MICROSOFT OFFICE BLOG – Solve equations and plot graphs in Word and OneNote
Category Archives: Education
Microsoft Educational OFFICE add-on – MATH
Filed under Education, Microsoft Office
Office tools – MS Chemistry Add-in AVAIALBLE for WORD
MICROSOFT OFFICE BLOG – Blinded me with science: Introducing the Chemistry Add-in for Word
Filed under Education, Microsoft Office
Getting Organized – Kids need help – some Adults as well!
I think today more than any other time, being able to organize is a key life skill that we all have to MASTER!
Technology has given us some great advancements and I improved a lives in certain ways. The same technology that has improved our lives has also given us an always on life style – there is very little down time and way too much information for anyone to manage.
There are books and seminars that you as an adult can attend or read, but what about our kids. How are we going to help them master this very difficult process. For some it can be really easy, but I think for most it is something that has to be learned and our kids need our help.
Ten Ways to Help Your Child Get Organized
by Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities
Developing good organizational skills is a key ingredient for success in school and in life. Although some people are by nature more organized than others, anyone can put routines and systems in place to help a child “get it together.” The Coordinated Campaign for Learning Disabilities has compiled a list of strategies that you can use to help your child get — and keep — her life under control.
1. Use checklists.
Help your child get into the habit of keeping a “to-do” list. Use checklists to post assignments, household chores, and reminders about what materials to bring to class. Your child should keep a small pad or notebook dedicated to listing homework assignments. Crossing completed items off the list will give him a sense of accomplishment.
Filed under Education, Information, Kids
Notebook in the CLOUD – 10th Grade Students – TEAM Resource – Evernote
If you have been reading this blog you know I am user of Evernote and starting to use it more as I learn from others on just how powerful this tool can really be.
On the Evernote BLOG there was a great story about how a TEACHER introduced Evernote to her students for a specific project and they love it and have started educating other students as they all feel it’s a great tool.
Why I chose Evernote
I felt Evernote would be a perfect solution for the students’ need to archive and organize traditional and non-traditional sources of information. In addition to the more common features, Evernote offered some specific ones that made it the perfect tool for what we would be using it for. These included:
- Handwritten notes – Students could take handwritten notes if they preferred and still add them to their research by scanning or taking a snapshot.
- Flexibility – Students could use Evernote on their smartphones with apps available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and Android, as well as at home using any computer they had access to.
- Sharing – Students could make their notebooks public and import the RSS feed into Google Reader, iGoogle, or Netvibes.
- Email – The unique email address every user gets is very useful for adding things to your account from different places.
FULL ARTICLE –
How my students started using Evernote – Education Series
TEXTBOOKS – K12 Electronic Teacher Guides & Students Text
As technology spreads so does the need for the K12 educational system to keep up. What a better way to use your dollars better and use a new non-profit organization to get FREE electronic textbooks for you kids and Teachers. Lets face it – a lot of districts are having problems keeping up in all ares’ due to budget cuts. You have to take a look at this and see if you can make it work in your district, just think – even if you modify one or two classes – how much will you save on text books – either saving the parents money or being able to use that money for other projects.
If it means changing your lesson plan or presentation of those lesson, it just might be worth a look at this new service.
CK12.org – FlexBooks – Electronic Textbooks – FREE
Key Benefits
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Access to free textbooks |
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High quality educational content created by educators |
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Content customized to reflect “today” and the different needs of students |
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Quality ensured by CK-12‘s Community of Educational Practitioners |
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Increased pedagogic choice for all teachers, aligned to state standards as well as developmentally correct content |
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Supported by publishing tools that facilitate quick and easy content creation and distribution |
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Collaborative learning via a community where authors, teachers, and students create, access, share, rate, recommend, and publish |
Filed under Books, E-book, Education, eReader, Green, Internet, IPad, Open Source, Text Books, WEB
NOTEBOOKS – in the CLOUD – It’s more then just NOTES
I have a few times talked about Notebooks in the cloud and I have really only used the WEB application to quickly put something down so I could view and review later at home or the office. I recently installed the desktop application for Evernote and started doing a little more research and found out just how powerful this tool really is. If nothing else you need remember that these documents you create are FULLY SEARCHABLE – even notes that you scan or take a picture of! Yes you can scan a document, put it in Evernote and your able to search that document. Two other great features if you have the application or plugins working you can mark anything and add it as a note, you can also send an email to your account and it becomes a note. Sorting is based on Notebook name and/or tags, plus search.
Evernote posted a great little article for STUDENTS – this is more for University students, but HS kids with Notebook in the classroom should be able to benefit as well.
For sure this can apply to anyone sitting at home or in an office. With most business computers being locked down so you can’t install software, but that is OK because whatever you do at home on your desktop is SYNC‘d with the WEB and you can access the WEB version of your notes anywhere.
10 Evernote Tips For School – Education Series
10 Great Ways Students Can Use Evernote to Study Smarter, Not Harder.
Filed under Cloud, Education, Information, Management, Software
Windows LIVE – Plug-ins – Photo Gallery – MovieMaker – Writer
Personally I use a number of the LIVE applications and feel they are very good, not always the best, but they get the job done. I know for certain there are a lot of schools using MovieMaker and PhotaGallery and you might want to know about the new website for plug-ins for these products.
This week we are introducing a new Windows Live plug-ins website, which allows you to download and submit plug-ins for Windows Live Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, and Writer.
From the new plug-ins site, you can download and add the Inkubook Photo Book Uploader to Windows Live Photo Gallery to create beautiful professional quality photo books, or get the Insert Video plug-in for Windows Live Writer, which allows you to insert videos into your blog posts from places like YouTube and MySpace. We’ve updated our submission process to make it easier for developers to contribute new plug-ins to the community, and we encourage you to create and upload your own plug-ins.
Filed under Education, Microsoft, Microsoft LIVE Essentials, Software, WEB
Good NEWS for Indiana – Not Great, but Good – No additional Budget Cuts in 2011
Yesterday Bennett announced that no additional cuts will be made with K12 funding for 2011. This is good news for most, but it’s not going to help the short falls already created from previous cuts. Many Districts are hurting and are still going to have issues continuing business as in the past.
Another major concern for many districts is losing students which lowers the over all budget for that District. I believe that is the new world – This is part to do with the availability of students being able to move to Districts of choice.
FULL ARTICLE – jconline.com – UPDATE: State superintendent says no school cuts in ’11
What everyone has to focus on is that it could be a lot worse, other States are not as lucky and will be doing more cuts this year. The same is better than the alternative.
Educate – Kids today to Save them from themselves Later! Energy Drinks & Alcohol
This is for sure not a technology post, but I believe it’s important.
For most of you this is not a reality yet as the kids your might be dealing with are hopefully too young to be drinking alcohol. They can certainly get energy drinks and this should also be limited and controlled. Habits started today will continue when they can drink alcohol and they will!
I have tried a few energy drinks – just to try… I have heard about Alcoholic Energy Drinks and always thought it was a bad combination. Well the FDA is looking at this currently as there has been a number of deaths due to the consumption of this type of product. This I had not heard about till I read the New York Times article – F.D.A. Expected to Act on Alcoholic Energy Drinks.
This is great news that they are moving forward, though a number of experts believe too slow in doing something about it. Well truly it has to be only the START of the process, I say this because kids will be kids and they will buy the two products and do the mixing themselves. I was at an event a few months ago at a BAR and guess what was served up as an optional mix for your alcohol You guessed it – A ENERGY DRINK – you mix it and drink it!
Stopping the Alcoholic version is not going to solve anything – once again kids will be kids and all we can do is make sure they are aware and hopefully they make the right decisions. I guess we can make it harder to got the product – I would think any store on campus should not be selling Energy Drinks, but again as with everything else – they will get it somewhere.
New York Times article – F.D.A. Expected to Act on Alcoholic Energy Drinks.
Education – Education and knowledge is what our kids need!
Related Articles
- The Case Against Banning Four Loko (dailyfinance.com)
Technology used Right! Keep attention – Keep on track – Keep them Alert!
I always like when technology is used and it gives a huge return in kids education. Yes it means changing the way your lesson plans are presented, yes it means being creative and a little more work in preparation – but doesn’t the end result justify the investment. It can even make your job of teaching more enjoyable and rewarding when you see more kids staying on track and engaged in the class. At the end of the day we want the kids to leave school each day with some understanding, some new insight and thinking about and growing in some manner.
I have heard and seen advertising for these clickers for sometime, but never really understood just how valuable these could be. I thought it was just another technology gimmick! How could these really be used to keep kids on track and gaining their full attention throughout a lesson. What a great article that ran today in New York Times, talking about how many Universities are utilizing this technology to do just that! About half-million students are using them today.
EVANSTON, Ill. — If any of the 70 undergraduates in Prof. Bill White’s “Organizational Behavior” course here at Northwestern University are late for class, or not paying attention, he will know without having to scan the lecture hall.
Many kids don’t really like these clickers, while others believe it helps them keep on track and do what they really should be doing in class.
Though some Northwestern students say they resent the potential Big Brother aspect of all this, Jasmine Morris, a senior majoring in industrial engineering, is not one of them.
“I actually kind of like it,” Ms. Morris said after a class last week. “It does make you read. It makes you pay attention. It reinforces what you’re supposed to be doing as a student.”
Take a read of the entire article to really get a good understanding – the key is to incorporate the clickers into your lesson plan and get the kids involved throughout the lesson. This approach I believe can be used for any grade as it puts technology in the hands of the child that is more than a little familiar in using it already.
NEW YORK TIMES – More Professors Give Out Hand-Held Devices to Monitor Students and Engage Them
Technology at it’s best!
Filed under Education, Kids, Technology
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