What The Tech!

Amazing Sites for Students

2010-04-23T13:49:00.002-05:00

The technology coordindators group here in Indiana (HECC) share so many great ideas and programs that they find and use with students in schools, I want to share some of the latest suggestions for using other tools to create book reports or other types of reports.

Here's a video I created from Extra Normal. It uses Lego like figures that can be animated to move and speak your script. The director (you) selects the camera angles, movements, actors' voices and body movements based on your script. You can create online or download a version to your computer. Files can be saved for IPhone, YouTube, Twitter, or as I have here in AVI mode.

Other sites to check out include Alice. It is a free software program that teaches computer programming while creating movies and simple video games. It comes in Windows, Linux, and Mac flavors with different sites for middle and high school. It is from the folks at CarnegieMellon. Click on the site to view the promotional video.

"Scratch from MIT Media Lab is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web. " It is also free.

I will have more next week. Enjoy!

Back into the Saddle

2010-04-08T13:10:00.005-05:00

I had left this blog for our teachers when we opened our new website through SchoolWires in January of 2008. However, I realize that this is still a great way just to write short articles that my teachers, staff, and families may want to read. So I am going to start it up again. I hope that you all will find the information valuable.

I want to reach out and remind all of you about a great article from the folks at Edutopia on what Google has to offer for teachers. Here's just some quick points and then at the end is the link to the entire article. If you don't subscribe to that newsletter for updates on technology in education and just education ideas in general, you need to add it to the list of must READS!

Google for Educators -- the place to start looking at what Google has to offer.
Google Docs -- an online word processor, spreadsheet and presentation editor that allows you to create, store and collaborate online.
Google Maps, Google Earth -- use these in your mapping curriculum
Google Images -- find the pictures you and your students need
Google Book Search -- search for books online; if in public domain, even read them electronically; make and keep a list of all the books you have read or want to read; find them in the closest library; and check out the reviews or read tables of contents.
Picasa -- try out photo editing online
Google Sketchup -- create 3D designs
Google Groups -- create online discussions
Blogger -- one of my favorite tools
Google Sites -- so very interesting; have students create research pages

I know that I am going to check out the Book search, Sites, and Groups. Here's the link to the article in Edutopia. Give it a read! Google for Educators: The Best Features for Busy Teachers

New Website Coming

2007-12-20T08:00:00.000-06:00

Portage Township Schools is moving to a new website solution for the district. We hope to have it up and running when school begins after the winter holiday. It is a hosted solution meaning that we will no longer be running the site on our own servers. The reasons for this decision are many including the following: Microsoft is no longer supporting or updating Microsoft Frontpage (our website is created with this product); webmasters throughout the district can only do updates/changes/creations onsite; our current websites are outdated, not as professional looking as most school sites or supplying features that more school sites are providing.

We are moving to a Schoolwires hosted site. We still have full control of our content on all of the sites including individual teacher sites. In fact, because it is hosted, a webmaster can update their sites/pages from literally anyplace in the world where there is an Internet connection. A template is provided for each school site and within that school site, pages can be customized while retaining the basic overall look of the site. Each webmaster (that includes teachers who have a website or want to have a website) has a host of tools at their call: podcasting, databases, blogs (without the fear of students clicking to an inappropriate "next blog"), shared clipart galleries, abilitiy to have forms and surveys running on each site, reports, and broadcast e-mail alerts to parents/subscribers.

We will have training available for all current webmasters in January/February. In the meanwhile we will be moving all sites to the new site and running both until all are completed. Take a look at some of the other local districts' sites who have moved to Schoolwires -- Hobart and Tri-Creek (Lowell).

Discovery (unitedstreaming) Newsletter

2007-11-08T16:20:00.000-06:00

Find out some new ideas, materials, etc. by clicking the Discovery Education's newsletter. You can find it here and it will also be in the links section. You can also subscribe to it so it comes in your email each month.

Reading A-Z

2007-11-05T11:57:00.000-06:00

Subscription rights for all PTS teachers to Reading A-Z brought to you by the Curriculum Department. Yes, that is correct. As long as you are using one of the district's computers, you have free range to the Reading A-Z site. You may download and print materials, have access to all the books, guided reading, vocabulary items, etc.

Just go to the Portage homepage, click on Reading A-Z icon on the right-side of the page and you are logged in. Remember! The program is only available to you from district computers. It will not work from home due to licensing restrictions. Enjoy!

New Grant Section

2007-10-31T12:38:00.000-05:00

Teachers have great ideas, but sometime need funds to put those ideas into place in the classroom or school. In my quest to bring tech information to you, I often run across various grants, but don't always know to whom to send it. So take a look in the Grant Link section on this site. Maybe you will find one that will fund your GREAAAAAT Idea. I hope so. Just remember where you found it.

PHS Library Media Center Open @ Night

2007-10-30T08:29:00.000-05:00

The Portage High School Library Media Center has evening hours one night per week (usually Wednesday evenings from 3:30pm to 6:00pm). Community residents and Portage school families are invited to come and enjoy the surroundings while reading, researching, using computers and enjoying the "Read a Latte" cafe. Children below high school age must be accompanied by a parent(s) for the entire time.

Open dates for the fall semester are: October 30th, November 7th, 14th, 28th, and December 5th, 12th, and 19th. There are no scheduled dates the week of Thanksgiving or during Winter Holiday.

Technology Workshops

2007-10-29T15:56:00.000-05:00

As Portage Township Schools is now a part of the Northwest Indiana Educational Service Center, you (our teachers) have access to a variety of technology workshops. Upcoming ones deal with Integrating Technology into the English Classroom, The Hows and Whys of Podcasting, Digital Video, Creating Vivid Content for Moodle with Dreamweaver, and the IHC Smart Desktop.

Some of the workshops are free, some are $15.oo. You can also receive college credit for attending some of them. Ask your principal if you can attend. Your school must arrange and pay for your sub as well as the cost of attending the workshop. There are no tech monies available for staff development at this time.

To find out more information about registering for any of these workshops, just click the title that interests you. Happy Workshopping and come back and share with the rest of us!

For Plato Users

2007-09-28T08:17:00.000-05:00

A great new resource that gives ideas, lessons, help, and best practice on using Plato in your classroom is the Roadmap to Success newsletter. Teachers may subscribe to this free E-mail newsletter. Click the title and it will allow you to subscribe.

Technology -- How to Recover (Almost) Anything

2007-09-28T07:56:00.000-05:00

Found a great article from PC World on getting those things back from your computer that you accidently deleted, erased, or reformatted. Most of us know that stuff goes into the Trash Can when you delete files, etc. from your hard drive, but.....what happens when you also have emptied that Trash Can?

Kirk Steers from PC World, gives easy to understand answers to these questions. Read his article for hints and answers!

Curriculum Maps have Moved!

2007-09-21T11:55:00.000-05:00

Check out the new Curriculum News Blog. It has the full-year listing of the curriculum maps and wish list. Go to the PTS Home page. In the Table of Contents on the left, click Curriculum News and you are taken directly to the blog! Enjoy!

New Teacher Sites

2007-09-21T11:47:00.000-05:00

There are many many great sites for helping teachers find lesson plans, peer-support, mentors, professional development courses for all levels that it is impossible to list them all. Give these a try! All are free to join.

A New Teacher Guidebook

TeachersFirst

Teachers.Net

Teachers Network

TeacherVision

Ideas for New Teachers and Education Students

Inspiring Teachers

E-Training Available!

2007-09-21T08:59:00.000-05:00

Through a new initiative, the U.S. Department of Education brought together some of the nation's most effective teachers and practitioners to share the research-based practices and data analysis to make a difference in student achievement. During this time, these educators have shared their expertise through the U. S. Department of Education's Teacher-to-Teacher Workshops offered in various locations throughout the United States. These workshops were taped and made available nationwide over this website through a special contract with the Panhandle Area Educational Consortium (PAEC).

In order to more broadly share the information, these workshops have been taped and converted to online courses delivered using the video-streaming format. They are designed so teachers can experience on-demand professional development in specific content areas to increase their knowledge and skills for improving student achievement. To ensure access, all programs are closed captioned.

Each course is designed to be valuable for single teachers or groups of teachers. Each course is delivered in segments-usually about 15 minutes long-of video interspersed with reflective questions and small tasks that foster understanding. An entire program, including activities, is about 2 hours long.

By enrolling in these professional development courses, educators also have access to the electronic Professional Development System, or ePDC. This password-protected system provides a personal portfolio so that participants can track and manage their professional development activities. The portfolio is updated after a participant completes a Teacher-to-Teacher course and is used to track additional professional development activities.

The site, Teacher2Teacher , is free and clicking the title will take you to it.

Looking for Curriculum related Websites?

2007-09-06T10:58:00.000-05:00

T.H.E. Journal has once again updated their listing of great websites in the 2007 verison of "Educational RoadMap to the Web, 2007". Here you find sites listed by subject (Fine Arts, Guidance & Psychology, Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Sciences, Special Education, PE & Health, Safety & Security, and Technology). Each subject is further broken down such as Science into Earth, Life, Phsyical, and Space Sciences. Enjoy!

Curriculum Maps by Grading Period

2007-08-19T10:48:00.001-05:00

Curriculum maps for language arts and math are now up and running. Check the link bar to the right or log into the PTS Intranet and click on Curriculum page tab then Curriculum maps tab to access them.

Power Indicators!!

2007-08-02T17:35:00.000-05:00

PTS teachers take note that the Phase 3 Wish Lists indicators can now be found both here on this blog (see sidebar on the right) and also on the PTS Intranet under the Curriculum tab. You will also find on the Curriculum page, last year's wishlists.

The 9-12 Math list is an Excel spreadsheet with comments. Just move your mouse over the corner of the various cells to read the comments.

Summer Technology Update

2007-06-28T15:13:00.000-05:00

LCD monitors are on the way to Aylesworth, Central, Crisman, Jones, and Myers elementary schools as well as for Fegely, Willowcreek middle schools, and Portage High School. Bids came in and the lowest bidder, Tri-Electronics, was awarded the job at a special board meeting in early June.

Each classroom in these schools will receive a 42" Westinghouse LCD monitor mounted on the classroom wall with a remote access package for the teacher computer. This package will allow the teacher to display any item be it a website, a document, a video from unitedstreaming, or play a DVD in the DVD drive up on the monitor. In effect, a teacher can create worksheets for students and display them on the screen straight from their computer or flash key.

Television capability will be added to the elementary schools hopefully within the year. It will not be readily available at the beginning of the 2007-08 school year. The secondary schools should be able to continue receiving television broadcasts through the current cabling systems.

K-8 Technology Curriculum Available

2007-06-08T11:01:00.000-05:00

A team of dedicated teachers, administrators, and computer coordinator spent the past 18 months developing a technology curriculum for K-8 students along with a lot of suggestions from teachers. The document may be found on the PTS Intranet on the Curriculum Tab or on the PTS Internet on the PTS Documents page. It is called Information and Communication Technology Curriculum, K-8. Additional resources are being added over the summer to the document.

Summer Workshop Schedule Now Available!

2007-05-29T10:37:00.001-05:00

The 2007 edition of the PTS Summer Technology Workshops is now available through STI-PD. There are several new classes being offered this summer. Here's a quick look at them:

Moodle 100, 101, and 200 classes take you through the beginnings of understanding and designing an online course management class. Join Jay Drew as he explains the ins and outs of Moodle while developing your own class. Learn the capabilities of Moodle, how to do online assignments, quizzing, and file sharing as well as wikis.
Star Office--Make the move! This class will give you the tools to seamless transfer learning from the Microsoft products to Star Office/Open Office suites.
Web Tools - Everything Google! Google is much more than a search engine, but we will explore that as well as looking at Google Earth, Book Search, Map search, Notebook (clip & collect articles as you surf), tech labs, gmail, calendar, docs & spreadsheets, sketchUp, translate, free software, and more.
Videos -- TeacherTube, YouTube and how to get and Use Them. Educational videos are abundant out on the Internet (so are many other types too!), but we are only interested in how we can find appropriate ones to use, convert them for use, post to website or blog or other communication pathway.
Video Editing with Pinnacle. Join Marcella Haupt as she explores this product in creating digital videos and includes editing from 1/2 VHS videos, video DV cameras, and more.
United Streaming--Get the most from this neat resource. Did you know that it includes more than just videos? Want online grading capability or a source for writing prompts or rights to create your own video from editable united streaming videos? Check it out!
If you missed Kidspiration, Inspiration, Blogging, there are classes on those as well.

How do you sign up for these classes? Go to the Portage homepage; scroll down until you see on the right-hand side STI-PD. Click it and then enter your username and password. If you do not remember your username, please call or email IMS secretary, Amy Leach, at extension 6350 and she will reset it to the default password.

Location, Location, Location! Classes are held at IMS (Instructional Materials Services bldg next to Aylesworth Elementary School) or at the Aylesworth Elementary School's computer lab. Please be sure to check where the class is when you signup. Most classes are scheduled for Tuesday through Thursday. Mondays are open lab days where you may pop-in at IMS to work on one of your project, get some help, check your e-mail, explore the web. There is no instruction generally available on Mondays, but you can get some help if needed.

All Portage Schools employees are welcomed to take these classes, however, Portage teachers get priority in taking these classes and are paid a stipend to attend. Other employees may be bumped from class if the class becomes full. Some classes are restricted to certain groups only.

If you have suggestions for other classes you would like to see offered, please email Lynn Duhamell with those suggestions.

Lewis and Clark Legacy Forward

2007-05-16T13:03:00.000-05:00

Are you a history teacher or a history buff? If yes, you might want to check out the Lewis and Clark Legacy Forward which is a summer institute for teachers sponsored by the Indiana Lewis & Clark Commission, Clark-Floyd Counties Convention and Tourism Bureau, and others.

It is a 4-day interactive, fun-packed classroom and community experience that begins on the campus of IU Southeast in New Albany and includes study trips and other events spread throughout the Falls of the Ohio region in Indiana and Lousiville, KY. The main purpose of the institute is:

maintain the expedition legacies of 200 years ago recently revived during the last three years

retain the excitement and lessons in leadership, citzenships, survival skills, courage and ethnic sensitivity

promote all with classroom applications for the future

Graduate credit is available as as CRU's. Most meals are provided. For additional information and to register online go to http://www.wesc.k12.in.us and visit online workshop registration. If you have questions about the program and credit-related questions contact: cgslone@ius.edu or CCrump700@cs.com or beckortm@lanesville.k12.in.us

Saving E-mail

2007-04-25T10:23:00.000-05:00

It has come to my attention recently that many of you do not know that you can save your email on your own local hard drive. You probably have noticed that after 30 days email disappears from your file cabinets that you thought you had saved. (that's 30 days from the time that particular email hit your inbox!). The question is WHY?

Let's see PTS has over 10,000+ email hitting our mailboxes each day plus all the attachments (documents and pictures) that are included in our mail. If all that was saved on the main email server, it would fill up and die in about three weeks. In fact, that is what happened in the early days of PTS getting email capability. While we have upgraded and increase the size of our email server, it just can not keep all the mail that we get. So it is set to delete mail 30 days from its arrival.

GroupWise does have a procedure already setup so that you, the individual, can save the email that matters to you on your local computer. The description of how to do this has been posted on our PTS Intranet for about two years. You will need to go the PTS Homepage; slide down the TOC (table of contents) on the left side to PTS Intranet. Put in your username and password. The Intranet appears; click on the Technology Tab at the top. (you may have to put in your username and password one more time); Select from the menu--Email.

You will need to do three things--Read "Setting up Local Archived File Directory", "Archiving Mail", and "Set up Local File Cabinets".

If you have any problems, your building's computer coordinator can help you. If you have problems getting into the Intranet, please email Lynn Duhamell.

Are you With It? Thoughts on Students, Technology, and Teaching

2007-04-17T11:00:00.000-05:00

Just found a wonderful video that pretty much says it all about engaging students in learning with technology. We do so much to take away that which is familiar and important to how they communicate (cell phones, IM ability) etc., but we forget that the world and in particularly what their world is now and will become so technologically different from the one in which we grew up. The link below provides you with a video that puts it all together.

The video is embedded below; click on the middle to play it. It is better to play at home or before/after school as it is a streaming video that will buffer (means it plays and then downloads more video and plays again). Please add your comments.

National Library Week is Coming!

2007-04-09T12:29:00.000-05:00

Next week begins National Library Week! Hooray for Books and Readers! During these seven (7) days, April 15-April 21, 2007, Thomson/Gale, a provider of online databases, is giving 24/7 access to 24 reference databases "Free of Charge". Included are the following databases:

Biography Rsource Center
Book Review Index
Business and Company Resource Center
Contemporary Women's Issues
Declassified Documents Reference System
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Health and Wellness Resource Center
History Resource Center
Informe!
InfTrac OneFile
Kids InfoBits
LitFinder
Literature Resource Center
The making of the Modern World
19th Century US Newspapers
Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center
Sabin Americana
Science Resource Center
The Shakespeare Collection
Small Business Resource Center
Student Resource Center Gold
What do I read next?

During this week go to : http://www.accessmylibrary.com/libraryweek and enjoy!

Portage IMAX Invites Educators

2007-04-09T10:19:00.000-05:00

If you did not receive an email from the Portage IMAX Theatre, here's the information. The folks put out an email newsletter that gives screening times and info to educational features. The newest one is for Saturday, April 14, 2007 at 10:00am. They ask you to arrive at 9:30am to check-in. This screening is for the film "Space Station 3D".

I quote from the info stating "Space Station 3D is the story of this unique partnership of 16 nations building a laboratory in outer space -- a permanent facility for the study of the effects of long-duration exposure to zero gravity and the necessary first step towards the global co-operative effort needed if man is to someday set foot on Mars. it is a story of challenges, setbacks and triumphs...and ultimately, the shared international victory of men and women whose dreams exceed the limits of life on this Earth."

You may call 888-447-1361 to register. Register by April 12th.

Keep Up-To-Date with Breaking Technology News!

2007-04-02T10:36:00.000-05:00

What the Tech is now subscribing to the online version of eSchool News. See the icon in the right-hand pane. It will always show the latest headline. Just click on the box to go read the entire issue. Selecting Educator's Resource Center link will provide you with links to articles on technology issues, grants, professional development opportunities, and more. Enjoy!

Maps 101 Trial-- Note new date!

2007-03-23T10:08:00.000-05:00

We have set up a trial for another online product called "Maps101". It is good through April 19, 2007. This product is from Nystrom and has many great things for kids learning about geography.

Over 4,000 printable maps
Up-to-date World & US Reference Atlases
Over 200 K-12 lesson plans
Daily and weekly Current Events articles, including Geography in the News
Educational geography games such as "geography crossword puzzles, word find puzzles, state capital games, etc.
Maps for younger children

Go to Maps101 by clicking it and once at the site, click on the Subscriber Login button. Enter the username of trpts 1587 and the password of trial. Please send your comments about the product to Lynn Duhamell or you may comment directly on this post.

PTS Workshops called Open Labs

2007-03-20T10:56:00.000-05:00

PTS offers "Open Labs" as a means of you getting individual help on one of your projects that you have developed. That can mean anything from developing/tweaking a formula for Excel, adding different report formats to an Access Database, answering STI questions to creating transitions in a PowerPoint presentation. There are several versions of "Open Labs" out there. Pick one that meets the area in which you need help or have questions. Stay as long as you like (or until the schedule time runs out).

We provide a trained person that can answer most of your questions and give you help. We do require that you sign up for a lab even though we do not pay you for your time, we do have to pay for the "answer person". If we don't have people sign up ahead of time, there is no lab for that night. This is not a "drop-in" kinda thing.

We will have some lab days this summer setup to cover just about anything you want to do. Usually they will happen on Mondays and you can just pop in, stay awhile, catch up on email, tweak a video project, plan with your team for the fall in a cool comfortable lab at the IMS.

We hope to see you afterschool or during the summer!

Copy Text from the Internet into Word

2007-03-20T09:32:00.000-05:00

This tip comes from a newspaper article written by April Miller Cripliver published 12/14/06 in the Times. It will allow you to easily copy only the text without all the html formatting coming along with it from the web by creating a Word macro. There are several steps so just follow them exactly and it will work like a charm.

Start Microsoft Word
Click Tools/Macro/Macros
Type NoFormatPaste in the Macro name box
Click the Create button
Where the cursor is flashing (it should be above the words End Sub), type the following line exactly Selection.PasteSpecial DataType:=wdPasteText (Note: that there is only one period after the word selection and only one space after the l in special and before the D in DataType
Click File/Save Normal
Click File/Exit and return to Microsoft Word

The macro is now written, but it is not easy to use so we will assign it to a buttom in our Word Toolbar.

Click Tools/Customize
Click on the Commands tab
On the left side, scroll down to click on Macros. When you click Macros, you will see all the macros in the right pane.
In the right pane, click on the macro called Norma.NewMacros.NoFormatPaste
Drag the Normal.NewMacros.NoFormatPaste to the top of your screen next to the scissors button. Release your mouse button only when you see a vertical black bar appear to the right of the scissors button.
Your Customize box is still open.
Click on the Modify Selection button there, and choose Default Style
Click the Modify Selection button again
Choose Change Button Image, then choose an image (maybe the Smiley button)
Click the close button of your Customize box.
Next to the scissors, you should see your new image.

Ok, now that everything is set up, how do you use it? Let's give it a try!

Start your browser and surf the net until you find a sentence, a paragraph, a page that you want to use (remember copyright regs!).
Highlight the passage.
Press Crtl-c (remember that is the shortcut for copy) It sends the highlighted items to the computer's memory.
Now switch to Word (you may either start it or open it from the task bar if you have minimized it)
Normally, you would press Crtl-v (for paste) or click Paste from Word's Menu bar. If you did, you would still get all the web's formatting of this document.
Instead, click your smiley face or the button that you created (remember you put it next to the scissors button in the Menu bar).
Your selection now comes into Word without any formatting and leaves you to change the font, color, size, whatever you want to do with it.

Now each time you need something copied from the web, all you have to do is the last 7 steps. Your macro will stay there as long as you don't delete it.

Technology Shifts---What an Impact!

2007-03-14T15:24:00.000-05:00

Take a look at this short movie, Shift Happens, on the effects of technology will have on the future. It holds some powerful ideas and thought-provoking impact for us in education and for our children. Let me know what you think. Don't hesitate to use the comment section. That's what is there for to interact.

PC Troubleshooting Before You Need It!

2007-03-09T15:37:00.000-06:00

Everyone knows the simple fact that it is not if your computer will fail, but when it will fail. It will creep up on you and before you know, all that information you worked so hard to create is gone. Following these rules might buy you some peace of mind (for awhile).

Rule 1 Always make a weekly backup or at least when you have added a large number of files to your system.
Rule 2 Empty the Trash/Recycle Bin -- It will free up some space on your hard drive. Note that deleting files actually does not remove them from your hard drive; it only removes location key to that file. If you have sensitive files, consider purchasing software such as "Sure Delete 'or 'Digital Shredder" that will remove the entire file.
Rule 3 Clean out your Internet cache -- Removing the files that are saved can speed up the reloading of future pages. Try to do it monthly or more if you are a heavy Internet searcher.
Rule 4 Clear your Web History -- Old information is stored here taking up room too! Your browser can be set to keep the history so many days and then it automatically deletes the oldest according to the rules you have chosen.
Rule 5 Make sure you have your AntiVirus program running -- also check to make sure it is uptodate either set it to automatically update or do it manually every week.
Rule 6 Defragging -- computers are kinda like people in that if a place where it is suppose to store something is all filled up and it can't fit the last piece in, it puts it in the first empty drawer it finds! You will know when your computer needs to be defragged. It takes forever to load a file. You have a handy tool in the "Accessories" group that will do the job for you.
Rule 7 System Updates -- make sure that you have your OS (operating system) set to receive automatic updates from your vendor (Apple, Microsoft, etc.)
Rule 8 Restart your computer occasionally if you leave it on all the time. It will clean out the old stuff stuck in memory.

Thanks to Jeffrey Branxburg for his article "Lean and Mean, Keeping your PC running smoothly with these tips" in "Teaching and Learning". You may catch the expanded version of this article at www.techlearning.com/lean&mean

E-mail those Progress Reports!

2007-03-07T08:22:00.000-06:00

From Jay Drew, one of our PHS teachers, comes this tip on how to email parents STI Progress Reports! (Remember that you have to have the parent's email address to make this work!)

Thought I'd share this tip. I have a few parents who send me weekly e-mail requests for their student's progress even though their child does not readily "remember" to bring them home. ;-)

You will need to go to http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp
(NOTE from Lynn: This program is saved onto your servers' G drive Volume 1 with the CutePDF folder inside the Apps folder. There is also an instruction sheet there as well to tell you how to download and install on your school computers.) if you want to install it at home go to the above URL to download and install the "CutePDF Writer", a free download. This creates a virtual printer on your computer that will create a .pdf file (Adobe Acrobat) of any document.

Before you open STI, you need to set CutePDF Writer as your default printer. (Start > Printers and Faxes. Right click on CutePDF Writer and select "Set as Default Printer")

Open STI and print the Progress Reports as you normally would, but you will be asked to save the file rather than print. Give it an appropriate name and save it somewhere you can find it.

Voila! You've done it! Attach to an e-mail and all is well in the world.

Spring Workshops Available NOW

2007-03-06T15:41:00.000-06:00

Spring workshops have now been added for March, April, and part of May. Your choices this time include Blogging, Microsoft Access in 3 easy classes, Excel also in 3 classes, GroupWise - our email program, United Streaming--lots of things to do in this program besides watching videos!, and DV camera with Microsoft Movie Maker.

Sign up for these workshops online by going to the main PTS webpage, select the STI-PD button on the right side (you may have to scroll down the page to see it), enter your username and password. If you have never been on the site before OR have forgotten your username and password, email or call Amy Leach at the IMS office (x6350) and she will check your information and walk you through the signup process. It is that easy!!!

Hope to see you in class!

Finding Books

2007-02-20T12:26:00.000-06:00

Many times I get asked, where do you find reviews of books? I use to always answer in professional journals and I do still use them, but lately have been dropping in on new sources-- book blogs.

The part of the blogsphere dedicated to books is called "kidlitosphere" where a group of people (authors, librarians, readers) are dedicated to getting information out about kids' books. Diverse opinions, extended reviews, and ability to make connections with other readers are what make these blogs so wonderful. There are blogs dedicated to picture books, middle school student titles, book discussion, and blogs for those sci-fi and fantasy fans all for k-12 students.

I will include Book Blog Links on the Link Bar and also will be including it on the Online Sources page on the PTS Website. Hope you find them as amazing as I do! Here's a couple to get you started:

Big A and little a =just a terrific site with many more links to other book blogs.
A Chair, A Fireplace & a Tea Cozy= Elizabeth Burns reviewing and discussing books for children and teens.
Just One More Book!=three times a week podcast which covers children's books with a Candian viewpoint.
Wands and Worlds= reviews of fantasy and sicence fiction for children and teens.

Snow Days give time to Explore!

2007-02-15T08:25:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone is now resting from digging out. It gave me time to do some more exploring of the web and finding great resources for you. This new one targets K-8 students in the area of nature.

Exploring Nature Educational Resource is a site that is FREE and features a searchable database of more than 1,000 animals categorized by classification (mammals, birds, etc.) by trait (scaverngers, carnivores, etc.) by habitat (rainforest animals, desert animals) and by geographic location. Additional resource databases include plants, trees, biomes and the human body. It also has nature movies, answers to weird questions, and an "Ask the Zoo Vet" section.

The teacher section includes lesson plans, activities, and mini-lectures on such topics as: habitat studies, erosion, classification, food webs, and life cycles.

While the site is free, you must login into the site to use it. PTS has created a username and password for each of the elementary schools and middle schools. Both are exactly the same. They all start with the word portage and then have your schools' two-digit abbreviation as follows: portageay, portagece, portagefe, and etc. Remember you use the same for the username and the password. Please give this out to your students to use at school and at home as well.

How do you find the site? It is on the Online Resource page on the PTS website. Look for this logo:

CultureGrams -- Trial subscription

2007-02-09T09:32:00.000-06:00

PTS faculty and students can for the next 27 days until March 7th try out CultureGrams Online. Some of you may remember the paper version of this product in the eighties. The online version covers world cultures. It comes in two version, the regular and a kid version, all from the same site. Users may click between the two versions. Each site offers the basic information about a country: the historical timeline, cultural and geographical information, maps, flags, and images. Also included are photos around the world, short biographies on the world's famous people, and a recipe collection that includes native recipes from all 190 countries included in the World Edition. The Kids' Edition includes 68 countries plus there is a special sections on the Canadian Provinces and the US.

To get to the trial click on CultureGrams above or here, enter the password (name of our school district; has 7 letters) (sorry, I can't write it here for the world to know). Once in the system, click on Culturegrams on the page.

Please send comments either to this post or to Lynn Duhamell as you and your students use it. It might be something that we need to add to our collection of online resources.

New Year! New Items to Check Out!

2007-01-22T09:20:00.000-06:00

If you haven't tried our "unitedstreaming" videos yet, take one for a spin. There are more than 4,000 full-length video programs that have been broken out into 40,000+ content-specific video clips that can be streamed or downloaded directly for use in your classroom. More importantly, the video titles can be searched by selecting the Indiana Standard you wish to reinforce with your students. Use the link on the "Websites' Link Bar" to the right to get to "unitedstreaming".

Other items of note from Discovery Education, the producers of "unitedstreaming"

Discovery Education Science Connection is an online supplemental science resource for middle school teachers. Visit www.discoveryscienceconnection.com
Look at the project demonstrations in the Professional Development section of unitedstreaming for ideas on creating living-history projects.
Construct interactive student centers and imbed video content into interactive presentations so students can select their own learning path.

If you think you need more help using this great tool, keep an eye out for after-school workshops coming soon in February, March, and April. In fact, you automatically can be notified of any new workshops, simply by signing up for that feature in STI-PD. Don't remember your username and password for STI-PD? Give Amy Leach, IMS secretary, an email or a call and she will be able to help you.

Indicator proficiencies

2006-11-03T08:51:00.000-06:00

You will now find the K-5 End of Year and the 6-8 End of Year indicator proficiences documents available now by using the links on the right of the page. These includes math and English/Language Arts.

The 6-8 grading period 2 indicators for math and English/Language Arts have also been updated and may be found in the link section.

District Tech Committee Meets

2006-10-23T16:22:00.000-05:00

The District Technology Committee met on Wednesday, October 18, 2006. Good discussion on a wide variety topics including the writing of the technology curriculum for grades K-8.

During the elementary staff development day upcoming on November 2nd, teachers will be asked to fill out a short survey. The technology curriculum writing team needs to know two things: 1. What do you want your students to know technology-wise before they enter your grade in the fall? and 2. What will your students leave being able to do technology-wise from your grade level in the spring? The middle school people will do the same by focusing on grade-level and subject matter. This survey will give the writing team a chance to place activities in the appropriate grade level.

For the complete minutes, check the document link section for District Tech 10/18/06 Minutes.

Other links referencing 21st Century Technology Skills and the new proposed Indiana Education Council are in the website link section.

World Libraries Access Available!

2006-10-19T15:37:00.000-05:00

WorldCat is the largest library network in the world. All WorldCat libraries (Portage Township Schools is one of them) provide access to their free resources on the Web where now most people start the search for information.

What will you find there? You can search for books, music CDs and videos. You can also link to digital content such as audiobooks you can download to your personal MP3 players. You may also find primary documents such as photographs, maps, abstracts, full-text articles and even perhaps digital versions of rare items that aren't available to the public at these libraries. Resources are available in many languages.

Can I check something out? Here's how you would do that: Go to www.worldcat.org (link is available in the websites' link section on the right).

Enter a title in the search box; click Search
List of titles appears; select the exact title you want by clicking on the title
In the Location box, enter your zipcode
Libraries that are the closest to your location AND that have the title are listed.
Select the library by clicking on it.
The library's online catalog will open and give you all the information you need to request that title if you are a registered user of that library or how to get it to your local library.

Try doing a search for Harry Potter or Deception Point by Dan Brown. You will see that PTS has both items and you can request them to be sent to your school building via intra-library loan by entering your barcode information!

Happy Searching the World!

Junk Mail -- What can I do?

2006-10-19T12:28:00.000-05:00

We all get emails from people we don't know (spam) and how can we handle these? GroupWise has a couple of things each individual user can do to block emails from coming into their mailbox. PTS does run a "Spam Blocker" on the overall site, but hey spammers are good. They have started mocking school sites (notice that the addresses look like school addresses .k12.oh.us). Here's some steps you can take:

You can add individual e-mail addresses or entire Internet domains to a Block List. Items from these addresses or Internet domains are blocked and never arrive in your Mailbox.An Internet domain is the part of the e-mail address that comes after the @. For example, in the address Henry@mymail.com, the Internet domain is mymail.com.
You can add individual e-mail addresses or entire Internet domains to a Junk List. Items from these addresses or Internet domains are delivered to the Junk Mail folder in your Mailbox. You can specify that the items in this folder be automatically deleted after xx days.
You can specify that any e-mail items from users whose addresses are not in your personal address books (including your Frequent Contacts address book and any personal address books you have created) are sent to the Junk Mail folder.
In your GroupWise Inbox, right-click an item with an Internet address; click Junk Mail.
Click Junk Sender OR Click Block Sender.
Select Junk E-Mail From This Address or Block E-Mail From This Address. If you select Junk, the address is added to the Junk List. All future e-mail items from this e-mail address will be delivered to the Junk Mail folder. You can specify that the items in this folder be automatically deleted after so many days. This folder is not created in the folder list unless a Junk Mail option is enabled or an address or Internet domain is added to the Junk List (which enables the Junk List option). If you select Block, the address is added to the Block List. All future e-mail items from this e-mail address will not be delivered to your Mailbox.
If the Junk List or Block List is not enabled, select Enable Junk List or Enable Block List.
At any time, you can click Tools > Junk Mail Handling > Junk List or Block List > New to add an e-mail address to the Junk List or Block List.

Proficiency Indicators for Second Grading Period

2006-10-11T10:45:00.000-05:00

Access to the Second Grading Period's Proficiency Indicators is now available through this blog even with the Intranet being down. To access both the first and second grade periods' indicators, see the links in the sidebar to the right of the page. Both Math and English/Language Arts are listed for K-5; 6-8 is not yet available.

Great Newsletter for Educators

2006-10-09T08:45:00.000-05:00

Answers.com is called "an encyclopdictionalmanacpedia" which means it tries to have all sorts of information for you. It has a great teacher spot at www.teachers.answers.com that contains tools for teachers, lesson plans, free posters (Write it Right; Etymology: Breaking it down; Citations), links to teacher/educational blogs, NYPublic Library's Homework Help site; and more. Best of all it offers monthly newsletters chockfull of information. You can sign up for the various newsletters by going to its main site at www.answers.com and clicking on newsletters. I have linked to the October newsletter in the link section so you can see it.

For grades 5-12, there is a great lesson plan for teaching online searching on the main teachers page complete with a downloadable movie and lesson plans, posters, etc. Scroll to the bottom of the main page.

Hope you all get a chance to check out this site. I think you will be coming back for more. Don't forget to sign up for the monthly newsletter.

Reports, Reports, how do I know which to choose?

2006-10-06T14:35:00.000-05:00

Confused about AR reporting? Concerned about the amount of paper to run the different reports? AR FAQs have been updated to included information about how one of our schools, South Haven Elementary, handles Accelerated Reader reports.

Basically, South Haven decided that the TOPS report simply uses too much paper. They still wanted to give reports weekly to students and provide important information to teachers. They felt that these three reports do a good job providing the information: TWI report, Student report, and the Diagnostic report. Directions are included on how to use these reports. Just click on the link in the link section to Accelerated Reader FAQs and see question 6. Our thanks to Sandy Click, computer coordinator, for the directions.

Updated AR Information

2006-10-06T13:24:00.000-05:00

Have you wanted to see how an AR quiz looks before you introduce it to your students? Take a look at the AR FAQs. It has been updated to include a section on how to take a sample quiz for teachers.

Fall 2006 Technology Workshops Schedule

2006-10-04T11:58:00.001-05:00

The Fall 2006 workshop schedule is now available on STI-PD. If you are a new user please see your computer coordinator for your username and password. You will find workshops on School Messenger, Excel (a series of 3 sessions), Beginning Blogging, United Streaming, Microsoft Word Tips, and Open Labs.

An Open Lab is just that--unpaid workshop with an instructor available to answer questions and offer help on your individual projects. There is at least one Open Lab per month to deal with any of the Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint) and there is one to help bloggers. While the time for the Open Labs is 3:30 to 5:30, you may come at any time, but sign up so we know that someone is coming and can schedule an instructor.

Accelerated Reader FAQs

2006-10-04T11:57:00.001-05:00

Quizzes, quizzes, and more quizzes are available to your students, but how can you choose which ones to use? IMS has developed a FAQ (frequently asked questions) about Accelerated Reader. It will be continually updated as more questions are asked. Yes, please email Lynn Duhamell with your questions about this program. That way answers for everyone will be posted in one place. The link to the AR FAQ is posted on this blog's link section although you can also access it by going to the PTS homepage and clicking on PTS Documents tab.