Author: Jacqui
A Holiday Card in Publisher
Greeting cards are easy enough for second graders–even early readers. Using MS Publisher, pick a template, add a picture to personalize, add their name–and they’re done. It takes about 15 minutes. Kids always feel great about creating these greeting cards: (more…)
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Do Your Children Need Computers for School?
This is a question I get from parents all the time. Most parents want to get what their child needs as affordably as possible, and don’t want to save a few bucks at the expense of their child. If that sounds like you, here are suggestions on how to decide to get one, what type, and what to include:
- Talk to the classroom teacher. What are their expectations of the child? If they’re like the ones in my school, they will want him/her to have access to basic software and the internet for research, maybe email. That’s it.
- You’re wondering whether a laptop or desktop is best? There are lots of reasons why a laptop might be a good decision for your particular family dynamics, but in general terms, a desktop is fine for a younger child (K-5). They don’t need to take it to friend’s house for group projects much until they reach middle school, and I would not suggest gearing a more-expensive laptop decision around an occasional project. I guarantee, the teacher won’t.
- There are other reasons why a desktop is a good decision. It is more durable (it isn’t carried around, so can’t be dropped). If part breaks (the keyboard, mouse, monitor), you don’t have to replace the entire computer–just that part. Because children are tougher on electronics than experienced users (this should be expected), it will make these sorts of problems less dramatic and costly. And, a desktop has a larger hard drive, more memory, bigger screen, and more drives/ports for input devices. That makes it more adaptable to unexpected needs.
- Now you need to select which level of desktop your child requires. Does s/he need the basic $350 on sale version or the everything-in-it upgrade? Start simple. Basic. See what the child uses, what else s/he needs before making an expensive decision. Most kids are fine with the lower end of productivity. Some, though, want the works. You’ll know which is right for your child by the time you’re ready for an upgrade.
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Tech Tip #91: Internet Problem? Switch Browsers
As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!
I’ve been having more than usual problems with my browser, Firefox. Often, I can fix things by switching to Chrome. Sometimes, it’s the reverse, so I wanted to repost this tip as a reminder at the start of our new school year:
Q: I’m trying to use a website and it keeps telling me Flash isn’t installed. I know it is. I even re-installed it and it wouldn’t work. What do I do?
A: Change browsers. I have this problem more often with Firefox than Chrome in my lab. When students try to use one of the websites on our internet start page and find it won’t run correctly, the first thing I check is which browser they’re in. If it’s Firefox, I switch to Chrome or IE. That often fixes it.
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Use Google Safe Search
Drop by every Friday to discover what wonderful website my classes, teachers and parents loved this week. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of yours as they are of mine.
Age:
Elementary school, Middle school
Topic:
Research
Address:
Review:
I get this question a lot so wanted to repost this review. Well, that was my plan. Then I started editing, so now it’s pretty different.
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Why use a Digital Portfolio–and 9 ways to do it
At a certain point in a student’s education journey, they start having a lot of school work that needs to be:
- saved for future use
- accessed from home and school
- shared with multiple students for collaborations
- submitted to teacher for grading
- returned from teacher digitally with comments and grade
- collected and displayed in all types of file formats–Word, Google, Photoshop, pdf
- organized to find data easily
- linked to other pieces of work or online sites
For example, a student can create a project at school, access it at home and link key words to websites found by a classmate that supports the project discussion.
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#49: California Missions Project–in Publisher
Millions of third graders study California missions. Here’s a great project that brings it to life with some writing, lots of pictures and a dash of creativity that will excite every student.
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Freebies #19: My Bookcover in KidPix
This year more than any before, classroom budgets have been cut making it more difficult than ever to equip the education of our children with quality teaching materials. I understand that. I teach K-8. Because of that, I’ve decided to give the lesson plans my publisher sells in the Technology Toolkit (110 Lesson Plans that I use in my classroom to integrate technology into core units of inquiry while insuring a fun, age-appropriate, developmentally-appropriate experience for students) for FREE. To be sure you don’t miss any of these:
…and start each week off with a fully-adaptable K-8 lesson that includes step-by-step directions as well as relevant ISTE national standards, tie-ins, extensions, troubleshooting and more. Eventually, you’ll get the entire Technology Toolkit book.
I love giving my material away for free. Thankfully, I have a publisher who supports that. If everyone did, we would reach true equity in international education.
My Bookcover in KidPix
Draw a cover for a classroom project or unit of inquiry or use one of Kidpix’s templates. Have students nicely mix text and pictures for an attractive design. Introduce KidPix fonts, font sizes, font colors to grade 1
[caption id="attachment_5424" align="aligncenter" width="577"] Make a cover page in KidPix[/caption]–from 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom
Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.
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#50: American Revolution Magazine in Publisher
This project includes everything the student user will require throughout high school. It has so many skills, every student will find one that grabs their imagination.
Reminder: Make this the second magazine they attempt (unless they’re in middle school) so they’ve had some practice with the more basic skills. You might try the California Mission magazine one year and this the next. (more…)
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5 Great Tech Ed Blogs You May Not Have Heard Of
Here are five more of the blogs I read to get inspired, motivated, re-energized:
- Cybraryman–a massive resource of materials curated by a teacher. You don’t want to miss this one.
- Diary of a Public School Teacher–this blog will warm your heart. Lisa is upbeat, hard-working, and authentically integrates technology into her students’ days. I love reading her story.
- EdTechSandy–Sandy is one of those educators that seems to have her finger on the trends that drive technology in education. I often visit her blog to orient my thinking, see what I’ve missed at Geographically-Undesirable conferences and center my pedagogy. Here’s her bio:
I am a professional educator with 18 1/2 years of experience in education. My areas of interest include teaching with technology, educator professional development, online blended & distance learning, social media in education, and digital citizenship. I want to build bridges between thinkers in the cloud and teachers in the classroom.
- FreeTech4Teachers–Richard covers everything from great websites to conferences he’s attended to–of course–lots of free tech. He won the Edublog award for best blog (in various categories) for about four years running. What a wealth of resources he makes available. Here’s his bio:
The purpose of this site is to share information about free resources that teachers can use in their classrooms.