This is a test wiki page!  I would like to create a website or wiki page for the Towanda Guidance Office.  Go Black Knights!  The Guidance Office offers valuable college and career advice for students in each grade level.

 

 

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Seniors are reminded to begin the college application process right away. Please view the Guidance Calendar for important dates  

 

 

Homework:  Assignment #2 Search Engines

 

I.  Yahoo

        1.  The text I entered for the search was "College Admissions Tips"

        2.  I got 5,190,000 results

        3.  About 6 of the first 10 results looked like they might be useful

        4.  http://www.college-scholarships.com/college_admission_tips.htm

             http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/starting-points/140.html

             http://www.collegeview.com/college_application_tips.html

             I found these three websites to be full of good advice.

        5.  I refined my search by selecting "Only .com domains"

        6.  I only received 2,980,000 results with my advanced search

 

II.  Google

        1.  The text I entered for the search was "College Admissions Tips"

        2.  I got 1,990,000 results

        3.  About 3 of the first 10 results looked like they would be useful, two of the results were from Yahoo.com and two were from about.com

             (which I really don't like)

        4.  http://www.accepted.com/college/fivetipsforteen.aspx

             http://www.essayedge.com/college/admissions/speakout/

             http://www.collegeanswer.com/index.jsp  (this site looked good, but it appeared that you would have to pay to really search it further)

        5.  I refined my search by selecting "return results where my terms occur in the title of the page" and by selecting my preference to receive

             results in English only

        6.  I only received 335 results with this advanced search.  5 of the top ten results were in the top ten of my previous Google search.

 

III.  Ask

        1.  The text I entered for the search was "College Admissions Tips"

        2.  Only 754,400 results were listed for this search

        3.  About 5 of the top ten results looked useful.

        4.  http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/archives/000108.htm

             http://www.supercollege.com/ask.cfm?loc=4&page=2&topic=17&cart=1

             http://www.collegeboard.com/student/apply/the-application/135.html

        5.  I refined my search by typing in ".edu" in the Domain box

        6.  This narrowed my results down to 129,900.  All of the results were now mostly from Colleges/Universities and high school guidance offices

             as opposed to .com sites that all seemed to have the ultimate goal of selling some service from conducting your college search for you,

             writing your college essay for you or preparing you for your college admissions test.

 

7.  Comparison of Search Engine Home Pages

The Yahoo home page is filled with news and lots of extraneous info that I was not interested in.  While it would be a great site if you were just killing time, I found it to be distracting .  It had a lot of ads ranging from real estate to stocks to head hunters.  I did like the the section on the left with tabs for different subjects one might wish to search, however none of the tabs were related to education or my job except the "Hotjobs" tab.  The Google homepage was easy to navigate.  It is straight to the point and allows the user to choose what he/she wants to view (Images, Video, News, Maps, Gmail, more).  It even allows you to download a Google toolbar and search box to your browser.  I'm still not sure what the "I'm Feeling Lucky" tab is all about!  I've never had time to use it before so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I clicked on the tab after typing in the text "College Admissions Tips" and it gave me only one result: a Yahoo Education site.  It was a decent site, but ALL of the tips and links on the page were written by Petersons.com (a money making machine in the college help world).  I found the Ask  home page to be very similar to the Google page.  The page is free of news and ads and gets right to business.  The choices above the search text box (Web, Images, City, News, Blogs) were somewhat different from the Google selections.

 

8.  Comparison of Search Engine Results Pages

The Yahoo search yielded the most results at over 5 million.  Of the top ten results about half were useful, but the remainder all seemed to be sites that were trying to sell a product related to the search.  The second advanced search that I did used ".edu" in the domain and that seemed to clear out a lot of unwanted sites.  The Google results page provided many of the same results as the Yahoo search.  However, the Google results seemed to be more relevant and provided more information than the Yahoo results.  There seemed to be fewer sites trying to sell products on the Google results pages.  There was a section on the right side of the results page dedicated to "Sponsored Links" which appeared to be for organizations that had paid to have their site listed there.  I was least familiar with the Ask search engine and was interested to see what its results pages would look like.  I liked the  section on the left hand side of the page that suggested links to "Narrow Your Search" and "Expand Your Search.  I also found the binocular icons to be useful in indicating how long the site would take to load and how large it was as well as a little window with a picture of what the site looks like.

 

9.  My Personal Preference

 After using the three search engines I find myself drawn to Google.  I primarily use Yahoo at home and often feel irritated at the busy home page and number of ads on the site.  Google has a nice clean home page that lets you get right to work which appeals to me--I don't have time to be distracted by news, sports, entertainment and ways to increase my stock portfolio!!  I like the advanced search function (which I have never used before) and the tabs at the top of the page for images (which I often need for flyers and newsletters) and "more".  I had never used the Ask website before and enjoyed beoming familiar with its features.  I would use this site in the future over Yahoo because it is, like Google, more direct and free of excess, unrelated information.

 

 

HOMEWORK: Assignment #3, September 30, 2007

 

 Here is my Del.icio.us Page

 

 

 

HOMEWORK:  GRAPHICS EDITING, OCTOBER 14, 2007

 

HOMEWORK:  WEBQUESTS, OCTOBER 21, 2007

 

OPTION #2  WEBQUEST LINKS

 

1.  To view Career Quest click here: http://questgarden.com/51/47/5/070515092330/index.htm

This webquest seems like a great way to get students (especially middle school aged kids) to start thinking about their future career goals and what they want to do with their lives once they leave high school.  The site directs students to research different careers to learn more about careers that interest them and to discover careers they would not want to pursue.  The site has a separate page for students and teachers.  The teacher portion of the site contains information about the learner, topic, standards, process and resources.  The student portion of the site has information about the task,  process, evaluation method, and a conclusion section.

 

2.  To view Focus on the Future from Instant Webquest click here:  http://instantprojects.org/webquest/webquest.php?AuthorID=5414

This webquest us designed for students in grades 9-12.  Its purpose is to help students design a projected monthly budget based on an annual income in a career ten years from the moment they graduate from college.  Students must complete an interest inventory, aptitude survey,  and a websearch to select a career.  Students must then research the income level of that career and create a budget based on the annual salary.

 The "Process" section of the provided students with many links that I share with classes I work with.

 

3.  To view Get Me Out of Here click here:  http://www.teachtheteachers.org/projects/JGarnett/index.htm

"Get Me Out of Here" is a webquest designed for Juniors and Seniors.  The purpose is to create a resume, a post graduation plan, learn to fill out an application and learn interview skills.  The graphics were fun an easy to navigate.  Each of the four tasks was represented by an icon the student would click on to receive instructions regarding the assignment.  The tasks were very thorough and if completed would leave a student  with a lot of information about the job seeking process as well as college admissions interviewing.  The site was designed for students with an IEP but would be helpful for any student.

 

4.  To view Technology in the Workplace click here:  http://www.lifestreamcenter.net/DrB/Lessons/techwork/index.htm

"Technology in the Workplace" helps students explore how technology has impacted the work force, their own future, and the skills needed to be successful in the future job market.  Students use what they learn from the lesson to create a brochure for other students.  The site does not include lots of graphics like some of the others I looked at, but the content was very thorough.  The resources section had links to lots of great websites for students to explore careers.

 

5.  To view On My Road click here:  http://imet.csus.edu/imet4/disbell/webquest/introduction.htm

The purpose of this site is to help students explore their personality type and it's effect on career choices.  It includes a version of one of my favorite inventories--The Myres Briggs Type Indicator.  After taking the test and reviewing lists of possible careers that are suggested for the student's type, the student writes a one page paper about three careers of interest.  Through this webquest, students learn about careers that reflect their personality.  The site is easy to navigate, has nice graphics and would be easy to complete in two 40 minute periods.

 

Homework #6: BLOGS, October 29, 2007

Please click here to view my blog Knight's Kareer Korner at Blogspot.com: http://lafranceestates.blogspot.com/

 

 

HOMEWORK #7:  PODCASTS   NOVEMBER 4, 2007

 

1.  Podcasts @ Petersons (Petersons.com/podcasts)

This AUDIO podcast was about 6 minutes long.  The subject of the podcast was changes in the SAT I Reasoning test.  It was about two years old and much of the information was outdated (i.e. info about upcoming test dates).  The podcast was in a question and answer format--with an unnamed SAT expert answering high school student's questions.  I assume that the podcast was staged and someone at Peterson's wrote the questions and had actors ask the questions.  I chose this podcast because I was hoping to find a podcast on the SAT to recommend to students.  I don't think I would suggest this site to students because while most of the info is helpful, much of it is clearly dated.

 

2.  Monster Podcasts (media.monster.com)

This AUDIO podcast was about 10 minutes long.  The subject of the podcast was Your Image and Interviews.  Monster.com had an exhaustive list of career related podcasts..everything from current job market outlooks, resume writing skills, job interview skills, climbing the corporate ladder to bringing your dog to work!!  The format of the podcast was an interview by Thad Peterson with Image Consulting Expert Michelle Sterling.  The interview had los of great tip about dress, etiquette, how to answer tough questions and so on.  I chose this podcast because I wanted to find a podcast to recommend to non-college-bound kids to help them with interview skills.  I wouldn't recommend this podcast to students because it was too lengthy for this type of student.  In addition, it was clearly geared for an older audience.  It was fun to see the expanse of subjects available--I will return to this site to look for other topics.

 

3.  Mansfield University Podcasts (podcast.mansfield.edu)

This AUIO podcast was about 17 minutes long.  The title of the podcast was "Freshman Show 06 - Episode 1".  It was a conversation between two freshman students, Natasha Gonzalves and Ashley Lewis, about their transition to college.  They discussed their first days on campus and their impressions of classes, campus, other students, etc.  I chose this podcast because I am looking for material to present to students who think they could not be successful in college.  A conversation between two average students who are successfully making the transition to college life would be very encouraging to the tentative college-goer! The podcast took about 10 minutes to download which would be a drawback if I wanted to present this to a group of juniors or seniors at school.  I worry that students wouldn't hang around and wait for 10 minutes for a podcast to download if they were doing this on their own (we have high speed internet).  The content of the discussion was a good initiation for students heading off to college and I WOULD recommend it to students with the caution that they would need to be patient.