Elementary students but I gather that SDSL does not subscribe to them since I didn’t see many titles for lower grades.

Common Core:  8.RIT.1 and 8.RIT.10 are 2 of the CC that stand out but actually all of the 8.RIT Reading: Informational Text would apply to most any article in this reference library.