It’s a Widget

January 29th, 2012

 Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Synch” ~ 1-29-2012

One of our favorite resources across any curriculum at any level is

Wolfram|Alpha.

Within the Wolfram|Alpha site, you will find a Widget Gallery that includes 29 categories.

What is a widget?

According to Wolfram|Alpha’s “Definition Widget”,
it is “…a device or control that is very useful for a particular job.”

A “widget” is described in the introduction to their tour as “A free, personalized mini-app that leverages the depth and breadth of the Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine.”

To learn more about Wolfram|Alpha’s Widgets,
we invite you to take “The Tour”.

And if you’re feeling very confident and are up to the challenge,
you might want to try your hand at creating your own custom-made widget that works just for your unit of study or curriculum.

I did…

 

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It’s No Picnic…

January 22nd, 2012

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Synch” ~ 1-22-2012

My Sunday Morning Tip took a 180˚ when I opened up my email this morning.

One of my favorite “fun” online photo editing sites will soon be gone.

Picnik.com is the only website I love to watch as it loads.
While the gears turn and synch together,
I look forward to the random messages that create imaginary images that are both powerful and pleasant.

“Fluffing clouds…”
“Blooming blossoms…”
“Picking blackberries…”
“Stealing Picnik basket…”
“Planting trees…”
“Floating kites…”
“Cueing bird songs…”
“Applying sunscreen…”
“Buttering sandwiches…”
“Growing grass…”
“Painting sky…”
“Chasing butterflies…”
“Spreading blanket…”
“Picking flowers…”

Once loaded, Picnik offers a wide menu of options, even without a paid subscription.

The sad news is that on April 19th, 2012, Picnik will be closing.

And that is, indeed, sad.

The good news is, that until that date, ALL of the “Paid Premium” effects and features are available FREE to ALL visitors.

(You know how we love “free”.)

If you have a paid subscription, they will refund this past year’s payment,
“even if you are on your very last day of an annual membership”.

Picnik has added a feature, Picnik Takeout, which “allows you to download your photos to your desktop in convenient zip files”.

There is no limit to how many times you use this feature until closing day.

If you post your pictures on Flickr,
and use Picnik to edit them,
that service will no longer be an option when Picnik closes,
but…

Flickr has announced an upcoming set of editing tools within their site,
and in their words:

“…we are working on making the editing experience even better on the site.
We know you care about speed, simplicity, and quality
and this is exactly what we are working to provide you with.
More on this soon, but we can’t wait to show you what we have in store.”

Questions?
Visit Picnik’s FAQ Page here.

Ready to take advantage of this 3-month service?
Visit Picnik…

and watch the clouds fluff and the grass grow for an early, much needed spring…

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Grade Essays Faster?!

January 15th, 2012

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Synch” ~ 1-15-2012

There it was.
In BIG, BOLD font.

“Grade Essays Faster”.

“Look, we can’t grade the essays for you, but we can reduce the repetitive, inefficient manual labor involved — and in doing so we open up a new world of invaluable student data.

Welcome to the future.”

Really?

I have friends who are English teachers.
I know how much time they spend grading papers.

Rough drafts.
Revised copies.
Final copies.

I don’t claim to know much more beyond fifth grade essays,
and what I had to write as a student, myself.

(Please don’t judge them. They tried.)

I do know that my teachers,
those who guided me, taught me, and encouraged me,
had to have put in countless hours reading and suggesting and correcting what I had written.

When I discovered this website, I thought it surely would be a tool that, as an English teacher, could be as valuable and indispensable as a calculator must be for a Math teacher.

Essaytagger.com is free during their “Beta Period”,
and that ends on February 1st.

Essaytagger.com is developed by Keith Mukai, M.Ed., a high school English teacher who is now the founder and CEO of EssayTagger.com.

Once the “Beta Period” ends, there will be a cost that is described here, in the FAQ Section.
Early adopters during this period will be “rewarded”.

Here are some quick links to videos that describe the program in more detail.

So, those of you who teach English,
or those of you who know English teachers,
I encourage you to check out this site and “share the love”.

Wouldn’t it be nice if more of us could “have a life”?

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Now You See It…

January 8th, 2012

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Synch” ~ 1-8-2012

Lately I’ve been reading some updates on Twitter and Facebook describing the need for reading glasses.

Usually these updates generate comments from “friends” who are feeling their pain.

The consensus is that basically, this whole “aging-process” stinks.

Now, I am older than most of our followers, friends, clients, and peers.

Quite frankly, I am very happy to be getting older.

Sure beats the alternative.

Reading glasses are part of my wardrobe, and can be found on my nose or on top of my head.

(Sans the pearl neck-chain.)

And in my classroom, there were several pairs found in many convenient spots.

However, if you find yourself at your computer without those stinkin’ things,
here is a quick, free solution.

Download a virtual screen magnifier from our friends at Source Forge.
You will have the option of placing a shortcut on your desktop, and I have placed one on my taskbar.

Click on the icon, it appears, move your mouse to view, and click to remove it.

Simple. And we like simple.

This tool can also help your students with special needs while viewing web pages with small font. There is no longer a need to reset your screen resolution to meet their accommodations.

With this post, we start the new year.
We hope all of our friends had a wonderful holiday,
and are back “at it” with a refreshed sense of spirit and commitment.
We look forward to seeing many of you again, as our schedule begins forming for the coming months, and most of all, we look forward to teaching and learning as we prepare for our sessions.

Have a great week!

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Reinvention vs. Resolutions

December 18th, 2011

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Synch” ~ 12-18-2011

Only one more week.

A short week.

You can do it.

I took two subbing jobs last week, and I felt your pain.
Indoor recesses + Christmas programs + Christmas Season + a “Sub” = Ugghh!

So, let’s move on and look ahead.

I’m going to share two sites that might give you something to think about and possibly motivate you to get through the next couple of weeks.

One of them has become my “friend”, but the “Day Zero Guys” have added a “new twist”.

Day Zero was a site I shared with you back on October 3rd. I created my “Bucket List” and have been slowly adding to it, checking things off of it, and it has kept me focused on so many goals. Some, I admit, are frivolous, but some are very, very important. I have kept my “List” open to share with others, and that has helped me stay accountable.

Now Day Zero has added “7 Things X 2012”.
Rather than the standard resolutions,
Day Zero suggests seven goals for the new year and a platform to share those goals with others.

The seven areas that they suggest are:

  • learning something new,
  • developing a new habit,
  • breaking an old habit,
  • taking a vacation (maybe someplace different?),
  • searching for something (possibly something new in your life?),
  • trying something new, and
  • improving a personal characteristic.

I am very task/goal-orientated, and this is something I would definitely share with my students. It seems that by the time we return from our holiday break, the New Year has begun and it feels too late to begin personal goals. This site might give students something to think about over their break, and a way to share the personal goals they have set for themselves.

The lessons we teach in our classrooms aren’t always about academics.

The second site is “The Daily Nudge”.
This is a free site without advertisements that promises to help you make changes by emailing you daily reminders to stay the course.

“Change takes time and repetition, like drops of water changing stone.”

Hopefully, these ideas will give you a fresh way to view the New Year as you close your classroom doors this week to join your families in celebrating the holiday season.

I’m going to do the same as I “unplug” and focus on Christmas and family.
With that, Shannon and I want to wish all of you the very best Holiday Season filled with priceless memories and for those traveling, a safe journey.

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Deck the Halls with Fonts Galore

December 11th, 2011

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Synch” ~ 12-11-2011

Santa LOVES the "Holiday Fonts"!

Let the “downloading” begin…

This week we’ve included some Holiday fonts to download to use for bulletin boards, banners, newsletters, Christmas cards, SMARTBoard lessons, and (gasp) worksheets.

(Sometimes a kid just wants a pencil, and that’s okay, too.)

The first site contains 24 different holiday fonts and symbols, many appropriate just for winter.

Holiday fonts from a “How to Geek” Girl.

She also has a link to show you, with screen captured images, how to install, manage, and delete fonts on your PC.

Usually we take care of these details, but at this time of year, I’m all about the management of time.

The “How to Geek” Girl explains the “whole font thing”.

Once you have installed your font, you can type the font label into your toolbar font pull-down menu to find it.

One of the easiest ways I have found to install a font is to simply drag or copy the .tff file right into the font folder.

If 24 different fonts are just not enough for you, you might want to try these:

Here are 79 more options. These fonts are filtered by “popularity”:

After clicking on the link below, you can continue to the second page from the bottom link.

dafont.com

The second site lists “222” different fonts and the tags used to filter those fonts are on the side:

fontspace.com

Next are 39 fonts on two pages:

acidfonts.com (Really?)

Sometimes you will find the same font submitted by the same developer across several of these sites, but if you like a lot from which to choose, this is a good start.

Finally, I am including a link to a Microsoft Template that can be used with Avery Label products to print your own gift tags. We always rely on Microsoft as a free, safe, and copyright-free resource.

Have a wonderful Sunday,

and now I am off to buy Christmas tree lights and choose the “perfect tree” to complete a few more things on my “Holiday To-Do List”.

Once you have installed your font, you can type the font label into your toolbar font pull-down menu to find it.

 

One of the easiest ways I have found to install a font, is to simply drag or copy the .tff file right into the font folder.

 

If 24 different fonts are just not enough for you, you might want to try these:

 

Here are 79 more options. These fonts are filtered by “popularity”:

 

After clicking on the link below, you can continue to the second page from the bottom link.

dafont.com

 

 

The second site lists “222” different fonts and the tags used to filter those fonts are on the side:

fontspace.com

 

 

Next are 39 fonts on two pages:

acidfonts.com (Really?)

 

 

Sometimes you will find the same font submitted by the same developer across several of these sites, but if you like a lot from which to choose, this is a good start.

 

Finally, I am including a link to a Microsoft Template that can be used with Avery Label products to print your own gift tags. We always rely on Microsoft as a free, safe, and copyright-free resource.

 

Have a wonderful Sunday,

and now I am off to buy Christmas tree lights and choose the “perfect tree” to complete check off a few more things off my “Holiday To-Do List”.

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Holiday Math

December 4th, 2011

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Synch” ~ 12-4-2011

We know.

It’s hard to keep the “Kiddos” focused without turning into “The Grinch”.

So, we decided to offer you some help to get you through the next few weeks.

If you teach Math, here are some links to add some “Holiday Cheer” to your lessons.

Make sure your Adobe Flash and Java are up-to-date.

Watch out and be warned.

Some of these are slightly “addictive”.

Light the Christmas Tree (Problem solving with rotations/alignments.)

The Twelve Games of Christmas (A little bit of a lot of math.)

Operation Snowman (Problem solving using which operation?)

One Hundred Snowballs (Count and move 100 snowballs.)

Don’t Break the Ornaments (Use the pillows to catch/bounce Them.)

Christmas Sudoku (Without numbers, so think visually!)

Penquin Number Units (What units make a number?)

A Christmas “Cut the Rope” (You get “do-overs”.)

“Mouse-over” all the links to find another resource hidden in a link.

Hang in there.
(And it’s OK to “count down”.)

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“Stitch It”

November 27th, 2011

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Synch” ~ 11-27-2011

It’s time to share all of the hard work and creativity you put into that decorating!

We’ve found a fun and free way to do that.

Hurry over to “Photosynth” and download this app to your iPhone, iPod Touch, or your iPad2.

I downloaded it as soon as I bought my iPad2, and drove to our cabin to take a spring panorama shot of our lake. I could not believe how EASY it was!

Before this app, I used Photoshop to stitch together my photos, and was amazed at how much easier Photosynth was! It even takes the pictures for you! The more images you stitch together in your panorama, the better your final image is. It not only captures the scene in 360˚ view, but up and down, as well.

(Photoshop:  Now THAT is a program that should generate a two-year degree. I need to add that to my “bucket list” of goals to achieve. What a powerful, but oh-so-overwhelming list of options for one program! However, I can remove stains, wrinkles, “face-shine” and “red-eye” in my photos like nobody’s business.)

If you find Photosynth is “just right” for you,
we would love to see you share your shots on Facebook with us!

It’s time to “show-off”!

Don’t hold back!

We would love to see your classroom, your home, your porch, or whatever you wish to share!

Just send us your link or email your panorama images and we’ll post them in our gallery.

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Two Timely Tips

November 20th, 2011

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Synch” ~ 11-20-2011

Shannon and I were on the road this week presenting at IETC in Springfield and at the Triple-I Conference in Chicago.

We did three sessions in Springfield that included iPads, SMARTBoards, and our favorite web tools.

In Chicago we enjoyed the opportunity to co-present with Dr. Voltz as a team with “Dueling Apps”.

While waiting to present in Springfield, we grabbed a little “down-time” to sit in on a few sessions. Two helpful tips we picked up that we felt were worth sharing apply to our favorite technology pieces, the SMARTBoard and the iPad. (LOVE the iPad!)

We usually toggle our iPads to “airplane-mode” while traveling to conserve the battery when we are working without the Internet. A tip provided by Ledith Whitehall was to use this toggle (found in your settings) as an alternative to rebooting your iPad. It saves a ton of time shutting-down/restarting your device.

 

Here’s a tip for our SMARTBoard users. If you use the “Random Word Chooser” in the Lesson Activity Toolkit, and you find that it makes the choices in the same order, look down in the lower right corner and choose “Reset” and your choices will, once again, be random.

As we begin another week,
we want to take a minute to let all of our friends know how much we appreciate the opportunity to work with you at our workshops and in your schools.

It truly has been a blessing for which we are thankful.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and we wish you the best as you “unplug” to spend family time together with those you love…

Nancy & Shannon
The Recess Chicks

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Outlines Made Easy

November 13th, 2011

Sunday Sit, Sip, and “Synch” ~ 11-13-2011

I’m talking about a free download from rynelf.com.

It’s an “Outline Generator” called Redhaven Outline,
and after “playing” with it for ten minutes this week, I was SOLD.

It only takes minutes to download, but it will save you hours and hours of generating outlines.

It has simplified the concept enough so that your students will be able to use it, as well.

I have included a screen capture,
and with “right clicks” and “click-and-drags”, you can manipulate the “nodes” of your outline.

Finally, when you select/highlight the “Outline Title”,
you can select the pull-down menu from “Reports” and choose “Export to clipboard using active report”.

Next, open your favorite word-processing program, and paste in your outline from the clipboard.

If you like, you can change the outline specifications through your word-processing program. I’ve included a link to view the outline generated from the screenshot samples.

Don’t be afraid to use the key short-cuts that are shown on the “right-click” menus. It took me just a couple of minutes to familiarize myself with them, speeding up the process even more.

Click on the image below to see a clear sample of what this program will look like on your screen.

Click on Compare-Contrast Essay Outline to view a pdf copy of the outline that is generated from the above view.

We would love to hear your opinion on this little program,
and whether you find it helpful.

Also, if you know of any other little generators that might help all of us,
please don’t be shy about sharing!

And enjoy your week. For many of us, it is a long week, sandwiched between two short ones.

And we’re thankful for that!

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