I was crushed but not defeated. My technology coordinator urged me to count it as a learning experience. That deletion turned out to be the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I started letting my creative juices flow. I added favorite links and cool social studies sites to the mix.
Student reads e-mail from mentor.
I tried to schedule my students to use the facility each week. Since I only had one computer in my room, I purchased an Averkey to connect my PC to a larger screen in-room television. We did guided Internet searches, explored virtual museums, completed scavenger hunts, researched term papers, saved images for multimedia presentations, made spread sheets from online almanac information, followed archaeologists on digs, listened to presidential speeches, heard voices from the past, charted hurricanes, traced the routes of explorers, graphed climate changes, and watched streams of refugees leave war-torn countries. I tried to provide safe links that could be used in class and lab settings, but that would also peak individual discovery learning on home and public library computers. I added an extra-credit section of social studies related projects linked to sites that provided hints, materials, directions, and information that students might need to complete the activities on their own.