Why do Apple products not cooperate with Flash?

Visit this site to find out why Apple products don't work with Adobe Flash.

Delicious.com

Delicious.com is a free social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. It has more than five million users and 150 million bookmarked URLs. Its collective nature makes it possible to view bookmarks added by similar-minded users. Delicious has a "hotlist" on its home page and "popular" and "recent" pages, which help to make the website a conveyor of internet memes and trends. Check it out and see what amazing things you can discover!

Moderated Online Chat Experience

Today's Meet is a unique internet communication opportunity where a teacher can create a room for an online class discussion-Almost like an internet chat room classroom! This is great for a language arts lesson on forms of communication or a social studies lesson discussion!

Blog? Twitter? Skype?

Teachers are finding new and exciting ways of integrating technology into their classrooms. Some teachers are setting up class blogs and/or Twitter accounts for their class. Each week, a student 'scribe' will have the chance to explain what is happening in class. Students benefit because they gain summary skills and can review learning objectives. Some teachers are Skyping with classes across the country and across the world as a free alternative to video chat. What will you do in your classroom?

Pete's PowerPoint Station

Ever wanted to enhance a lesson with PowerPoint presentation, but did not have time to make one? This site is your answer! It has hundreds of FREE presentations!

Helpful Tip

When helping students in the computer lab, it is best to TALK them through the steps. Students will learn better when they are actively involved in working through their problems. It is also important to tell students to "Use words, not hands" when helping other students. This will greatly reduce the amount of times you have to show a student how to do something!

Microsoft Lesson Plans

Find new ways to enhance student learning through technology! Use the search tool to find technology integrated lesson plans and how-to articles for your relevant subjects, grade levels and products. This website is supported by Microsoft Office.

Food for Thought

"If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob children of tomorrow."

Lab Question

Teacher question: "When I teach in the computer lab, my students pay more attention to their monitor screens than the instruction. What can I do to prevent this?"
Solution: Have students turn off the monitor while you teach so they are not tempted to do anything on their computers.

Locking Your Computer

Lock your computer by using the windows flag icon and the "L" key on your computer. This iwll require you to put your network password back in when you are ready to work again. This will keep other people off your comuter while you are away. You can also press [Ctrl] [Alt] [Delete] at the same time to lock your workstation for the same results.

Remember: You should never leave your computer without locking it.

Learning About Real Published Authors Online

The internet has become a great source of information about a great many children’s writers and illustrators. This website includes links to author’s personal websites and websites maintained by fans, scholars, and readers.

Technoloy Integration

Q: Is it worth the time for me to integrate technology into my classroom?

A: YES! When students are using technology as a tool or a support for communicating with others, they are in an active role rather than the passive role of recipient of information transmitted by a teacher, textbook, or broadcast. The student is actively making choices about how to generate, obtain, manipulate, or display information. Technology use allows many more students to be actively thinking about information, making choices, and executing skills than is typical in teacher-led lessons. Moreover, when technology is used as a tool to support students in performing authentic tasks, the students are in the position of defining their goals, making design decisions, and evaluating their progress.

ESL Support Online

http://iteslj.org/ This is a fabulous website for teachers of English Language Learners. It has articles, research papers, lesson plans, classroom handouts, teaching ideas and links. This would be a great website to bookmark!

Printing Sticky Notes

1. Open a Word Document and add any information you wish to include on the sticky note. *Make sure it is in an area the same size as the Post-it you want to use!
2. Print the page like you normally would.
3. Place a blank sticky note over the design on the printed page.
4. Print the entire sheet-yes with the sticky note on it-into the manual feed tray of your printer.
5. Print again. Now the design will print onto the sticky note!

Tiny URL

Are you sick and tired of trying to use long URLs in your class? Here is a way to make ANY URL a manageable size for your students to type!

1. Go to the webpage.

2. Click to select (highlight) the URL in the address window of the browser.

3. Copy it by right clicking on it or selecting [Copy] from the pull down [Edit] menu.

4. Now, go to http://tinyurl.com/.

5. Click in the provided window and paste the URL.

6. Click [Make TinyURL!]

Your TinyURL should work forever, so you can save it in your favorites and use it for years to come!

Understanding Technology Terminology

Students in all grades need exposure to technology terminology. When you are in the lab or using technology with students (even if you are not a classroom teacher!), make a point to use proper technology terms. Try replacing statements like, “Turn off the computer, the screen, and the box,” with statements like “Shut down the computer, and turn off the monitor and the CPU.”

Using the Internet to Create Poetry

Students can use this pretty neat website to create a poem of their own! Students fill in the blanks with their own words, and a personal poem is instantly created! The possibilities are endless!

Common Question about Lessons

Q: I enjoyed the integrated lesson this week, but one aspect did not work for our class. Is it okay to suggest an improvement to my CIT?

A: YES! We create the lessons, but we do not get to experience many of them in a classroom setting. We DEPEND on your feedback to make improvements! :)

Bring Gaming into the Classroom!

Meet Noodles, my Avatar! An Avatar is a digital cartoon representation of a real person. Students relate to Avatars because Avatars are the characters they become in many video and computer games. Tammy Worcester describes how to make one and how to use it in your class at this site.

Just a few examples of integration: creating stories on PowerPoint and using the Avatar as a main character, or using the Avatar as the narrator for an informative report. Bring gaming fun to the class!

KICK YouTube!

This tool offers an easy way to download (save) YouTube videos to your computer so that you can show them in your classroom - even if you aren’t connected to the Internet!

1. Go to http://www.youtube.com/

2. Locate video and play it to make sure it works

3. In the browser address (URL) window, insert the word “kick” in front of “youtube” in the URL.

4. Press [Enter]

5. The “Kick YouTube” site will load.

6. Click to select the desired format and then click the “go” button at the right side of the bar.

7. Kick YouTube will take a little time to process. When it is finished, the green “Go” button will change to a blue download button.

8. Right-click the blue download button and choose “Save link as”.

9. This will open a window that will allow you to save the video to the desired location.

10. Once the video is saved, double-click to open it. It will open and play in a media application!

It's time for a little fun... and a little review!

Want to do a Jeopardy game as an end of year/TAKS review? You can find templates and examples already done for you at this website. All you have to do is enter the information yourself!

The iPad is here!

Want to know more about the iPad? Click this link to read the fantastic article about it. Make sure to watch the video located half-way through the article!

What is a SMART Board?

Combine the simplicity of a whiteboard and the power of a computer with a SMART Board interactive whiteboard. SMART Board interactive whiteboards bring interactivity to any environment – and most of all, they make it easy.

Watch the video

Happy April Fool's Day!

Happy April Fool's!!! This link details the April Fools jokes that Google has done over the years (You have to scroll down to see this year's). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google...Enjoy!