Author: Jacqui
WordCamp Orange County 2014
I signed up to to to WordPress WordCamp Orange County 2014 as soon as I heard about it. I was so excited. I’ve read reviews of other WordCamps and always told myself I’d attend when there was one in my area. I have four blogs and a website on WordPress and since I’m pretty darn committed to the platform, I figure I should understand it as well as possible.
Plus, it’s affordable–$40! Where can you learn anything at a conference for only $40!
Then I checked out the Sessions–
- How to Sell Wordpress
- The Future of WordPress E-Commerce Technologies
- Designing a Theme in a Browser
- Functions.php vs Plugins: The Ultimate Battle
What do these topics even mean? How do I pick one to attend if I don’t even understand what they’re saying?
OK, to be honest, I understand the words–ECommerce, Theme, Plugins, php–but string them into a goal. Good grief.
Tech Tip #88: 20 Techie Problems Every Student Can Fix
There are about twenty problems that cause eighty percent of the tech stoppages. I’m going to tell you what those are and how to solve them. Trust me. They’re easier than you think to solve. I routinely teach them to third, fourth and fifth graders, and then they teach their parents.
I’ll tell you the problem first, then why it generally occurs and the most common solution to fix it:
Deleted a file
Why? By accident or changed my mind
What to do: Open Recycle Bin; right-click—restore
Can’t exit a program
Why: Can’t find the X or Quit tool. This happens with young children’s programs and those pesky internet ads that marketers don’t want you to be able to exit
What to do: Alt+F4 works 95% of the time. Try that.
Can’t find Word
Why: Shortcut moved, was deleted by accident or became inactive
What to do: Right-click on desktop—select ‘New’—“Word Document”
Happy Memorial Day
I’m taking the day to honor our soldiers. Without their sacrifice, where would we be? (more…)
17 Memorial Day Websites for Students
Memorial Day is the time we remember all of those soldiers (and anyone in the Armed Forces) who gave their lives in the defense of American freedom. In war and peace, they made the ultimate sacrifice, and because of them we are privileged to live the American Dream.
Once a year, we honor them, their sacrifice, and those they left behind. Here are some activities to help students understand the import of this day:
22 Ways Any Teacher Can (and Should) Use Technology
If your state adopted Common Core, 75% of you will administer yearly assessments online. If students haven’t used online tools or software for classwork, this can be a daunting task. Having computer devices as optional education tools is a massive difference from requiring students to use them for grded assessments. This can be intimidating for both students and teachers.
The tood news: It doesn’t take as much time and practice as you might think to prepare. What it does require is a techie mindset, the acceptance that technology is part of the daily economic landscape, that it be integrated into assignments, practice, modeling, homework, assessments, projects, portfolios, grading rubrics, expectations.
There are ways to get students in shape that won’t take much out of your already-packed day.
Here are twenty-two strategies to use next year that will make your teaching life easier, bump up your effectiveness with students, save time complying with Common Core standards, and prepare students effectively for next Spring. As you’re in your grade-level teams, planning lessons for next year, include these. They will add spice to your classes, build flexible learning paths, , and contribute to sustainable, transformation learning. Once you start using tech in the classroom as a tool (not a separate activity), you will find students self-selecting it when given a choice, coming up with their own ways to make tech today’s adaptive answer:
Tech Tip #86: Back up Your Computer
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 week, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!
Q: I’ve had some virus problems and it reminds me that I need to back-up my computer. What’s the easiest way?
A: Use Windows Backup function. Here’s what you do:
- Click the start button.
- Go to Control Panel
- Select ‘Backup and Restore
- Select ‘Backup Now’
Book Review: Endangered Minds
Endangered Minds: Why Children Don’t Think And What We Can Do About It
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I discovered Dr. Jane Healy’s Endangered Minds (Simon and Schuster 1987) researching a novel I was writing on early man. I wanted to better understand what parts of our brain show significant evolution since our species appeared (like the increasing size of the frontal lobe, the evolution of the Wernecke and Broca areas). I admit, part of it was also that I was a new mother and there are so many competing opinions about when kids should read, write, what they should learn when, I didn’t want to make a mistake and mess up my kids. (more…)
5 Apps to Help You Reach Your Zen
Teachers work hard. We start before students arrive at school, spend hours after school tutoring, in faculty meetings, and chatting with parents, and evenings are spent grading papers after kids are put to bed. We juggle computers, calculators, laptops, Chromebooks, Smartscreens, erreaders, and IPads to entice students to learn whatever standards and curriculum requires.
Every once in a while, we need a mental health break. That’s when we pull out a few apps that put the Zen back into life. Here are five of my favorites. They’re great to shake up the day, add a little pizzazz to the routine for an hour or so:
GoSkyWatch
Tech Tip #85: Browser 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 week, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!
Q:My browser has been working fine, but lately, it doesn’t bring up some of the stuff right. What do I do?
A: The quick answer is, switch browsers.
Sometimes you load programs/system or operating files on your computer that conflict with your current browser. Everything that had been working fine suddenly doesn’t. Try the search in Internet Explorer or Google Chrome. Often, it’ll work fine with that one switch.
Educational Advice From Finland
I’m thrilled to have Maria Lindqvist from Finnish educational social media platform, Petra’s Planet for Schools, as my guest here today. She shares her advice on using social media safely and effectively in schools.
21st century learning using social media
Advice from Finland
Social media doesn’t have a place in the learning environment; it is simply a tool for people to keep their friends up to date with their lives…or is it?
If we look at the process of social media we can start to consider its place in the learning environment. Taking Facebook as an example of a social media site, as use
rs we set up a personal page and profile and start to communicate with our friends. We want the information we write to be interesting, amusing and informative; how do we best convey the message we want to get across? We read messages from other friends and if their communication is worthy we chose to ’like’ it. Writing effectively can therefore decide how many ‘‘likes’ you receive; an important thing for young people. We then have to decide whether we want to illustrate the message with an associated picture image; this can’t be too large a file size so we may need to use a graphics editor to resize the image.
One of our Facebook friends could be someone from Turkey who we met on holiday last year. She writes about her family’s religion and the celebrations she attends. Her prayer in the mosques is called namaz, but generally she prays at home. Over the summer she is going to work at a farm in her village, picking fruit which is the most common type of work in her remote area of Turkey. Suddenly I have a new interest in this country and want to understand its cultures and economy. When we start to study world religion in school, I contact my friend to gather information. It is so much more real coming from her than from a book.
It is clear to see the potential educational benefits of social media in the classroom.
