I Want Fast!

     I know I am late today, but I am glad I am!  I wasn't really sure what I wanted to share with you today but a student brought something up in class and I decided that it would be something good to share with you all.  At school we have Internet Explorer as our default web browser.  Now IE (Internet Explorer) has been out for years and it does work well.  In fact, probably most people still use IE at home and at work.  I do not.  I have tried different web browsers over the years because of certain things that I want out of a browser.  I have tried  browsers such as Opera, Firefox, Safari, and all of the updated versions of IE.  I am the type of person that I like to customize everything and have options.  I have played with all of them and there are certain aspects that a good browser must have for MY use.  You may not have the same needs or even agree with my choice, and that is just fine.  We all have our own likes and dislikes.  

    My top recommendation is Google Chrome.  I can already hear the groans from some of you.  But I can say that I have installed this browser on all of my home computers and have run it extensively.  I find this browser to be very lightweight and fast.  That is my first priority...FAST!  The pages load like lightning, especially if you have been to that page before.  Granted, it has to save all of that information and bring it up at that time, but other browsers do the very same thing.  You can set it so that it saves passwords for you, or you can set it so that when you close the browser it clears everything from the history.  I choose the latter.  I love the tab system that it has as well.  I don't have to have a ton of browser windows up and taking up space on the bottom of my screen.  I can have one browser up and have a bunch of tabs and be able to click back and forth between the tabs.  I can also set eight pages up on the new tab page that are always there.  That way when I open a new tab and want to go to a web page that I visit a great deal, it is already there in a little snapshot waiting for me and I just need to click on it and it will take me right to the page (see snapshot of my screen below).

     My other requirement is EASY.  It is very easy to install and you can do everything with Chrome that you can do in IE.  I watch videos and movies, play games, check email, and anything else that I want to do.  I have not yet come up against something that I cannot do because of Chrome (edit below on Schoolwires).  I also love that when I go to www.google.com and want to search the pictures that it really streamlines the page and uses all available space.  It takes out all of the empty space and the words around it and packs the pictures right in.  It also lets you scroll way down the page, instead of making you click on "next" to go to the next page.  Let me show you the difference between Chrome and IE.  Look below.  The first shot is IE.  I used the same exact search term(s) and here is the result:

     Now look at the Google Chrome search using the exact same search term and the exact same search settings (both have super strict search on to block any unwanted questionable pictures).

     There is a huge difference here.  You can now see what I mean when I tell you they use the space wisely.  I have no idea why the pictures did not load on IE, but they all loaded just fine in Chrome.  Also, if you take a look at the scroll bar on the right of each window you can see that the Chrome browser allows you to scroll down much further than IE.  This saves time because you do not have to spend time loading new pages and pictures.  They are already there waiting for you.

     Another great thing I love about Chrome is that they have Themes that you can apply to your browser that change the colors of the frame around your browser (see picture below).  These are super easy to apply to your browser and it remembers it each time you open it.  There are also applications and extensions that you can add to your browser that allow you to be able to do many tasks with just a single click.  Applications are "advanced interactive websites. They may provide a wide-ranging set of features or focus on a single task like photo-editing or shopping." (Google)  Extensions "let you add new features to your browser. For example, an email notifier extension can show an email alert in your browser toolbar so you don’t have to log in to your email in a separate window to check if you have new messages. There are also extensions that work silently in the background, such as an extension that automatically formats and displays web pages in your preferred style." (Google)

     

     I know you are waiting for the downside of this browser.  As of yet I have not found one that would prevent me from making this my top choice.  OK, here and there I do have to actually go in and purge all of the history because it will load without formatting.  But I would say that is more my fault than the browser because I will admit that I sometimes go a week at a time without restarting my machine.  That is still my issue as IE will do the same thing in the same situation.  I will warn you that the only thing I have come across that will NOT work with Chrome is our Schoolwires site when I try to log on to edit my web page.  I still think that I am much better off using Chrome than IE.  Can this change?  Sure!  I would love to see IE get as lightweight and fast as Chrome.  For now I will stick with my Chrome.  If you want to try it, go ahead.  The worst that can happen is that you find you don't like it, and uninstall it.

     As always, if you want more info or help installing this software just let me know.  I am at your service!

Super Fun

     I was trying to find something really fun and interesting to share with you today and I think I have done it.  Have you ever had a concept that you needed to teach that was either a bit boring or you could see the students having difficulty grasping the concept?  It would be wonderful if we could find an easy way to make that concept more fun or easier to understand.  I found a website called Bitstrips that can do just that if you are willing to invest a little bit of time and imagination.  This site allows you to make your own comic strips with your own dialog and ideas.  It provides you with backgrounds, people, props, furniture, and more.  You can even change how your person is standing on the screen.  You can choose how many frames you want to use, up to 9 frames.  Once you get your backdrop in place and you add your people, you click on the Controls tab and you can change their facial expressions, their posture, arm placement, eyes, if they are sitting, standing, or even running!  It is all done with the click of a mouse.  Did I mention that it is free? 
     I honestly just sat down and decided to play with it and create a silly little strip.  It took me about 10 minutes to do it, and that included the sign up.  Yes, you need to create a log in and pass word for this site and provide them with an email address but that is a small price to pay for having something this fun to play with.  Afraid to put yourself out there with your students?  Don't be!  They may laugh (if you made it a funny comic) but just think about how that comic strip might help that hard to reach student.  That silly comic that YOU created might just be the thing that helps them to recall that vital piece of information that they need to succeed!
     Now I am not a pro at this site, yet.  I plan on using this myself in my classroom.  Honestly, it is something that even the students could use when it comes to skills.  The issue you will have is that they either have to all log on as you on this site to create (which I do not recommend), or you will have to create a log on per student so that they have a creation place.  If you ever want to do this so that your students can create then email and talk to me about it.  We will deal with that issue if and when we get to it.  You need to learn how to utilize it first before you can take students there to work.
     Here is my very first comic strip.  Go ahead and laugh....you're supposed to!  Oh, and ignore my bare feet.  It was the only red head in the group and my talents are not enough yet that I was able to put shoes on her...LOL!  See, even I have places where I need to improve.  So dive in and start creating!

     Edit:  OK, so the whole lack of shoes was really bothering me.  Plus I just did not like how this toon looked.  I went back in and made my OWN character, which was very simple.  It walks you through each step of the creation process.  Now go look at my new comic strip!  It saves all of your strips that you make and even any characters that you create.  You can even go back in and edit the comic strip after you finish it.  To save it on your computer you just right click on the comic and use "save as" and save it to your hard drive.  Don't forget to give it a name that helps you remember what that comic is about.  

A Look Back...

     Right now I have a few classes that are working on projects dealing with Colonial America.  I found this website this morning that I thought was really special because it actually has scans of original documents from that era!  It is called Archiving Early America and not only does it have these original documents, it has maps, portraits of many people who were influential during this time period, videos to watch about events, actual obituaries of famous people, and much more.  This site is great for the students because it really gives them a chance to look at life during that time and get exposure to the events that shaped our history.  

     Now you wonder what to do with all of the information that you have gathered from this site?  Have the students go to Museum Box and create their own "box" of goodies to share.  This site is great because it is made for teachers.  There is a place to set up a teacher account and add student accounts under you.  I like this part of it because it keeps the user anonymous to the outside world, yet gives your students a place to create and share. What is Museum Box?  It is an online box that gives you a place to collect and store images, video clips, and text to help support an idea or argument.  This would be something that you would use as a visual representation to aid you while you spoke about a topic.  Teachers can use this to present a new topic to the class as well.  Each box has 8 cubes inside, and each cube can hold information on each side of the cube.  Many of us worry about copyright issues with pulling pictures and information from the web.  I tend to keep one side of each cube for a "link stash" to show where I got my objects or information for that particular cube.  It is easy to create a box, and once you get comfortable with creating them then you could have your students create one for a graded project.  I feel we have them do too many projects that just has them create, print, and hand in.  It is nice to get them used to standing up and presenting information to their peers.  Using this site gives them the visual cues they need to present the information they have learned and it also helps to keep the audience engaged in the presentation.
     Another quick point to make: if you are going to have students create a museum box, it would be a good idea to teach them about Thomas Clarkson and how the presentation boxes got their start.  The idea for thie Museum Box Website " project was inspired by the work of Thomas Clarkson.  Thomas Clarkson was described by the poet Samuel Coleridge as ‘a moral steam engine'. He was a red haired man who stood over 6 feet tall, who spent his long adult life working to abolish the transatlantic slave trade and slavery itself.  In an effort to gather hard facts about the slave trade, Thomas Clarkson visited many ports and went aboard the trading vessels. One of the first African trading ships Clarkson visited was called the ‘Lively'. It was not a slave ship but its cargo had a powerful impact upon Clarkson. The ship was full of beautiful and exotic goods; - carved ivory and woven cloth along with produce such as beeswax, palm oil and peppers. Clarkson could see the craftsmanship and skill that would have been required to produce many of the items. The idea that their creators could be made slaves was horrifying. Clarkson bought samples from the ship and started a collection that he added to over the years. The collection included crops and spices, raw materials along with the intricate goods produced with them. He kept this collection in a large box and used the contents to demonstrate the skill of Africans and the possibilities that existed for an alternative humane trading system, challenging the pro-slavery arguments." (copied from Museum Box Teacher's Area)
     Have fun and enjoy!  Do not feel overwhelmed with this.  Take the time to explore and use these tools before you introduce them to your students.  Know enough about the sites and how they work so that you can confidently guide your students to these great resources.  And as always, if you have questions about this please do not hesitate to contact me! 

Blame the Weather...

    I am much later at posting today, but I am going to totally blame the weather!  Everything is a bit off today because of the incoming storm.  With the storm in mind and how that can effect us getting our work done, I decided to share a couple of things with you today that will allow you to work on  presentations at home or school and you do not have to worry about emailing it to yourself or saving it to a usb drive just to be able to continue working on it when you leave either place.

     The site I want to share with you is called 280slides.com and it is an online presentation creator, much like PowerPoint.  This is not made by Microsoft so we cannot call it PowerPoint, however you do make the same type of slideshows with this site.  The slideshow that you create is saved online and you can access it from anywhere.  You can work on it and save, then go back later and make changes or add to it.  This is really great for those of us who are not able to stay after school to work on presentations and such, and who do most of their work from home.  I have tried this and I like it a great deal.  The best part, of course, is that it is free!  You can import existing documents, add media, publish to the web, and it will even download a copy of it in PowerPoint format.  You can show the presentation right from your web browser, so if you have a computer that does not have PowerPoint you can still share your presentation.

     Now to go along with the presentation software you will need a place to go to get some royalty free pictures to add to your presentation.  There are quite a few sites out there that you can use.  4freephotos.com is a good place to start.  Did you ever want to put in a great video from youtube.com but you can't because of the things around it that students just should not see?  You can use ClipGrab to easily save your favorite videos from sites like YouTube, Dailymotion or Vimeo. And you can convert these videos into “usable” formats like WMV, MPEG or MP3.  Then just pop that video into your presentation!  Honestly, you can go to Google and search for sites that have royalty free images, clipart, and sounds.  You just have to have the time available to go look around.  I plan on creating a list of sites that are easy to use that have the royalty free items for you to use in your presentations and even your teacher created worksheets for the students.  Just give me a few days.  I will update you when I have a good list ready for you.

     Now I know that some of you are already thinking that this is all just way too much work and your time would be better spent doing other things.  Integrating technology into your lessons does take time on your part but the extra time and effort really does help ensure that all of your students are getting the information they need to succeed.  I would never just dump this into your lap and tell you to figure it out on your own.  I am always available to help you in any of your technology endeavors.   Never hesitate to email me and ask questions, or if you work with me, pop down to the lab and tell me about what you want to do and we will come up with a plan.  Once you learn how to do these extra things you will see the benefits that it has to student learning and you will never go back to the standard way of presenting information to your classroom.
     Trust me.....do I ever leave you hanging?  LOL!

The Weather...

Many of you are wondering about the weather tomorrow.  Me too!  Last year I was told about a man who does an amazing job of being RIGHT about the weather forecasts.  He is a professor at Millersville University and is usually right on the mark, and will even post that he thinks the news stations just have it all wrong when they differ on opinions.  I love it!  So here is the link to his Special Weather Discussion Board.  He does not post every day, just when we are going to be getting some bad weather.  I use this all of the time and he is very honest and open about his observations.  I have yet to see him be way off the mark.


Another good place to check is NOAA.  Many times they are hesitant to post on accumulation amounts so I would use it in conjunction with the Millersville site.

Amazing Resource

     I want to take a few moments to tell you about a site that I found recently, entirely by accident.  I have found that sometimes just sitting down at the computer and digging around in strange directions that I find some really neat tools for me to use.  Well, this website is for both teachers and students and it is very full of resources.  You may be overwhelmed at first, but it is definitely worth looking at.

     The site is called Edutecher.com  and it just amazes me that someone took the time to collect all of these resources for us and even give a brief description on each one.  There is a menu along the left hand side that allows you to sort and narrow the field when you are looking for a tool specifically for a use in a certain subject.  Do not be alarmed when you narrow the field and you still come up with 750 resources!  It really has sorted them and cut out the ones you don't need.  I am going to start posting some of the really cool tools that I find on this blog on their own page, so keep your eyes open.  If you want to dive in and start looking at them on your own then go ahead and dive in!  You may find tools that you find very valuable to something that you are teaching that I may not even consider.  Also, if you feel overwhelmed by the list, just let me know about some tools you may be looking for and as I look through them I will keep you in mind and will keep track of items you may want to look at.

     When I first got to edutecher.com and started to look I thought that there had to be a catch, or at the very least, some spyware.  Most sites do not give out great information like this without us paying some sort of price.  I will tell you that the site is clean and you have nothing to worry about when it comes to spyware and such.  Please read this page to get to know more about this site and why it is in operation and why it is free for us.  I cannot express to you in words just how excited I am to find this and share it with you.

      I would love any feedback you have to offer on this, positive or negative.  Let me know if you have looked at it and if you think you would use any of these things in your teaching or classroom.  I am going to be posting things that I think might be useful to you, but it would be great to hear from anyone who either uses a tool that works great or even requests that I post a tool for others to take notice of.

Ha ha! Too Funny!

So I obsessed all weekend with creating this blog.  Going through and making sure everything was the size that I wanted to it would be easy to see and read.  Now you have to understand that at home I have two 24 inch monitors connected to my hand built computer.  I can drag and drop from one screen to another, and I can see the whole page on one screen, plus have room on the sides.  I got to work this morning and brought up my blog and it seems HUGE!  The resolution is set so that everything is a bit larger than mine at home and I forget that at times....lol!  So for for those of you who get on here and wonder why everything is large, well there it is!

Irfanview

I want to start showcasing some of the cool yet simple tools that I use a great deal of the time.  I wanted to start with a photo editor that I have been using for the past few years to quickly edit pictures and take screen captures.  The software is called Irfanview (pronounced "EarfanView").  It is free and can be found here as a free download.  Easy to install and easy to use as well.  I love it for the simple interface.  Need to resize a picture fast?  It literally takes me a minute to open a picture with Irfanview and do the resize/resample and get the results I need.  You can sharpen, change to greyscale, save to many different formats, use paint to make changes, and much, much more.  This program was designed for beginner use, and even though I am not a beginner I still use it because of the ease of use and simple set up.  Go check it out or come see me and I will help you with it.

The Work

     I must say, that as I started working on this new venture I was very excited.   But with all of the other things I have on my plate to accomplish this year, I was a bit concerned that this would turn into one of my "Monsters".  I tend to have a great deal of fun and exciting ideas, and they start out as small concepts, but after a couple of hours of work my small idea turns into this complicated "monster" that I want to create.  This could have been one of those monsters....honestly.  The whole reason I started this blog site was because I am such a control freak about how I want things done that I just could not stand working within our school webpages any longer.  I feel so limited on my choices of layout and designing that I almost felt ashamed to have people go to my school web page and see how boring it was.  I am a technology teacher and we all know that first impressions mean a great deal.
     So here I am on Blogspot.  Would I recommend it?  I would!  In fact I am hoping to present a workshop for our district this coming summer on how to create your own pages here.  It is so very easy to work in that I am confident that the other teachers can do it with no issues.  Parent/Teacher communication is very important and if I can find an easy way for the teachers to post assignment,s and a place to write up a weekly accomplishments post, then I have a great new tool for the teachers.  I am hoping to find a couple of willing volunteers to do this with me during the remainder of the year so that when I present the workshop this summer I can tell them how other teachers besides myself liked the creation process.
     I will say that working in this blog site has not been without some challenges.  It has nothing to do with me just diving in and starting the work without looking at the help or tutorial features either.  Ok....so it does.  Lesson learned.  But I do best when I have to repeat things, so now my mistakes are fixed and stuck in my head to be able to show other people how to do this, or now NOT do to something.  Are there enough options on here to soothe the savage control freak in me?  YES!  Most of my issue with our school web pages are that they are not customizable to the degree I need and want them to be.  This site has what I need and want.  I can make it as simple or as complex as I want, which is something I know will concern many people.
     Don't get me wrong.  I love that our district provides us with a place to create.  And for many teachers that space is more than enough for them.  It is just that controlling technology side of me that screams for all of the options....not just a few.

New Space...

I am working on putting all of my technology tips, tricks, walk-thoughs, and links on this blog.  I am going to do my best to get this all up and running as fast as I can so that you can begin to use it as a resource.  Check back soon to see my progress!