Technology Gems, Ideas, and Facts

Friday, March 19, 2010

Gem ~ a website or application that might work well for you or your students

I’m not sure about you, but the 2010 census form arrived in our mailbox this week. You can’t listen to the radio or watch TV without hearing about the census. But do our students know what it’s all about? Scholastic has put together a collection of resources related to the census. There are lesson plans for grades K-12, including versions for ESL/ELL, as well as information for families, and an interactive site for elementary kids. (http://www.scholastic.com/census/)

Idea ~ a way to enhance your LFS lessons with technology

PicBite is an online service that allows you to upload images and add text. This could be an interesting way to present an activator to your class or have them summarize a lesson. You’ll be provided with a link to your finished picture or you could take a screenshot and save the image that way. Here’s a quick example I made. (http://picbite.com)

Fact ~ Just a bit of information

Just a reminder…anytime you enter a request into the MASD Help Desk site for a problem with your computer  it’s important to provide the number of the computer. This helps our staff to identify the machine and sometimes even enables them to fix it remotely. The number that we need is the inventory number. It will begin with a two-digit year followed by a number, for example 07-555. It will generally be found on a label or even written on the computer itself. Be sure that you provide the number on the computer (the processor) and not the monitor (except for machines that are all one piece).  (http://helpdesk.mbgsd.org/)

Have a great weekend!

Anne