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Issue 1,
Volume 5
August
19, 2004
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Thought for the Week
Leadership and learning are
indispensable to each other.
-- John F. Kennedy |
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Welcome Back!
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 Welcome
back to the 2004 - 2005 school year and the fifth year of
the CPSB electronic resource -
Tech
Connect! The CPSB Technology Department had a
very busy but productive summer. We conducted training
sessions for hundreds and hundreds of school system
employees in preparation for beginning the new school year.
We are still in the process of training and improving our
relatively new online student information and financial
system, Pentamation. Jim Crawford and his staff worked
miracles last year to get everyone trained and converted
over to the new system…but we still have miles to go!
The good
news is there is a great deal of new construction and
renovation going on in our school system…..the bad news is
that usually results in network issues and disruptions!
Please be reminded we are a very small staff supporting
almost 40,000 users in the district and we are running as
fast as we can….everyone seems to need tech help at the
beginning of the school year. Sending any and all tech help
requests to
tech.help@cpsb.org will result in your issue “getting in
the line” and will assure you faster service. We routinely
expedite emergencies from the online help desk system, but
if you are not in the system, it is very difficult to get
the proper support for your technology need.
For the
third year we held the annual summer Tech Camp for students
at our Tech Center. This year the theme was
Lights, Digital Camera,
Action! Over 100 students in grades 3 - 8 enjoyed
a week of fun and intense learning with technology conducted
by our technology department staff. The CPSB and Region V
Technology Staff rolled out the red carpet for a “reel” good
time! Glitz, Glamour and Gadgets included—photo editing,
digital movie-making, a virtual museum experience, and the
students took home their very own digital camera. Check out
the student projects at
www.cpsb.org/techcamp.
As you
log on each Thursday morning you can expect to find waiting
in your email inbox the latest in "technology happenings" in
our district and current "tips and tricks" to improve your
technology skills. We hope you will join us in celebrating
the numerous successes we have in technology by emailing
tech.connect@cpsb.org
any information you would like to share with our colleagues
in the district. Please share any suggestions you have and
let us know what will help you in your specific job
assignment. We will attempt to include your suggestions in
our future issues.
We look
forward to working with you again this school year. Let us
know what we can do to help you and have a great school
year! Sheryl
Abshire,
sheryl.abshire@cpsb.org
CPSB Technology Department
“Advancing Quality Education with Technology”
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Region V Announces Fall Courses!
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 Courses
offered this fall include:
- PalmQuest is an
integration project for classroom teachers. This handheld
institute will provide classroom teachers with an overview
and working knowledge of the functionality of a Palm
handheld to support student learning.
- K-6 Intech, 7-12
Intech, Intech II Science, and Intech II Social Studies
- Graduate Credit
Courses: Project-Based Learning, Curriculum Enhancement
through Technology, and K-6 Intech (Some Scholarships
Available)
- Online Workshops
($50/course): Creating Teacher Webpages, Inspired
Learning, Early and Often: Using Technology in the Early
Childhood Classroom, Microsoft Word Projects in the
Classroom, Easy Integration of World Book Online and Gale
Group Resources into the Curriculum, Searching for Success,
WebQuests: Journeys for the Classroom , Math Maneuvers:
Improving Mathematics Instruction through Technology
Register at:
www.cpsb.org/regionv
(Click on Course Registration)
For more information contact Kim Leblanc at
kim.leblanc@cpsb.org |
Attention
Principals and Assistant Principals! Sign-up for LEADTech!
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 LEADTech
is an intense, technology-rich, leadership-driven
professional development program for Louisiana
administrators. LEADTech participants experience more
than 75 hours of instructional experiences within a variety
of formats including face-to-face seminars, web-based
courses, and hands-on technology application training
workshops. LEADTech has served over 1200 educational
leaders during the four years of the program. The
LEADTech Cohort orientation scheduled for Calcasieu is
scheduled for January 19 and 20, 2005. To register visit:
http://www.doe.state.la.us/leadtech |
Shortcuts
for Navigating in MS Word
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 Use
the CTRL key combined with a few other keys to quickly
navigate in Word documents.
- Hold down the CTRL key and
then press the RIGHT ARROW key to move from any point in a
word to the beginning of the next word.
- Use CTRL+LEFT ARROW key to
move from any point in a word to the beginning of that word.
- Use CTRL+UP ARROW key to
move to the beginning of a paragraph.
- Use CTRL+DOWN ARROW key to
move to the beginning of the following paragraph.
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Windows
Update
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 If
you are trying to perform a "Windows Update" by going to
www.windowsupdate.com,
you may have been getting an "access denied" error message.
This is because we now automate this task for you to ensure
you computer has the latest updates. This is one of
the many benefits to being on the CPSB domain. Every
night at 7:00 if your computer is turned on and connected to
the internet, the CPSB network will be sending down any
necessary windows updates. If your computer is not
turned on, then the next time it is turned on and connected
to the network, it will get the updates. As always, if
you have any technology questions, email
tech.help@cpsb.org.
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Get a Daily
Dose of the Web
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 This
site contains links which can be used daily in your
classroom. These links change on a daily or weekly basis.
Links are categorized by: Questions of the Day,
Subject Area, Quotation Sources, Brain Teasers and
Interesting Trivia. Get your daily dose at:
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/daily_dose.htm |
Add a
Watermark to Your PowerPoint Presentation
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 You
can easily spruce up a standard design template or slide
background, or create your own design by inserting an image
and converting it to a watermark (washout in PowerPoint
2002) on your Slide Master.
To do so, choose View |
Master | Slide Master from the menu bar, and then apply a
design template or create a slide background that you want
to carry over onto every slide in your presentation.
Next, choose Insert |
Picture | From File, locate and select any image file that
you want to use in the Insert Picture dialog box, and then
click the Insert button. Resize and position your image as
necessary, and then choose View | Toolbars| Picture to
display the Picture toolbar if it isn't already visible.
Finally, with your image
still selected, click the Image Control button (Color button
in PowerPoint 2002) on the Picture toolbar and choose
Watermark from the resulting menu. If you need to adjust the
levels of the image further, use the More Contrast, Less
Contrast, More Brightness, and Less Brightness buttons on
the Picture toolbar. (If you're using PowerPoint 2001, you
can also modify your watermark by clicking the Color
Adjustment button on the Picture toolbar, and then adjusting
the color levels in the resulting Color Adjustment dialog
box.) Choose View | Normal to exit the Slide Master and
return to your slide.
Now all of your current
slides and each additional slide you create will have your
new watermark on it. If you wish to hide it for an
individual slide, display the slide in Normal or Slide view,
choose Format | Background, select the Omit Background
graphics From Master check box and click Apply. |
RhymeZone
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 RhymeZone
allows the user to enter a word and have a variety of
feedback rhyming words, synonyms, antonyms, definitions,
quotations and more! There is even a Windows toolbar
function available.
http://www.rhymezone.com |
Excel Tip - Compute An Average That Excludes Zero Values
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 While
Excel's AVERAGE function ignores blank cells, it doesn't
ignore cells that contain 0. This can result in inaccurate
analysis of the data. For example, let's say you want
to calculate the average score for all students who took the
final exam. Using the AVERAGE function, you might enter:
=AVERAGE(B3:B23). But if two students were absent and
received a grade of 0, the result of the formula wouldn't
give a true picture of the average grade. However, you
can calculate the average and exclude the absentee students'
grades.
Follow these steps:
- Enter the following
formula: =AVERAGE(IF(B3:B23<>0,B3:B23))
- Press
[Ctrl][Shift][Enter].
The entered formula first
creates an array that includes only nonzero values in the
range. The AVERAGE function then uses this array as its
argument. |
ReviseWise
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 This
site has things for all subject areas. Each section
includes and "Activities", "Fact Sheets", "Tests" and
"Work Sheets. For example, students can take a trip to
Gere's Bike Shop and help them read their graphs and charts
and practice working out the mode, median and mean for a set
of numbers. There is anything from Math to Science,
from English to Spelling. Do it all at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/revisewise. |
Trends in Educational Technology Around the World
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Education Week's seventh annual
report on the state of educational technology presents a
groundbreaking overview of technology in schools around the
world, examining data, lessons, and trends. Click on the
link to access the site. You will need to create a “free”
account to read the entire article.
http://www.edweek.org/sreports/tc04 |
Lawrence Hall of Science
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This site, produced by the
University of California at Berkeley - Lawrence Hall of
Science, offers learning activities to support preschool
through high school science and mathematics education.
Activities were created to assist teacher in providing
opportunities to reach and exceed national standards and
benchmarks for science and math education.
http://www.lhs.berkeley.edu/Kids |
Top Ten Viruses Found on CPSB Computers
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| Here are the top ten viruses
found on CPSB computers in the past 7 days. The stats are
based on 748 infected computers
out of a total of 8253 OfficeScan
clients.
 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.
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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)
Teachnology
Back to School Ideas
http://teachers.teach-nology.com/themes/holidays/back/
Here is a super site for back to school resources, especially great
for new teachers. It includes worksheets, activities, classroom
management ideas, teaching calendars, seating arrangements, name
plates, bulletin board sets, and more.
Getting
Back to School
http://www.yesiteach.org/back.htm
Try name games, create a classroom survival kit, make a
back-to-school kit, find open house ideas, try some of the
icebreaking activities, and more here to help ease you back into
the classroom this fall.
Busy
Teacher's Cafe's Back to School Ideas
http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/units/back2school.htm
http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/worksheets/firstday.pdf
Find several resources here to help you get your elementary
students settled back into school this year, including
checklists for the first day and the first week. Use the 2nd
URL above for a colorful page for students to use for writing
exercises.
Gold Medal Olympics
http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson201.shtml
Citius, Altius, Fortius. Those are the Latin words for the
Olympic motto, which in today's language means "Swifter, Higher,
Stronger." The best athletes from around the world exemplify
that creed as they compete in the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in
Athens, Greece. As the Games begin, Education World offers you
ten gold-medal lessons about the Summer Olympics. Included:
Activities that involve students in creating time lines and
graphs, writing biographies of famous Olympians, and much more!
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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 Teacher
Link
Best on
the Net
Tech Guides
Computer Purchasing Information
Tech Connect Archive |
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