Learn About Search: Loomis CA

Recently I was asked to lead a workshop for elementary GATE grade students in my neighboring district of Loomis CA. This workshop was a two hour “learn about Search” session all about how to search and what to watch for. 

First off, thanks to Cinnamon Johnsrud, Superintendent Medd and the team at LUSD for having me out to work with these students. It is great to have neighboring districts looking to each other for support and we in Rocklin will be reciprocating this by asking our neighbors like Loomis, Roseville, Placer and more for help in the the future. (By the way, we will have the one and only John Eick coming out later in March to help give our entire district a shot of adrenaline with a keynote. Looking for to in John and oh I will be blogging about this as well!)

This 2 hour after school workshop was designed for students interested in learning more about how to search and what to be aware of while you’re searching. 

​As a TOSA and presenter, I have been working with my teachers for quite some time. It was so rewarding to be back in front of a group of students! I have taught tech lessons much like this while I was teaching high school to students in my Web Design courses, but not with 4th and 5th graders. So, I was a little unsure of their ability, speed and background knowledge regarding Google, the web and how to Search. 

In creating this workshop, I used much of those Web Design lessons from my past but in MY searching and prepping I came across some good resources. But, hands down, this was the MOST useful tool that I added. 

This is the Google Search Education . This site labels itself as ... "With the materials on this site, you can help your students become skilled searchers- whether they're just starting out with search, or ready for more advanced training" 

Please spend some time looking at these lessons, activities and even a “A Google a Day Challenges”

The kids really took to the idea of trying to find how real and reliable sites are (we made this a challenge i.e. is the “The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus” site real?)

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And to add some fun about hoaxes I showed them the Google Nose Beta video. This is one of my favorite Google April fools day pranks. For a future post, I will share out some of my favorite Fact or Fiction site and videos on the web.

​​The kids also had fun learning about how to modify their Image search results to add modifiers like Size, Type, and Color. 
For example you can see here how to search for BUTTERFLY and then modify the search by looking for images with the color orange. 

​Please reach out to me if you would like to talk about how to use some of these ideas in lessons with your classes.