Issue 12

Thought for the Week
"Learning is not a spectator sport." -- Anonymous

Win $200 for Your Lesson Plan!

The Annual LACUE Lesson Plan Contest deadline has been extended to Friday, November 12th. Here's your opportunity to submit a lesson plan in the Making Connections format and win $200. Visit the LACUE website at www.lacue.org and choose "Awards and Contests" to view details. There are numerous prizes at Elementary, Middle, and High School levels. If your Making Connections lesson has never been published on the Louisiana Department of Education website, then YOU ARE ELIGIBLE!!!!!

Join us for what promises to be the best LACUE ever! Register now - online credit card registration and regular registration available at www.lacue.org Registration is only $110

Door prizes include an HP Tablet PC, Dell LCD Projector, Apple I-Pod and LOTS more!

If you have any questions please feel free to email Pam Quebodeaux or Yvette Ardoin - LACUE Conference Co-Chairs. Any questions about sessions please contact Sheryl Abshire - LACUE Program Chair. If you have other conference questions please email lacue@pncpa.com

Mark your calendar now for December 1 - 3, 2004 and prepare to participate in a premiere technology learning experience!

Looking for interactive art you can make online?

Make interactive art. At this site you can try creating a real collage made with colored paper, photographs, magazine clippings, cardboard, string, and glue. Watch the virtual mobile change and grow as you add branches, shapes, and colors. Draw with PixelFace, an interactive portrait maker and drawing board. Use 3-d TWIRLER to design and texturize three-dimensional shapes, then see how artists create these effects without a computer. Art Zone is the place for adventures with art and activities. http://www.nga.gov/kids/zone/zone.htm

Bullets for Word

Making bulleted lists in Word is almost too easy. You don't even have to choose any menu commands. All you have to do is type * (asterisk) followed by a space. Then type in your sentence and press Enter. Word will automatically insert the default bullet for you. When you finish with your bulleted list, simply press Enter twice and Word will terminate the bulleting.

Connecting Parents and Schools Electronically

Research is now supports that parents' involvement in their children's education is greatly impacts student learning and school performance. Parent/community involvement has also been the focus of many recent school reform efforts, as reported by the National Center for Education Statistics. By establishing electronic communication between parents and schools, everyone benefits. Electronic documents save mailing costs and invite parent input via the convenience of email. Plus, publishing student handbooks, academic and activity schedules online is cost-effective and makes updating easy. Go to the National Center for Education Statistics to find ways to improve communication with parents and your school. For more, visit: http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/frss/publications/98032/8.asp

What Do I Do if I Have a Technical Problem?

The CPSB Tech Support Center has created a flowchart to let you know what to do if you are having a technical problem. Follow these steps to ensure that your computer issues are resolved as quickly as possible. If you did not receive a copy of the flowchart, you can download it at: http://teacherlink.cpsb.org/tech_help/guides/tech_contacts/Tech_Help_Handout.pdf

Understanding the Electoral Process

Ever wonder where those Electoral Votes come from and why some states have more that others? This site will give students insight on the electoral process. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6327343

Awesome Clipart for Educators

This site has Teacher & Family-Friendly FREE clipart, coloring pages, backgrounds, banners, fonts, icons, lines, skins, worksheets and wallpaper with aliens, animals, cats, creatures, dogs, education, holidays, robots, sports, toys, weather & more! Created & maintained by 16-year-old Tom Brown. http://www.awesomeclipartforeducators.com

Excel 2003 Quick Tip

Have you ever had an Excel spreadsheet with header rows that took more than one page to print? If that is the case, then it would be so much easier to see what the header rows are if you could carry them over to every printed page without manually inserting them yourself. To do this, use the following steps:

Open your Excel spreadsheet.
Go to File/Page Setup and click on the Sheet tab.
Under Print Titles, click in the Rows to repeat at top.
Then using your mouse, select the row number of the header row, which is usually Row 1. Be sure to click on the number so that it selects all headers in that row.
Click OK and print your worksheet. Your headers will appear at the top of every printed page.

SFSKids – Fun with Music

This site was created by the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). This website provides a great way for people of all ages to hear, learn, and have fun with music. Consider this site your premier web destination for learning about music -- that's why it's here! http://www.sfskids.org/templates/musicLabF.asp?pageid=15

Keep MS Word from Checking Specific Text

Just as you can use Word's spelling checker to check only selected text, you can also turn off spell checking for selected text. For example, if you're typing a block of VB code or a price list complete
with parts numbers, the spelling checker will probably go ahead and mark the entire text as misspelled.

However, you can prevent the spelling checker from checking this text altogether. Follow these steps:

Select the text you don't want Word to check.
Go to Tools | Language | Set Language.
Select the Do Not Check Spelling Or Grammar check box, and click OK.

Keep in mind that this procedure not only excludes the selected text from spell checking but also from grammar checking and AutoSummarize processes.

Use a Slide Master in PowerPoint

When you create a presentation from a Design Template, a slide master is part of this presentation. The slide master stores information about the template such as which fonts and font styles you want to use, which background design you like best, and which color scheme you prefer. If you make a formatting change or add clip art to the slide master, all other slides based on that master will update. Using slide masters is a quick and efficient way to modify the look and style of a presentation. Keep in mind that PowerPoint version 2002 and above allows you to have more than one Design Template and more than one slide master in the same presentation. To create a slide master:

Create a new PowerPoint presentation, or open one that you have already created. Make sure to select a Design Template for the presentation, otherwise a slide master will not be available.
Create a few slides in your presentation.
On the View menu, click Master, and then Slide Master.
Along the left side of your window, there will be two slides: one to represent the slide master and the other to represent the title master. Any changes you make to the slide master will be reflected on all slides in your presentation except for slides with a title slide layout. Note that the changes that you make to the title master will only be reflected on slides with a title slide layout; no other slide layouts will be affected.
Click the slide master image at the top-left of the window.
To make a change in the master title area, click once within the main title area, and then make any changes you want to the font, size, style, color, or alignment.
To make a change in the bulleted list, click once within the line that you want to change, and then make your adjustments to the font, style, color, alignment, or even the bullet.
To add a picture to the master slide, insert clip art or a digital image the way you normally do, by selecting Picture on the Insert menu. Be sure to move the picture to a location off to the side so that it will not interfere with the text on each slide. You might need to make the picture smaller so that it will not be in the way of the text.
Continue to make changes to the slide master as needed.
Click the title master slide at the top-left to make adjustments to the title master.
Click Close Master View on the Slide Master View toolbar when you are finished.
Notice that all slides based on the slide master will show the changes that you made, as well as any changes that you made to the slides with a title slide layout.

Top Ten Viruses Found on CPSB Computers

Here are the top ten viruses found on CPSB computers in the past 7 days. The stats are based on 1086 infected computers out of a total of 9398 OfficeScan clients.

The latest OfficeScan pattern as of 11-03-2004 is pattern 2.232.00. Please check your pattern by placing your cursor over the OfficeScan icon and viewing the pop-up window that appears. If your pattern is significantly different than this (A HIGHER PATTERN NUMBER IS OK), please email tech.help@cpsb.org regarding this or any other question you have regarding OfficeScan.

The information shows the name of the virus, the number of infected files found, and the percentage of the virus from the total. ALL school board employees need to ensure that their Dell, Compaq, HP, IBM or other PC classroom computers stay virus free. Go to the following link to download the district copy of OfficeScan: http://teacherlink.cpsb.org/officescan and your computer will automatically be updated daily to scan for the latest viruses. You must install the software using Internet Explorer 4.0 or later (Netscape will not work!!!!!) Please answer "Yes" to all prompts as the software installs. If you have any questions, please contact the CPSB Help Desk at tech.help@cpsb.org.

Best on the Net!! -- Visit this site for hundreds of websites for teachers! We would love to hear from you about the best educational sites you have found on the web. Please submit, via email, the sites you feel merit inclusion. Send to tech.connect@cpsb.org. Please include the URL and a short sentence about the site.

Featured Sites: (These sites were submitted by teachers in Calcasieu Parish)

THANKSGIVING QUILT:
http://www.kinderart.com/seasons/thanksquilt.shtml
Explore textures, shapes, and colors in this timely art lesson plan for Thanksgiving. Students will use different kinds of papers and/or fabrics to create a Thanksgiving quilt.

THANKSGIVING ART:
http://www.theholidayzone.com/thanks/art.html
How about making a Thanksgiving collage or a colored paper chain of gratitude? Try fruit and vegetable painting, or give away a certificate of thanks with the templates available here.

THE PILGRIMS' FIRST THANKSGIVING:
http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/the_pilgrims__first_thanksgivi.html
A Pilgrim poem and several story books provide the foundation for this primary Thanksgiving unit. Students will compare Pilgrim chores to everyday chores of students today, construct a paper Mayflower, and measure outside just how big the real Mayflower was. Find templates for Pilgrim hats as well.

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