A federated search allows you to enter one search term and it simultaneously looks in multiple databases.  After a lengthy process a committee of NISD librarians led by Library Services staff  selected a federated search tool to assist students, staff, and parents in locating information.  Powered by WebFeat, the federated search results can be sorted in several ways and can be restricted to full-text articles. 

NISD has three general federated search profiles: 

• Elementary, which searches 15 databases
• Middle School, which searches 37 databases
• Professional, which searches 50 databases
• Each high school will have its own profile coming soon

Enjoy exploring the research possibilities enhanced by the new federated search tool!

   Northside ISD provides students with many choices in research tools.  netTrekker d.i. is the newest addition.  It is a search engine which allows students to safely search more than 300,000 educator-approved websites which are each aligned to Texas standards.

The netTrekker d.i. websites are organized by elementary, middle, and high school content.  When a search term is entered, the results are organized by readability levels.  The results also include a dictionary, pictures, illustrations, audio files, and much more.  Many websites in netTrekker d.i. are translatable to Spanish and other languages.

Fourth grade writing skills can be improved by using “colorful” language.  You can help improve your child’s writing skills by using Visual Thesaurus, an interactive thesaurus and dictionary. 

Simply type in the “plain” word you’d like to make more “colorful” and enter – it’s that easy!

Plain sentence: The Spurs played a great game.  They really beat the Mavericks!

Colorful sentence: The Spurs played an extraordinary game.  They genuinely beat the Mavericks!

Continue finding “colorful” words using Visual Thesaurus until you have a unique sentence!