tips and tricks websites for your next research project:

Hello there! In this blog post I will include information and links as to where to find some helpful, informative websites to assist you in your next research or scholarly project. There are an enormous amount of websites out there, all claiming to provide the best possible help. It can be tough to navigate through them all, and that is why I have compiled a list of my favorites that I have found to be great. I, as a college senior, have been required to do my fair share of research on a plethora of varying topics. The following websites are helpful in all academic areas and can make your next research experience simpler and of greater quality! They are set up to assist students, and all inquiring and interested minds, in straight forward, helpful ways. Some of these sites may be more specific to North Dakota State University students, while other may be catered to a more general population of researchers.

NDSU's Online Library

• This website serves as an excellent doorway to finding scholarly resources. The online library offers reliable websites, articles, databases, journals and more. These are education-based and full of information on almost every topic you could think of! They cater to college students specifically.

Google Scholar

• This is a specific search engine that only provides you with academically reliable articles and website links. It is SO easy to use and is as straight forward as the general Google search engine. However, with Google Scholar you will never have to wonder if the sources you are finding are reliable and well-researched. THEY ALL ARE on with this easy search tool!

Google Drive

• Good Drive makes collaborating and communicating with your peers and classmates so simple and efficient. This portal includes the ability to share documents, slides, charts, and so much more. It is an online drive that saves everything automatically while you work or write. By allowing you the ability to share your works, they can be worked on by numerous people at a time. It is, in my opinion, the best way to collaborate with a partner or group. This is especially true in college when things are as hectic and crazy as ever and it seems almost impossible for your research group to meet up outside of class time! If you can relate, this is a tool you NEED to try.

Grammarly

• This website is my absolute FAVORITE tool to use when improving my research writings. It checks your documents for all typographical errors and corrects them as needed. It also gives suggestions on how things like sentence structure and word phrasing could be improved. Everyone can benefit from this tool when writing a professional or less formal research paper or document. It is easy to use and extremely helpful.

*Below I have linked each of these websites to buttons you may use to explore them! Please enjoy and good luck to you in your research process. All of these resources have helped me tremendously and I know they can help you as well!

Value and uses of flexible seating:

One of the newer developments in elementary education trends is flexible seating. This allows students some choice and control in the matter of where they sit, how long they sit, and what apparatus they use. There are a plethora of beneficial reasonings for this development in academic settings. They are beneficial for cognitive, social emotional, and physical developmental aspects. I will be discussing a few of the main reasons that I identify with, and why I will be using flexible seating in my general education classroom in the future.

Choice

• With flexible seating, there are a variety of options that students can choose to use. These can vary from ball chairs, to standing desks, to swivel top seats. By allowing students to choose this and mixing up the setups of these options, they start to feel more empowered and in control of this aspect of their learning experience. When students feel that they have a sense of control in their day, they begin to apply themselves further and feel more comfortable with challenging themselves and putting their best efforts forward. This choice encourages problem solving, communication with others, and higher-order thinking.

Community and Collaboration

• Flexible seating eliminates the issue of each student having one area that they are territorial over. They may have a bin of their own belongings, but taking the seating issue out of the equation helps them to focus on just their academics, and not their personal space and territory. This encourages students to share and be willing to adjust and be flexible in all aspects of the school day. This teaches good lessons on how to work together in the classroom setting. Flexible seating also allows for easy communication and collaboration with other students. This way, students get to work with many different members of their class and constantly speak with new and different people. They can quickly and simply get into pairs, create small groups to work in, or discuss a topic with several others that are directly surrounding them. It makes this part of teaching and learning much easier and is a more conducive environment for scaffolding and academic creations to occur.

Sensory Advantages

• The different options included in flexible seating can often help with mental distractions but providing sensory aspects to focus their energy on. They can be engaging with these different sense and materials while still focusing on learning and listening to their teachers or other classmates. This input is especially helpful to students who suffer form attention disorder that hinder their learning. They can touch, feel, smell, and see sensory helpers that assist them in focusing and be attentive.

Comfort

• Children can often become uncomfortable in the classroom, just sitting in their dest, because of a plethora of reasons. If students are not comfortable, they are easily distracted, and therefore not productive or attentive. Allowing children to have a choice in this matter is important. By letting students choose what they know is going to be the best fit for them, they can pay greater attention to what their focus should be on. Also, since they have their choice in comfort, there should be no excuses in the way of comfortability or attention. They are encourages to stay calm and ready to learn because of this change in seating.

visual examples of flexible seating: