Weekend Website #61: Brainy Widgets from Wolfram Alpha
Every Friday, I’ll send you a wonderful website (or more) that my classes and my parents love. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of your students as they are of mine.
[caption id="attachment_5665" align="aligncenter" width="614"] Educational widgets for your blog or website[/caption]Share this:
Tech Tip #47: Tool Tips
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!
This week’s tip: How do I know what all those icons are for on the toolbar (or ribbon)?
Q: I’m supposed to find a tool on the toolbar, but there are so many and I have no idea what they are for? It’s just as bunch of pictures to me. Is there an easy way to figure this out?
A: To figure out what a tool does on the toolbar or 2007/10”s ribbon, hover your mouse over the tool (place the mouse above it without clicking). A tool tip will appear with a clue as to what it’s for.
This works in any program with a toolbar or ribbon–MS Office, the internet, Photoshop, and more.
To sign up for Tech Tips delivered to your email, click here. (more…)
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20 Websites to Learn Everything About Landforms
If your third grader has to write a report about landforms, try these websites (check here for updates to list):
- About Rivers www.42explore.com/rivers.htm
- Biomes/Habitats http://www.allaboutnature.com/biomes/
- Deserts http://www.42explore.com/deserts.htm
- Explore the Colorado http://www.desertusa.com/colorado/explorriver/du_explorrv.html
- Geography Activities—for teachers www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/
- Geography Game—Geospy kids.nationalgeographic.com/Games/GeographyGames/Geospy
- Geography Quiz Game www.quia.com/pop/114591.html
- Geography Reading Problems www.tv411.org/lessons/cfm/reading.cfm?str=reading&num=8&act=4&que=1
- GeoNet Game www.eduplace.com/geonet/
- Labeling Maps www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=LabelMaps
- Landforms make a greeting www.geogreeting.com/main.html
- Landforms www.edu.pe.ca/southernkings/landforms.htm
- Landforms—matching games, etc. www.quia.com/jg/29.html
- Los Angeles River Tour http://www.lalc.k12.ca.us/target/units/river/tour/index.html
- Map skills www.tv411.org/lessons/cfm/reading.cfm?str=reading&num=8&act=3&que=1
- Mapping Game www.sheppardsoftware.com/states_experiment_drag-drop_Intermed_State15s_500.html
- Rivers Seen from Space http://www.athenapub.com/rivers1.htm
- The Colorado River http://www.desertusa.com/gc/gcd/du_glencaydam.html
- What’s on a Map www.tv411.org/lessons/cfm/reading.cfm?str=reading&num=8&act=2&que=1
- Zambezi River Tour http://www.on-the-matrix.com/africa/zambezi.asp
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Weekend Website #60: Google Tools and Bloom’s Taxonomy
Every Friday, I’ll send you a wonderful website (or more) that my classes and my parents love. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of your students as they are of mine.
[caption id="attachment_5658" align="aligncenter" width="614"] Support Blooms Taxonomy with Google Tools[/caption](more…)
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Tech Tip #49: The Fifteen Second Slideshow
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! (more…)
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Weekend Websites #59: 62 First Grade Websites That Tie into Classroom Lessons
Every Friday I’ll send you a wonderful website that my classes and my parents love. I think you’ll find they’ll be a favorite of your students as they are of mine. Here’s my internet start page for first grade–you’ll see the websites we focused on at the end of this school year
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Tech Ten Commandments–the Christian Version
I posted this list of tech ten commandments. It’s a great list, a way to generally address how to make friends with your computer and the geeks who take care of it for you.
Here’s another list, focused on Lutheran principles. Just as good with a few changes.
The 10 Lutheran Tech Commandments (in new standard version) (more…)
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10 Great Virtual Field Trips
Schools and kids love field trips, but they take a lot of time, money and extra adult supervision that may or may not be available. Thanks to the internet, there are now alternatives that are only as far away as your technology lab.
Here are some of the best available across the wild web of the internet:
- Smithsonian Museum
- Forest Life
- The Moon via Google Earth
- Mars via Google Earth
- Planet in Action via Google Earth
- Ellis Island
- Eternal Egypt
- A Collection of Virtual Field Trips
To:
- science museums
- farms
- Blackwell’s Best Virtual Field Trips
- strife-torn countries
- factories
- more
Want a quick tour right now, via YouTube. This is Mars, complements of Google Earth:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjcCF6cIlPw&hl=en&fs=1&]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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Tech Tip #44: Clean Your Computer Weekly
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!
Q: I’m afraid of getting slammed with viruses, malware, all that bad stuff that comes with visiting the internet. What do I do?
A: If you take reasonable precautions, the chances of being hit are minimized. Here’s what I do:
- Don’t download from music or video sites. They have the greatest amount of malware statistically because the Bad Guys know we-all like getting free music and videos.
- Make sure your firewall is working. Windows comes with a built-in one. Maybe Mac does too. Leave it active. It’s under Control Panel-Administrative Tools (more…)
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Weekend Websites #57: 28 Websites to Teach Tech to Kindergarten-First Grade
The moment students start using the computer, they need to create good habits. That includes not only posture and hand position, but internet use, In my class, that starts in kindergarten. Students need to understand the pros and cons of computer basics, the dangers and benefits of websites, and the right way to use both (they’re not just for games).
Here’s a list of websites I use with my kindergarten and first graders to both introduce them to the computer (and all of its parts) and start them on the right way to surf the internet. I start with internet basics and mouse skills at the beginning of the year and spend the remaining months working through the rest. By second grade, they’re ready for more advanced skills: (more…)