Beginning Graphs in MS Excel

Excel makes graphs simple and easy for beginners. Even my parent helpers are amazed at how much students can do with a simple F11 shortkey and a right click.

If the lesson plans are blurry, click on them for a full size alternative.

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:

Big List of Student-Friendly Websites

I’ve just finished it. Tell me what you think. Add a comment with any sites I’ve left out:

Great Websites for Kids–Click here

Kindergarten through Fifth Grade

How to Become Survivorman–or Bear Grylls–in Third Grade

If you want to spice up a unit on landforms, have students look into surviving these unique natural habitats. To get out with their lives, they’ll have to understand the flora and fauna, dangers and helpers. Here are some websites they can visit to improve their survival toolkit:

A Holiday Newsletter in MS Word for Elementary School

This is another great holiday project for 5th graders (see the holiday calendar here). Publisher templates lay out the columns, headings, articles. All students must do is fill in with their topics and pictures. Be sure that they delete the extra pages at the end before printing.

A Holiday Calendar in MS Word 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.

11 MS Word Tricks Every Teacher Should Know

The faster you teach students to be problem solvers, the more they’ll learn. Computers are a foreign language. Even with small class sizes, the more students can do for themselves, the more fun they’ll have learning the intricacies of technology.

The good news is, students love to be independent. They find it cool to know keyboard shortcuts for getting stuff done. In my class, students can help their neighbors, and they love showing off their problem solving skills. Here are 11 tricks that cover many common problems students will face using MS Word:

How to 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. 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

Kigose–Does it Satisfy it’s Promise of a Student-Friendly Search Engine?

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?

 

How to Excel if You’re a Beginner II

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

How to Excel if You’re a Beginner–I

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

5 Tools for the Teacher’s Technology Toolkit

An example of a Tech Toolkit

Thanks to my colleague, Mr. Steven Anderson, here’s a great Technology Toolkit for teachers (his is in a blog–the one to the side is a workbook sold on Amazon or Scribd)

Most schools and districts spend lot of time and effort trying to get their teachers up to speed on technology and its use/place in the classroom. And honestly that is where a majority of effort should be spent; working with those on the frontlines of instruction. However, rarely, if ever, is much time spent with administrators, working with them on ways they use technology to enhance what they are doing. What can administrators do?

I have put together what I am calling The Administrators Technology Toolkit. (I really should find something more flashy or fun. If you have ideas leave me a comment.) There are some simple, easy to use tools that Administrators can be using right now to, just like teachers, integrate technology into what they do daily.

Tool 1-Twitter
Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a big advocate for Educators to use Twitter for Professional Development and growth. The job of an Administrator is a tough one. Twitter can serve as a place to connect with other professionals and see whats working in other buildings or districts that might work in yours. There are tons of Asst. Principals, Principals, Superintendents and even a few School Board members that I interact with on a daily basis.

Check out this site for tons of resources on getting started and find a several lists of Twittering Administrators and other Education Professionals created by a great friends of mine, Eric Sheninger (@NMHS_Principal) and Shelly Terrell (@shellterrell).

Tool 2-Google Docs/Forms
Its time to go paperless. Flash Drives and External Hard Drivers are great inventions. I carry at least two of them with me where ever I go. However, neither of them have any documents or presentations on them. I exclusively use Google Docs. Everything I need is there. I honestly don’t remember the last time I opened a Microsoft Office product. Even if I get an attachment I open it in Google Docs because I know I will have access to that document not matter where I am. No need to hunt down a cable or USB port for my drives. I access the Internet and have all my documents.

Part of Google Docs is a great feature called Forms. As an Administrator you are probably constantly giving and recieving feedback from your teachers, parents, colleagues, and community. Again, go paperless. Create a Google Form that instantly captures data and enters it automatically on a spreadsheet for analysis. Having your faculty vote on an important issue? Use the Google Forms. (Then you can create snazzy graphs to impress them at the next meeting!)

Check out this site for some great information on Google Docs. Be sure to watch the “Google Docs In Plain English” and “Principals Talk About Google Docs” videos.

Tool 3-Social Bookmarking
I crave resources. Its part of my job. However, the resources I collect do no good if I don’t share them with anyone. Social Bookmarking services like Diigo and Delicious allow me to share websites, lessons, videos and more with anyone who wants them. Both these services allow you to tag your bookmarks making it even more easy to find the resources you need.

Administrators can use Social Bookmarking in one of two ways. If they are like my good friend Eric, they are constantly on the hunt for teaching resources for their teachers. So Eric spends time searching and sharing and making what he finds available through his Delicious Account. The other way administrators can use them is to just search. Sometimes these Social Bookmarking services can be more efficient at finding what you need than a regular Google Search. Also, you can search your friends’ bookmarks, further enriching the experience.

There are a couple of “must-see” tutorials that I have collected. The first is another In Plain English Video, this time on Social Bookmarking. Either Delicious or Diigo are great for Administrators. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Here is a really good Delicious Tutorial and one for Diigo.

Tool 4-Google Reader
I am willing to bet that there are certain websites you check everyday. Perhaps you even have a blog or two that you read. Instead of wasting time visiting each and every website in the hopes there is a new article or post you can use an RSS reader. What is RSS you ask? Really Simple Service. Basically it is a web address that you insert into a reader so all you need to do is visit one site (your reader) and see whats new on all your favorite sites.

One of the best readers out there is Google Reader. Its easy to navigate and add feeds. There are also lists of feeds that you can add with one click like news, technology and more. A new feature is Suggestions. Once you have subscribed to a few feeds, Google Reader will offer some suggested new feeds for you to check out.

So how do you get started? Well, you need to see yet another In Plain English Video, this time on RSS. Next you will want to see this great Google Reader Tutorial. Lastly, every tech savvy administrator needs some blogs to follow. Here are several great lists:
SupportBlogging Educational Blogs
Moving Forward Educational Blogs
Educational Blogs You Should Be Following

Tool 5-Ning
As I mentioned before it is important for all educators, including Administrators, to create networks of other professionals to connect with. I previously mentioned Twitter. Twitter is great for real-time discussion and resource sharing. However why not take the idea of social networking one step further and enrich the experience with video and file sharing, discussion forums, events and specialty groups. Ning does all that!

Ning bills itself as the social network you create. Nings are very popular among educators because there isn’t lot of the “junk” you will find on other social networking sites. Nings are great because you can really customize the content and you can create private spaces for your school or district.

Of course, I want you to check out the Social Networking In Plain English video to get an idea on how social networking works. Then check out this Ning tutorial for more information on how to sign up and get started. You will also need some Nings to visit. Here are just a few:
Educational Administrators Ning
The Educator’s Personal Learning Network Ning
More Educational Nings

Five tools. That’s it, just five to get started with. Of course that’s not all you will need to become a Tech Savvy Administrator but its a good start.

What do you think? What are some other tools or applications you would recommend for Administrators? Maybe you are already a Tech-Savvy Administrator. What tools do you currently use or what suggestions can you offer?

20 Great Research Websites for Kids

Quick, safe spots to send your students for research:

1. All-around research site libraryspot.com
2. Dictionary www.dictionary.com
3. Edutainment site—requires subscription www.brainpop.com/
4. General info research www.infoplease.com/yearbyyear.html
5. Internet research sites for kids http://ivyjoy.com/rayne/kidssearch.html
6. Kids search engine for the internet kids.yahoo.com
7. Math, reading, arcade edutainment www.funbrain.com
8. National Geographic for kids kids.nationalgeographic.com/
9. Nova video programs www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/programs.html
10. Research for kids www.factmonster.com/
11. Research—by grade level www.iknowthat.com/com/L3?Area=LabelMaps
12. Research—chapters on subjects http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/
13. Videos on so many topics www.woopid.com/
14. Research—for kids libraryspot.com/
15. Research—history www.infoplease.com/yearbyyear.html
16. School Tube—learning videos from YouTube. Organized by topics http://sqooltube.com/
17. Science headlines—audio science.nasa.gov/headlines
18. Search the internet www.google.com
19. Thesaurus—a great one www.thesaurus.com
20. World Book Online (subscription required) www.worldbookonline.com/kids

 

More Free Stuff From Google

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):

How to… Just About Anything in Technology

For those of you who have schools or companies that block YouTube, there’s an option if you’re looking for great training vidoes. It’s called Woopid.

Watch free technology training videos. Get help and answer your computer and gadget questions with thousands of video tutorials for PCs, Macs, and tons of different applications.

How to Teach Internet Basics to Kids

Lesson Description

• Federal, state and local governments have spent millions of dollars to connect students to the Internet. By 2005, 94% of public school classrooms had internet access. Hopes are high that Internet use will change the process of education and enhance student learning.
• The internet offers a multitude of freeware to enthuse students about a myriad of educational subjects. The days of purchased software on a budget are gone. If you know what to do.
• Throughout this workbook, we’ve listed dozens of free websites on common academic subjects. In this lesson, we’ll talk about internet basics: How to access those confusing web addresses and links.

Computer Activity

• Start with the basics. Starfall.com is a good site for introducing the internet because it’s easy to maneuver through and quick to enter into the address bar. Type it in for younger students (most kindergartners can’t read all of those letters and dots), but let first and second graders do it themselves—even if it takes a while. They will learn from the mistakes—no spaces in the address, a dot is a period, and so on. Have them save the site to ‘favorites’. Next time, they can open from the bookmark rather than typing (Find the gold star for ‘Starfall’)
• As they master these first steps, add the back arrow, links, icon pictures.
• When the website is interesting enough, students will challenge themselves to work through it. Remind them they’re explorers—like Christopher Columbus or Star Trek—trying new things, going into the unknown, not giving up. Explain this concept to them.
• Remind them the machine won’t break. Have plenty of help the first months so students don’t get frustrated, hands up forever, bored.
• As they have problems, challenge them to solve them. Ask questions about the problem. What has solved similar problems? When you make a suggestion, have them do it. You’re a guide, not a servant. Remind parent helpers to adopt this attitude. There will be a day students move beyond the classroom, and then it’s just them—problem-solvers or victims.
• Here are some websites that never fail to intrigue even the youngest learner:

Games that make you think

Games to teach mouse skills, problem-solving skills

Dr. Seuss

Stories for children

A must at the Holiday—shows children where Santa is and what he’s doing

The Magic Schoolbus

Clifford

Learning that sticks—Game Goo

See the Appendix in 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom for a full list, ordered by grade and topic.

Extensions

• Visit Welcome to the Web

Troubleshooting Tips

• This is hard. (Have enough helpers, and then guide the students to a solution. They’ll be proud of themselves when they can solve the problem alone. And that happens fast—just a couple of weeks!)

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, 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:

From Structured Learning's Tech Lab Toolkit Volume I

What Others Say When They Know I’m a Techie

You’ll probably read this and laugh. Me, what’s to laugh at?

Free Online Tech Classes From MIT and Others

Contemporary wisdom is ‘you get what you pay for’. Not always true. Here’s a long list of FREE internet resources that are high quality, useful and simple to install.

• Top 10 FREE Apps to Install on your computer
• 5 More Must-Have FREE Apps (including the Photoshop clone GIMP)
• 4 FREE Online Keyboarding Programs
• FREE Google Apps
• FREE Microsoft Programming Software
• Carnegie Mellon’s FREE programming software, Alice
• MIT’s FREE Programming software, Scratch

MIT, UC Berkeley, Stanford and others now offer online tech training–for FREE. Read this:

10 Universities Offering Free Online Technology Courses

Campus-based technology courses can be expensive, which is why many people are choosing to take free technology courses online. Some of the best universities in the world offer free technology courses. Examples include Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Free Technology Courses
• Free Engineering and Computer Technology Courses

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology OpenCourseWare site is undoubtedly the best place to find free technology courses online. There are hundreds of courses to choose from, which means you can find a course on nearly any technology topic imaginable.

2. Delft University of Technology

• Free Microelectronics Courses
• Free Offshore Engineering Courses
• Free BioMedical Engineering Courses

The Delft University of Technology offers a number of free technology courses. Most of Delft’s courses cover advanced topics that would be of interest to students in engineering or related fields. New courses are constantly being added to the site.

3. University of California, Berkeley

• Berkeley on iTunes

If you’re looking for free technology courses that you can download to your MP3 player or computer, you’ll definitely want to check out UC Berkley on iTunes. Self-learners can gain access to a wide range of technology courses, lectures and events. Additional courses can be found though webcast.berkeley.edu.

4. Stanford University

• Stanford on iTunes

Berkeley isn’t the only university that makes free technology courses available through iTunes. Stanford University has a similar set-up through their Stanford iTunes project. There are quite a few technology courses and lectures that can be accessed for free already, and more are added on a weekly basis.

5. Rice University

• Free Science and Technology Courses

Connexions, a Rice University organization, hosts a wide variety of scholarly content. The site offers hundreds of free technology courses. Some courses consist of small ‘knowledge chunks.’ Other courses include multiple modules, books and course notes.

6. The Open University

• Free Technology Courses
• Free IT and Computing Courses

There are more than 50 free technology courses that can be taken through The Open University’s online LearningSpace. Courses range from the introductory level to the advanced level and take anywhere from two hours to two weeks to complete.

7. Utah State University

• Free Technology Courses
• Free Computer Engineering Courses

Self-learners around the world can choose from more than a dozen free technology courses when they visit Utah State University’s OpenCourseWare site. Technology topics include, but are not limited to: online communities, instructional technology, interactive learning and computer engineering.

8. University of Southern Queensland

• Technology and Society Course
• Interactive Multimedia Course

The University of Southern Queensland offers two different courses that may be of interest to technology buffs. Both of the text-based courses are free and include materials that are practical for self-learners.

9. Dixie State College of Utah

• Free Computer and Information Technology Courses

The CIT Department at the Dixie College of Utah is another great place to find free technology courses online. Courses would be appropriate for graphic designers, engineers, web developers and computer programmers. Most courses include lecture notes, assignments and project examples.

10. The Tokyo Institute of Technology

• Free Electronics Courses
• Free Communications Courses
• Free Electronic Engineering Courses

If you are looking for advanced technology courses, the Tokyo Institute of Technology is the place to be. This school offers a ton of free technology courses at the graduate level. Topics include everything from electronics to communications systems.

Four Online Sites to Teach Mouse Skills

It sounds easy, but to a five or six year old, holding the mouse, clicking that left button, dragging and dropping while holding a finger down is darn difficult. I found four programs that will make it painless:

Mousing Around–learn clicks, multiple clicks. Don’t be surprised when the kids start shouting out animal names.

Bees and Honey–shorter, but concentrates on clicks and dragging-dropping

Tidy the classroom while learning clicks, double-clicks (difficult for youngers) and drag-and-drop

Mouse Program–for olders who can read, but a thorough exercise of the mouse skills