'General Information'
As some of you know, I had to be evaluated this year for my recertification. I chose to do a Podcasting project at Farmington Elementary. I thought that a good “wrap up” to my project would be to create a podcast about it! I think that overall the project was a huge success! For those of you thinking about using podcasting in the classroom, this is a little snippet into what can be done!
Download:Posted by E=2>phaney at TeacherTube.com.
May 16th, 2007
While searching for the solution to a recent Entourage problem, I found this fascinating blog especially for Entourage users. While it appears that the creator uses Entourage 2004, many of the tips worked for me, too. (We use Entourage X!) Here is a link to the blog. Refer to it if you are experiencing Entourage problems – I bet your solution will be there somewhere!
December 6th, 2006
I read this about 6 months ago and had forgotten about it until I was doing some research on an unrelated matter. According to their website, Microsoft is no longer supporting, updating, providing Explorer for the Mac. As you have heard me say numerous times, Explorer was not your best option for using the Internet anyway. Read what they have to say on their website about this.
Internet Explorer 5 for Mac
October 31st, 2006
Know how those annoying citizenship grades have to be changed to dashes in the elementary grade book??? Remember how you had to click, click, click, click, click each grade for every student in every class and how long that took??? Well, thanks to Vicki Murtha, one of the other CTTs, who discovered (and shared!) a quick way to do this! I went over this during the Quarter 2 setup training, but I have received a request to post it here since they couldn’t remember it! Here are the steps for making your life easier:
1. Add an assignment – you HAVE to have at least one assignment.
2. Once the assignment has been added, put your mouse on the “E” in the citizenship column beside the first student’s name.
3. Hold down the apple key on the computer keyboard as you click that “E” to change it to the dash. By holding down the apple key, you change the whole row of “E”s at the same time!
Easy, sneezy to do!! Good luck!
October 30th, 2006
Here are the worthy websites for these two weeks. It has been hard with the schedule changes, etc. to get them all done and posted each week. Hopefully, this will change once we get our feet on the ground with PowerSchool, etc. Hope you find something you can use!
Week 10 Websites.doc
Week 10 Websites.pdf
October 30th, 2006
There are just 2 sites I found for you for this posting. What with all of the end of term grading issues, I didn’t have much time for browsing. I will try to have a better selection for you at the end of this week! I hope you had a restful and peaceful Fall Break! Have a great week!
Week 8 Websites.doc
Week 8 Websites.pdf
October 16th, 2006
I found some very good sites for you this past week – I know I am past due getting these up, but you’ll have to forgive my sickness and PowerGrade (these two are not related!). Also, back by request is two versions of the websites page. The first is the Word document with clickable links and the second is the pdf file. I hope you find something you can use. (Lots of great preschool and lower elementary sites this week!)
Week 7 Websites.doc
Week 7 Websites.pdf
September 27th, 2006
I have had one or two people question me about the purpose of the blog and “why don’t you just send information in email like you used to?”. I have a several responses to this that I hope will help everyone understand this a bit better. So here are my reasons for blogging:
1. Information in a blog is saved and archived in one location. You never have to search for that email you KNOW was sent but can’t remember when or where you put it. (Maybe it is just me that does that, but I think not!) Plus, I never have to type the information again. I know right where it is!
2. Many of you will respond to an email I send with an additional question or suggestion pertaining to the information I included. A blog allows for you to submit your question/suggestion in the comments. Why is this beneficial? That then makes your question/suggestion available to others who may have been thinking or wondering about the same thing. (I believe they call that collaboration!)
3. I believe that as teachers we have to find a way to work smarter, not harder! (Do I hear an “amen” in the crowd??) I think blogs can help with sharing of all kinds of information. Each of us brings our own expertise to the table. Let’s share that with each other and help each other out as much as we can!
4. IT IS EASY! I am all about doing things in the easiest way I can. While it doesn’t seem like much to you to email me a question about something and have me answer it, multiply that times as many teachers as I have in 5 buildings! I want to help you in whatever way I can, and this is the easiest way I know right now to do that.
5. A blog is available 24/7 from ANY computer with Internet access. Your email will not always be available. In fact, your laptop could crash at any time – with your email – and cause you to lose everything you had on it. (I don’t wish that on any of you, but we do have to face the facts!) The information on the blog is always there!
I know that I have not had the opportunity to show you about using the blog or making comments or how to know that information has been posted, but I will do that in the very near future. I just didn’t want to overload you with everything else you have to do with getting school started and all of the PowerSchool/PowerGrade issues! Continue to send comments, criticisms, cries of outrage or whatever else you have to share! I hope this helps you understand more about blogging! Thanks for your time!
September 18th, 2006
I found A LOT of great sites this week. There is a great online project for grades 4 and up! I hope you find at least one of them you can use!
Week 6 Websites.pdf
September 15th, 2006
I know there has been a lot of confusion about saving and backing up your grades. The first thing to remember is to always work ONLINE only! Several problems have been found when teachers were working offline. The next is the back up. If your grade book is set to back up once a day, it will make a BACK UP EVERY TIME you quit your grade book. I would strongly recommend this! To check this, open your grade book and open the Preferences. Click on the General tab and make sure that it says to do a back up every 1 days (this is about halfway down the screen). This is the default and should say that unless you changed it. You can always make your own back up whenever you want by going to the File menu and choosing Make Back up while a class is open. I strongly recommend you make sure that you are working online only and making a back up frequently (aka daily!).
September 12th, 2006
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