TRG says:

"If it's not easy and doesn't save time, I don't use it!"

Week 7 Textbook Reading Guide

Watch the sneakers this week. This is what is important in this chapter. MacDonald's lecture notes are below. Don't miss these.

pp 154 - 162

Figure 5.1 Overview of Software Tool Categories (notes from MacDonald's textbook. She scribbled these on this chart!)

• Material Generator Online crossword puzzle maker
• Data Collection and Analysis Tool - See the audio tutorial on how MacDonald grades in Easy Grade Pro. Scroll down to Score options to see and here this part.
• Graphic Tools - Lots of color is great in charts, but Excel is not the easiest way to create charts. For younger children, it is worth it to have a copy of Graph Club 2.0 designed for K-4 . It is bilingual as well! Watch the 5 minute product tour to see the program in action and learn about all the extras that come with it. For grades 4-8 You might list to try Graph Master. Watch the 7 minute tour and decide which is your favorite. To be honest, I like Graph Club, because it is the easiest and fun to use. So when I need a graph, this is what I use! If I need more kinds of graphs like a histogram, then I use Graph Master.
• Planning and Organizing Tools - Another must have in the classroom is Inspiration or the K-4 Kidspiration. Warning: students are going to want to print their maps in color! Try these out for free. You can see samples by grade level.
• Research and reference tools - MacDonald likes to use "Boogle" for a search engine. It is Google with a quote and a picture. What about talking dictionaries? Here's MacDonald's test word: victuals. You won't believe how it is pronounced.! Here are a variety of talking dictionary sites: Merriam-Webster Dictionary, or maybe you would like the Merriam Webster for Kids, where they could keep track of their spelling words!
• Tools for Specific Content Areas - Geocaching is a great pasttime and Oregon has lots of sites. When MacDonald went to visit her sister in Connecticut, she went geocaching with the whole family on Long Island Sound and found a treasure. Now her sister wants to establish her own geocache site. Warning: this can become addictive. Some come with a story, like Flash's Log Duke boys theme. Located in Salem.Or maybe we should all got to the cemetary - Claggett Cemetery. Start at the main Geocaching Site.In the upper right hand corner, choose the drop down box for State and choose Oregon. Then it will let you actually choose a town. Sorry, Karen, nothing's listed for Baker!! - though I think that it would be fun to have geocaches located all along the Oregon Trail!! The protocol is that if you find one of these caches that you sign in the log book (bring a pen!) and if you take something out that you also leave something. These are little non biogradable things, like toy animals, coins, usually something to go along with the theme of the cache.

Top 10 Rules for Desktop Publishing - p. 159

• The very worse color combination is red on yellow. Watch for your color blind students, who can't see red or green and especially can't see it when the green is on top of the red.
• Use white space well. This is critical in laying out material. Instructors who try to save paper on tests by cramming everything into small point size on one piece of paper are really doing a disservice to the students.
• MacDonald's lecture on readability of fonts. Do you know that all, repeat all textbooks are printed in serif fonts. These are the fonts that have "hats and feet" on them to help readers track across the lines. Fonts are Bookman, New Century Schoolbook, Times Roman. All tests should be printed in serif fonts. Now, I know that folks like the boldness and legibility of the non-serif fonts, such as Ariel, Comic Sans, Ventura, but for our learning disabled students these are much harder to read. Use them for headlines if you like, but for desktop publishing educational materials use the serif fonts. If Times Roman is too small, then bump it up a point size. Times Roman at 14 may look the same as Ariel 12..

More and more textbooks are coming with test banks or online quizzes. MacDonald as you can see likes to have the students create their own test questions or gives case histories for assessments. (Hint: watch for these coming next week in the Multimedia chapter.)

Don't forget Printshop for making certificates. Actually this is a good program for pre-word processing. K-3 students can make greeting cards, while practicing their keyboarding skills. Then they can write messages and practice their handwriting skills. MacDonald has used her Award Maker forever. It comes with templates and you can type in a class list, if you want everyone to have the same certificate, but with their own name on it. Baudville has lots of recognition items for purchase.

pp. 165-178

Using Graphic Tools - MacDonald will talk about digital photography next week in the Multimedia chapter. But some of you may want info on clip art this week. Here is a good place to start. Great Graphics for Teachers. It also includes one of MacDonald's favorite sites for web graphics and scrapbookers, called Cute Colors. Check out the free stuff.

Another favorite site for clip are comes from a student in Korea. Hee Yun's graphic collection.

Another favorite is Art by Cheryl.com Click on Clipart in yellow letters in the menu or scoll down to the bottom of the page. There is still lots of free stuff here.

And then there's the extensive Microsoft Clip Art and Media site, which ties into PowerPoint and Word.

If you like clip art that you can shrink and still see the image or enlarge without the jaggies, then you will love ScreenBeans. Use the free sample beans from this site or order more. MacDonald has the whole set!

What are some of your favorite clip art sites?

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