Issue 2, Volume 6 August 25, 2005     Thought for the Week What constitutes the teacher is the passion to make scholars. -- George Herbert Palmer   Submit a Proposal NOW! TNT 7 - October 8, 2005   Teaching aNd Technology7 Institute Sponsored by: Calcasieu Parish School System Technology Department Calcasieu Association of Educators Region V LACUE Region V TLTC Saturday, October 8, 2005 8:00am - 3:00pm Calcasieu Parish Technology Center and Reynaud Middle School 600 Shattuck St., Lake Charles, Louisiana The Calcasieu Parish School Board Technology Department in partnership with the Region V Teaching, Learning and Technology Center, the Region V LACUE, and the Calcasieu Association of Educators is again sponsoring the fall Teaching and Technology Institute – TNT7. The TNT6 Institute held last year drew over 700 participants from throughout Region V and received resounding accolades from all attendees. This year promises to be an even larger and more dynamic conference with sessions targeting the professional development needs of every job classification. Visit our conference web site at www.cpsb.org/tnt to submit a proposal to present at the conference or register to attend. At the low registration rate of $25.00 per person (this includes lunch and snacks) this conference presents the best bargain around!    Please consider submitting a proposal at our online site and encourage your colleagues to submit a proposal to share the exciting gains you have made in the educational technology arena. Each presenter that is accepted will receive a "special prize" and have their name placed twice in the doorprize drawing for the computer. This is in appreciation of your willingness to share your expertise with the Region V educational community.   If you have any questions about submitting a proposal or anything about TNT please feel free to email Sheryl Abshire TNT Institute & Program Coordinator. Mark your calendar now for October 8, 2005 from 8 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. for TNT7 and prepare to participate in a premiere technology learning experience! New Computer Setup Process Since March, 2004 all new computers coming into the district have had a standard CPSB image placed on the hard drive.  This image process has vastly improved new computer setup for district users by ensuring that Windows is setup correctly and joined to the CPSB domain, OfficeScan antivirus is installed and a host of add-on programs are ready to go such as Acrobat Reader, Java, Flash and QuickTime.  The original process of placing the images on the hard drive was being done by Tech Support staff at the warehouse or at the Tech Support Center and was labor intensive.  However, the hard drive image process has now been revamped to make it much more efficient in both manpower and time.            Under the new image process now underway, Dell now places the CPSB hard drive image on the computer at the factory.  When the computer is delivered to a school or department, it cannot be logged on to by a user until it has completed its final network setup which takes about five minutes.  Therefore, whenever anyone receives a new computer, please follow these steps:   1. Un-box the computer, connect all cables and make sure to plug an active network cable into the computer’s network jack.  This goes for desktop and laptop computers alike. 2. Turn the computer on.  It will start up and go to the usual log on screen.  At this point – WAIT!  The computer will start its network setup process and within five minutes the computer should shutdown and restart. 3. Once the computer restarts, you should be able to log on to the computer using your CPSB logon name (firstname.lastname) and make sure to set the “Log on to:” box to “CPSB”.  If you should see “Administrator” in the user name box, erase it and put your logon name instead. 4. Once you log on to the computer, you will need to register the computer with the Tech Support Center so that you have admin rights.  Without these rights you cannot setup a printer or install software on the computer.  A reminder notice of registration should be displayed when you log on to the new computer for the first time and it can be found on the desktop of every new computer as a PDF document titled “CPSB – Read Me – Important.” 5. TROUBLESHOOTING – If the computer is connected to the network and doesn’t restart after five minutes, turn the computer off and check the network connection and cable to make sure that it is good.  Reconnect the network cable and turn the computer and see if it will complete its setup.  If you do this and you still cannot log on, take down the Dell service tag code found on the back of the desktop or underneath the laptop.  It should have seven alphanumeric characters along with a bar code on it.  Send this along with your name, room number and location either via email to tech.help@cpsb.org or by calling the Tech Support Center at 491-1690.  The staff will troubleshoot the problem over the network so make sure that the computer is turned on and connected to the network. Engaging Kids to Learn Grant eInstruction has launched it Engaging Kids to Learn grant program to promote classroom use of personal response systems.  Each quarter, as many as nine applicants will be selected to receive the grant:  3 elementary, 3 middle, and 3 high.  Winning schools receive one 32-pad Classroom Performance System; a CPS Chalkboard and content containg thousands of CPS questions from Prentice Hall and Scott Foresman.  To apply:  http://www.einstruction.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Grants.Display&Menu=Grants&content=eigrant To Excel is Elementary! There are many reasons to use Excel with your students such as to: 1) integrate real life situations with technology; 2) increase communication; 3) support many levels; 4) engage students in higher level thinking skills; 5) support the principles and standards for school mathematics; 6) apply to cross curricular activities; 7) manage information; 8) compliment and enhance instruction; 9) provide motivation; and 10) offer fun hands-on activities.  If you need creative ideas to use Excel with students in your classroom as a tool for them to produce quality work, visit this site to gain ideas: http://www.forsyth.k12.ga.us/kadkins/spreadsheet.htm   Best Buy Te@ch School Technology Program Deadline: September. 30, 2005 Best Buy's Te@ch School Technology Program Best Buy welcomes proposals for Te@ch School Technology Program grants from schools that use interactive technology to make learning fun for kids. The purpose of the grants is to provide funds for classroom teachers who have innovative, meritorious ideas but lack the budget to bring them to life. The program is interested in funding the purchase of supplies or materials that students need to do such things as create a product, conduct an experiment, grow or tend living things, or learn a new skill. The project should engage the students in hands-on activities that lead to the acquisition of new knowledge, awareness, or self-discovery. Up to 1200 Best Buy te@ch gift cards valued at $2500 will be awarded. Up to 36 schools will receive additional te@ch awards valued at $15,000 each.  For more information: http://communications.bestbuy.com/communityrelations/teach.asp Teams Teaching Circles Come and take a look at the new TEAMS Teaching Circles website's front page at http://teachingcircles.lacoe.edu.  You can continue to access all the resources using your registered username (e-mail address) and password.  If you have not registered for the TEAMS, you may do so by contacting Pam Nicholson at pam.nicholson@cpsb.org.  Registration to TEAMS Teaching Circle is free.   You may be interested in the new parent resources that have recently been added to the website. These resources were collected to be used for Back to School Night, for class newsletters or websites and at parent conferences. The topics include: * Addressing the Impact of Working with Parents * Planning Family Involvement Activities * Bridging Language and Cultural Differences * Communicating with Parents * Preparing for Parent Conferences * Kindergarten Grade Parents * First Grade Parents * Second Grade Parents * Third Grade Parents * Fourth Grade Parents * Fifth Grade Parents * 6th, 7th and 8th Grade Parents * At Home Activities * Booklists * Content Areas * Emotional Support * Homework * Study Skills Let's Go Metric! Need metric system resources? This printable activity is ideal for the 3rd grade. It has printable Find Me activity cards for a Metric Scavenger Hunt so students can practice estimating metric measurements of length. The URL: http://www.hbschool.com/teacher_resources/math/grade_03/g3a_measure.html You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to print the files. Leaders - How to Make 'Em Do you sometimes need to use leaders?  Leaders are those little dots leading up to some text.  Like this:  ……………Text Leaders. To set up leaders, choose Format, Tabs.  When the dialog box opens, enter the Tab Stop Position you want to use (in inches).  That will be the length of your leader.  Now, look under Leader.  Select the radio button associated with the type of leader you want (they don’t have to always be little dots); and, then click Set.  Click OK to record your selection and close the dialog box.  Now when you use the Tab key, the tab location you entered will display the leader. Easy Way to Determine Your Computer Name There are several reasons you may need to know your computer name. If you are having "technical difficulties" and you contact Tech Support, they need your computer name to connect remotely; and, it would save you some time if you already know the name. The computer name is also needed for sharing printers and files over a network system. 1. Reboot computer. 2. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete (like you are going to login). 3. Make sure you see 3 white boxes.  If you do not; press the Options button. 4. First box says Username: 5. Second box says Password: 6. Third box says Login To: CPSB  with a down arrow. 7. Click the down arrow and you will see (THIS COMPUTER ?????) 8. Write that alphanumeric number down and send that back to tech.help@cpsb.org. 9. That is your computer name. Creating Internet Resources for Teaching and Sharing Looking for a thematic unit of study? Try the e-Themes website!! eThemes is an extensive database of content-rich, age-appropriate resources organized around specific themes. These resources are created for educators to use in their classrooms.  There are more than 750 eThemes on topics ranging from Africa to Yellowstone National Park.  http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/by-grade.shtml Snapdragon Fun Check out this awesome site that showcases games that have been designed to help young children to develop a range of fundamental skills ranging from numeracy, sound, letter and word recognition, to control of the mouse as hand-to-eye co-ordination is developed when they play the games. This site would also be useful to World Language teachers because children and adults will quickly learn Welsh as they play the games because Welsh words and phrases in addition to English ones are heard and seen on screen. Games are repetitive but become slightly more challenging as you move along. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/snapdragon/yesflash/menu.shtml Student Log Ins Classroom management is important in all aspects including student use of the computer.  Please remember that there are multiple login options for the students, but each one has its own uses.  Despite our best technical efforts, monitoring your students computer usage is still the most effective way to deter inappropriate use of the computer.  The following descriptions for logins should be noted for student logins. 1. username “student”  password “student” – should be used as the default logon for all students in the parish. 2. username “patronXX”  password blank – should be used to access programs like Scholastic Reading Counts, SRI, Accelerated Reader, Star Math, all Renaissance products, except Renaissance Place. 3. username “read180.XX”  password blank – should be used for Read180 labs 4. username “optXX” password blank – should be used for option3 labs (XX designates the school number, i.e. Vinton High is number 61, Barbe Elementary is number 5, etc.) These accounts have settings for each of the programs listed, if you have trouble using these logins with these specified accounts, email tech.help@cpsb.org. Headers and Footers in Word You can easily change the text in a header or footer by using the Header/Footer option from the View menu, in the following manner: 1. Choose Header and Footer from the View menu. You will see the Header and Footer dialog box, which looks very much like a toolbar. 2. If you want to change the footer, click on the Switch button in the dialog box. 3. Change the contents of the header or footer in the same manner as you edit normal text in your document. 4. Click on Close when you are done making changes. Proper Way to Exit SuccessMaker Enterprise Courses SuccessMaker is used in several Title I schools.  Use these methods to exit from the various interfaces in the SuccessMaker Enterprise courseware: • If you are using a course, select Report Card and press Ctrl + Z to exit. • If you are in the Classroom interface, click on the classroom door to exit. • If you are in the Standard interface, select Exit from the File menu to exit. • If you are on the login screen, press Esc to exit. Top Ten Viruses Found on CPSB Computers Here are the top ten viruses found on CPSB computers in the past 7 days. The stats are based on 3772 infected computers out of a total of 7780 OfficeScan clients. The latest OfficeScan pattern as of 8-24-2005 is pattern 2.797.00.  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) Internet Public Library Kidspace: Reference http://www.ipl.org/kidspace/browse/ref0000 Here's the place to go for all your general reference needs! There are links to dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, and other sites for homework help or just looking things up. Spice Up Your Spelling Words http://www.teachnet.com/lesson/langarts/spellingwds040299.html  There are forty strategies and activities here to help you teach spelling in creative ways, including silly string spelling (you could save that one as a reward for all students who get no more than two incorrect words on each spelling test, offering challenge words to spell with silly string), X Words, flashwriting, thirty second words, Etch-a-Sketch spelling, and more. Computer Capers http://www.buddyproject.org/capers/default.asp Here is a huge resource for computer/technology activities that can easily be incorporated into either your computer lab time, or any of your current areas of study across the curriculum. Simply define your parameters with grade and topic, then submit for a wide variety of technology-based exercises. 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