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The posts found here come from personal blogs of people associated with technology at Lincoln Public Schools. The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Lincoln Public Schools or the Computing Services department.
Note: The following list contains items that are being imported from external sources. Blue backgrounds indicate items found on the LPS network. Orange items are from selected news feeds from outside the LPS network. Clicking on these items may take you away from this site to sites which we do not control.
I Love This New Website...
It has something for everyone, a great source for "problem of the day". I used it this morning. We did "count to 20". It had a number of objects between 10 and 20, sets of ten were in ten frames, so it was easy to count tens and ones. My students took turns coming up and typing in the answer.
You can do one "activity" (20 problems) each day for free. It does have a subscription option that is unlimited and tracks progress.
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: January 23, 2009, 2:31 AM.
100s Chart Designs
The website that is linked to the title of this post has directions for making designs on a 100s chart. It is a great activity for number recognition, or you could give the directions for +1, -1, +10, -10, etc.
I think I will go to the craft store and buy some "jewels" with a flat side so that they can make the designs with those. It seems like a really fun way to practice a lot of math skills.
I found something really fun on Apples4theTeacher
It is so cool! Some of the kids can play on the computer! This is a link to a 100s chart coloring page! You can choose different colors, touch the crayon to the number on the hundreds chart and click on it to make it change color.
Too much fun with a 100s chart!
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: January 22, 2009, 3:10 AM.
New Math Workstation - K-1
This is an activity I put in one of my math workstations for kindergarten. It could be adapted for older children.
First - we used wooden cubes to make dice for the numbers we need to practice. Ours have 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.
Next - I gave students a "full" ten frame - ones we filled up using bingo markers as a class. (I had them laminated). They also got an empty ten frame (also laminated).
To play - Students roll their die, complete the number using their full ten frame, making X's with a dry erase marker in the empty ten frame to show the number.
Erase and start again!
This really has helped my students begin to understand place value. They look at the "1" in teen numbers as "one ten" and they call the second numeral "___" ones in the empty ten frame.
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: January 13, 2009, 6:34 PM.
Math Worksheet Generator
This site is a great resource - if you need additional math practice sheets, you can make them here. There are a lot of choices, so you can make it exactly like you want it.
There are plenty of options available free of charge, but there is also a subscription side that has many more options. I haven't tried it yet, I think you could make just about any kind of practice sheet you would ever want.
Give it a try!
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: January 11, 2009, 10:07 PM.
Counting Coins
This site is a great resource for an independent math center.
Just make up little bags of assorted coins. Challenge your students to count the coins on their own, then check their work by typing in the number of each coin they have on this webpage. It will total each type of coin and then give a grand total of all of the coins at the bottom.
I emptied out my change purse and tried it just for fun! I think kids will love it!
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: January 09, 2009, 3:22 AM.
FYI: My Last Post Here
My employer has risen to the occasion and installed a blogging engine I am happy about, so I have moved my reblogging-thinking outloud-webpage-type-thingy over there. I’d be as pleased as a pig in slop if you would follow me over there!
Source: Lrng.
Date: December 05, 2008, 11:38 AM.
Psssst... over here!
Source: LPS Te(a)chnology: LPS Te(a)chnology
Date: December 04, 2008, 3:54 PM.
Onion Store Take your office on the road and say goodbye to your...
Take your office on the road and say goodbye to your “cable car” with this car power strip from Route 56. Plug in up to eight electronic devices and appliances at once! Scan, print, and send with two USB ports, an ethernet port, even a 25-pin parallel connector for you computer’s monitor. Mounts easily to most standard rearview mirrors.
No, the products aren’t real. But the empty boxes are. Wrap your otherwise forgettable gift in thiss gift box, and watch as the recipient struggles to feign enthusiasm for a multi-device power strip that mounts on the rearview mirror. Or take joy as their faces fall upon realizing there is no such thing—just a crappy bric-a-brac inside you waited until the last moment to buy.
Source: Lrng.
Date: December 02, 2008, 9:22 AM.
‘A handy guide for the new media novice’, via 10,000...
‘A handy guide for the new media novice’, via 10,000 words.
Would make a great hand-out at Web 2.0 intro trainings.
Source: Lrng.
Date: December 02, 2008, 9:08 AM.
"By exploring new interests, tinkering, and “messing around” with new forms of media, they acquire..."
“By exploring new interests, tinkering, and “messing around” with new forms of media, they acquire various forms of technical and media literacy. … By its immediacy and breadth of information, the digital world lowers barriers to self-directed learning.”
- Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project (pdf)
Source: Lrng.
Date: November 24, 2008, 8:23 AM.
Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project
Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project:
Findings of three years of research on kids’ informal learning with digital media
Source: Lrng.
Date: November 24, 2008, 8:19 AM.
Your computer’s Great-Great-Great Grandfather. Click to...
Your computer’s Great-Great-Great Grandfather. Click to see a HUGE version.
The Tabulator: 1917 | Shorpy Photo Archive
Source: Lrng.
Date: November 18, 2008, 8:37 AM.
SketchUp 7
Haven’t grabbed it yet, but it looks like Google dropped a new version of SketchUp today with many new features. More and more I am hearing of school districts and colleges using SketchUp in coursework, so this will be a big deal.
Source: Lrng.
Date: November 17, 2008, 9:24 AM.
snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages
snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages:
It appears that Snopes has started a site redesign for the first time that I can recall. I believe their layout and design has been pretty static since the 1990’s. It isn’t applied to all of the pages yet, but most. A nice updated look for a site that should be used far more than it actually is!
Source: Lrng.
Date: November 11, 2008, 9:52 AM.
Obama's Social Media Advantage, Act II - ReadWriteWeb
Obama's Social Media Advantage, Act II - ReadWriteWeb:
Obama has begun crowdsourcing the political agenda. And when it comes right down to it, isn’t that what democracy is supposed to be about anyway? A government of the people, by the people, for the…
Source: Lrng.
Date: November 07, 2008, 11:07 AM.
Social media in Government class?
Is it time to begin teaching how to use social media tools in our HS Government courses?
Two days after election day, president-Elect Obama has announced Change.gov, a website focused on the transition he is overseeing. While promises like the following (found on the Obama campaign website’s Ethics page) are easy to make during a election year, less than 48 hours after the election he is beginning to show signs of making good on some of these with the announcement today:
Sunlight Before Signing: Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.
Hold 21st Century Fireside Chats: Obama will bring democracy and policy directly to the people by requiring his Cabinet officials to have periodic national broadband townhall meetings to discuss issues before their agencies.
Make White House Communications Public: Obama will amend executive orders to ensure that communications about regulatory policymaking between persons outside government and all White House staff are disclosed to the public.
Conduct Regulatory Agency Business in Public: Obama will require his appointees who lead the executive branch departments and rulemaking agencies to conduct the significant business of the agency in public, so that any citizen can see in person or watch on the Internet these debates.
I’m not alone in looking at the previous work done by the company that ran Obama’s campaign website and is now building the Change.gov site and wondering what might be to come:
- Will the “Sunshine Period” commenting on a revamped WhiteHouse.gov site include Facebook and/or MySpace widgets?
- Will official White House Communications be released simultaneously on YouTube and in the White House’s “Online Press Room” (ala BrightCove)?
- Will I be able to create a “profile” that follows me from one governmental agency website to another?
- Will a technology like DIGG’s comment engine be used to let the cream rise to the top in a transparent and open public commenting system? (One of the biggest problems with public commenting is useless and hateful attacks.)
- Would comments be allowed from Foreign entities?
- Will the IRS have their own online tax filing tools that rival those from Quicken and HR BLock?
- Will the White House have a twitter feed like the Obama campaign did during the campaign?
- Will the government set up official SMS networks like the ones already in use in Isreal and other countries?
The mind reels at the possibilities!
These may sound idealistic, but I think we may be surprised how much the Obama White House works to extend the White House (and by default all other branches of Federal government) into the daily lives of America’s youth. Taking the discussions and extending the playing field into their sphere of influence in a transparent and authentic way has the potential to involve a new generation in ways that preceding generations never had the opportunity to be involved.
I’m not doe eyed here. Politics is a business, and getting your message out to “Generation We” in the place that they live is not only a proper Socratic mission for a Democracy, it also doesn’t hurt when the next election cycle comes along. It will be interesting to see if an Obama White House can build the ultimate social media machine and NOT use it to their own advantage come election time again.
All the same, if our goal as Educators is to produce well rounded citizens, and the government begins to adopt many of these social media technologies previously believed to be “for the kids” and left out of classrooms… won’t it be our RESPONSIBILITY to teach the future citizens how to use them?
Source: Lrng.
Date: November 06, 2008, 4:34 PM.
it's special somehow
it’s special somehow
when someone’s post is quickly deletedbut you catch a quick glimpse
like a shooting star, so to speak.
Source: Lrng.
Date: November 06, 2008, 8:11 AM.
Web 2.0 Storytelling: Emergence of a New Genre
Web 2.0 Storytelling: Emergence of a New Genre:
A story has a beginning, a middle, and a cleanly wrapped-up ending. Whether told around a campfire, read from a book, or played on a DVD, a story goes from point A to B and then C. It follows a…
Source: Lrng.
Date: November 04, 2008, 3:57 PM.
"…Today is not a day to talk about education. It’s a day to reap its harvest. Here’s hoping..."
“
…Today is not a day to talk about education. It’s a day to reap its harvest.
Here’s hoping that our young people have been well-served by the adults entrusted with their education, so that they appreciate the ideals of our democracy and the sloppy miracle of this day…
”- Robert Pondisco ‘Today is Not the Day’
Source: Lrng.
Date: November 04, 2008, 9:57 AM.
You've got your chocolate in my peanut butter!
You've got your chocolate in my peanut butter!:
Two of my favorite technologies just converged. You can now get RSS feeds of your Google Alerts.
I may be the lamest person you know, because this just makes my week!
Source: Lrng.
Date: October 31, 2008, 4:14 PM.
Hat tip to Scott Mcleod for introducing me to this movement. As...
Hat tip to Scott Mcleod for introducing me to this movement.
As a person in my mid-30’s and a child of the baby boomer generation, I have never really felt like a part of any one societal group. I think now I have identified one that I want to be a part of.
Source: Lrng.
Date: October 31, 2008, 12:19 PM.
"despite appearances, our classrooms have been fundamentally changed. There is literally something in..."
“despite appearances, our classrooms have been fundamentally changed. There is literally something in the air, and it is nothing less than the digital artifacts of over one billion people and computers networked together collectively producing over 2,000 gigabytes of new information per second. While most of our classrooms were built under the assumption that information is scarce and hard to find, nearly the entire body of human knowledge now flows through and around these rooms in one form or another, ready to be accessed by laptops, cellphones, and iPods. Classrooms built to re-enforce the top-down authoritative knowledge of the teacher are now enveloped by a cloud of ubiquitous digital information where knowledge is made, not found, and authority is continuously negotiated through discussion and participation. In short, they tell us that our walls no longer mark the boundaries of our classrooms.” Dr. Michael Wesch
-
Source: Lrng.
Date: October 21, 2008, 1:59 PM.
Reading This Will Change Your Brain
Reading This Will Change Your Brain:
A leading neuroscientist says processing digital information can rewire your circuits. But is it evolution?
By Jeneen Interlandi of NEWSWEEK Published Oct 14, 2008
Source: Lrng.
Date: October 15, 2008, 10:51 AM.
Creative Commons starts their annual awareness campaign with a...
Creative Commons starts their annual awareness campaign with a nice new video about their purpose. If you aren’t aware of Creative Commons as an Educator, do yourself and your students a favor by stopping whatever you might be doing and go learn about it. I would say that it is one of the most fundamentally important things you should be aware of and utilizing in today’s internet culture.
Source: Lrng.
Date: October 15, 2008, 9:27 AM.
"Paul Lazarsfeld, a political scientist from the 1940s argued that [political] campaigns are..."
“Paul Lazarsfeld, a political scientist from the 1940s argued that [political] campaigns are essentially over before they have begun. The outcomes are structural — they are decided by events and party identification and satisfaction with the incumbent and other predictable indicators. Campaigns, he said, are “like the chemical bath which develops a photograph. The chemical influence is necessary to bring out the picture, but only the picture pre-structured on the plate can come out.””
- Undecided voters? - Los Angeles Times
Source: Lrng.
Date: October 14, 2008, 1:46 PM.
Not a technology question... an education question...
Source: LPS Te(a)chnology: LPS Te(a)chnology
Date: May 27, 2008, 2:52 PM.
I'm still a learner!!!
Source: LPS Te(a)chnology: LPS Te(a)chnology
Date: April 23, 2008, 3:24 PM.
Hi, I'm Tim and I'm a MS Office addict...
I wasn't sure I had the strength to do it... I mean, I'd tried it before, on a couple of occasions. The first time, I installed NeoOffice and launched it... once. Then someone sent me a Word Document as an email attachment. My mail client knows what I like... it's an enabler. It launched Word immediately. I didn't think anything about it... just slid back into old habits.
Then came Google Docs... I thought, for sure, I had found my way back out. A PowerPoint from a presentation I attended at NECC served as my next foil. Off the wagon I rolled...
I thought I was hopeless... destined to a life chained to endless, expensive upgrades. I began to just accept my lot in life as another poor sap who would never escape the grips of proprietary office suite. I began to accept the talk of "industry standard." I was an Office user without a way out.
Something happened...
I can't really point to the moment at which I realized that I don't need to live this way anymore... can't identify the specific epiphany that provided the motivation to give it another shot. Perhaps it was a colleague of mine who tirelessly preaches the gospel of open source... perhaps it was just some hidden, deeper meaning in life that needed time to blossom... whatever it was, I picked myself up, looked myself in the mirror, recited an Oprah-like "You Can Do It!" and tried again.
This time, the only way was to go "cold turkey." I re-installed Neo, and then did the unthinkable. I un-installed Office... yep, you read that right...
So, here I am today... breathing deeper... smiling wider... for some reason the sun seems to shine a bit brighter. I've even been able to keep up my productivity. The road ahead is long... I'll keep you posted.
Source: LPS Te(a)chnology: LPS Te(a)chnology
Date: February 27, 2008, 4:36 PM.
I Heart Google!
You... or your students, rather... CAN have that job. Google is conducting "a competition where we invite K-12 students to play around with our homepage logo and see what they come up with." You can find the details here.
A bit of exploring will yield lesson plans, activity ideas, and correlations to national standards in all areas including technology, art, language arts, social studies... you name it!
Spread the word!! I can't wait to see what comes out of this contest!
Source: LPS Te(a)chnology: LPS Te(a)chnology
Date: February 14, 2008, 3:34 PM.
Education, technology, and the 2008 campaign
Source: LPS Te(a)chnology: LPS Te(a)chnology
Date: February 13, 2008, 8:36 PM.
FETC Review
I had the opportunity to attend FETC in Orlando, Florida for the first time this year (yeah, yeah... a couple of weeks ago). Perhaps I'm just getting better at picking my sessions and strategically mapping my route through the vendor floor, but for reasons even beyond the gorgeous weather, this conference rates among the best I've attended.
It never fails that I return to Lincoln from an experience like this re-invigorated, inspired, and, to be honest, incredibly overwhelmed with the challenge we as educators face. Here's a run-down of what I saw, heard, and experienced while there:
1) Top 3 "terms" used in the program: 21st Century Skills, podcasting, Web 2.0...
2) Jeff Corwin delivered the opening keynote. He didn't wow the audience with hilarious video clips of elephants chasing him or monkey's touching him inappropriately, but he did have some great thoughts. How 'bout this one: "We now live in the age of extinction." He also discussed the importance of information sharing and the value of awareness...
3) The new site from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, called Route 21, is filled with potential...
4) "Skills matter more than content (content becomes the context and skills become the standards)"... chew on that for a minute... swallow... now try spoon full of this: "we need to get back to the basics... we just need to redefine what those basics are." mmmm, delicious...
5) "many students feel that what they are learning academically is fundamentally irrelevant to their lives in the 21st century"
There's a lot more I could share... but that seems like a good one to end on...
Source: LPS Te(a)chnology: LPS Te(a)chnology
Date: February 12, 2008, 10:43 PM.
Becoming a "techie" teacher... now in bite-sized morsels
Source: LPS Te(a)chnology: LPS Te(a)chnology
Date: February 12, 2008, 9:55 PM.
You found me!
Here I am... my new blog home on the new "standard" for LPS blogging. If you were a reader before, this is the new place for all of my deep, profound, and inspiring thoughts about technology here at Lincoln Public Schools. If you're new... welcome!
Source: LPS Te(a)chnology: LPS Te(a)chnology
Date: February 12, 2008, 9:33 PM.
Jan Brett Videos
This time of year it seems inevitable that I will end up searching for something new on Jan Brett's website.
This year, I think I hit the jackpot!!!
She has a great video section. I downloaded the two videos for the Gingerbread Baby. One video shows how to draw a gingerbread baby, and in the other, she talks about the story and her illustrations and ends up telling the story.
I think my favorite part was how she explained the illustrations in the side bars of the page. She talked about how that allows her to add extra details to the story and to do some foreshadowing. She spent some time talking about giving her characters voice and making them seem real to the reader.
The videos are extremely well made. There are several to choose from. Most of them focus on how to draw the illustrations in her books. Her conversation while drawing is an added bonus!
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: December 05, 2007, 11:40 AM.
PowerPoint Flash Cards
What do you use flash cards for??? For just about any skill that you would use flash cards to support learning, you can create PowerPoint flash cards to do the same thing.
PowerPoint slide shows are a great way to provide independent practice on a number of skills. With simple animations and voice recording, your slide show can support learning in your classroom when you don't have time to get to everything that needs to be done.
We will have a workshop at Everett on Wednesday, Nov. 21st at 9am. Please come with your ideas and be prepared to make a slide show!
For kindergarten, I am working on slide shows for; alphafriends chant, numbers 1-20, sight words, word families, fluency sentence practice...
See you there!
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: November 15, 2007, 12:39 PM.
Formatting Palette
Just a tip for today...When you're working in Power Point or Word or Excel, work with the "Formatting Palette" open.
On the top bar, go to View>Formatting Palette and this will open it for you. A little window will open on the side and will assist with you with all kinds of formatting tasks - font, font size, underline, bullets, spacing...you name it, you'll probably find it there.
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: November 14, 2007, 5:51 PM.
Desktop Web “links”
I have been asked to share the directions for creating a link to a website with a matching icon on your desktop. I thought I would go ahead and put the directions in a blog so that you can access them whenever you want.
1. Open your web browser to the site you want to create a link to.
Move your mouse over the little icon that shows up to the left of the address that is in the address bar in your browser. When you get to the right spot, the mouse will turn to a hand and there will be a little direction box that says “drag and drop this icon to make a link to this page”. – Do that!
2. Find a picture – any picture….and get it on your desktop. Either click & drag it or do (Shift+apple+4) to “capture” a photo you would like. You can use your own photos - if the site you want is to be used specifically with a student, you may want to use their picture.
3. Open up your picture on your desktop. Copy it – Edit>Copy
4. Highlight your web “link” (click on it once) – Get Info – File>Get Info.
When that window is open, highlight the existing icon (very small, to the left of the web address toward the top – click on it once).
5. Paste your picture – Edit>Paste
It should magically change before your eyes!
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: November 12, 2007, 8:32 PM.
Computer Assisted Listening Center!
Visit Robert Munsch's website! Most of his books are available in mp3 format. You can load them into your iTunes. Then, on the bottom left hand corner of iTunes, there is a box for album artwork - if it is open, it will say "drag album artwork here". I find a photo of each book or take one myself and drag it into the box so that kids will know which book to follow along with. This is a very easy way to set up a listening center. I love it!
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: October 02, 2007, 10:33 PM.
The Role of the Computer in Literacy Workstations
I've basically been using my computer as a listening station during my workstations time. It works out nicely. I can use headphones, and I have found some great books that are free online. The first one is Stellaluna + 11 other titles available on the same site. Very nicely done.
Next, I am sharing the site that I have used for a long time that tells some of the aesop fables that are part of our kindergarten curriculum. For these, I checked out the corresponding books from the library and had them available at the workstation as well.
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: September 28, 2007, 12:50 AM.
Velcro Picture Paper
Check this out! This product was mentioned in a workshop I'm attending this morning - it fits right in with my favorite things collection! Here's the description:
Attach picture paper without tape or adhesive. Picture paper features VELCRO Brand hook-and-loop closure on one side of the sheet and photo quality paper on the other side. Hangs on cubicle walls, bulletin boards, carpets, and trade show booths. Adheres to most fabric surfaces. Great for personal photos, decorations or signs in the home, office and school.How cool is that? I need to get some!
You can buy it at amazon.com - the page is linked to the title of this post.
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: July 27, 2007, 4:22 PM.
"Awesome..."
This is the single-word quote that I am known for in the article featuring Adobe Software use at LPS as published on Adobe's website! I guess it would be another one of my favorite things - my little "blurb" is near the bottom of the article! I like to use "fill-in-the-blank" forms for students and for a lot of my teacher work. Adobe Professional allows you to create forms that you or your students can fill in with necessary information. The article is linked to the title of this post.
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: May 31, 2007, 5:41 PM.
Do A Dot Art Markers
I love using these "bingo" markers in guided reading groups.
When we work on word families, we make a book with many of the words in the family (-at family: bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, rat...).
Sometimes it's hard to get kindergartners to isolate the onset sound of these words - we call it the "leader" - just like we have a leader in our line, words have leaders too! We use the dot markers to put a dot under the leader of the word so that kids will pay more attention to the sound that starts each word.
It has worked quite well, and the kids love it! Do-A-Dot even has their own website - linked to the title of this post - check it out!
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: March 30, 2007, 1:55 PM.
Fun New Website!
I love the little 5 minute "filler" programs that are on the Disney channel! I'm a big fan of Daniel Cook - Daniel goes on little field trips to learn about all sorts of things, it's a great show for young children.
Anyway, Daniel now has his own interactive website, and it is awesome! I learned about it in a class I took last night, and I'm so glad I did!
Click on the title of this post to go to Daniel's site!
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: March 29, 2007, 10:52 PM.
Mr. Alligator
I love to use this alligator "snapper" (from Safari Ltd.) to teach greater than and less than! Jack Hartmann has a song - Mr. Alligator Can Chomp on his CD - Movin' 2 Math. Here are the lyrics:
Mr. Alligator can chomp, he can swim and he can stomp, he's a real smart alligator...he chomps at numbers that are greater!
Once we get a couple of numbers up, Mr. Alligator looks them over and then decides which one he will "chomp"! The kids make alligator mouths with their hands open in the direction that they think Mr. Alligator should chomp. It's a lot of fun!
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: March 27, 2007, 9:10 PM.
American Sign Language Font
I think that finger spelling is a great way to teach letter sounds. It is a way to make an auditory concept visual and kinesthetic. I have had a lot of success using this to teach kids to use letter sounds in their beginning reading and writing.
The title of this post is linked to a University of Oregon site that lists many different sources where you can download free fingerspelling fonts. The one I use is the Gallaudet font.
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: March 27, 2007, 9:03 PM.
More Favorite Things
Avery® Inkjet Clean Edge Business Cards #8371, Matte Finish, 2" x 3 1/2", White, Pack Of 200 (Item # 422371) - Office Depot
These Avery Business Cards are great. You can print sight words on them, math facts, whatever you want. Avery has templates on their website that you can download to your computer and just use them to set up the cards so that they print correctly. The cards are perforated and come apart very easily after they are printed.
These cards are also the perfect size to fit in the business card protectors that I blogged about a couple of weeks ago.
The title of this post is linked to avery.com where you can find a lot of resources to use with their products - the word "template" in the text is linked to the specific Avery template for business cards
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: March 27, 2007, 3:22 PM.
More Favorite Things
Firefly 20 GB External Hard Drive
Today's favorite thing is very serious. Having an external drive for back up is critical! Trust me, I have suffered a recent loss! This is something I feel silly about because there is more than enough space for me to have stored every file I have to this drive.
This Firefly is listed at Amazon for $149.99 - (the page is linked to this post). If you shop around, I'm sure you can find a better price, and you certainly don't have to have this particular storage solution, but make sure that you have something that you can rely on. Don't be caught without one!
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: March 20, 2007, 6:29 PM.
More Favorite Things
PDF Lab
District computers have this available in the applications folder, but if you don't have it, here's how to get it...
Open your Universal Locker > Teacher Info. > Software > OSX > ("P" folder) > PDF Lab.
This is one of those tools that I often take for granted. If I suddenly lost it, I wouldn't know what to do!
Here's how it works - you open up the window, and you can drag .pdf files into the window. From there, you can "stitch" separate files together to create one document with multiple pages (this is a big bonus - you can then send them to print center for 2-sided copies). OR - you can open a document with multiple pages and select only the pages you want to have included in the new file you will "create". That way, you don't have to print pages you don't want or need.
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: March 20, 2007, 5:31 PM.
More Favorite Things
Are you looking for a great FREE software download? Tuxpaint is a free drawing program, and my kids love it!
It has a lot of tools and fun effects that kids can use to create fantastic artwork! Tuxpaint even has great sound effects - try it, I'm sure you will enjoy it!
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: March 20, 2007, 5:23 PM.
More Favorite Things
Looking for a good way to teach kids about nouns & verbs? Here's a technology solution! Get your hands on a digital camera AND a digital video camera. Let the kids experiment with the two different cameras, guiding them to the conclusion that nouns are things you could take a still picture of - using the digital camera. Verbs are things that you would need to use the video camera for - to catch the action! Of course there are always exceptions - some words that wouldn't quite work in this scenario, but I think you get the "picture", and I think that kids will not soon forget the difference between a noun and a verb!
Oh, the title of this post is linked to the National Educational Technology Consortium's website. They have a couple of publications there that talk about wasy to use technology to teach literacy.
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: March 20, 2007, 5:06 PM.
These are a few of my favorite things...
Acrylic Box Photo Frames.
All you need is one of these clear plastic box frames and some corn meal and let the learning begin! Put the frame face down on a table and cover the bottom with a thin layer of corn meal (corn meal isn't as abrasive as sand or salt). Students can practice writing letters, numbers, sight words, anything! Put it down on top of a piece of colorful wrapping paper, OR - one of my favorite things...put it on top of the overhead projector! After the student "writes", they can check the screen to see how they've done!
The title of this post is "linked" to the Hobby Lobby website. Check their specials this week to find out if these frames are on sale, or print off a coupon to use in the store. They come in many sizes!
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: March 09, 2007, 7:28 PM.
These are a few of my favorite things...
Apple Video Adapter
Use a video adapter cable to connect the mini-VGA video output port on your iBook, eMac, or iMac G5 to any S-video or Composite enabled device.
I'm surprised I didn't think of this favorite thing sooner. I guess I could teach without it, but I know I wouldn't teach as well.If we're not careful, our teaching can be unbalanced and directed only toward auditory learners. This is the most natural mode for us to teach to. It has to be a conscious decision to include visual and kinesthetic learners in the lessons we teach. This is one tool that can help us "adapt" (pun most definitely intended) our teaching to include learners with various learning modes.
I use it ALL day, EVERY day!
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: March 07, 2007, 4:49 PM.
These are a few of my favorite things...
Linkin' Logs - My computer died earlier this week. It was quite stressful. I had backed up quite a few things, but had missed some too. Thanks to Mike, our travelling tech genius, some of the things I thought I couldn't live without were able to be recovered.
Through all of this, the one thing I didn't even give a second thought to were the bookmarks I keep. All of my bookmarks are safely and neatly organized in my Linkin' Log account.
Linkin'Logs...priceless!
Source: Technically Teaching (Lynn's Blog)
Date: March 07, 2007, 4:40 PM.
About This Page
As a bunch of geeks, we are always finding new things: new web sites, new toys, new ways to do old things, new, new, new. In an attempt to informally gather everybody's ideas and findings together, the community page aggregates our staff's postings into a single page.
Watch this page, subscribe to this page, visit the linked blogs and learn something new. If you are a computing service staffer with a source to add, just let Brian (bfitz@lps.org) know.
Sources for this page
- Beth Johnson: 3rd and 4th grade teacher
- Brian Fitzgerald: Web developer for Lincoln Public Schools.
- Joni Rouse: Early childhood educator
- Kim Zetterman: Kindergarten Teacher
- Kirk Langer: Director, LPS Computing Services
- Lynn Fuller: Elementary Teacher
- Chris Pultz, Technology Trainer
