If you are like me, you probably have fun listening to Siri speak. She is pretty amazing, actually with the new iOS7 you can make Siri be a 'He' if you like. One of the features that is the most interesting is that you can teach Siri how to pronounce a name if she doesn't get it right the first time. Here are the instructions for how to do this.
1. Activate Siri.
2. Say, "That's not how you pronounce Burleson."
3. Next, Siri will ask you to pronounce the first name. Once you’re finished, you’ll need to select a proper pronunciation.
4. Finally, Siri will ask you to pronounce the contact’s last name.
After you’ve selected the proper pronunciation for the first and last
name, Siri will confirm what you’ve selected by saying the name again.
In the future, Siri should have no problem pronouncing the name
correctly. Keep in mind, you’ll need to perform this action for each
contact if you wish to change its pronunciation.
Here is a terrific video from http://appadvice.com that shows these steps:
Have you upgraded to the new iOS 7 on your iPhone?
If you haven't, today's tip might convince you to do so.
Have you ever been somewhere that did not have wifi and wish you could get on the net? Have you ever, like me, been stuck in a sweaty gym for hours while your kiddo practices Tae Kwon Do or other athletic or academic activity? Have you ever needed to grab a file from your Google Drive to work on at your laptop, but have no connectivity? Ever been somewhere and just wanted to use the larger screen of your laptop or iPad?
Guess what? There is a free, fun way to do so.
One of the 'hidden features' of iOS7 is the ability to turn your phone into a 'router' which will allow you to connect your other devices to the internet.
Of course you have to have a data plan, but if you have an iPhone, you most likely do.
Here's how to do it:
1. Open your settings.
2. Turn on "Personal Hotspot"
3. I set a password for my Hotspot, just to keep others from jumping on and slowing down my data.
4. Go back to your device and check on the wireless connections that are nearby, choose your wifi hotspot.
5. That's it!
6. I suggest turning it off when you are done with it; it will save battery life.
Now, you can access the internet, much like what you do in your own network.
I've noticed that when I try to stream videos, etc from Netflix or Hulu Plus that they are a bit slow using the hotspot. I usually try to open the video, pause it and allow it to 'buffer' or load a bit. Then, when I start viewing the video it streams a lot more smoothly.
Pretty awesome right?
Hope you find this and other tips useful. Don't forget, there is a whole blog in which you can view tips from last year and every tip I've written this year as well.
Welcome to Todd's Tuesday Tech Tip #11: Keeping Kids Safe Online.
We all know that the internet can be an amazing tool for positive uses. We also know that the internet can be a dark and dirty place where lots of negative can occur.
We are tasked with keeping kids safe when they are online, and that's what today's post is all about.
Here at school, we have filters in place that, for the most part, protect kids from seeing inappropriate content or visiting websites that are not school appropriate. But what happens when the students aren't at school? How can we teach kids to be their 'own' filtering system for those times when the internet is 'open' and parameters are not there?
To me, this is probably one of the most important lessons we can teach our children because there are going to be time when they sit down at a computer, at a friend's house, at the public library or any other place where controls may or may not be in place. And, those controls may or may not match up with your personal beliefs and desires for your or other's children.
The first place to look is at your computer's 'built in' tools. If you are working on a Mac, this is a pretty easy process.
Here is a link to the Apple page that describes how to set up Parental Controls. I was actually pretty amazed at how much you can 'limit' on a Mac. You can set up the following parental controls on your Mac:
1. Limit the apps your child can use.
2. Limit internet access
3. Limit Game Center, Messages, and Mail Contacts
4. Limit Computer time
I also found this article helpful. It goes into a bit more specifics on how to tweak the parental controls.
However, no matter what parental controls you put on your computer, kids are really smart. They are going to figure out your passwords or find other ways to get around the controls. In my opinion, what is MOST important is to develop a healthy respect for the internet with your child and to have an open dialogue about 'WHY' you are trying to limit their exposure in the first place.
Here at HWS, we use a variety of tools to teach kids about being safe online. One of our favorites is Brain Pop Jr.'s presentation on Digital Citizenship. Additionally, we really like the resources available online at CommonSenseMedia.org In addition to fantastic resources for both home and school, they have 'games' that help reinforce the concepts that are most important.
Finally, here is a video that should remind all of us about the perils of the internet. One thing we share with kids is, once it is put 'out there' it is forever there. There really is no 'undo' button on the internet.
I hope that some of these tools have proven helpful for you both at home and inside your classroom.
Today's tip is short but sweet. Did you know that in all Apple programs: Pages, Numbers, Keynote, etc. there is a super simple tool to 'undo' your last action? It's simple, just use the command key and the 'Z' key. This is called the undo function. Interestingly, if you hold the shift key down and press the command and 'Z' key again it is a 're-do' function. It will put re-do whatever you took away.
Most of you probably know how to cut and paste. If you use the menus to do this, give the shortcuts a try. The shortcut for copy is: Command 'C'. The shortcut for Paste is Command 'V'. The command for cut is: Command 'X'.
Give these tools a try. You'll be amazed at how these tiny shortcuts can save you time when working in Apple's programs.
You probably remember hearing about factcheck.org
during the last election. This site is a fantastic way to figure out
what is and is not true regarding all things political. For example,
the day after a big speech, you can read about details about all the
numbers and claims. This site does a good job of remaining impartial
while giving you the facts. It lets you decide on the political
ramifications. I find this particularly beneficial considering all of
the controversy regarding health care, etc. It's nice to get the
'facts' and be able to decide for myself.
I hope this tip is one that you can use. Feel free to let me
know what you think of this or any other tip. Got an idea for a tip,
but no time to research it? Let me know and I'll write it up for both
of us!
Hello Colleagues, Happy Tuesday! This week's tip is awesome! You know those times when a student finishes early and wish you had a 'go to site' to have them work on something productive while everyone else finishes their work? Or, you might want to use your stand alone computers as a 'center' for a few students during a math, literacy or free choice time. Well, then this site is just what you need. Scholastic bills the site as 50 activities that last between 15 and 30 minutes each. Simply click on either K-2 or 3-5, spin the wheel and make a great choice! It's just that easy! Just FYI, this site is on every grade level's page on the HWRC website, so you can have your kids get there that way too!
Have you ever wanted to
play the piano, pan pipe, saxophone, guitar, steel drum, double bass,
pan pipe, flute or organ, but you only have a computer? Well, with
incredible websites like: Virtual Keyboard
you can do just that! I can't believe how cool this is and I thought I
was on top of all things cool that had to do with computers!
Below are the instructions for how to use the site Virtual Keyboard: INSTRUCTION To
play single notes on the keyboard:
Click the mouse pointer on one of the ‘piano’ keys to hear
the sound (Make sure you have your computer’s sound system switched
on!) You can also press the letters on your keyboard to play the notes
(see the diagram below). To use this feature make sure CAPS LOCK is off
.
Diagram
of keys to press: The
selected instrument is shown by a green light above its name (the default
instrument is a piano). The name of the instrument will also be displayed
in the LCD panel to the right.
To change the sound, click on one of the nine different instruments. The
screen will refresh and the button for your chosen instrument will light
up green and its name will be displayed in LCD panel. Click the mouse
pointer on a key to hear the new instrument.
The piano keyboard goes from ‘Middle C’ to ‘Upper F’
– one and a half octaves (18 different notes). The double bass is
pitched lower but still tuned to ‘C’.
Drum Beats:
There are six different drum beats. Clicking on one of the drum beat buttons
will turn on and off a ‘looped’ drum pattern. Clicking a different
drum beat changes the pattern. The keyboard is still active so you can
play along with the drums in either single or chord mode.
Chord Mode:
Clicking the ‘Chord Mode’ button turns on and off the chord
facility. The chord mode allows you to select sets of notes by clicking
on the piano keys. Clicking a note once turns it on and clicking it again
turns it off. Once you have clicked on all the notes you want to make
up your chord, click the ‘play chord’ button to hear it played.
Clicking the ‘Chord Mode’ button resets all the keys and returns
you to single note mode. Even in chord mode you can still activate the
drum patterns.
Here is another site, it is called: Kisstunes It allows recording and playback, but only one instrument, the piano.
The next time you have a student birthday party, you can have one of
the kids play Happy Birthday for them! How do you think you might use
this tool? Please be sure to leave a comment on the T4 site so that
others can learn from you too!
So, without further ado, let's see what Fuzzmail is.
Fuzzmail is an animated e-mail program. Yes, you read that
correctly. It is an animated e-mail program. Have you seen a movie in
which they showed an e-mail created in real time? It sort of shows up,
exactly as the person created it, complete with typos, erasures, copy
and paste etc.
Here's what the creators of Fuzzmail say about it:
WHAT
IS FUZZMAIL? Fuzzmail records the act of writing and lets
you send it as an email. Dynamic changes, typoes, pauses and writeovers
are captured and communicated. We created fuzzmail because we wanted
a more emotionally expressive alternative to email, so that an emailed
love letter does not have to look the same as a business letter.Here is a short video of someone creating a Fuzzmail: Example
So, how do you think you might use this interesting tool? Please be sure to leave a comment on the T4 website so that others can benefit from your idea!
Is the term 'pathfinder' a
new one for you? If you, like me, have visions of a backpacker making
his or her way through a thicket, then this is a new word for both of
us. A pathfinder is, in fact, a sort of guide to the world wide web.
Let me introduce you to a sight called 42Explore. The name is kind
of a hint about the site. This site allows you to pick a theme, from
general to applied arts.
The following is from their website:
Why start with a search
engine, when you can find a pathfinder to fit your needs at 42eXplore?
When learning something new, it's nice to have more than one
resource to explore. This web project provides "four
to eXplore" for each topic. On each page you'll find definitions,
activities, the 4 good starting points, and many more links and resources
for the thematic topic. Go to the About Site page
for more information about the website.
This is year five of our 42eXplore project. We now have over 200 themes
in this topic archive! We frequently update projects in our Topic
Index as well as each of the subject areas above. Go to What's
New? to learn about recent changes.
So,
they give you four good starting points and you can explore from
there. I really like the part on their site about not just starting
with Google when you already have some great resources on this site!
How would we use this in our classrooms? Well, to begin, if a child
has an interest in a particular topic, send them here. In fact, I
placed 42explore on the various grade level pages on our Resource Center
Web Site. Just about all grade levels can access these 4 starting
points. If a student wanted to do a "How To" assignment, exploring some
of these links might help them learn more about their topic. If a
child is interested in exploring a specific animal, the 42eXplore site
might be able to guide them in the right direction. If the child wants
to do an expert report on a topic and they are just sort of 'testing the
waters,' this would be an outstanding place to begin their study.
What about you? Have you ever used pathfinders? How might you use
this site in the future? As always, please post your comments on the T4 website so we all can benefit from your insight!
Full disclosure: I got this tip from my friends over at 180 Tips.com
They have lots and lots of tech tips that you can sign up for and
they'll send you one every day of the school year. My overall feeling
about them is that too many of them are outdated or have to do with PC;
since we are an all Mac school, they will not have as many tips that
will work for you. However, today's tip I thought was a really good
one. It's all about the different cables you can find connected to your
computer.
This week we are peeling back the layers of Google
just a little to make it more friendly for our young users; heck, it's
good for all users!
Here is a common Google search in the Resource Center: Dolphins
Yep, that's right: almost 19 million results!
Now, let's open Google's hood:
At the very bottom of the Google page, you will see the advanced search tab.
Click on the Advanced search tab:
Scroll down the page a bit
(by the way, there are a multitude of tools on the way down the page
that would greatly help your search, but this tip is just on how to find
the reading level...)
When you get to the reading level, you have several choices:
If you choose 'show only basic results' you will then have a much more appropriate search for young students. For example:
So, now you can see that 56% of the results are listed at the Basic reading level.
How do you think you might use this tool to help your students? As always, remember that all of these tips are archived on the Todd's Tuesday Tech Tip Blog. You can browse these and use them when you need them.
Please remember; I'd love to hear your suggestions for a Tech
Tip. Got an idea? Got a need to fill technologically, let me know and
I'll try to find a way to help!
I promised a Tech Tip regarding printers and I am ready to share.
First,
good news! We now have a brand new color printer in the RC. Why is
this so great? It means that if our dinosaur printer (which has been
going strong since 2004) ever gives up the ghost, we have a replacement
printer ready to go. You can use either of the printers once you have
successfully set them up on your computer.
Second, bad news: It's a lot of steps to see visually. I hope the pictures don't discourage you.
Here is how to do that (on your desktop)
*I apologize in advance if there are too many steps, I was trying to
make it as easy as possible and frankly, there just is no easier way...
Step One: Go to System Preferences (click on the black apple up in the left corner.)
Step Two: Click on the Print and Scan Icon
Looks like this:
Step Three: When you click on it, you will
see a plethora of printing possibilities... Don't let this overwhelm
you. You are going to DELETE all the ones you don't want to be able to
see or use!
Step
Three Continued: Click all of the printers you do not want. To start,
remove anything that does not start with HW...so, all of the CW, etc
printers are not for you. Once you've selected them, hit the (-)
button. This will remove them from your view.
Step Four: After removing most of the printers, make sure you have the following printers in your list:
What are these?
HW-Color-Printer is the 2004 Dinosaur in the RC (Does a great job!)
HW-Front-XRX is the Xerox machine in the front hall
HW-Office-Color is the color printer in Lois' office (DO NOT USE UNLESS AN EMERGENCY or if you are printing IEP or other related sensitive documents.)
HW-RC-Color-New is the brand new HP Color Printer in the RC.
The Workcentre 5330 is the copy machine at the top of the stairs near Phyllis' room.
Step Five: Don't worry if you
are missing any of these. All you have to do is click on the (+) sign
and then the monstrous list will re-appear. Click on the one that you
need to add again..
So, is this tip helpful? I'd love to hear what you think of these weekly tips. I'd also like to know if there is something you would like to learn and/or if there is a tip you think would be great to share with our community. Please feel free to e-mail me with your suggestions or ideas.
I
know I promised a Tuesday Tech Tip last week about printers. We are
still waiting to get our new printer installed. As soon as it is, I
will do a comprehensive tip about selecting, deselecting adding and
removing printers.
For this week, I thought I would share with you something that might
be incredibly helpful for you all to keep in touch with your families
it is called Remind 101.
I talked about this last year, but I've experienced it and it is a revolutionary way to communicate.
Texting
has become even more 'immediate' than sending an e-mail. If you have a
field trip tomorrow and you need to communicate with your families to
remind them to bring a lunch, pick up at a new place, leave at a
different time, etc. this app might be just what you need.
Texting usually means sending a message in which both parties
see and know the other person's phone number. This app helps you
communicate without having to give your phone number.
Here's how it works:
Sign up.
Have your parents subscribe (they don't know your number, and you don't know theirs.)
Start sending messages.
The best part, in my opinion, is that they cannot write back to you at this number!! It's simple, one way communication.
I can imagine some really cool uses of the website called, "How Old Am I?" This site will tell you your age or whoever you are interested in seeing their age. However, it's not just in years, it will also do it in days, weeks, minutes and even seconds. The site also can count down until your next birthday and more!
Have you found yourself wondering if there was a way to 'speed up' your work with Gmail? Well, look no longer, I have the perfect tool for those of you who want to speed it up!
This tip is called the minimalist Gmail cheat sheet.
Check it out:
Personally, I can never remember all of these. However, if you look through the list of shortcuts, there might be one or two of them that click for you. My suggestion: print this out and keep it near your computer that you do most of your e-mail correspondence.
As always, I love to hear from you. If you find this or other tools helpful, let me know. Have an idea for a tip that you would like to have? Let me know. I'll be most happy to research it and prepare a Todd's Tuesday Tip for it.
Have you ever wondered
what happens when you hit the 'send' button in your e-mail program? To
be honest, I don't think I gave it much thought. However, once I
explored Google's new site called, The Story of Send, I became quite
fascinated. I think you will do. Here is the link to the main page.
How do you think you might use this in your classroom? I
think the video would be fascinating for just about any age, including
me! It might get students thinking about the complex systems that are
at work in our world. Just think about plumbing, sewage,
telecommunications, electricity and on and on.
We all love them and use them frequently in our teaching. However, the ones I have are pretty static and I usually end up re-creating them for a specific task using lots of cutting and pasting (old school copy and pasting) to make them work for my task at hand.
Well, I found something that I think you will really like and hopefully use.
Today is all about
comics. There are so many choices out there for creating comics with
children, but I've narrowed it down to two. One is for our younger
students and the other is for the older.
The first is Arthur's Comic Creator
This site is pretty awesome. You can start with a clean slate and
slowly add in your characters, or you can pull the lever and it will put
in a 'story starter' for you. Once the story starter is in place, you
can change it however you like. You do this by clicking on, removing
and adding different characters, backgrounds, etc.
The
first thing I noticed when I began working with this site is the
possible complexity. You can choose a whole range of characters,
settings and even emotions. Like the Arthur site, each element can be
scaled up and down, rotated and flipped to your liking. Make Beliefs
Comix.com even has the ability to have you write your comic in a
multitude of foreign languages. I could see this as a possible Spanish
activity.
The only downside I've seen to Make Beliefs Comix.com is that it
limits you to three panels. However, my very curious teenager didn't
let that stop her. She used the site to complete an English project by
making four three panel comic strips to accomplish her goal. Once
you've created your strip, we used the always handy PDF (Save to PDF
function) when it was time to print. From there, we were able to put
all of the strips on one Pages document and print them off.
So, how do you think you might be able to use this with your students? As always, we would love to have your thoughts on our T4 website so that we all can learn from one another and our valuable insights.
Please note: I'm attaching two files to this Tech Tip as well. These two files come from The New York Times Education Wing and are great ways to use a photo (from the Times or not) to pull out details of a story. I thought they fit the theme of comix quite well.
Today we are going a bit "Old School." I can remember years ago when Discovery School hosted a puzzlemaker application. In point of fact, they still do. However, it is not nearly as cool as today's link. Crossword Puzzle Maker is way better, in my opinion. This site allows you to really customize the look of the puzzle. It can be as simple as you like, or it can be a complex puzzle suitable for the newspaper!
If you create an account, it will store your puzzles for future use and allow you to edit and create them again.
What
is it? It is a giant repository where you can save, share and create
documents, pictures, presentations, spreadsheets and more. If you are
familiar with Drop Box or Evernote, you have a general idea of what
Google Drive is. The reason it is valuable for you is that you have 5GB
of free storage available. Do you have a document that you would like
to send home, but don't have a disk on key or forgot your laptop? Well,
use Google Drive. For those of you advanced users, you can share
anything you can create in Google Drive with whomever you would like.
Google Drive makes it easy to do that and much more.
I
poured over the internet for video tutorials on how to use Google
Documents and Google Drive. One of the best was made by a young adult, I
would guess age 12. It really is amazing what the Digital Natives can
do at this point.
This week's tip is a mixture of tech and tools for helping you celebrate Women's History Month.
March is the month in which we celebrate achievements of females throughout history. There are some terrific links and resources that I think you will find very enlightening. In addition, I have included a list of notable women's history books that we will have on display in the RC. If you have other titles that you think we should add to our bibliography, please let us know.
Women's History Month Time for Kids presents this special feature on Women's History Month. There are profiles, a quiz, a history of this event, and a timeline of women's history milestones.
Women Who Changed History This Scholastic Webpage highlights the achievements of five women who have changed history, including Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, Sally Ride, Dr. Mae Jemison, and Melba Pattillo.
My Hero: Women's History Month This resource, from the My Hero Project, includes information about women from all walks of life. Read about these artists, scientists, authors, educators, and other women who have made a difference.
Suggested Picture Books: “Females in the Spotlight: Strong Characters in Picture Books”
All by Herself by Ann Whitford Paul (Harcourt, 1999)
Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride by Pan Munoz Ryan (Scholastic, 1999)
Axle Annie by Robin Pulver and Tedd Arnold (Puffin Books, 1999)
Brave Irene by William Steig (Sunburst Books, 1986) Fly High! The Story of Bessie Coleman by Louise Borden, Mary Kay Kroeger, and Teresa
Flavin (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2001)
I Have Heard of a Land by Joyce Carol Thomas and Floyd Cooper (Trophy Picture Books,1998)
Mirette on the High Wire by Emily Arnold McCully (Putnam Juvenile, 1997)
Seven Brave Women by Betsy Hearne and Bethanne Anderson (Greenwillow Books, 1997) The Legend of Bluebonnet by Tomie dePaola (Putnam Juvenile 1996) They Called Her Molly Pitcher by Anne Rockwell and Cynthia Von Buhler (Knopf Books forYoung Readers, 2002) Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges (Scholastic, 1999)
Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman by Kathleen Krull (Voyager Books, 2000)
