For those of you that went to elementary schools in the 60's, here is a gem of a site. I had a social studies teacher tell me about it. Remember those black and white instructional 16 mm films you watched? Well, they are now available online. These are great for discussions with our middle schoolers today. And, they might just make you smile (or laugh). It did for me.
Here's the site, and, I am including one of the videos that teach about table manners. The videos on the site can be embedded into your website or blog, just as I did here. The Coronet film series is one of the the most popular series of educational videos back in its day. http://www.archive.org/details/coronet_instructional_videos Enjoy, and thanks, John W, for the link!

What is ‘flu? - Explania

I guess I'm on a roll with Google tools lately. It just seems like there is always something new to try. But here are some of the old tips and tricks that you either didn't know or forgot about....

To begin with, go to Google.com.

You can do several things in the search box besides search for things on the Internet. Some examples are:

Calculator-Just type in a math problem in Google's search box and press enter. It will even follow order of operations on an example such as: 25+((35*3)/4) -2. Try it!

Conversion Tool-Just type something similar to this: 1 mile in feet, then press enter. Be sure to use the word "in" somewhere in the phrase.

Dictionary-Type the word, "Define" and then the word you want defined. Press enter.

Want to know what the weather is doing in San Diego? Type the word "weather" then the city or city and state, then press enter. You will see the weather conditions there for the next 5 days!

How about movie times when you want to hit the theater? Just type "movie" then your zip code for a list of theaters, movies, times and even movie reviews!

So, here you go. All of these tricks can be used inside that Google search box. So, next time you go to google, try something new!

I saw this video on another blog and thought it was worth sharing. It is a 12 minute video of Google Apps from a K-12 teacher's point-of-view. It includes all the tools, calendar, sites, docs, presentation, all of them.

Once a month, I head to Hutchinson to meet with others like me in the area of technology integration. Over the years, I have networked with the best educators in the area and boy, have we learned a lot together. So, I thought it would be good to share things I learned on the Monday following each meeting. (Before I forget, since there are sometimes so many things I see and hear about!)

Let's begin with a great science resource called, Science for Everyday Life, which is sponsored by 3M and Discovery Education. This site has lesson plans, interactives, and videos that are perfect for our middle school science curriculum.

http://www.scienceofeverydaylife.com/

Next, here is a site that makes it super easy to create meeting times that fit everyone's schedule. And, it's free! It's called Doodle. No registration required either. Just click on Schedule Event, fill out a few things, and email the participants. In a flash, you will see which dates and times work best for all participants. Pretty slick and very easy.

http://www.doodle.com

Looking for a math tutorial site? This one is PERFECT for teachers, and....it's free....uh-huh....:-)
You do have to register for this one, and also the students in your classes, so that the online program can keep track of student progress. Some teachers even use this site as a part of their math curriculum and lessons. It comes with a help button, which takes the student to a step-by-step tutorial to help them finish the problem. I love this site! And, parents and students can also access it from home. If parents wish, they can also set up a child account and participate with their child at home. There is a fee of $10 per month for parents/students. Educators get it free, however. Here is the link to the site and a good explanation of the program.

http://www.tenmarks.com/tmother/faq

More to come later! And, as always, if you are wanting activities or resources for any particular subject, let me know!

There's been a change on our school's Internet start page. I took the list of resources and sites and organized them by subjects and grouped them up. I tried to make it look cleaner and easier for finding what you or the students need.

If you ever need new resources or something pulled off the regular list and put into the "Quick Links" table (see video below for explanation), just let me know. There's a lot of good stuff out there (along with a lot of bad stuff too, unfortunately), and I challenge myself to find those "goldmine" sites that are so supportive of our curriculum.

It only takes a few minutes to add links and set things up. Sometimes it is easier to have a quick link set up for student or teacher use. Saves a few clicks if it is on the quick links table and you need it that week. The new page is almost ready to switch from the old one. Should be early next week! And, it is ever changing, as is technology:-)

Picture this....you are in front of your class.  Behind you is your computer's desktop for all to see and, there, popping up, is an email notification, "You've got Mail!"  At times, these pop-up windows can be annoying, and there is also a confidentiality issue at times.  Students don't need to see who sent you a message, or what the subject of that message might be. Let's see about turning off that feature on Groupwise, shall we?

Below is a tutorial with the directions for turning it off. It is a quick and easy thing to do.  Thanks go out to Kathy B, who had the steps saved in her technology folder!  You rock, Kathy!  I knew it could be turned off and this saved me time in figuring it out. 

Here are the steps from the tutorial. 

1. Open Groupwise

2. Go up to Tools, then down to Options.

3. Double-click the Security icon.

4.  On this window, click on the Notify tab.

5. Highlight your name.

6. Uncheck the Subscribe to Notifications box.

7.  Click OK. 

To turn it back on, just recheck that same box.  After all, there are times when you might want to be notified of an incoming message! 

As always, let me know if you need any assistance!

Now that our staff has USD 373 Google accounts, we can now begin to use google docs as a coolaborative tool.  For an explanation of what Google Docs is and how it works, watch the clip below.