Issue 29, Volume 9 April 9, 2009     Thought for the Week A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed. --- Henrik Ibsen   Tech Center Summer Classes Available NOW!!! Registration is now open for summer tech classes! Are you proficient in every standard? Need CLUs for highly qualified? Just want to learn more about how to use a certain software program or how to engage your students in the classroom using technology? Visit the following link to view the summer class offerings: https://www.cpsb.org/techclasses. If you have taken a tech class before, then all you have to do is to enter your Email Address and Password in the box to login. If it is your first time at this site, you will need to click on Create Account. Then, click on the link entitled SUMMER Tech Center Classes. You can select to attend sessions such as Promethean - Introductory through Advanced, Intro to Assistive Technology, Do You MP3?, Video Spin, Blogging in the K12 Classroom, Podcasting, Power Outlook, Digital Video, Photostory, InspireData, Kidspiration, ImageBlender, Palms in the Classroom, LabNBag Certification, Wikis, Microsoft Office 2007, Introduction to Using Blackboard as a Classroom Website, Utilizing Blackboard to Support Curriculum, StudyMate, Network Resources, BoardMaker, ePals, Web 2.0 Tools, Google Tools, Web Freebies, Phone system Use, and many more. Meeting The Differentiated Learner With Tiered Instruction Tiered instruction is a means of teaching one concept and meeting the different learning needs in a group. It can be an assignment, a lesson, or even a strategy. Tasks and/or resources can vary according to learning profiles, readiness, or interest. Tiered instruction is fundamental because each student is appropriately challenged. As opposed to focusing on learning differences, the focus is on the concept being learned; and, it maximizes learning! Students will learn the same concepts or skills but may approach them through different activities. For lots of ideas for tiered instruction, as well as ready-made teacher tools, go to http://www.wilmette39.org/DI39/iagc05.html.  Featured Blackboard Site The featured Blackboard site was created by Bridgette Culpepper, a teacher at Lake Charles-Boston Academy of Learning. Mrs. Culpepper created the site to serve as a resource for all teachers and parents at the school. Visit Mrs. Culpepper's site. Wordle Students can have a lot of fun with this online writing tool, where they will input text to create word "clouds." The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. Choose a character or a theme, and have your students generate appropriate word categories before inputting their choices and manipulating the fonts and layouts. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share. Check it out at http://www.wordle.net/.  Embracing The Ribbon In Office 2007   The ribbon is the biggest visual change in Office 2007. Instead of hiding in menus, functions are displayed on the ribbon. They are grouped by tasks and by clicking a tab you can display the list of functions for that task. Instead of having to remember what menu something was under or what tiny button you needed to press on a toolbar, it is all right there for you to see. Sometimes it isn’t always intuitive as to what tab certain functions are listed under, but overall the ribbon is a great enhancement to Office 2007. Until you get used to the ribbon, you will think that Microsoft hid things from you. For instance, you would think that Spell Check is under the References tab, but it is not. It is under the Review tab. Here are some ways to make the ribbon work better for you:   Click the Launcher in the bottom right corner of a group to launch the dialog box or task pane for those group tasks. To display only the tabs in the ribbon, right-click in the ribbon and select Minimize the Ribbon from the resulting menu. To swap placement of the Quick Access toolbar and the Ribbon, right-click in the ribbon and select Show Quick Access Toolbar Below the Ribbon from the resulting menu. Web Poster Wizard   Teachers can create a free account to create classroom teaching posters and wonderful, illustrated and linked student worksheets for their lesson plans - a great teaching help for quickly and easily printing up student assignments. This FREE tool allows educators to create a lesson, worksheet, or class page and immediately publish it online. Teachers can also set up classes and assign projects to students. Students complete the assignments by creating their own online projects or reports. Teachers and students can even add images and links to their pages. The URL: http://poster.4teachers.org/  Teaching Measurement? Everyone needs to know how to measure. It is a real world experience that everyone must have. So, why not do some measurement and some conversions online?  OnlineConversion.com http://www.onlineconversion.com Convert just about anything to anything else. Over 5,000 units, and 50,000 conversions. AAAMath: Measurement http://www.aaamath.com/mea.html Features basic measurement skills, unlimited interactive practice, and explanations and examples. A Dictionary of Units of Measurement http://www.unc.edu/%7Erowlett/units/index.html An excellent 'A to Z of units' is available from this site run by Russ Rowlett at the University of North Carolina. Education World Lesson Planning Center: Measurement http://www.education-world.com/a_tsl/archives/math.shtml#measurement Contains measurement lesson plans that have been written and submitted to Education World by teachers from all over the world. What Career Interests Your Students? The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Web site for kids provides introductory career information for students in Grades 4-8. Most of the material on the site has been adapted from the Bureau's Occupational Outlook Handbook—a career guidance publication for adults and upper-level high school students that describes the job duties, working conditions, training requirements, earnings levels, and employment prospects of hundreds of occupations. Students will consider which kind of career interests them, and then explore it further with this online introduction to choosing a career and following its path. Several possibilities are included under each category, along with typical salaries, job prospects, and how to prepare for that specific career. (As always, please ensure current appropriateness of all content and links before allowing independent student access.) Check it out at http://www.bls.gov/k12/  How To Podcast If you're looking for tutorials on how to create a podcast, then you've come to the right place. This is the home of the free “how to podcast” tutorial that uses everyday terms with step-by-step instructions, informative articles, video tutorials and real world examples. If you already know how to create a podcast, you may be interested in the podcasting tips and podcasting tutorials that are shared on the blog and on the podcast. Check it out at http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/. Some of the topics discussed are as follows: Promoting Your Podcast Improving your audio quality Upgrading your podcast studio And much more Splitting Columns In Excel How do you split columns in Excel when you already have data in the column? For example, suppose you have a column that contained names (i.e. Jane Doe) and wanted to split it into 2 columns. You certainly don't want to create another column manually, so let's do it automatically. Here is how its done: 1. Select the column you want to split. 2. Click on the Data tab. 3. Click the Text to Columns button. 4. Select Delimited. 5. Click the Next button. 6. Check the Space box. (This is assuming that the first and last names are separated by a space, if not check the box next to the delimiter that it is separated by or enter one in the Other box.) 7. Click the Next button and then the Finish button.   ***Note: Make sure you have an empty column next to where you are splitting the column. Your data will need somewhere to go.  Celebrate Earth Day -April 22nd Founded by the organizers of the first April 22 Earth Day in 1970, Earth Day Network promotes environmental citizenship and year round progressive action worldwide. Earth Day Network is a driving force steering environmental awareness around the world. Through Earth Day Network, activists connect change in local, national, and global policies. Below are some lesson ideas for teachers. Pollution Solutions http://www.epa.gov/superfund/students/clas_act/spring/polsol.htm  In this lesson plan, upper elementary students will simulate different pollution situations (oil spills, camper debris, paint, etc.), learning how these pollutants taint water supplies. They will also be working in groups to obtain the cleanest water possible with their polluted samples, after learning about water treatment methods. Pollution Prevention Toolbox http://www.epa.gov/reg5rcra/wptdiv/p2pages/toolbox.htm  Each of the topics listed on this Pollution Prevention Toolbox contains fact sheets, student activities, and four page lesson plans. Topics include Energy Conservation, Water Pollution, and Pollution Prevention in Schools, among others, for grades 6-8 Disposal And Recycling Costs http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/enved/Rec_Lessons/costs.htm  Middle and high school students will determine the amount of waste, the cost of that waste, and how that cost is covered in this lesson plan on recycling and the math behind it. 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) Purple Cow Eggs http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=10133  If your students have never seen a purple cow, they'll hope to see this one. Hardboiled eggs, chenille stem stands, glitter and a few extras create these crazy and appealing eggs. Desert Doves http://www.highlightskids.com/Stories/Rebus/rebus_desertDoves/0606_desertDoves.asp Follow along with this rebus story in either Spanish or English, with or without music, and in audio.  What's The Point? http://www.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/co.cgi?A1=s&A2=0&INSTRUCTS=1 Here's a bit of graphing review within one quadrant, where students have to place the (x,y) points on the graph in this interactive math game. An official publication of the CPSB Technology Department If you have any questions or comments please e-mail the Webmaster. 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