Issue 5, Volume 10 September 17, 2009     Thought for the Week The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another. -- Marva Collins   Only Two Weeks Left to Register For TNT11 - October 3rd! A professional development bargain...only $25.00! This conference is geared to classroom teachers, school administrators, Title I program coordinators, curriculum coordinators, library media specialists, and others with an interest in educational technology. We need YOU to submit a TNT presentation, share your successes using technology….please visit this web link: http://www.cpsb.org/tnt/proposal.asp  Saturday, October 3, 2009 8:00am - 3:00pm Calcasieu Parish Technology Training Center and Reynaud Middle School 600 Shattuck St., Lake Charles, Louisiana Teaching aNd Technology11 Institute Sponsored by: Calcasieu Parish School System Technology Department Calcasieu Association of Educators Region V LACUE Region V TLTC Visit the web site: www.cpsb.org/tnt to register, view sessions, vendor information, and submit a presentation proposal. Highlights of the conference will be: • Hands-on technology workshops • Vendor exhibits & demonstrations • Door prizes—A computer will be given away and lots more! Conference cost: $25.00 (Lunch is included) Registration is ONLY accepted via online submission Make checks payable to: Region V LACUE Mail checks to: TNT Conference CPSB Technology Training Center 600 S. Shattuck St. Lake Charles, LA 70601 Questions: 337.217.4120, Ext.1030 Mark your calendar now for October 3, 2009 from 8 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. for TNT11 and prepare to participate in a premiere technology learning experience. Where Does The Money Go? George was first spotted in Bremerton, Washington. He attended an arts festival in Seattle, made his way to a coffee shop in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and was last seen in Salt Lake City. This particular George is a 1995-series one-dollar bill, and his biography is made possible by the Where's George? Web site, which has thousands of people tracking their money as it circulates through the economy. Do you ever wonder where that paper money in your pocket has been, or where it will go next? This is the place to find out. This site can be used in the classroom and students can track the movement on money. It is great for grades 3-12. The URL: http://www.wheresgeorge.com/   Creating a SmartArt Graphic Of the applications in Office 2007, those that incorporate SmartArt are Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007 and Outlook 2007. To create a SmartArt graphic, simply open one of these applications, click the Insert tab and then the SmartArt icon in the Illustrations group. When the Choose a SmartArt Graphic dialog appears, choose the type of graphic from the category list down the left of the dialog and then the actual graphic to create. If you’re unsure how a graphic should be used, click the graphic to see its name and a description for how it can be used. The SmartArt layouts range from lists and organization charts to step-by-step processes. If you intend to include pictures in your diagram you’ll find that some shapes (several in the List category, for example) have special placeholders for pictures. These not only make it easy to add pictures but also ensure that they look good, too. In the Process category, you will find diagrams that show the steps in a sequential process and some that provide a format for displaying two opposing ideas. The hierarchy group contains organization charts and table hierarchies. When you select a shape, you’re not committed to using that shape, and you can also change the layout later on without losing your work.  Cyberpredator Information - Get The Facts Right! A growing number of people are promoting Internet Safety Education in effort to keep youngsters safe from Internet sex offenders, but be cautious about some of the statistics that you may find from lectures, pamphlets, videos and web sites. Not all of the data accurately reflects what researchers have learned about cyberpredator crimes. For the real stats and myths vs. realities on child predators, download a copy of Internet Safety For Teens: Getting it Right. This fact sheet, created by Dr. David Finkelhor at the Crimes Against Children Research Center, is packed with helpful clarifying information for your next presentation. The URL: http://www.unh.edu/ccrc/internet-crimes/Internet%20Factsheet_portrait%20version_2-6-08_khf.pdf Flipchart Fundamentals (Step 4 in a series of 6) For the past three weeks, we have begun covering the fundamentals of building effective flipcharts using ActivInspire. The first three steps involved using proven learning strategies, maximizing student participation and with experience comes confidence. The fourth step is “to take advantage of what you have.” The new and improved resource library features more than 15,000 teaching resources including images, backgrounds, lessons, sounds, shapes, lines, grids, annotations, and flash activities...all searchable by keyword. It also contains lesson-building templates for creating whole-group assessment pages including voting buttons, question page layouts and backgrounds. Before spending hours looking for resources elsewhere, have a look in the resource library first! There are also thousands of pre-made flipcharts, weblinks and resource packs ready for download in the Resource Section on Promethean Planet. Planet offers teachers a place to upload their flipchart lessons and share them with others around the country. Search for ones you want and download them to use with your students. Once you download the lesson, it's yours to modify, add to, and use as you wish! Be sure to log into Promethean Planet and check out the Teacher Feature section of Promethean Planet for great examples of lessons and videos showing award winning teachers in action. If you don’t already have an account for Promethean Planet, you need to create one. The account is free and allows access to flipcharts, resources, ACTIVtips, and more. The URL: http://www.prometheanplanet.com  Use Bing’s Preview Feature One of the biggest downsides of investigating the results of a search operation is clicking a link only to discover that the site doesn’t contain the information you are looking for. To help alleviate unnecessary clicking, Bing has a preview feature that gives you an idea of what the site has to offer. Just move your cursor to the right of a search result and hover over the orange bullet. When you do, a preview window appears that contains the first few sentences from the site’s home page. The preview boxes also can contain Deep Links, which are essentially links found on the main page that lead to content buried deeper in the site. Check it out at http://www.bing.com/.  Math Playground This is a fun math website that targets students in grades 2-8. It includes the following links: Math Games to let you practice your skills with fun and challenging games Word Problems where students will learn how to solve multistep word problems with the challenging activities on this page Many activities contain videos that explain the problem solving process step by step. Logic Puzzles includes games that will help students sharpen their critical thinking and problem solving skills. These skills are an essential part of mathematics and an important part of learning in general. Math Videos are a great way for students to practice math skills. The URL: http://www.mathplayground.com/index.html  NEA Foundation's Student Achievement Grants The National Education Association (NEA) Foundation is accepting application for Student Achievement Grants. The purpose of these grants is to support programs that advance academic achievement for students in public K-12 and higher education schools. Projects may be in any subject area and should improve students learning skills as well as their achievement. Projects that result in success for low-income and minority students through advanced placement or other challenging curricula are encouraged. U.S. public preK-12 and higher education instructors may apply through the online application. Members of the NEA will receive preference. The grant amount is $5,000. The next deadline for applications is Oct. 15, 2009. All U.S. public school teachers of preK-12 and public school support professionals are eligible to apply. For more information, visit http://www.neafoundation.org/pages/educators/grant-programs/grant-application/student-achievement-grants.  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 Cycles Of Corn, A Web Trek http://www.everydayteaching.com/Treks/Early/CyclesofCornWebTrek.pdf  This Web Trek for harvest time or fall learning focuses not only on the cycles of the corn plant itself, but, through story, the generations of a family who have grown up farming corn. The Web Trek is geared to early elementary students in grades 2-3; an answer key and some great extension activities are provided at the following site: http://www.everydayteaching.com/Treks/Early/CyclesofCornAnswerKey.pdf.   Autumn Hangman http://www.quia.com/hm/1726.html  It's a simple game, but still good learning fun: students will get hints and then click on the letters to find common fall vocabulary in this online learning game.   Changing Colors http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/fall/stand.swf  Watch the seasonal changes happen right before your eyes in this time-lapse photography, focusing on a copse of deciduous trees as their leaves change color from September through November.   An official publication of the CPSB Technology Department If you have any questions or comments please e-mail the Webmaster. 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