Category: Freebies/Discounts

#6: Photoshop for Fifth Graders–Auto-fixes

Before starting on Photoshop lessons for fifth grade and up, teach preparatory basics covered in this lesson plan here (reprinted in part below). If you have a newer version of Photoshop, adapt these instructions to yours:

Open Photoshop. Notice the tool bars at the top. These will change depending upon the tool you choose from the left side. These are the crux of Photoshop. We cover about ten of them in fifth grade. The right-hand tools are used independent of the left-hand tools. They are more project oriented.

    • Click the File Browser tool (top right-ish). It shows you the folders on your computer. From here, you can select the picture you’d like to edit (or use File-open)
    • Select a picture and notice how it displays all data—file name, size, date created, author, copyright and more
    • Click on several tools on the left side and see how the top menu bar changes, offering different choices. Go to Help. Have students view several of the ‘How To’ wizards available. Make sure they try ‘How to paint and draw’, ‘How to print photos’, ‘How to save for other applications’. Then have them select the ‘Help’ files. This takes them to the Adobe CS website and exposes a vast database of questions and answers. Encourage them to explore, engage their critical thinking and active learning skills. Remind them this is where they can find answers independent of teacher assistance.
    • Open a picture of the student’s choice. Show class how to zoom in and out (right-side toolbar). Explain pixels.
      Show students how they can take the paint brush and color just one pixel if they are close enough. This is
      how experts remove ‘red eye’ in photos.
    • Introduce the History toolbar (right side) as an undo feature (like Ctrl+Z in Word). Have students open a new blank canvas and draw on it. Now use the history tool to toggle between the canvas before and after drawing on it by clicking between the original picture and the last action taken (at the bottom of the History list).
    • Have students click through several tools on the left tool bar and show them how the top toolbar changes,
      depending upon the tool selected.
    • Watch the layers tools. You can only paint on the highlighted layer. Notice that the top layer covers all others
    • Show students how to save. The default is as a Photoshop file with a .psd extension. This won’t open in other programs, so show students how to change the file type format to a .jpg, .bmp, .tif or other for use in Word, Publisher, emails or a website.

Once students are comfortable with the Photoshop format, try these easy-to-do auto-fixes.

Auto-fixes is one of the easiest Photoshop skills. Depending upon your version of Photoshop, this may be found in different spots on the menu lists. If you’re familiar with your program, you’ll find it right away:

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#32: How to Use Art to Teach Grammar

Here’s a great lesson that uses every child’s innate love of color to learn grammar. All you need is MS Word or Google Docs), a quick introduction to the toolbars and tools, and about 25 minutes to complete. If you’re the tech lab teacher, this gives you a chance to reinforce the grammar lesson the classroom is teaching and teach tech skills students need (click to enlarge):

[caption id="attachment_1026" align="aligncenter" width="450"]COLOR1 From Structured Learning’s Tech Lab Toolkit Volume I[/caption]

COLOR2 (more…)

You Know You’re a Techy Teacher When…

I have to reblog this wonderful post by my efriend, Lisa. How many of these fit you? Can you add to this list?

You Know You’re a Techy Teacher When…

  1. You can’t remember the last time you printed a classroom document.
  2. Plurking, tweeting, and playing with your wiki in public are acceptable behaviors.
  3. Your Notebook isn’t spiral bound – it plugs into the wall.
  4. Forget the garden…you spend more time on the weekend weeding out your Inbox.
  5. You can recite your school’s Acceptable Use Policy by heart.
  6. On parent/teacher night, instead of exchanging business cards, you Bump.
  7. You express yourself with emoticons.
  8. You no longer consider it graffiti to write on someone’s wall.
  9. Your significant other gets jealous of your PLN.
  10. It’s not creepy to have lots of followers.
  11. Your students call you the “cool” teacher.
  12. The other teachers are jealous of your Instagram.
  13. YouTube is blocked in your school, and you know how to get around it.
  14. The Tech Department is sick of your constant requests to unblock Twitter.
  15. You’ve Googled your principal.
  16. You know that TweetDeck is not a patio with a lot of birds.
  17. You correct your friends’ grammar when they text you.
  18. “Casual Fridays” means logging into the EdTech UNconference in your bunny slippers.
  19. You wear your “I Heart EdTech” button everywhere you go.
  20. You read this blog post then tweet it, like it, and pass it on to a friend (more…)

#72: Check Your Math in Excel

This is one of the most popular lessons I teach to Excel beginners. It is relevant, instantly usable and makes sense from the beginning. Click the images below to enlarge them for viewing.

[gallery columns="2" ids="45219,45218"]

–from 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom

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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, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

How to Keep a Timecard in Excel

This project (#70 in the collection of #110) hides a spreadsheet’s power behind a template you create and students fill out at home. If they’re older and more familiar with spreadsheets, involve them in creating the template. If the lesson plans are blurry, click on them for a full size alternative.

Note: The example uses Excel, but it works just as well with Google Spreadsheets.

Excel timecardExcel timecardExcel timecard

–from 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom

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5 (free) Security Posters for Tech Ed

Every month, we’ll share five themed posters that you can share on your website (with attribution), post on your walls, or simply be inspired.

This month: Security

–for the entire collection of 65 posters, click here



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.

Subscriber Special: 2 Free Martin Luther King Day Lesson Plans

Subscriber Special

Until January 18th:

Free Martin Luther King Day Lesson Plans

Two lesson plans to prepare for Martin Luther King Day in January: 1) Students research events leading up to Dr. Martin Luther King’s impact on American history and share them with an Event Chain organized visually, including pictures and thought bubbles. 2) Students interpret the words of Dr. Martin Luther King in their own words in a visual organizer. Great project that gets students thinking about the impact of words on history.
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Designed for grades 4-7, it’s aligned with Common Core and ISTE Standards.
 MLK--His words cover
What’s included in each lesson plan:
  • brief summary of the project
  • Essential Question
  • Big Idea
  • Common Core and ISTE alignment
  • materials required
  • teacher prep required
  • step-by-step instructions
  • extensions to dig deeper into the subject
  • assessment strategies
  • sample grading rubric
  • sample project
  • resources

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