Issue 33, Volume 12 April 26, 2012     Thought for the Week Education is more than filling a child with facts. It starts with posing questions. -- D.T. Max   Register NOW for Upcoming Blackboard Classes! Register now at the following site: https://www.cpsb.org/techclasses/ BB101: Introduction to Using Blackboard as a Classroom Website Dates of Training: June 5, 2012 (face-to-face orientation- 9:00-10:00 a.m. Lab A) June 5-July 3, 2012 (online course) Location: Lab A Prerequisite: None Technology Requirements: Internet Access at Home CLUs: 6 The hands-on workshop (orientation session) combined with a 4-week online will guide the teacher through the creation of the Blackboard Classroom Website. Participants will learn how to customize the design of Blackboard, add documents, and utilize Blackboard tools. BB201: Utilizing Blackboard to Support Curriculum – Getting Students Involved Dates of Training: June 6, 2012 (orientation session – 9:00-10:00 a.m. - Lab A) June 6-June 26, 2012 (online course) Location: Lab A Prerequisite: BB101 or BB102 Technology Requirements: Internet Access at Home/Computer Proficient CLUs: 8 This hands-on workshop combined with a 3-week online class will guide participants through the enhancement of their current Blackboard Website to utilize with students during the upcoming school year. Participants will learn how to utilize the many tools of Blackboard to create a rich, engaging online environment for students extending instruction beyond the classroom. This class will allow students to have usernames and passwords to Blackboard for the 2012-2013 school year. BB301: Using StudyMate within Blackboard Date of Training: June 20, 2012 Time: 9:00 a.m. -11:00 a.m. Location: Lab B Prerequisite: BB101 CLUs: 2 This hands-on workshop will introduce participants to, StudyMate, an “authoring tool that lets you create 10 Flash-based activities and games using simple templates that can be published directly to Blackboard.” Participants who attend will receive a copy of the StudyMate software. BB201: Utilizing Blackboard to Support Curriculum – Getting Students Involved Dates of Training: July 6, 2012 (orientation session – 9:00-10:00 a.m. - Lab A) July 6-July 26, 2012 (online course) Location: Lab A Prerequisite: BB101 or BB102 Technology Requirements: Internet Access at Home/Computer Proficient CLUs: 8 This hands-on workshop combined with a 3-week online class will guide participants through the enhancement of their current Blackboard Website to utilize with students during the upcoming school year. Participants will learn how to utilize the many tools of Blackboard to create a rich, engaging online environment for students extending instruction beyond the classroom. This class will allow students to have usernames and passwords to Blackboard for the 2012-2013 school year. BB101: Introduction to Using Blackboard as a Classroom Website Dates of Training: July 9, 2012 (face-to-face orientation- 9:00-10:00 a.m. Lab A) July 9-August 5, 2012 (online course) Location: Lab A Prerequisite: None Technology Requirements: Internet Access at Home CLUs: 6 The hands-on workshop (orientation session) combined with a 4-week online will guide the teacher through the creation of the Blackboard Classroom Website. Participants will learn how to customize the design of Blackboard, add documents, and utilize Blackboard tools. National Teacher Day Coming Soon! Teacher Appreciation Week is a week-long celebration in the United States observed the first full week in May. Teacher Appreciation Day is the Tuesday that falls during Teacher Appreciation Week. The next National Teacher Day will be celebrated on May 8, 2012. Teacher Appreciation Week is May 7 – 11. On National Teacher Day, thousands of communities take time to honor their local educators and acknowledge the crucial role that teachers play in making sure every student receives a quality education. If you are planning a teacher event, you may want to check out the National Education Association (NEA) site for planning materials and artwork. You can even find out the history of National Teacher Day. It's coming soon, so plan now! Find out more at http://www.nea.org/grants/1359.htm. Top 5 Websites for Teachers to Use in their Classrooms The world of Web 2.0 offers tremendous opportunities for creative learning. Mark Brumley, the author of this NBC News Education Nation blog, is an educational technology leader, presenter and professional development facilitator. He shares his top five Web 2.0 tools as a fantastic way for teachers to foster interactive, media-rich projects. The great news is that most are free and don't require any software to be installed. Using free websites, students can create digital bulletin boards, interactive presentations and much more. With thousands of cool sites from which to choose, find his top five awesome sites for education: http://www.educationnation.com/index.cfm?objectid=9085A0C6-4EB1-11E1-B607000C296BA163  Transferring Made Easy! OK...so you just got a new computer. How do you get all your stuff from the old computer to the new? Did you know you could transfer files from one PC to another PC using an external drive? All you have to do is to connect the external hard drive via USB port to the old computer. The hard drive appears as another drive letter, just as a CD drive comes up as the E: or F: drive. Copy all files and folders you want on the new computer onto the hard drive using Windows Explorer. Once all files and folders are on the hard drive, disconnect it from the old computer and connect to the new computer. The external hard drive will most likely be automatically recognized by the new computer. If not, use Windows Explorer again to copy the files and folders from the external hard drive and paste them into the desired location on the new computer. The external hard drive may now be used as a back-up device by copying data onto the drive from the new computer at regular intervals. 10 Word 2007 Features We Can't Live Without Word 2007 is more than just an upgrade to Word 2003; it is a paradigm shift in word processing. The most obvious shift is the introduction of the Word Ribbon, which extends to a variety of features designed to make Word users more productive. Read all about the ten Word 2007 features you can't live without. The URL: http://www.microsystems.com/resources/wordtips/wordtip044.php Around the World with Google Earth! Whether you’re a classroom teacher or home educating family, you can collaborate with and connect to the world using Google tools. In fact, there are a number of ways to go globetrotting right from your laptop with Google Earth. Try some of these out! Showcase: http://www.google.com/earth/explore/showcase/ From discovering shipwrecks in the ocean to zooming into 3D cities around the world, you can explore an expansive library of tours, videos, and imagery that have been created by Google Earth and supporting partners. Classroom Resources: http://sitescontent.google.com/google-earth-for-educators/classroom-resources Google Earth can help you bring a world of information alive for your students. It can be used with all grade levels, and the possibilities are endless with your imagination! Students can use Google Earth to explore topics like the progress of human civilization, the growth of cities, the impact of civilization on the natural environment, and the impact of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. You can use Google Earth demos to get students excited about geography beyond the static map, or use different Google Earth layers to study transportation, demographics, economics, and in specific local or exotic contexts. Google Lit Trips: http://www.googlelittrips.org/ Google Lit Trips are free downloadable files that mark the journeys of characters from famous literature on the surface of Google Earth. At each location along the journey there are placemarks with pop-up windows containing a variety of resources including relevant media, thought provoking discussion starters, and links to supplementary information about “real world” references made in that particular portion of the story. Heroes of Google Earth: http://www.google.com/earth/explore/showcase/changetheworld.html  Google Earth heroes salutes these individuals and shares these wonderful stories in the hopes that they will inspire even more initiatives to help make the world a better place. These are only a few Google tools; there's a whole lot more. Be sure to check them out! 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) The Microscope Imaging Station http://www.exploratorium.edu/imaging_station/index.php  From San Francisco's famous Exploratorium, try an inside journey into the microscope. Click on the full story for any of the entries at this site to learn more, with online videos, facts and student activities. It’s quite fascinating!   Shelebrate Poetry Month! http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/harperchildrensImages/Printable/Shel_Poetry_Download_lores.pdf  April is National Poetry Month, so we must include that most celebrated of children's poets, Shel Silverstein. Make some shape poetry, use the word tiles to create poems, complete a rebus or word lib and much more with this guide and student handouts.   From Rags to Riches http://www.thirteen.org/finance/games/ragstoriches.html  Students are given a scenario where they will open their own t-shirt design business, while they try to stay afloat with sales and profits in this finance and small business challenge. There are also a couple of other finance scenarios available at this site.   An official publication of the CPSB Technology Department For Technical Support:  help.cpsb.org Calcasieu Parish Homepage  Technology Department  Tech Help Site  Best on the Net Tech Guides  Computer Purchasing Information  Tech Connect Archive