Heidi Waterhouse Tool #7- Sqworl

Sqworl is what inspired me to start my Wordpress website. When I first started teaching, my mentor had a Sqworl account going. She is no longer with us as of last Summer when she passed away or else I would be able to share the site with all of you. Sqworl is a much more younger student friendly version of a Wordpress type website. My mentor teacher's Sqworl is what inspired me to get more technology involved with students. She had everything from youtube videos for brain breaks to all subject games. Sqworl can be used in many different ways in classrooms. What seems to be most successful is when it is used as a dashboard for students to pick their links from. Sqworl can be put on laptops as the desktop so it makes it easier for students to use.

Features:
-can easily bookmark websites
-can be organized into content area for easy access
-all ages can use it

This is how I scored Sqworl on my rubric:
*Student Engagement: I have used my mentor teacher's sqworl with my students and it was by far a 4. The students love to be able to access their favorite games from one central location. It helps that during library classes they learn how to navigate these kinds of things.

*Accessibility/Relevance: This would also be a 4. Again, like some of the other tools I have explored, you can use this for any subject or all of them. It is a great place to organize all your sites into one central location. I personally have chose a lot of this style of tool to explore because of the lack of technology around for my students to use, it helps to have a central location for them to go to.

*Capabilities/Customization- This would be a 2 because there is not really anything for the students to build off of. They can choose the game of choice and then it takes them to a whole different website. The actual Sqworl website does not have a lot of customization for the students to be able to do. The teachers have more options when they are putting it together.

*Safety: This would be a 2. It is only a 2 because this is more of an organizing bookmarks for student use kind of tool. There is no need for the students to have their own individual logins, because all the information is right there for them to access with no logins.

*Thinking Skills: For this part I would give Sqworl a 2/3. It is a lot more thinking for the teacher in regards to how to set it up to work best for your class. It is not higher order thinking for the students because it is right there ready for students to use.


This is the rubric I used: Rubric