Tech Tip #35: My Program Closed Down

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 was working on my program (writing in Word or making a slideshow in PowerPoint) and it disappeared. Did I lose all my work?

A:  Before you arrive at that decision, try these two steps:

• Check the taskbar. Is your program sitting down there, blinking at you? If it is, click on it to maximize it. Now, all should be OK.
• If the program is closed, re-open the same program. If it’s Word, PowerPoint, Publisher or Excel, a panel shows up on the left prompting you to select one of the auto-saved documents. Pick yours. The program automatically saves every two to ten minutes. You’ve lost some, but not much of your work

Tech Tip #6: The (Horrid Annoying) Publisher Drawing Canvas

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!

When I try to insert a text box or object into Word 2003, a drawing canvas appears around it. It gets in the way–everything has to wrap around it and it leaves too much white space, even when I resize it.

My solution: Get rid of it. It’s huge and designed to allow you to place multiple shapes that are moved and resized as one. Most of us are only interested in inserting one text box, so it is cumbersome, annoying and useless. To turn the drawing canvas off:

Tech Tip #79: Saving Your File so Everyone Can Read it

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 need to make my Word document readable by colleagues that don’t have MS Word. What do I do?

A:  MS Office 2007 and 2010 makes that easy.

#30: A Cover Page in Publisher

Use the Quick Publication template to make a fast cover page for a report, project, etc, in the classroom. Pay attention to layout, grammar, spelling, design.

computer lesson plan

#30: A Cover Page in Publisher

Use the Quick Publication template to make a fast cover page for a report, project, etc, in the classroom. Pay attention to layout, grammar, spelling, design

Magazine in Publisher

#30: A Cover Page

Use the Quick Publication template to make a fast cover page for a report, project, etc, in the classroom. Pay attention to layout, grammar, spelling, design

Click on them for a full size alternative.

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.

#28: My Storybook

Create a ten-sentence story, using characters, setting, plot, rising action, climax and resolution. One sentence per page with a picture to communicate the idea. Include a cover, About the Author. Use this lesson to teach students how to use Publisher’s design gallery

Click on lessons for a full size alternative.

FREE Lesson Plans for K-8 Technology

I go back to my classroom tomorrow so I’ve spent most of the last week trying to organize myself. OK, it’s an oxymoron, but I can’t concede defeat the First Day!

I put together a list of my lesson  plans I used last year to integrate tech into the core classrooms. I’m hoping I can share it with the teachers, let them see what worked last year, what they need more of–that sort of thing.

I’m going to share it with you. Here’s hoping it makes your next year go better.

Technology Lesson Plans to Integrate Technology into classroom Units of Inquiry

Tech Tip #35: My Program Closed Down

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 was working on my program (writing in Word or making a slideshow in PowerPoint) and it disappeared. Did I lose all my work?

A:  Before you arrive at that decision, try these two steps:

• Check the taskbar. Is your program sitting down there, blinking at you? If it is, click on it to maximize it. Now, all should be OK.
• If the program is closed, re-open the same program. If it’s Word, PowerPoint, Publisher or Excel, a panel shows up on the left prompting you to select one of the auto-saved documents. Pick yours. The program automatically saves every two to ten minutes. You’ve lost some, but not much of your work

E-book Sales Surpass Harcovers

Not a surprise to all of us who believe in digital data…

E-Books Top Hardcovers at Amazon

Monday was a day for the history books — if those will even exist in the future. Amazon.com, one of the nation’s largest booksellers, announced Monday that for the last three months, sales of books for its e-reader, the kindle outnumbered sales of hardcover books. In that time, Amazon said, it sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcovers for which there is no Kindle edition.

Where Would You Like to Go Today?

Are you here for a lesson plan… Tech tips… Humor? Click the category on the sidebar and you’re there.

I notice lots of readers are clicking on the pictures, hoping it’s a link to a category. I have to confess: I was unable to get the pictures to act as links. I don’t think WordPress can do that. I spent quite a while trying. I can do it if I put each picture in separately (rather than as a two-column album), but it’s difficult to maneuver. Until I solve that you’ll have to visit the Categories section on the sidebar. You’ll get a group of projects on that topic, mixed ages:

Tech Tips

KidPix Projects

Google Earth Projects

Photoshop Projects

Keyboarding Projects

MS Word Projects

Publisher Projects

PowerPoint Projects

Excel Projects

Computer Humor

Tech Tips

Anyone know how to make the pictures in a picture gallery act as links? Hmmm….

Tech Tip #16: Email That Document

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!

#110: Publisher Skills Assessment for Grades 3-8

This assessment is comprehensive, designed not to test students. but assess their knowledge as an aid to you in determining where to begin. Use it when you start a new class or to determine where are the holes in their learning.

#51: History Trifold in Publisher–Grades 4-7

This lesson is a crowd pleaser. Students create a timeline showing what was happening around the world while they lived their lives. I’ve found this generates lots of discussion between students and their parents as they try to understand what the world events were.

Click on each page of lesson plan.

#50: American Revolution Magazine in Publisher

This project includes everything the student user will require throughout high school. It has so many skills, every student will find one that grabs their imagination.

Reminder: Make this the second magazine they attempt (unless they’re in middle school) so they’ve had some practice with the more basic skills. You might try the California Mission magazine one year and this the next.

#53: Colonization Trifold Brochure in Publisher

Use each panel in the trifold (there are six) to cover a different topic you’re discussing in class. Include the importance of the front and back cover, as well as major ideas.

Click on each page of lesson plan.

#52: Indigenous Cultures Magazine in Publisher

Create a magazine on any topic you’re covering in class using text, pictures, diagrams, charts. Add a cover and a table of contents.

#49: California Missions Project–in Publisher

Millions of third and fourth graders study California missions. Here’s a great project that brings it to life with some writing, lots of pictures and a dash of creativity that will excite every student.

Tech Tip #7: Transparent Backgrounds

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!

#21: A Holiday Card in Publisher

Publisher cards are easy enough for second graders–even early readers. Pick a template, add a picture to personalize, add their name–and they’re done. It takes about 15 minutes. Kids always feel great about creating these greeting cards:

#22: A Holiday Flier in Publisher

This is the only project that’s easier than Project 21 (the holiday card in Publisher). There’s no folding and the templates are bright, colorful and exciting for kids as young as second grade:

#23: A Holiday Calendar in MS Publisher for Elementary School

Kids love making this calendar. They get to talk about their upcoming vacations and hear what their friends are doing. It’s simple enough for third grade with advanced tools that satisfy a fifth graders growing intellect.

Textbooks Should be Digital, not Hard Copies

`These all fit in an ereader. Photo credit: Nemo

Digital textbooks are coming, whether publishers want them or not. California announced 17 will be rolled out for the new school year. Not a lot, but a start, and once students and teachers use them, they’re going to love them. Because of budgets, it’ll probably take until the current hard copy textbooks must be replaced, but I predict by then it’ll be a no-brainer, that Amazon and all the others who have digital book readers will come up with a way to get those into the hands of students for little or no cost, to sell their digital books.

A deeper look at the problems oft-quoted as standing in the way of digital shows they are easily solved:

• Everyone can’t read a digital book because of the various formats. Not if you sell the book as a pdf file like Scribd.com does. Then, it’ll pop up on any computer.
• Everyone doesn’t have a computer. First, schools should have a 1:1 ratio of computers/students, but that’s another issue. The money schools save on textbooks will fund either the computers or the readers. Or, as I said, digital textbook publishers will figure out how to solve that problem to sell their books. (An aside on the price of textbooks. If you haven’t bought any college texts lately, Google them. They are the high-end of pricey books)
• Students can’t take notes on digital books. (I can’t believe someone offered this one up) With digital textbooks and unlike current texts, students can highlight and bookmark important parts of a chapter, even copy it to their notes, then erase it all at the end of the school year.

I’ll give you a real-life example. I sell my technology textbook on integrating technology into the classroom for $24.97 on Amazon and $13.97 on Scribd.com.

Here’s another story (read my post about digital textbooks here), this one from NYT, discussing the importance of digital textbooks:

Learn Publisher Basics II

My first post on this topic is actually more difficult. I started with it because it is more useful for kids. They love making personal cards and they can excel at this quickly. It’s always a favorite in my class. We give birthday cards to other teachers, congrats cards to fellow students, and invites to watch our latest Tech Show.

Here’s a card/flier in Publisher that’s even simpler. It’ll take about fifteen minutes even for beginners.

Created by one of my second graders

• Open Publisher, Publications for Print. You’ll see cover pages displayed in the middle of the screen. Double click one with a layout you like.
• As before, adjust color and font schemes.
• Delete the existing picture (click once and push ‘delete’). Use clipart to insert one that fits your theme
• Click on the ‘Heading’ text and type your greeting. Don’t adjust font size–it does it for you as you type
• Click the subheading and add a note.

That’s it. You’re ready to share it!

Learn Publisher Basics I

Start with a card. These are easy enough for a first grader and everyone loves them. By fifth grade, they can create one in the five minutes before heading off to a birthday party.

• Open Publisher. Go to ‘publications for print’, ‘quick publications’, ‘greeting cards’. Pick the one you want.
  

  Unfolded Publisher Greeting Card

• For younger students, leave the cover alone.
• For olders, 1) adjust color schemes and font schemes to your preference. They’re on the left panel, toward the top, 2) pick a verse you like with ‘select a suggested verse’ at the bottom of the left panel, 3) if you want your own verse, change the text by clicking on it, 4) change the picture by deleting it and replacing it with one from clipart (insert-picture-clipart) or Google images (Copy-paste is fine from Google. Be sure you’ve selected a non-copyrighted one)
• Use the tabs at the bottom to change pages (1, 2, 3, 4). Go to page two. All ages: add a picture to the left side of the card. This can be from clipart or Google images.
• Go to page three. As with the cover, leave it if you’re a young user. Make changes if you’re older.
• Go to page four. Make sure your name is there after the phrase, Made especially for you by

That’s it. Check it over and print. Don’t forget to fold. I have lots of kids who don’t realize they’re supposed to fold it–twice–to create a real greeting card.

Later this week, we’ll make an even simpler card in Publisher. Be sure to tune in.