Issue 3, Volume 9 September 18, 2008     Thought for the Week The most important trip you take in life is meeting people half way. -- Henry Boyle   Hurry! Register Now For TNT - October 18th! Submit A Proposal!  The Hurricanes are GONE!!! Time to register for TNT….don’t delay... still only $25!  Register NOW! 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 18, 2008 8:00am - 3:00pm Calcasieu Parish Technology Training Center and Reynaud Middle School 600 Shattuck St., Lake Charles, Louisiana Teaching aNd Technology10 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 Dell desktop 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 18, 2008 from 8 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. for TNT10 and prepare to participate in a premiere technology learning experience. Preparing Students for Their Future…Not Our Past School administrators are busy people with a big job to do! The Internet offers a tremendous range of information, tools, and resources that can help administrators lead their schools and districts to excellence. But what administrator has time to search and sift through hundreds of web pages to find the right resource for right now? This particular site, TICAL (Technology Information Center for Administrative Leadership), serves as a centralized repository of technology-related resources and professional development opportunities for administrators. These resources have been collected and organized by a cadre of technology-savvy, practicing administrators and met criteria judged to be of value to other administrators. The features of TICAL include videos, templates, stories, blogs, expert opinions, and lots more. In addition, there is a section called Radio TICAL which houses audio insights for administrators by administrators. You can find the radio broadcast of Preparing Students for Their Future…Not Our Past at http://www.portical.org/podcasts/?p=79.  Best Buy Technology Grants – Apply NOW! The Best Buy Teach Award program was created to specifically recognize and reward schools that are using interactive technology in the classroom to engage students and make learning fun. Selected schools demonstrate that their students are using technology in interactive and engaging ways. Teach Awards are intended to help schools purchase technology products to expand or enhance the program described in their application. This year Best Buy will award up to $2 million to K-12 schools in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, with awards ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 based on specific school needs. $10,000 will be awarded to up to 15 applications supporting 9th grade programs. All accredited, nonprofit K-12 public, private, parochial and charter schools within the U.S. and Puerto Rico are eligible to apply for Best Buy Teach Awards, and schools may have multiple teachers submit applications. However, awards will be limited to one per school. Home Schools, pre-Kindergarten programs, after-school programs, colleges, universities and vocational schools are not eligible. Educators must submit applications online between July 1 and October 12, 2008. Best Buy Teach Award-winning grants should be submitted online at www.BestBuy.com/teach. Become A Math Magician Are you a Math Magician? Well, with just a little practice, you can be. At this user-friendly site, you can practice your facts online. There are two different levels for each of the various operations found at this site: Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, or Division. It even has a "Today's Challenge" that challenges users to answer multiple questions within a given time. Students will have fun trying to beat each other's time. When students finish the challenges, it will give them a percentage of how well they did, as well as the time in which they completed the challenge. Then, students can print out a certificate showing the results. Check it out at http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/Mathmagician/cathymath.html. Outlook Signatures Whether you are an administrator or a teacher, any kind of time-saving tips are helpful! It may not mean much time, but you can save even a few seconds when composing emails by creating a custom signature in Outlook. Here's how... 1. Open Outlook and click on the Tools menu and choose Options. Select the Mail Format tab. 2. At the bottom of that tab, find the button called Signatures and click. Choose New in the next box. 3. In the next box, you will need to choose a name for the signature that you are going to create. Click Next. 4. Now it is time to decide what you want in the signature section of your email (i.e. phone number, office hours, mission statement, etc.). Be sure to select your font and other font options at this time. Click Finish. 5. One final step is to then choose when you want this signature to appear…when you send new messages or replies. 6.  Click OK. From now on, your signature will appear automatically. Cite That Source Citation Machine is an interactive web tool designed to assist high school, college, and university students, their teachers, and independent researchers in their effort to respect other people's intellectual properties. Use this handy interactive tool to help create MLA-style citations of resources. Choose your resource, then fill in the blanks and click Make Citations. Copy the result into your research paper's bibliography or citation section. This is an invaluable time-saver for students and even for teachers doing scholarly papers. The URL: http://citationmachine.net/  Virtual Allowance Site Teaching kids about responsible spending and saving is difficult. Zefty was designed to make a simple task, allowances for kids, even simpler. Zefty is an online allowance and money management website for kids. Teachers and parents can use this site to teach money management now that kids can carry with them for a lifetime. Although Zefty functions like a bank account, there's no real money involved. Parents set up each child and specify how much allowance they get and how often, so the mom and the dad are the bank. Whether you pay your child an allowance daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly -- Zefty can automatic deposit virtual funds into their accounts. Now you won't have to worry about forgetting to pay their allowance, and they will understand the real-world concept of direct deposit. The URL: http://www.zefty.com/ Introducing Photo Albums In PowerPoint In PowerPoint you can quickly create a photo album, which is a presentation that consists of a title slide and a collection of graphic images, one or more per slide. You can get the images from graphics files or from a scanner or digital camera attached to your computer. To create a photo album, follow these steps: 1. On the Insert menu, point to Picture, and then click New Photo Album. Or, if the New Presentation task pane is displayed, under New, click Photo Album. 2. In the Photo Album dialog box, build your photo album presentation. You can use the controls to insert pictures; to insert a text box; to preview, modify, or rearrange the pictures; to adjust the layout of the pictures on the slides; and to add captions. 3. Click the Create button to create the photo album you have built. Toshiba American Foundation K-6 Science and Math Grant Toshiba America Foundation contributes to the quality of science and mathematics education by investing in projects designed by classroom teachers to improve instruction for students in grades K-6. Toshiba America Foundation (TAF) is currently accepting applications for grants to support innovative projects designed by math and science teachers to make their own classrooms more exciting and successful for students. Grants of up to $1,000 each will be made to encourage hands-on teaching of science and mathematics. Applications must be received by the Foundation no later than October 1st. Projects must occur between December 1st and May 1st of the current school year. To download K-6 application, please click here. 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) Biology In Motion http://biologyinmotion.com/ Find mini cartoon lectures on various biology issues for middle and high school, with an Organize It game to show relationships and categories. Further animations and games examine cell division, thyroid glands, and more.   Bang! Boing! Pop! http://library.thinkquest.org/3042/ For beginning physics students, examine the various topics explained here in this online exhibit from Thinkquest. Games and animations elucidate topics, with quizzes and a glossary also available.   11 Classroom Discipline Techniques http://www.honorlevel.com/x47.xml Starting with Focusing - getting the attention of everyone before beginning - is a great place to start! Find eleven techniques outlined here to help you establish great classroom discipline - at the start of the school year and the whole year through. 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