Todd's Tuesday Tech Tip #29 Gmail Cheat Sheet

Dear Colleagues,

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, comes from a fellow blogger who runs a blog called Educational Technology and Mobile Learning.

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.

Thanks and have a great week!

TB

Todd's Tuesday Tech Tip #28: The Story of Send

Hello Colleagues,

Happy Tuesday!

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. 

What do you think?  How would you use it? 

Thanks,
Todd

Todd's Tuesday Technology Tip #27: Graphic Organizers

Hello Colleagues,

Happy Tuesday!

This week's T4 is all about graphic organizers.

I found this tip on Tammy Worcester's Website.

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.  

Worksheetworks.com 

The site above has twelve customizable graphic organizers.

Here's all you have to do.

1.  Go to the website:  

2.  Choose a graphic organizer.

3. Complete the form:


4.  Click the "Create worksheet" button.

5.  Click the "Worksheet.PDF" button.



6.  Save and open the file using Adobe Acrobat.







7.  Print!

Thanks!

Todd's Tuesday Tech Tips #26: Comic Creation

Hello Colleagues,

Happy Tuesday!

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 second site is called: Make Beliefs Comix.com

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.

Here are the links to those files:  What's Unsaid and Storyboard

Thanks,
Todd

Todd's Tuesday Tech Tips #25: Crossword Maker

Hello Colleagues,

Happy Tuesday!

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.



There's this week's tip.

How do you think you might use this tool?  

Thanks,
Todd

Todd's Tuesday Tech Tips #24: Google Drive

Dear Colleagues,

Happy Tuesday!

This week's tip is to learn to use Google Drive.


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. 

For those of you who are not intimidated by a twelve year old teaching you how to use it, here is a very good video from traindude 390:

For those of you who are more print oriented, I found a nice and very basic tutorial on how to use Google Drive HERE

Here is a basic video from CNet that explains Google Drive in a succinct manner:  HERE

Please let me know if you find these tips useful.  I would love to know how many of you are successfully using Google Drive.

Sincerely,
Todd

Todd's Tuesday Tech Tip #23 Women's History Month

Dear Colleagues,

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.

• National Women's History Month Honorees
  This page, from the National Women's History Project, offers an annotated list of this year's honorees.
• 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.

Thank you to Larry Ferlazzo for his links; check out his site for tremendous resources on any topic!

* The Children’s Encyclopedia Of Women
* National Women’s Hall of Fame
* National Women’s History Project
* Scholastic’s Women Who Changed History
* The Encyclopedia Britannica has a section called 300 Women Who Changed The World.
* Spartacus International: USA History — Women’s Suffrage
* The History Channel’s Women’s History Month site, which also includes a lot of multimedia resources.
* The National Educational Association has many resources for Women’s History Month, including lesson plans.
* Time For Kids Women’s History Month
* The Smithsonian has an online exhibition called Women Of Our Time. It focuses on influential women of the twentieth century.
* The California Museum has a Remarkable Women Trail feature on its website. A display of a map of California shows images of remarkable women. Click on one of them, and you get an accessible biography, images, and videos.  Visitors to the site can also submit information about other women they think should be included.
* Women’s Rights: A Pictorial History is from Awesome Stories, and is very accessible to English Language Learners.  It looks like you can view this feature without subscribing, but it’s free to subscribe anyway.
Milpitas Chat shares a number of good online ESL lessons related to Women’s History.
International Women’s Day occurs every March 8th. Here is a series of photos from The Sacramento Bee showing how it is celebrated around the world.
The New York Times has created an interactive of “reader submitted photographs from around the world that illustrate the importance of educating girls and empowering women.”
Women’s History Month Across the Curriculum comes from the New York Times Learning Network.
The Wall Street Journal has a slideshow titled Marking International Women’s Day, and it shows how it was celebrated around the world.
The Weekly Reader has some nice online and downloadable resources on their Women’s History page.
“A Brief History Of Women In Power” is the title of a TIME Magazine slideshow.
“The 25 Most Powerful Women of the Past Century” is an accessible feature from TIME Magazine.
The Biography Channel has a very impressive collection of resources.
Gender Gap is an interesting interactive from The Wall Street Journal.
Using The New York Times for Teaching and Learning About Women is another excellent resource from The New York Times Learning Network.
International Women’s Day: Voices from around the world – interactive comes from The Guardian.
16 Of History’s Most Rebellious Women is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.
Celebrating 100th Women’s Day is a slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.
Women’s History is a great lesson collection from The Zinn Education Project.
Photo Essay: International Women’s Day 2011 comes from PBS.
100 years of scientific breakthroughs – by women is a slideshow from The Guardian.
Worst places in the world for women is an interactive from The Guardian.
World’s Most Dangerous Countries for Women is a photo gallery from The Boston Globe.

Thinkfinity has resources on Women’s History Month.
The Biography Channel has a Women’s History Timeline.

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)