November 9, 2009
This is one of the most popular lessons I teach to Excel beginners. It is relevant, instantly usable and makes sense from the beginning. Before you start this one, be sure to complete Project 70 and 71.


–from 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom. Preview available on Amazon.com and Scribd.com
If you can’t read this, send me an email at info@structuredlearning.net (they’ll forward it) and request a pdf copy

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MS Excel, Tech, excel, fourth grade, homeschool, lesson plans, projects, teacher resources, third grade | Tagged: excel, first grade, fourth grade, homeschool, MS Excel, second grade, teacher resources, Tech |
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Posted by worddreams
November 7, 2009
It’s difficult to find student-safe search engines. To keep out the riff raff often results in not enough sources, like a small library that limits your choices to just those approved by the librarian. Subsequently, I haven’t found one I’m happy with.
A reader suggested I drop in on Kigose.com. It’s powered by Google Custom Search and promises to assist students find safe educational resources from sites without subscription requirements.
I’m always eager to find new resources for my K-8 students, so I decided to try it out. As a test, I searched “Human Body” for websites, to see if it came up with some of my favorites. Here’s what I got:
- It has a nice, clean interface. Appealing for us adults and looks easy-to-use for the intended student audience.
- I got 126 million hits, from many great sites. That’s good.
- But 126 million is too many. When I tried to refine it with “”, it wouldn’t work. Has anyone else had this experience–that limitors don’t work?
- It offers searches in all the major search engines–Google, Yahoo Kids, Encarta (which came up blank), Ask Kids, Kindernet (not very focused), Kids Click (looked great), and Piffany (under construction)
- How to find images wasn’t immediately apparent. Usually Google Images are a wealth of info and excitement for kids, but these didn’t come up. I finally found some under Ask Kids
- the edu-games looked great! Yes, they start with an ad, but it shouldn’t be hard to train the kids to ’skip ad’ and move on to the fun.
Anyone tried this one? Any ideas?

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Tech, fifth grade, first grade, fourth grade, free tech resources, homeschool, internet, third grade, web | Tagged: integrate technology, kid-friendly internet, kigose, safe internet, search engine, student-friendly web search, teacher resources |
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Posted by worddreams
November 6, 2009
An introduction to Excel without the confusion of cells and formulas. Students collect data at home and transfer data to an Excel template at school. Be sure to complete Project 71 first, a lesson that teaches skills needed for this project.



–from 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom. Preview available on Amazon.com and Scribd.com
If you can’t read this, send me an email at info@structuredlearning.net and request a pdf copy

2 Comments |
Tech, excel, first grade, fourth grade, homeschool, lesson plans, projects, second grade, teacher resources, third grade | Tagged: excel, excel for beginners, excel for dummies, learn excel |
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Posted by worddreams
November 5, 2009
An introduction to Excel without the confusion of cells and formulas. Students collect data in the classroom and transfer it to an Excel template in the computer lab. Once you’ve done this one, be sure to try Project 70 and 72–both using Excel for classroom learning.

–from 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom. Preview available on Amazon.com and Scribd.com
If you can’t read this, send me an email at info@structuredlearning.net and request a pdf copy

2 Comments |
MS Excel, Tech, excel, first grade, fourth grade, homeschool, second grade, teacher resources | Tagged: excel, excel for beginners, excel for dummies, learn excel, lesson plans, third grade excel |
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Posted by worddreams
November 2, 2009
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K-5 Tech training, Tech, fifth grade, first grade, fourth grade, free tech resources, geography, homeschool, internet, middle school technology, research, second grade, teacher resources, third grade | Tagged: internet research, kid-friendly research, teacher resources, websites for research |
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Posted by worddreams
October 30, 2009
This from the Netherlands. How’d you like if these were the education issues we faced?
Discriminatory Student Grants Land Netherlands in European Court of Justice
Source: European Commission
Published Thursday, 8 October, 2009 – 13:55
The European Commission is taking the Netherlands to the European Court of Justice over a student grant scheme which discriminates against workers from other EU countries and their families. Dutch legislation imposes a residence requirement for grants to study abroad which puts migrant and frontier workers – including those residing in neighbouring Belgium – at a disadvantage compared to nationals.
“Free movement is a founding principle of the EU which ensures people are not discriminated against on the basis of nationality. Grants to study abroad are a social advantage which should be allocated without discrimination to migrant and frontier workers and their children,” said Vladimír Špidla, EU Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs. “The Netherlands has failed to modify its rules and respect the right to equal treatment so we are now bringing a case before the Court of Justice,” he added. (more)

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Regulations, education reform, social networks, teaching | Tagged: education equity, education policy in Europe, education reform, EU education, international education goals |
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Posted by worddreams
October 29, 2009
Not a MENSA Math Marvel, but able to logically think through an answer. These focus on math, but th
ey address life skills of problem solving:
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Take the official critical thinking quiz* and test your knowledge with questions from our award-winning titles.
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| 1) You have only an 8-liter jug and a 3-liter jug. Both containers are unmarked. You need exactly 4 liters of water.How can you get it, if a water faucet is handy?
Question from Classroom Quickies • Show/Hide Solution
Answer: Fill the 3-liter jug three times, each time dumping the water from it into the 8-liter jug. The third time, this will leave one liter of water in the 3-liter jug, and the 8-liter jug will be filled. Dump the water from the 8-liter jug down the drain, and then empty the one liter of water from the 3-liter jug into the 8-liter jug. Now fill the 3-liter jug again and dump the water into the 8-liter jug. The 8-liter jug now contains 4 liters of water. Various answers are possible.
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| 2) What can you add to 1,000,000 and always get more than if you multiplied the 1,000,000 by the same value?Question from Scratch Your Brain • Show/Hide Solution
Answer: zero, any number less than and including 1.000001, any fraction less than a whole, or any negative number.
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3) Determine the common saying depicted in these verbal picture puzzles.a. DECISION
b. ANOTHER ONE
Question from Think-A-Grams • Show/Hide Solution
Answer: a.) split decision b.) one after another
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4) What is the 50th number in this sequence?
Explain how you got your answer.5, 11, 17, 23, 29, 35, 41, …
Question from Dr. Funster’s Think-A-Minutes • Show/Hide Solution
Answer: 299. The pattern involves a difference of 6 between adjacent terms of the sequence. Add 6 to 5, getting 11, then add 6 to 11, getting 17, then add 6 to 17, getting 23, etc., until 6 has been added 50 times, ending in 299. Answer explanations will vary.
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5) Determine both one-word answers. The floor of ship or boat,
They walk on me at sea;
Where there’s a C, make it an S,
At school you sit on me.
What am I? _______________
Question from Spelling DooRiddles • Show/Hide Solution
Answer: Deck, desk
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| 6) The reason he gave the press for leaving his job was illness and fatigue. That wasn’t exactly the truth and it wasn’t exactly a lie.Why did he leave?
Question from Red Herring Mysteries • Show/Hide Solution
Answer: He was the coach of a professional ball team. The teams owner fired him because he was sick and tired of the teams dismal performance.
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7) Determine both one-word answers.Another word for sick,
Your forehead is quite hot;
Now put an H in front,
A mountain I am not.
What am I?______________
Question from Spelling DooRiddles • Show/Hide Solution
Answer: a.) ill b.) hill
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Use the clues to solve the puzzle.A duck, a goose, a goat, and a horse all entered the barn at different times one day last week.
1) A mammal entered the barn first.
2) The duck entered before the goose.
3) The goose entered ahead of the horse.
Who entered the barn first? ____________
Question from Dr. Funster’s Creative Thinking Puzzlers • Show/Hide Solution
Answer: the goat
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9) Determine the common term or phrase depicted in these verbal picture puzzles.a. CHIEDITOREF
b. T 2222
Question from Think-A-Grams • Show/Hide Solution
Answer: a.) Editor in Chief b.) Tea for two
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10) Use the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division symbols once each to make these equations true.a. 600 __ 200 __ 400 __ 300 __ 200 = 200
b. 200 __ 300 __ 600 __ 400 __ 200 = 200
Question from Dr. Funster’s Quick Thinks Math • Show/Hide Solution
Answer: a.) 600 x 200 / 400 – 300 + 200 = 200 b.) 200 / 300 x 600 – 400 + 200 = 200
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| 11) While relaxing on the deck outside her cabin one summer evening, Vivian fell into a deep trance-like sleep. When she awoke, she felt as if she had slept only an hour or two, but it was now the middle of winter.How could this be?
Question from Red Herring Mysteries • Show/Hide Solution
Answer: Vivian was on the patio of her first class cabin on a cruise ship. She fell asleep just before the ship crossed the equator on a trip from Hawaii to New Zealand. The equator is the dividing line between the opposite seasons. She fell asleep north of the equator while in the middle of summer and awoke two hours later south of th equator in the middle of winter.
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| 12) What do you get when a math teacher is a magician? ________________Question from Scratch Your Brain • Show/Hide Solution
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critical thinking, fifth grade, free tech resources, high school, homeschool, problem solving | Tagged: critical thinking, logical thinking, math quiz, problem solving |
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Posted by worddreams
October 28, 2009
My colleague, Tech Paul, alerted me to this, and it addresses a question I get very often from parents: How do I (fill in the blank)? This package from Google includes (it’s a link. If you can’t read my Jing screen save, click on it):


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Tech, cloud computing, free tech resources, google earth, homeschool, teacher resources | Tagged: free apps, free software, google apps |
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Posted by worddreams