Creating a Custom Search

The adventure continues...each week I learn so many wonderful things to take back to my classroom.  My students like to hear what I am learning.  They are always amazed when they find out that I am in school too!  This week we learned to create our own custom search engine.  This is very useful for elementary teachers.  It helps to narrow down searches for our students, so they are not so overwhelming.  The World Wide Web is large place and as teachers we need to protect our students.  School web filters sometimes over protect, while still allowing questionable sources.  How can a teacher solve this problem?  They can prepare ahead and create a custom search engine that includes only pre-approved suitable sites.  By using this search engine students will look for their topic only on the approved sites.  This is genius!

Here is a tutorial video on creating a custom search engine.

Each year I have my 5th grade students create PowerPoint presentations over a colonial trade.  they have to describe the trade and what products this trade produces.  They also need to research the tools used and if this trade is still used today.  In the past, trying to help students find suitable sources has been difficult.  Many students even put down erroneous information.  This led to discussions about not believing everything on the Internet, credible sources, and verifying facts by finding the information in more than one source.

As a result, I have now created a wonderful custom search engine that includes credible sources.  The students will be able to search from multiple sites and pick and choose the information they want to use.  Here is a my custom search engine on colonial trades.

Now my students will have an easier time with research!  I even used sites based on their reading levels!  Thanks for joining me for another adventure in technology!