Staff Meeting Tips 12-11-13 - GMail

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Staff Meeting Tech Tips 11-13

• WiFi icons and troubleshooting
• Digital images pixels and image resizer
• Movenote

Watch the movenote!
View the Google Presentation!

SEN Teacher

On the SEN Teacher site you can customize and print some cool worksheets!

Customize Math worksheets like:

Customize Reading worksheets like:

PBS LearningMedia

PBS LearningMedia has compiled and categorized thousands of digital media tools to spice up your lessons.  Find video segments from how caves are made to solids, liquids and gases to interviews with famous authors.  They have interactive activities to create stories or compare fractions!  You can filter your search by grade level, subject or Common Core Standards.

iOS 7

Now that you've got the go ahead to update your iPad to ios7, here are a few tips...

1. Log in to your laptop as yourself.
2. Open the iTunes program on your computer.
1. If a message appears declaring that there is a newer version of iTunes, download and install the new version.
2. You may need to put your apple id/password in.
3. Wait until the  update is downloaded and installed.
3. Plug your iPad into your computer.
4. A message will appear declaring that there is an ios software update available.Click download and install.
5. If a message appears about there being content on your iPad that hasn’t been transferred, ignore it and click continue.
6. Click Continue and Agree.

Your iPad will begin to back up and update.  This may take a while.

Here's how to respond on each page of the setup. (Page order may be different than listed below or you may not see every page depending on how your iPad is set up.)

• Update Complete -Click Continue
• WiFi- Choose RTSD26-D. ( If asked, use your school username/password)
• Location Services - Click Enable Location Services
• Apple ID - Click Sign in with Your Apple ID and then enter your apple id and password
• Terms and Conditions - Click Agree (2ce)
• iCloud- Click Use iCloud
• Find My iPad- Click Use Find My iPad
• iMessage and FaceTime- Colick Continue/Next
• iCloud Keychain- Click Set up Later
• Create a 4 digit passcode- type in a passcode
• Click Get Started

One last step...

Go to the App Store on your iPad
Click Updates
Click update all

Speakaboos

Speakaboos

This cool site for PK-2 has online books, videos, games songs more!  There are fairy tales, folk tales,  fables, holiday stories, Arthur books, nursery rhymes and more!   Some of the ebooks are narrated by celebrities like Kevin Bacon or Kelly Rippa.   There is even a Speakaboo App!

Pop-Up Blockers

Many Pop-Ups can be annoying.. However, some Pop-Ups are essential  parts of certain programs we use, like Reading Streets.  You can set your browser to always allow Pop-Ups from trusted websites so you don't have to go through the hassle of clicking allow each time you use the site.  Below are directions to set it and forget it for Chrome and IE!

Chrome

Go to Settings

Click Advanced Settings

Under Privacy, Choose Manage Exceptions

Type the address of the website you want to always allow Pop-Ups on.

Internet Explorer

Go to Settings

Click Internet Options

Under the Privacy Tab, Click Settings next to Turn on Pop-Up Blocker

Type the address of the website you want to always allow Pop-Ups on

Public Schools NOT Broken

Please watch this two part interview from the Daily Show on 10-30-13.  Diane Ravitch discusses the influence poverty, the common core, standardized assessments and teacher evaluations are having on education today. I was impressed.  She makes sense.


Part 1


Part 2

Quick Quotes

On the ReciteThis website, students can quickly and easily turn a sentence into a polished, professional looking image.  This image can be printed or saved and inserted in to a presentation.  This site would be fun to use when working with famous quotations, idioms, book or movie reviews, etc...

On-Line Timers

From the creators of the most commonly used on-line stopwatch/timer, http://www.online-stopwatch.com ,

Comes a group of fun, classroom timers.   http://www.online-stopwatch.com/classroom-timers/

... and many more!  Check them out!  My favorite is the snail race!

Staff Meeting Tips Oct 9

1.  Anatomy of Chrome
2.  Search Bar vs. Address Bar
3. Pin Tabs and Restore Closed Tabs

Reading Streets FAQ's

Why do my students have assignments that I didn't give them?

After taking a test on Reading Streets, the program automatically assigns worksheets for each student based on their test scores.  The worksheets end up in their "To Do" list.  They are not interactive and need to be printed.

You can turn this feature off by unchecking the include remediation box when assigning the test.

If a student was assigned remediation based on a test you will see that the assigner was Success Tracker.

If you see multiple assignments that are the same, they may be from different tests.  If a student needed remediation on Facts and Details after the baseline test and after the week 1 test, the worksheet will be on there twice.

You can either go in through the teacher portal and delete the assignments or just have your kids click I'm Done on each of them and they will go away.

(Thanks Amy P.!)

Why can't my students see the assignment I just assigned?

Two possible reasons...

1.  The start/end date weren't configured correctly.

2.  The student may have more than one page of assignments.  New assignments end up at the end of the list so you might have to turn the page.

Chrome's New Look

You may have noticed that when you open a new tab in Chrome you no longer see your icons for apps/sites like Gmail or Google Drive.

To find those icons you will need to click the little Apps icon near the top left corner of your browser.

You can also add bookmarks to your favorite apps/sites...

Or set tabs to open to your favorite apps/sites...

Which Time Zone Are You In?

Wondering why your Google Calendar events aren't matching up to other calendars?

If you are signing up for events on other people's Google calendars, you will need to make sure your calendar has the correct Time Zone set.

1.  Right Click on your Calendar and Choose Calendar Settings

2.  Then change your Time Zone.

Choosing the Right Program

Do you want to open PDFs with Adobe not Sumatra?  Do you want your pictures to open in Windows Picture Viewer instead of Picassa?  Do you want to choose iTunes to play all your music?

There are times when you might want to change the default program for open certain files.  

On a PC...

1. Right click the file name
2. Click Open With
3. Click Choose default program
4. Click on or Browse for the program you want to use
5. Make sure the Always use box is checked