Issue 15, Volume 6 January 12, 2006     Thought for the Week Nothing is ever achieved without enthusiasm. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson   Martin Luther King, Jr. Day... January 16th! Celebrate the legendary leader’s birthday with a series of illuminating images from this site. The photographs will put viewers face to face with King as father, husband, activist, and role model for young people of yesterday and today. The words “I have a dream…” have become synonymous with Martin Luther King, Jr.; and, the occasion at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. was the largest civil rights rally in the history of the United States. More than 200,000 people filled the grassy area around the monument on that August day in 1963. For more on MLK visit: http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/mlk/news/index.asp?article=home&topic=0.   For more teaching resources about American hero, Martin Luther King visit these websites: Education World http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson248.shtml The life of American hero Martin Luther King Jr. offers many teaching opportunities. Education World presents cross-curricular and cross-grade lessons teachers can use to share King's life and legacy with students. Martin Luther King Resources http://www.gigglepotz.com/mlk1.htm Find lots of MLK activities, links, and resources for the classroom.  Included at this site is an Internet African American History Challenge featuring an interactive quiz. Web English Teacher http://www.webenglishteacher.com/king.html This site provides lots of English cross-curricular ideas and activities in connection with Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement http://www.wmich.edu/teachmlk/resources_webb.htm Martin Luther King’s own writings are an excellent resource for learning and teaching about the civil rights movement: Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (1958); Why We Can't Wait (1964), Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (1967). (Why We Can’t Wait includes the text of King’s essential "Letter from a Birmingham Jail.") The Teachers Corner http://www.theteacherscorner.net/seasonal/martin-luther-king-day/index.htm There are lots of printables, as well as lesson plans, thematic units, and additional links for Martin Luther King and more. There's even a section for Black History Month. Teach-nology http://www.teach-nology.com/themes/holidays/mlk/ An excellent web portal for educators, Teach-nology provides lots of lesson plans, organizers, rubrics, worksheets, and lots more.  This particular link is to a thematic section on Martin Luther King.  African American History and More http://712educators.about.com/od/mlkingjr/ This site is loaded with biography information, speeches, letters, and more to help teach about Martin Luther King, Jr. Annie's Home Page http://www.annieshomepage.com/mlkday.html Always the third Monday in January, Martin Luther King Day is celebrated.  This site provides a myriad of information, classroom activities and ideas for lower level learners. South Dakota Department of Education http://doe.sd.gov/octa/ddn4learning/themeunits/King/LessonPlans.htm Find K-2 lessons to teach about the life and work of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Students can listen to a brief biography, view photographs of the March on Washington, hear a portion of King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and discuss what King's words mean to them. This site has links to even more lesson plans for this event. Ben Franklin's (1706-2006) The Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary http://www.benfranklin300.com This web site was established to mark the 300-year anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth (1706-2006). The Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary invites you to join in the national celebration honoring the life and enduring legacy of one of our most remarkable founding fathers.  Additional Sites: The World of Benjamin Franklin Features a timeline, family tree and sections on his career as scientist, inventor, statesman, printer, philosopher, musician and economist. http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/ Benjamin Franklin @ PBS He helped found a new nation and defined the American character. Writer, inventor, diplomat, businessman, musician, scientist, humorist, civic leader, international celebrity . . . genius. Explore the life of a remarkable man. http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/ The Electric Franklin From primary source material, narratives, activities, interactive games, streaming videos, 360° interactive panoramas, and scores of pictures -- this site has something for everyone. http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/ Ben's Guide: Benjamin Franklin Tells about Franklin's contributions as a printer, librarian, inventor, and statesman. Also includes a timeline of his life. http://bensguide.gpo.gov/benfranklin/ The Papers of Benjamin Franklin A collaborative undertaking by a team of scholars at Yale University to collect, edit, and publish the writings and papers of one of America's most remarkable founding fathers and indeed one of the most extraordinary people this nation has ever produced. http://www.yale.edu/franklinpapers/ Making Friends With Franklin Lesson 1 addresses writing; lesson 2 is science; lesson 3 is art and critical thinking. These standards-based lessons are designed for grades 3-8. http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/franklin/start.html Ben Franklin @ Awesome Clipart for Educators Features clipart, coloring pages, backgrounds, fonts, icons and lines. http://www.awesomeclipartforeducators.com/type.cfm?feature=Americana&sec=General Intel and Scholastic Schools of Distinction Award Does your school demonstrate excellence in student achievement, use of technology or teamwork? Then your school may qualify as a School of Distinction. Due to large number of requests and holidays the deadline has been extended from January 5th to January 19th, 2006, at 11:59 p.m. (EST). The application process consists of a one-time entry submission that will undergo several rounds of judging. There will be two winners selected per category - one at the elementary level and one at the secondary level. This awards program is open to Pre K-12 public, private, charter, parochial school in the United States, Department of Defense Dependents School, and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools (home schools are not eligible). Elementary level consists of schools with grade spans of Pre K-6. Middle schools that are part of an elementary school (grades Pre K-8) must enter at the elementary school level. Secondary level consists of schools with grade spans of 6-12. Junior high schools (7-8), middle schools that are part of a high school (grades 6-12), and high schools must enter at the secondary level. To learn more or to apply visit: http://www.schoolsofdistinction.com/index.php   Online Database Training Scheduled The Gale Group and World Book Training has been scheduled for January 23rd from 8:30-3:30 at the Technology Training Center (Lab A) at 600 South Shattuck Street. Participants will explore the online resources of Gale Group and World Book and learn ways to use them to support classroom implementation of the Comprehensive Curriculum. This hands-on workshop will equip participants with better and more effective search techniques.  Registration for these trainings must be completed through the Louisiana Department of Education Online Registration System at http://www.solutionwhere.com/ldoe/cw/main.asp. Click on View by Month. Locate the training session, Thomson-Gale TLTC Regional Trainings- Spring 06 (1/23/06) 10:30-3:00. Click on the time. Click on Register. Follow the directions presented on the screen to complete your registration. Repeat the above steps to register for the World Book Session for the same day from 8:30-10:30. Contact Pam Nicholson at 337.437.8366 or pam.nicholson@cpsb.org for clarification or questions. Outlook Appointments    Outlook 2003 users have some options to make appointments stand out one from another. Appointments can play different sounds so that a particular sound can be used to remind users of a particular upcoming event. To have an appointment play a sound file different from the default, use the following steps:     1. Open up the Calendar view. 2. Double-click an appointment to open. 3. When the appointment opens, click the speaker button to the right of the Reminder checkbox and pull-down. 4. When the Reminder Sound dialog box appears, ensure Play this sound is checked. 5. Click the Browse button and choose a sound you wish to play. 6. Click OK to close the dialog box. 7. Click Save and Close to save and close the appointment. Now, you can make one appointment stand out from another! Current Event Discussion Springboard TenByTen.org is an excellent source to start discussions on current events. The opening screen is a 10X10 grid of photos pulled from news sources that change every hour. Pictures that show up repeatedly are from top stories around the world. Move your mouse over a picture and you get one key word from the headline. Click the picture and it takes you to the story.  The URL: http://www.tenbyten.org. ISTE Outstanding Teacher and Outstanding Leader Awards ISTE has opened its call for nominations for the ISTE Outstanding Teacher and Outstanding Leader Awards. Affiliate representatives from around the world are encouraged to participate in this hallmark annual event by recognizing and honoring one leader and one teacher who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in implementing technology to improve education. Submission deadline is 5:00 p.m. (Pacific Time), March 31, 2006. For more information visit, http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Membership/ Affiliates/Outstanding_Teacher_and_Leader_Awards/ISTE_Outstanding_Teacher_and_Leader_Awards.htm Enhancing Your Curriculum with Web-Enabled Resources To help you use the internet to improve instruction, eSchool News has compiled a one-stop source for expert advice and key intelligence. This popular online toolkit features an extensive collection of stories and articles from the eSchool News archives that help you effectively integrate the web into your curriculum. http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/reports/enhancingcurriculum/index.cfm  Looking For a Great Way to Teach Biographies? The Biography Maker is like those homework machines we have been hearing about for many years. It is designed to help you convert facts into insights, dull and boring information into fascination and magic. It will help you do a good job, but you must provide some of the "steam" to make it work well. The Biography Maker is meant to inspire lively story telling and vivid writing which will make your readers want to know more about your subject. Biography Maker uses six steps to create a biography. Check out the website: http://www.bham.wednet.edu/bio/biomak2.htm. Place Multiple Charts On A Chart Sheet In Excel You can place more than one chart on a chart sheet. For example, let's say you have two charts on two different worksheets, and you want to put them both on a single chart sheet for comparison and printing. Follow these steps: 1. Click an empty cell, and press [F11]. 2. Change the default chart name to Two Chart Sheet. 3. Select the first chart you want to move to the chart sheet, and go to Chart | Location. 4. Select As Object In, and choose Two Chart Sheet from the drop-down list. 5. Click OK. 6. Repeat Steps 3 through 5 for the second chart you want to move. You can move as many charts as you can fit. Go to View | Sized With Window to scale the charts to the window. Viruses Have Gone Mobile In the recent years computer users have been plagued by the onslaught of spyware, viruses, or greyware, all leaking into our systems through the Internet. With technology in communications advancing ever so rapidly, we now have to defend ourselves on another front. VIRUSES HAVE GONE MOBILE. Communication technology is linking us in so many ways that it was only a matter of time before someone found the loop hole through wireless devices.  Find out more about these airborne viruses and the wireless at the following web site: http://msn.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,124044,00.asp Add A Page To The Links Bar The Links bar is located next to the Address bar in Internet Explorer, and is a convenient place to add links to a few Web pages that you use frequently. Just click the link to display the page. You can add a page to the Links bar in a variety of ways: • Drag the icon for the page from your Address bar to your Links bar. • Drag a link from a Web page to your Links bar. • Drag a link to the Links folder in your Favorites list. Notes:  If the Links bar does not appear on the toolbar, on the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Links.  You also can organize your links by dragging them to a different location on the Links bar. Library in the Sky The Library in the Sky is a database of interesting and useful educational Web sites for those involved in education. Find the information you want through the Search, User Tabs, by Department, or Materials.  Currently there are 1255 educational Web sites listed in the Library in the Sky. Search the entire database of resource links, or narrow your search to those Web sites that will most likely be of interest to you. If you know of a great site, you can also add a site. Great user-friendly resource for teachers!! The URL:  http://www.nwrel.org/sky/ Winter Olympic Activities The Winter Olympics are just around the corner. Learn more about the Olympics and then write about it using some of Teacher Created Resources new, exciting products.  Celebrate the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games with fun and thought-provoking activities. Teacher Created Materials Site has lots of free activities, lessons, and more.    The URL: http://www.teachercreated.com/free/free.shtml With 17 days of competitions from February 10th to the 26th and 84 titles at stake, the 2006 Winter Olympics are about to start.  More information about the Us Olympic Team can be found at its official web site: http://www.usolympicteam.com/. OfficeScan Pattern Update The latest OfficeScan pattern as of 1-12-2006 is pattern 3.153.00.  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 lower from this one (A HIGHER PATTERN NUMBER IS OK), Please email tech.help@cpsb.org regarding this or any other question you have regarding OfficeScan. 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) Number Bingo Worksheets http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/Number_Bingo.pdf Review numerals with your kindergarten students, or addition and subtraction with your third grade students using these printable Bingo worksheets. Daily Math Wall Activities http://www.mohonasen.org/kinder/L_Doulides/Math%20Wall%20Activities.htm  Why not incorporate some of these creative math activities into your daily routines to help firmly establish calendar, place value, numbers, and coin skills. Daily Math Graph Questions http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/numbers13.html If your students are beginning to learn graphing skills, you can benefit from these numerous questions to help you and your class graph yes/no answers to the question of the day. An official publication of the CPSB Technology Department If you have any questions or comments please e-mail the Tech Connect. 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