VIRTUAL> Virtual Teacher ? SURPRISTY
- From: Gleason Sackmann <gleason@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: K12Newsletters <k12newsletters@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 07:46:02 -0600
**************************************************************
K12NewsLetters - From Educational CyberPlayGround
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/
**************************************************************
From: cathy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sat, 29 Mar 2003 16:06:49 +1200
VT Newsletter No. 68 March 28th, 2003
THE FREE ONLINE FORTNIGHTLY IT TEACHERS' NEWSLETTER
==============================================
CONTENTS
1. Welcome
2. Mind Candy
3. WWWinfo - SURPRISTY
4. New Printables - 2 SELF EVAULATION RUBRICS
5. Technical Stuff - Competitions
6. Web Site Focus ? Laugh at Work Week
7. Drawing Cartoons
8. Great Sites
9. Readers' Requests/Comments
10 Next Issue
11. Code of 'Netizens'
12. Tips
==============================================
1. WELCOME EVERYONE. I'd like to see what is happening in
classrooms around the world. If you?re on for it, send me a photo
of your classroom, about 100K attached to an email ?
cathy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I?ll publish a selection on the VT site, it should be great to see
what is happening worldwide. I am still looking for a great
software library package, so if anyone has any thoughts,
send them in. Don?t forget to celebrate laugh at work week
next week, this type of topic is usually a great stimulus for
students writing and speaking.
==============================================
2. MIND CANDY
I saw the wonderful Midsummer Night?s Dream performed
recently ? I love the final speech by Puck:-
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
Shakespeare?s - A Midsummer Night's Dream
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Walking on water and developing software from a specification
are easy if both are frozen." -- Edward V. Berard
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PROGRAM - A magic spell cast over a computer allowing
it to turn one's input into error messages.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"If you give someone a program, you will frustrate them
for a day; if you teach them how to program, you will frustrate
them for a lifetime."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computers do not solve problems, they execute solutions."
? Laurent Gasser.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the first time in a decade, something from Microsoft
shipped on time: Jennifer Katharine Gates, weighed
8 pounds 6 ounces when she was downloaded(born) on
Friday, April 26 at 6: 11pm. And there is one striking
similarity in Baby Gates and Daddy's products -- "Neither
can stand on its own two feet without a LOT
of third party support."
==============================================
3. WWWInfo SURPRISTY
A lot of folk write to me requesting info on sites, and specific topic.
VT has a fantastic search engine ?GOOGLE?. The GOOGLE
search engine searches only the VT site. So just type in
your request and the results will be delivered to you.
SURPRISTY
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/directory.html
(Centre top of directory page)
ARCHIVES all VT newsletters from Number 1 to number 68,
can be found at:-
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/archives.html
=====================================
4. NEW PRINTABLES - 2 SELF EVAULATION RUBRICS
Cathy, I guess your newsletter just gets me too excited
to read through fully before emailing suggestions.
I liked your self-evaluation rubric and have saved it.
The two I often use are attached
Best to you .. Nancy
The Rubrics are at:
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/teachtool.html
under evaluation. They are Microsoft document files so
can be easily printed. Thanks again Nancy.
==============================================
5. TECHNICAL STUFF - COMPETITIONS
The Macquarie Business Mathematics Competition is an
innovative, online mathematics competition for senior
secondary school students. Competition questions are
scenario-based and have a strong business focus
http://www.mbmc.perdisco.com/home.asp
----------------------------------
The Australian Mathematics Trust is a national non-profit
organisation which conducts mathematics competitions and mathematics enrichment
activities. It is based on the
campus of the University of Canberra.
http://www.mbmc.perdisco.com/home.asp
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edna Links page on Competitions
http://www.edna.edu.au/discover/?Function=&queryText=competitions&quick_links=#resulttab
==============================================
6. WEBSITE FOCUS - Laugh at Work Week
Dates: April 1, 2003 - April 7, 2003
?Laugh at Work? Week is observed April 1 to 7. Humor improves
productivity and eliminates stress. Keep the fun going all week long.
Laugh and a Half Lesson
http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/02/lp262-03.shtml#sources
There is a Good source of jokes ? the first site is interactive.
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/jokes.html
==============================================
7. DRAWING CARTOONS
Great site simple to use. Step by step instructions with illustrations.
http://www.unclefred.com/index.html
Cartoonography
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~denyss/indexa.htm
Chunky monkey - cartoon animals
http://www.chunkymonkey.com/howto/howto.htm
Learn to Draw Cartoon Critters
http://www.cartooncritters.com/learntodraw.htm
==============================================
8. GREAT SITES
HOT SITES
The Endeavour Simple outline - flash or quicktime. A
simple outline of James Cook's 1768 Voyage.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/museum/tempexhib/voyages/endeavour.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bronze Age sites - Suitable for Senior ancient Histroy or Art
History Studies. Covers Knossos and Mycenae
Great Intro to the Bronze age.
http://www.lfc.edu/academics/greece/ba.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Australian Flags site
http://www.ausflag.com.au/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comprehensive - great links
This page provides links for Visual Arts students, teachers
and anyone else interested in art.
http://www.aaart.tv/
==============================================
9. READERS COMMENTS/REQUESTS
Hi Cathy,
I've been receiving your Virtual Teacher newsletter for a little
while now. This time I have decided to respond to one of your
segments.
Section 3. WWWinfo SYMANTEC
I would suggest to readers that instead of going to the Hoaxes
page they go to a search page http://www.symantec.com/search/
It makes searching easier. You just type in the name of the
virus you've been warned about and get a list of hits. Just
like any other search engine. Saves you scrolling through
the list and finds it for you nice and quick. May I also say
to readers that in general if you receive an email warning
you of a virus it will be a hoax. If you have well meaning
friends who send you these warnings forward them on to
the Symantec site so they can check for themselves before
scaring everyone on their address book list.
I've stopped many of my friends from sending 'friendly'
warnings by sending them to the above URL.
Sjaani
RainDrop illusions WebDesign
-----------------------------------
This is a great suggestion, thanks Sjaani.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi, Cathy,
Your wonderful Virtual Teacher information arrives often, and I continue
to enjoy everything you share with the world. Attached, please find
another terrific site to check out hoaxes. I use it often and have
forwarded it to many friends.
Enjoy! ... Nancy
http://www.snopes2.com/snopes.asp
-----------------------------------
Thanks Nancy another great site.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Cathy,
This year with the setting up of the lab, I find I'm on a steep, but
enjoyable, learning curve. As I read on your site before - I learn
from the kids as much (or more) as they learn from me!!
Anyway, a desperate? Where can I find something (anything)
that will teach me the basics of setting up a database to teach a
Stage 2 class. We will be using Microsoft Access. I've spent
time at the VT Directory but with no real luck.
Thanks again for all the help in the past
Terrie
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Terrie,
You are right I haven't covered Databases - perhaps I should.
I frankly don't think that Access should be used in primary school
- Excel Spreadsheets give a similar result and can be used in a
similar way to a database. BUT as it is in the curriculum I guess
I should cover it - perhaps next newsletter. At any rate it is pretty
simple there are some tutorials at:-
http://www.microsoft.com/office/using/column06.asp
http://isds.bus.lsu.edu/cvoc/learn/introit/access/acclesson1/
http://mis.bus.sfu.ca/tutorials/MSAccess/tutorials.html
http://databases.about.com/library/weekly/aa121000a.htm
Remember this program is designed for business so there are
a lot of functions that are unnecessary for Primary school
especially for stage 2. (I leave it til stage 3)
Select a simple database perhaps about the children
name DOB, favourite food, favourite movie, number of siblings,
favourite sport and use the form to enter the data. Keep it very
simple.
I may cover a bit on this in the future - hope this helps for now.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello,
I recently visited your site and was very impressed by the quality
and presentation of the content. I would like to request a link
on your site to http://www.aneki.com
I hope that you may find the material on our site to be of interest
to visitors to your site.
Best Regards,
webmaster@xxxxxxxxx
------------------------------------------
This looks like a good site, basically a countries facts sites,
very easy to negotiate. Includes facts like population, flags,
maps and produce etc. Well worth a look for Geography
research.
------------------------------------------
17th March, 2003 21.40 hours
Dear Cathy,
Many thanks for your Newsletter. I find it invaluable and
so do some of the staff at school. Please keep up the
great work. I've had a lot of trouble with my computer but
all is working very well again now. I had to completely
re-format my C-drive. I doing this I lost the first edition of
Virtual Teacher for the year.
Could you please email this to me?
Regards,
Br. Damian Needham
------------------------------------------
Hi Damian.
All VT archives can be found at:-
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/archives.html
VT 1 can be found at:-
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/vt1.html
Glad to hear your computer is again working, reformatting will
give it a new lease on life.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cathy
I am interested in creating panoramas from photographs.
Do you know which is the most economical (cheap) "stitcher" program?
Thanks
Daphne
-------------------------------------
Hi Daphne,
The best product for this that I have seen is Photoshop Elements
the stitching is brilliant easy and quick. Photoshop Elements is
around $169AUD however there maybe a cheaper educational price.
http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/tips/phsel2pano/main.html
Depending on how long you want to use it, downloads has a few
programs that are free to try at:-
http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=free+panorama+stitcher&tg=dl-20&search=+Go%21+
==============================================
10. NEXT ISSUE I will take a look at databases, as Terrie has
requested . Please send in your classroom photos, I will publish a
representative sampling on the net for all to see. Have a fantastic
fortnight.
Ciao
Cathy
-
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Code of the 'Netizens'
This Newsletter is not free, despite the misleading advertising
above. The Fee is now due. Each week you must help one
colleague on the Internet who has less knowledge than you.
Help that person even if you have to visit their classroom or
do a little research and get back to them. Trust me, this will
help a lot of people get their computer classrooms running better.
OK I'm trusting you!!!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12. TIPS
1. Double click on highlighted URLS to open in browser.
2. Send in your Questions, Questions will be published with
Answers, send in your Answers, if you have expertise to share.
3. Nominate a brilliant site for review and inclusion in this
newsletter.
4. Nominate a fantastic school site for review and inclusion in
this newsletter.
5. Make contact with other schools using fantastic programs.
6. Prepare and innovative article for this newsletter.
7. Tell 2 colleagues about this newsletter.
==============================================
The opinions expressed here are purely those of the editor,
Cathy Brown. All other small print clauses apply. Such as:
Use at your own risk. Nothing in life is guaranteed. If it doesn't
work for you send me an email.
Editor: cathy brown mailto:cathy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Delivered FREE to your e-mail box every fortnight.
Online Lesson Plans, Great Sites, Free Stuff, Tips, Time savers,
and templates.
Computer Solutions for Teachers. Subscribe today! It's
totally Free! Just type subscribe in the subject and send it to me.
cathy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
**************************************************************
K12Newsletters - From Educational CyberPlayGround
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/
**************************************************************
If you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, or
would like to sponsor the NetHappenings service -
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/Subguidelines.html>
Subscribe | Unsubscribe | Change Email Preferences -
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/K12Newsletters.html>
**************************************************************
Other related posts:
- » VIRTUAL> Virtual Teacher ? SURPRISTY
