Website of the Week! 09/25/15

Interactive Websites for the Beginning of Autumn!

Paint and Make - Raking Leaves:
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/scienceforkids/seasons/paintandmake/paintandmakeautumnraking.swf

Paint and Make - In The Classroom:
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/scienceforkids/seasons/paintandmake/paintandmakeautumnclass.swf

Paint and Make - Back To School:
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/scienceforkids/seasons/paintandmake/paintandmakeautumnschool.swf

Nut Hunt:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/sites/kids/files/fun-with-english-nut-hunt.swf
Mouse Skills, Words and Pictures, and somewhat addictive

Dress the Scarecrow:
http://www.akidsheart.com/flash3/autumn/pumpkman.swf

Leaf Sweep:
http://www.akidsheart.com/flash3/autumn/leafsweep.swf
Mouse Skills and some obnoxious music

Scarecrow Puzzle:
http://www.akidsheart.com/flash3/jigsaw/scrowpz03.swf

Pumpkin Game:
http://www.akidsheart.com/math/flashes/mgames/edgepumpkins.swf
very addictive!

Find the Difference:
http://www.akidsheart.com/flash3/diffgame/difffall.swf

Photos For Class 09/25/15

Need a place to access safe images that are available to be used in the classroom and for educational purposes?

Photos For Class provides this, along with accurate image citations. http://photosforclass.com/

• Age Appropriate Images - All images are appropriate for school setting thanks to Flicker safe Search and our proprietary filters - Read More
• Automatic Citation - Downloaded images automatically cite the author and the image license terms - Read More
• Creative Commons - All photos shown are to the best of our (and Flickr's) knowledge Creative Commons licensed for school use

Internet Safety Resources 09/25/15

Internet Safety Resources 

This website provides some resources for teachers and students on Internet Safety, Digital Citizenship, etc.

http://pasadena.pasadenaisd.org/cms/One.aspx?portalId=80772&pageId=1264133


Also, Forethought has resources available in the Scope and Sequence tab.
We will be populating resources and lesson plans here for your use.

1. Log into Eduphoria
2. Click Forethought
3. Click Scope and Sequence (on the left) 
4. Click Elementary
5. Click Elementary Technology Applications
6. Click Digital Citizenship
7. Click Internet Safety

Outlook "Clutter" - How Do I Turn It Off? 09/25/15

Microsoft Outlook Clutter is a new feature in Office 2013 that helps sort your incoming email. When Clutter sees an item you're likely to ignore, it will move the item into the Clutter folder. Just keep using email as usual and Clutter will learn which messages aren't important to you.

From time to time, Clutter might get it wrong. You can quickly scan the folder and move any messages that shouldn't be there back to the inbox. Clutter will learn from this and do better next time.

Even though this is great, you might want to turn it off if you don't like it.  

Here's how:

From Webmail in Office 365, do the following:

On the top right corner of the page, go to Settings  > Options > Mail > Automatic processing > Clutter.  Choose Don't separate items identified as Clutter, then Save 

Learn more about Clutter here:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Use-Clutter-to-sort-low-priority-messages-in-Outlook-7b50c5db-7704-4e55-8a1b-dfc7bf1eafa0?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US#BKMK_HowDoITurnClutterOn 

Deleting a OneNote Notebook 09/25/15

Deleting a OneNote Notebook

Scenario: As you are learning to use OneDrive and OneNote, you may create some notebooks that you want to eventually delete (as they were only used for practice purposes).  How do you delete the Notebook (since the only choice in OneNote Desktop Application is "Close This Notebook"?

This involves two steps:

1. Deleting the Notebook from OneDrive
2. Closing the Notebook in the OneNote Desktop Application

Step 1:

1. Log into Office 365 – login.microsoftonline.com
2. Click the Menu button at the top left (domino button)
3. Click OneDrive
4. Navigate (click) to the OneNote notebook in your OneDrive
5. Right click the OneNote Notebook
6. Click Delete
7. Click OK

NOTE: This will not remove the Notebook from your (or anyone that you have shared with) OneNote Desktop Application on your computer. 

Step 2:

Deleting the OneNote Notebook from the Desktop Application Notebook “Shelf”:

1. Open OneNote Desktop Application (the purple N)
2. Right click the Notebook that is on the list at the left
3. Click Close This Notebook

Istation Testing Deadlines 09/25/15

Reminder about Istation Testing Deadlines:

Kinder, Grade 1, and Grade 2

All students in Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 must complete the Istation assessment by next Wednesday, September 30^th.  The assessment is required by the state, and we will be sending the data to TEA.

Please see the attached report for a summary of the completion rates for you campus as of today, September 21^st.

I would recommend you ask teachers to make sure all students are assessed by this Friday, September 25^th.  This would give us a few days to track down any missing students.  If that’s not possible based on your schedule, please ensure ALL students are assessed by September 30^th.

Pre-Kindergarten

Some of you have found it challenging to complete the Istation literacy assessment due to the time needed to get PreK students familiar/semi-proficient in using a mouse.

For this reason, we have extended the PreK assessment window to Friday, October 16^th.  Since the PreK data is not reported to TEA, we aren’t under the same time crunch as we are in Kinder through Grade 2.

This extension applies to PK ONLY.

OneDrive for Business "Blue Cloud" - 09/25/15

Syncing Your OneDrive for Business - 
Adding the Blue Cloud onto the Taskbar

Question:
How can I sync my OneDrive for Business (aka - the "Blue Cloud") with my computer so I can easily access my files in OneDrive?

Answer:
If you do not see the Blue Cloud in your task bar, go to All Programs > Microsoft Office 2013 and click on OneDrive for Business. That will start the sync. Then you have a OneDrive – Pasadena ISD location in Favorites in which you can save.

Need help or have more questions concerning this?

Call Shane Tout at x-78105

Mouse Skills Practice 09/04/15

Mouse Skills Practice

OwlieBoo!

http://www.owlieboo.com/educational-games.php

Practice pressing keys, moving the mouse, clicking and dragging.

Using LanSchool 09/04/15

What is LanSchool?

A program that runs from the teacher's computer and allows the teacher to do the following:

• View all computers on the same "channel" for purpose of monitoring.
• Control individual or all computers, such as blanking the student screens, controlling their actions, displaying the teacher screen, etc.
• Send and receive files from the student computers.
• Advanced actions such as sending quizzes and other tasks.

How do I install it?

Installing LanSchool is not hard, but it can be a little challenging to get everything set up just right.  If you have never installed LanSchool, call your Instructional Technology Specialist to get assistance if you want to install and use this program.

• LanSchool teacher program is installed on the teacher machine.
• LanSchool student program is installed on all student machines.
• Teacher and student machines are set up with a "channel" which allows the teacher to view ONLY the machines that are on the same channel.

How can I get help learning how to use LanSchool?

• Several guides are located in this folder:
  https://pasadenaisdorg.sharepoint.com/sites/InstructionalTechnology/handouts/Shared%20Documents/LanSchool
• The Campus Instructional Technology Liaison may be able to help you and/or provide training (if he/she has used it in the past).
• Call your Instructional Technology Specialist if you need more assistance and/or would like more training on this.

No Sound from Promethean Board 09/04/15

No Sound From Promethean Board

If you have a newer (dark gray) Promethean Board with speakers on the side, but no sound is coming from it, here are some tips for troubleshooting this problem:

Some things to check:

1. Make sure sound plays on computer by playing something on it or clicking the speaker icon on the bottom right of the task tray and adjusting the volume and making sure it isn’t on mute.
2. Make sure that the Promethean Board ActivManager icon at the bottom right doesn’t have a red X on it.  It should look like a white square with the orange "Promethean Man" on it.
• See this link for tips on troubleshooting this connection problem:
  http://etnpisd.blogspot.com/2015/08/promethean-board-troubleshooting-082815.html
3. On the board, you can check or do the following: 

• There is a small white button that will appear red or green.  It should be green.  If it is red, it definitely needs to be pressed.  If it is green, you might consider pressing it twice anyway (once to turn it off and second time to turn it back on).
• Check the volume level control knob near the top of that panel on the side to make sure it is turned up to a specific volume.
• You might consider unplugging the USB connection to the computer (from the board) and plugging it into a different USB connection.  This has been known to correct the problem, as well.

Logitech Webcam Software Update 09/04/15

Many of the liaisons got a Logitech Webcam years ago. Sara Simmons did some searching and found a download for it, as the provided CD would not download on her new computer.

It said it was not compatible with Windows 7, but Sara found one that is at this link: http://support.logitech.com/en_us/product/quickcam-sphere-af#download