Inside this issue:

Are You a 21st Century Teacher? 1

The Numbers Tell the Story 1

Just for Fun Websites 2

Top Documentary Films For Your Class 2

GroupWise Tip 2

Web Tools 2

SMARTBoard 3

Using Photographs in your Lessons 4

Create Your Own Avatar 4

The Networked Teacher 4

Web 2.0 Infographic 5

Help for your Wiki 5

Type With Me 5

Mac Stickies 6

Canastota Central School’s Technology Newsletter

Well Connected! VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3

MARCH /APRIL 2011

“The attitude is the aptitude. In this era of disposable knowledge, it‟s your attitude toward learning that determines how smart you are.”

~Jason Ohler, author

The Numbers Tell The Story

The iPod has 7,500 times the storage

of IBM's largest computer in 1976.

2,000 - the approximate number of

songs you can fit on an 8g iPod

22 - the percentage of children ages 6-

9 who have a cell phone. (Ages 10-14

- 60%, and ages 15-18 - 84%)

294 Billion - the number of emails

sent every day

21 Signs That You’re a 21st Century Teacher

1. You require your students to use a variety of sources for their research projects...and they cite blogs, podcasts, and interviews they've conducted.

2. Your students work on collaborative projects...with students in Australia.

3. You give weekly class updates to parents...via your blog.

4. Your students participate in class...by tweeting their questions and com-

ments.

5. You ask your students to study and create reports on a controversial

topic...and you grade their video submissions.

6. You prepare substitutes with detailed directions...via Podcasts.

7. You ask your students to do a character/historical person study...and they

create mock social media profiles of their character.

8. Your students create a study guide...working together on a group wiki.

9. You share lesson plans with your teacher friends...from around the globe.

10. Your classroom budget is tight...but it doesn't matter because there are

so many free resources on the web you can use.

11. You realize the importance of professional development...and you read

blogs, join online communities, and tweet for self development.

12. You take your students on a field trip to the Great Wall of China...and

never leave your classroom.

13. Your students share stories of their summer vacation...through an online

photo repository.

14. You visit the Louvre with your students...and don't spend a dime.

15. You teach your students not to be bullies...or cyberbullies.

16. You make your students turn in their cell phones before class

starts...because you plan on using them in class.

17. You require your students to summarize a recent chapter...and submit it

to you via a text message.

18. You showcase your students' original work...to the world.

19. You have your morning coffee...while checking your RSS feed.

20. You’re reading this.

21. You tweet about this article, blog about it, or email it to someone else.

From www.simpleK.com

WELL CONNECTED! Page 2

GroupWise Tip: Setting up a group A group is a collection of email addresses created so that a message can be sent to those in the group without having to select them one at a time each time you send an email. 1. Open your Address Book and click the personal address

book where you want to add this group. 2. On the Toolbar, click on the small triangle to the right of

New and select Group. 3. Type a name for the group and any descriptive comments

to help you remember exactly what the list is for. 4. Click on Members and select the contacts you want to add

by clicking on their name and then on “To.” (Note you can also choose to CC or BC contacts within a group).

5. Once all of the names are listed, click OK. 6. Click on OK to save the group. 7. The next time you want to send an email to everyone in the

group simply choose the group name.

Just for fun… http://lendle.me/ - Borrow and lend books for your Kindle http://calibre-ebook.com/ - Manage your ebook library. http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/ - A quick look at today’s news http://www.sandiegozoo.org/videos/ - Watch the elephants, bears and apes at the San Diego Zoo. http://www.gizmag.com/ - The absolute newest in technology inventions.

ClipCube is a tiny clipboard history tool under

development for Windows: it sits in the system

tray, recording copied text for later use. Allows

viewing saved items and re-copying them to the

clipboard.

http://clipcube.wikispaces.com/

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/

„TDF offers full documentaries and information on docu-mentaries by quoting reviews from trusted sources. Docu-

mentaries are classified in categories and you can easily find

what you are looking for among the more than 1500 docu-mentaries available.

Searching for text within a webpage?

Depress the keys "Ctrl" and "F". This will bring up the Find function in your web browser. Type in the

word or phrase you’re looking for and each instance will be highlighted.

“Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple

came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how

you're led, and how much you get it.”

~ Steve Jobs, Apple Computers

Page 3 VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3

Tips for a SMARTer classroom!

http://www.kidsknowit.com/

A free children’s

learning network - per-

fect for integration with

your SMARTBoard.

Page

The

Did you know you can use the circle and tap feature to easily

erase a large area on a SMART

Board?

Pick up the eraser, encircle the

area you want to erase, and then

tap in the middle of the area.

To Set your Default Text:

On the toolbar you should see an icon that looks like an “A” with a red underline, this is the font tool.

Press this button and you will see 6 font types. The first one is the default font. Make sure this one is

pressed down. Then go to your properties button. From here you can change the line style and text

style. It‟s best to make the font at least size 28. Finally, press the save button on the bottom and you

will be all set!

http://www.storyit.com/wgames/wgames.htm

Word Magnets - Vocabulary - Word Blocks -

Sight Words - Much more!

http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/

flash_pie.htm

Online poetry creator-great for

use with your SMARTBoard!

If you haven‟t checked

out Tequipment‟s Educa-

tor Resource Center

lately plan to do so soon.

You‟ll find many ready-made SMART-

Board lessons for all curriculum areas

(including some from our own staff

members!)

http://community.teqsmart.org/

download.php

Use the Screen Shade to hide content on the screen until you‟re ready to reveal it.

Press the SMART Board icon in the system

tray, and select Other SMART Tools >

Screen Shade. The entire screen is then cov-ered by a shade. Handles at the top, bottom

and both sides of the shade allow you to

drag it to selectively reveal the screen con-tents from any direction. To remove the

Screen Shade, press the Close button in its

upper-right corner.

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 Page 4

http://www.voki.com/lesson_plans.php Voki is a free service that allows you to create

personalized speaking avatars and use them on

your blog, profile, and in email messages.

Find, organize and share educational videos:

http://www.m86vusafe.com

Ideas for using photographs in your classroom:

What are they doing?

Find the differences.

What might they be saying?

Describe a busy street scene.

What would you smell? Hear?

Writing sentences-what is the picture about?

Prediction-What will happen next?

Have students interview and take pictures of each

other.

Create “A Day in the Life of a Student” project

Demonstrate vocabulary and emotions.

Challenge students to write down as many nouns,

verbs and adjectives they see in the picture.

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 Page 5

An infographic that marries Web 2.0 tools with Bloom's Digital Taxonomy.

http://typewith.me/

This awesome tool lets users collaborate in real

time in a chat-like format. One user creates a

document and sends the URL to others, and each users‟ text appears in a different color. Users can

import and export text files, websites, and docu-

ments for collaborative learning, brainstorming, and editing. Students can collaborate with one

another on projects or group study sessions, and

revisions are saved. A time slider function lets users and teachers view the chat progression.

Already have a wiki? Here‟s a blog with great tips:

http://blog.wikispaces.com/2011/02/tips-and-tricks-

formatting-a-page.html

http://www.weblist.me/

Create a list you can easily share with your friends using

a single URL. A list can include anything from a collec-

tion of web pages, images, documents, videos and more.

Page 6 VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3

Stickies - APPLE’S answer to POST-IT-NOTES

There are many ways to use Stickies:

If you‟re reading a document and want to make a note about a paragraph, highlight the paragraph and press

CMD+Shift+Y to create a note. If you have a blank Stickies open you can click-n-drag files into the note area.

After you type a Stickies, go to Stickies in the menu bar and click, Quit Stickies or just click Quit from the Stickies

icon in the dock to save your note. If you want to type a new Stickies, click File > New Note. You can drag the lower right hand corner of the note to change its size. If you double-click the title bar at the top of the note it will minimize to a „Strip‟ with a title

containing part of the first sentence. You can drag the Strip to wherever you want it to appear on the Stickies screen and it will

be there the next time you open the application. Double clicking a Strip will open it.

You can make your Stickie translucent by pressing CMD+Option+T. Repeat this to make it opaque again. A translucent note

will enable you to view information underneath. (Keep in mind that Keyboard Shortcuts mean different things in different appli-

cations - in word processing application like TextEdit, CMD+Option+T will bring up the Special Characters pop-up window.)

Pressing CMD+Option+F (Floating Window) will cause the Stickies to appear in front of all other windows no matter which

application you are in. This works great when you use Exposé & Spaces, or if the Stickies contains in-

structions for performing something in another application.

When typing a new Stickies, you can click Color and change the color of your note. When you have

completed your note, go to the top left corner and click the small circle. This will give you an alert ques-

tioning if you want to Save the note. If you decide to save it, give it a title, designate the location to be

saved and select the type format you want to use. The background color is just for looks while typing.

Once saved, the color will be lost. If your text is in color, the color will also be lost if the note is saved in

Plain Text. If saved in RTF or RTFD you will be able to see the color of the text. You can save a Stickie as a PDF, but it will not

be in color.

When creating a new Stickies (before typing anything) if you change your mind, just click the top left corner of the note and it

will disappear.

Placing the cursor anywhere on the note will reveal the day, date, and time it was created and/or modified. You can arrange

your Stickies by Color, Content, Date and/or Location on Screen. To accomplish this, go to Stickies > Window > Arrange By

and select your choice. Arranging by „Location on Screen‟ leaves the Stickies where you last put them.

You can use Stickies in Address Book. If you have a „Note‟ in the lower portion of one of your Address Cards you can highlight

the note and drag it into a Stickies. Once you have copied the Note to a Stickies, if you decide you want to delete it, highlight it

and press Delete. Want to bring it back? Press CMD+Z.

Stickies can also be useful in Mail. If you are typing a Stickies note and want to reference a recent e-mail you received just click

-n-drag the e-mail into your Stickies note. If the e-mail has a click-able link, it too will transfer.

Stickies is also capable of accepting a URL. Just drag the URL icon (left end of URL address) to the Stickies note. The link will

remain click-able. When you are finished typing a Stickies, press CMD+M to minimize the note transforming it to a ‟Strip‟. Re-

peat CMD+M to open it.

If you use Stickies frequently, think about backing them up in case anything goes wrong. Currently, all your Stickies are stored

in one file (Stickies Database) located in User Folder > Library. Just create a copy of this file somewhere else to make a backup.

There’s an

App For That!

Dropbox is an easy way to sync and share your

files online and across computers.