Issue 26, Volume 10 March 4, 2010     Thought for the Week The teacher is one who makes two ideas grow where only one grew before. -- Elbert Hubbard   Upcoming Blackboard Classes Register Now: https://www.cpsb.org/techclasses BB311: Wikis in the K-12 Classroom  (This course is all online - no face-to-face meeting) Dates of Training: March 11 - March 25, 2010 (2 weeks online) Location: All Online Prerequisite: BB201 Level: Intermediate Technology Requirements: Internet Access at Home/Computer Proficient CLUs: 2 This two week online class will serve as an introduction to using wikis within the K-12 classroom. BB107: Introduction to Blackboard 9 *NEW Dates of Training: April 7, 2010 Location: Lab C Time:  3:30 - 4:30 p.m. Prerequisite: None CLUs: 1 This hands-on workshop will introduce participants to the new features, interface and navigation found in Blackboard 9. *Our district will be moving to Blackboard 9 during the Easter Break. BB310: Blogging in the K-12 Classroom (This course is all online - no face-to-face meeting) Dates of Training: April 19 - May 3, 2010 (2 weeks online) Location: All Online Prerequisite: BB201 Technology Requirements: Internet Access at Home/Computer Proficient CLUs: 2 This two week online class will serve as an introduction to using blogs within the K-12 classroom. For further information, feel free to contact Kim Leblanc (kim.leblanc@cpsb.org.)  Featured Blackboard Site The featured Blackboard site was created by Melissa Harrell, the art teacher at Western Heights Elementary.   Mrs. Harrell created the site to serve as a resource for all of her students and as well as a communication resource with parents. Visit Mrs. Harrell's site. St. Patrick's Day - March 17th Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated worldwide by those of Irish descent and increasingly by people of other ethnicities as well. Celebrations are generally themed around all things Irish and, by association, the color green. Green ribbons and shamrocks were worn in celebration of St Patrick's Day as early as the 17th century. The phrase "the wearing of the green" means to wear a shamrock on one's clothing, and it derives from the song of the same name. Irish Society of Boston organized what was the first Saint Patrick's Day Parade in the colonies on March 17, 1737. Today, Saint Patrick's Day is widely celebrated in America by Irish and non-Irish alike. Many people, regardless of ethnic background, wear green-colored clothing and items. Traditionally, those who are caught not wearing green are pinched, usually affectionately. If you are looking for ideas to celebrate the event in your classroom, you may want to try out some of the ideas below. There are tons available if you just do a search. Interactive St. Patrick's Day Wordsearch http://blackdog4kids.com/holiday/pat/word-search.html What is the Blarney Stone, and what does it have to do with being Irish? Well, legend has it that if you can kiss the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle in County Cork, Ireland, you'll walk away with the "gift of the gab". Not a bad deal... See if your students are knowledgeable in all things Irish with this interactive wordsearch for St. Pat's special day.   Teaching Ideas For St. Paddy's Day http://www.worksheetlibrary.com/teachingtips/stpatricksday.html You'll not only be wearing the green, but you'll be exploring the themes of Saint Patrick's Day and wonderful old Ireland with the teaching ideas offered here. Shamrock Caterpillars http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Social_Studies/Holidays/SSH0203.html Early elementary classes can learn how to create their own caterpillars with paper shamrocks, chenille stems, markers, scissors, and glue, following this lesson plan.   Irish Literature Scavenger Hunt http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/Lessons/2047.htm This St. Patrick's Day, introduce your high school students to a wee bit of incredible Irish literature, via this literary scavenger hunt.   Pot Of Gold Prefixes http://www.everydayteaching.com/Holiday/St.Paddy/PotOfGoldPrefixes.pdf Introduce these shamrocks to your students with a great little exercise in prefixes for St. Patrick's Day.  Free Science Tools At LearningScience.org This website offering free science resources was developed by learningscience.org, an organization dedicated to sharing the emerging tools of science education: real-time data collection, simulations, inquiry based lessons, interactive web lessons, micro-worlds, and imaging. Click on categories including Science Inquiry, Life Science, Earth and Space, The History and Nature of Science, Tools to do Science and more. Read the student and teacher comment page, and add one of your own. The URL: http://learningscience.org/index.htm Free Dynamic Math Software - GeoGebra GeoGebra is dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education that joins arithmetic, geometry, algebra and calculus. It offers multiple representations of objects in its graphics, algebra, and spreadsheet views that are all dynamically linked. While other interactive software (e.g. Cabri Geometry, Geometer's Sketchpad) focus on dynamic manipulations of geometrical objects, the idea behind GeoGebra is to connect geometric, algebraic, and numeric representations in an interactive way. You can do constructions with points, vectors, lines, conic sections as well as functions and change them dynamically afterwards. Furthermore, GeoGebra allows you to directly enter and manipulate equations and coordinates. Thus you can easily plot functions, work with sliders to investigate parameters, find symbolic derivatives, and use powerful commands like Root or Sequence. Check it out at http://www.geogebra.org/cms/. Five Ways To Enhance Instruction With Digital Narratives Over the last decade, advances in technology have made dreams of ubiquitous access to digital media a reality, both on the Web and off. From inexpensive cameras to MP3 players to cell phones to integrated Webcams, capturing, editing, and sharing digital audio and video has become push-button easy. And that, according to University of Central Florida (UCF) professors Robert Kenny and Glenda Gunter, is good news for K-12 educators. The pair offers several tips for effectively integrating these media-based digital narratives into the curriculum in an article from T.H.E. Journal at http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/01/27/5-ways-to-enhance-instruction-with-digital-narratives.aspx. More Web 2.0 Tools There are a multitude of free Web 2.0 tools that teachers are using to expand their professional knowledge and collaborate on projects. This week TechConnect continues to introduce educators to Web 2.0 tools. ScreenJelly and ScreenToaster http://www.screenjelly.com/ or http://www.screentoaster.com/ ScreenJelly and ScreenToaster record your screen activity with your voice for FREE so you can spread it instantly in any format you'd like with one click of a mouse. Use it to quickly share cool apps or software tips, report a bug, or just show stuff you like. No need to install or download anything! Teachers can use this to record short lessons or tutorials for their students, or better yet, let their students record the tutorials for each other. ScreenJelly, which comes from the team that created ScreenToaster, is touted as being the simplest to use and has a three-minute limit. ScreenToaster has a few more bells and whistles and no such limit. Quizlet http://quizlet.com This site allows you to create your own digital flashcards. Once you have made a "set" of flashcards, Quizlet gives you three ways to learn your terms. First, you familiarize yourself with the terms by simply looking through them, term, definition and all. Then Quizlet goes through your set, flashing cards and prompting you to type in the correct term. Quizlet also gives you the ability to create groups. This means that you can share your sets with everyone else in the class. This could be put to great use by, say, having everyone in the class each put in the vocabulary for one chapter. Then, with a minimal amount of effort, everyone could study. Braingle http://www.braingle.com This site has over 20,000 brain teasers, riddles, logic problems, quizzes and mind puzzles submitted and ranked by users. The large array of unique online multiplayer games will keep you entertained for hours. And, if you want to improve your brain, check out the Mentalrobics section.     Enter Your Students In A Google Design Competition Are you a K-12 educator? Register for Doodle 4 Google, a competition where students design the Google logo using a theme. The winning student gets a $15,000 college scholarship, $25,000 to the school for new computers, and a chance to have his or her design on the Google.com homepage. Check out www.google.com/doodle4google for official rules and details. Teachers must register their school by March 17, 2010, and all entries are due by March 31, 2010. Upgrade To Inspiration 9 Inspiration 9 was released this year in January with familiar but improved tools. Inspiration 9 has more symbol images that support curriculum content and a NEW Map View. With Inspiration's NEW Presentation Manager, you or your students can now transform diagrams, mind maps and outlines into polished presentations directly from the program. The tool allows students to analyze, synthesize, and present their thoughts to others in one program. Feel free to check out what’s new in Inspiration 9 at http://www.inspiration.com/inspiration9training. There are lots of examples, lesson plans, and more online at http://www.inspiration.com/inspiration.      Calcasieu Parish Schools are eligible to upgrade to version 9 at $9.90 per computer till 6/30/2010, when upgrading 5 or more at a time. The regular upgrade price is $11.00 per computer. If you are interested in this Inspiration 9 upgrade, contact our Account Specialist, Laura Gallagher, at 800-877-4292, ext. 136 with any questions or for exact quotes. 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) Graphing Topics http://www.mrsmcgowan.com/math/graphs.htm Need some ideas to create original graphs in your classroom? You'll get students hooked on graphing with these suggestions.   Roll The Dice http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/chances/index.asp Is it luck, or is it probability? Students will see how probability works with this online dice game. Once the graph is constructed displaying results, students can click to get an explanation on how it all works.   Buy It With The Little Farmer http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/java/buyit/BuyIt.html Students will practice making exact change with the Little Farmer in this math money game. They are given a price and must find the correct combination of bills and coins to add up to the total. Three levels of difficulty are included, with different price ranges.   An official publication of the CPSB Technology Department If you have any questions or comments please e-mail the Webmaster. For Technical Support:  tech.help@cpsb.org Calcasieu Parish Homepage  Technology Department  Tech Help Site  Best on the Net Tech Guides  Computer Purchasing Information  Tech Connect Archive