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Virtual Teacher Newsletter May 26th , 2000 No. 6
THE FREE ONLINE FORTNIGHTLY IT TEACHERS' NEWSLETTER
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Subscribe: cathy@virtualteacher.com.au (put 'subscribe' in the
subject)
Or visit: http://www.virtualteacher.com.au
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Contact: cathy@virtualteacher.com.au
Website: http://www.virtualteacher.com.au
Newsletter Archives can be found at:-
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/archives.html
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CONTENTS
1. Welcome
2. Mind Candy
3. Home Schooling
4. Technical Stuff- Take a Snapshot of your Mac computer
5. Word 2000
6. Reconciliation Week
7. Great Sites to Check Out
8. Reader's Comments
9 Reader's Requests
10 Next Issue
11. Code of 'Netizens'
12. Tips
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1. Welcome everyone. These last 2 weeks have flown by. I have
been
wrangling with Office 2000, particularly word 2000, and we finally
have a working relationship, but I must admit we weren't on speaking
terms for several days. I will be working on some activities
for
"Frontpage" for the next issue so if you have any good
web publishing
ideas for students or even examples of students published websites
send them along. There are a number of website publishing
competitions available to schools at the moment so I will also
be
looking at those. Have a great fortnight.
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2. Mind Candy 2
Cricket
"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left
I buy food
and clothes." -Erasmus
ICQ # 4622655
CRICKETcv@prodigy.net
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Here's some great fodder for some creative writing on the
explanations of old sayings and traditions. Invent anything as
an
explanation for an old saying, 'the truth will be stranger'.
Life in the 1500s
....................... England is old and small, and they started
running out of places to bury people. So, they would dig up coffins
and would take the bones to a house and reuse the grave. In reopening
these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch
marks
on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive.
So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the dead
person and lead it through the coffin and up through the ground
and
tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard
all
night to listen for the bell. Hence on the "graveyard shift"
they
would know that whether someone was "saved by the bell"
or whether he
was a "dead ringer".
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/life.html
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Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a
soul
nobler and stronger than it was before.
- James Buckham
"D. Prince" <prince@terragon.com>
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3. Home Schooling
Here's a great collections of resources for Home schoolers as
promised, Thanks Kathy.
http://www.idein.bizland.com/home.htm (
I am on this list and this is where
I get most of my homeschool links)
http://www.nethomeschool.com/
http://www.cybercomm.net/~rajcok/LAH_home.htm
http://www.infinet.com/~baugust/
http://www.homeschoolingusa.com/
http://www.home-ed-magazine.com/wnw/edpress.html
http://www.homefires.com/
http://users.erols.com/ouremail/HSLinks.htm
http://homeschooling.miningco.com/education/homeschooling/
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/9265/homeschool.html
http://eclectichomeeducators.faithweb.com/
http://www.homeschool.crosswalk.com/
"Kathy Young" <KATHY.YG@prodigy.net>
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4. Technical Stuff
Take a snapshot of the screen on a Mac by pressing 'apple' + 'shift
+
3. This is a great tool. Take a snapshot of the screen and ask
the
students to identify and explain all the buttons, toolbars and
menus
for any new program. Once they have worked all this out they
have a
really good idea of the interface for the new program. The last
lesson I did in this way was loads of fun and the students found
it a
great adventure - exploring the screen rather than reading about
it.
How do you do this on a Windows system? Email me if you know
so I
can include it next issue.
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5. Word 2000
Well here it is some info on word 2000.
I must admit this program
has driven me nuts. From the relative smooth sailing of Word '97
on
Windows to Word '98 on Mac, I have had no end of trouble with
2000.
Kill clippy was the first momentous task I performed. Clippy
is like
some demanding schoolchild who's always there trying to be a smart
alek all the time, always with the questions and not enough answers,
I'd much rather use the help menu. Then the smart updating of
the
menus according to usage frequency drove me nuts, so I set my
preferences back to Word '97.(Choose tools, Customize, click on
the
Options tab, and clear the checkmark from the menus recently Used
Commands First box)(To change to Word '97 style, choose Tools,
Customize, click on the Options tab, and uncheck the Standard
and
Formatting Toolbars Share One Row box). If its 3rd on the menu
it
stays 3rd on the menu, none of this moving around so you can't
find
it nonsense.
Initially my File and Format menus hived off somewhere. I still
don't know where they went, so I have had to reload the program
again. In desperation I tried to uninstall Word 2000 - but this
was
impossible.
With the new reload and tamed clippy and menus, we are now progressing
nicely.
Word '2000 is compatible across both platforms and will accept
and
save files to many more formats than previously. The Save as
HTML
offers students a quick and easy way to publish pages for the
Internet.
Here are some ideas you might like to try:-
Here's a printout about getting started
with Word. I used in it on
the Mac '98 version. Each computer has a copy - when children
go to
the computer they can check these instructions if they get stuck.
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/wordins.pdf
Here's another activity - The WordArt Challenge. Try it out and
print it out - change it. Pin these up around the computer so
that
the children always have an activity when they have computer time.
http://www.virtualteacher.com.au/Wordart.pdf
Here's some other sites for more information:-
Our complete coverage of Microsoft Office 2000 is here! Find
out everything you need to know... and more.
Microsoft Office 2000 Overview
To get an idea of how much there is to cover in Office 2000: The
new
Premium Edition includes no fewer than ten primary applications
and consumes as much as 526MB of hard disk space...
http://www.zdnetasia.com/specials/office2000/
Take the Microsoft Office Tour
http://www.microsoft.com/Office/word/Streamline.htm
Microsoft Office 2000 PC
'98 for Mac
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/office2000/default.htm
Additional clip art downloadable from net
Microsoft Educational Mactopia - free downloads,
free clipart
http://www.microsoft.com/MAC/home/default.asp
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6. Reconciliation Week
This Sunday marks the beginning of Reconciliation Week in Australia,
there will be a walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and many
activities during next week.
Here are a few sites about reconciliation and Aboriginal culture
in Australia.
Reconciliation in the ACT
What is it?
What can we do?
http://www.spirit.net.au/~dargavel/reconciliation.html
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Education Website
http://www.natsiew.nexus.edu.au/splash2.html
AboriginalAustralia.com This site offers
a number of
teaching/learning ideas. Many ideas from children.
http://www.aboriginalaustralia.com/
The History of the Koori People of the Dandenong - Pakenham region.
-(upper primary)
Great Timeline
http://members.xoom.com/athw/
Roebourne Primary School - find out about
this school
How do you skin a Kangaroo?
What does the Aboriginal Flag look like?
Use the aboriginal dictionary.
http://www.roebourne.wa.edu.au/
Visit Nhulunbuy - a School in Arnhem Land
What is Arnhem land like?
http://www.nhulunbuyprimary.nt.edu.au/
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7. Great Sites to Check Out
Great Site for Clipart all free. The categories
include school
curriculum subjects. There are some restrictions ie limit of
10
clipart pieces and crediting - please read copyright info at the
site.
http://school.discovery.com/clipart/index.html
You can send your students here regularly
- great problems every
month - they can go online - follow the instructions and answer
the questions. Suitable for 5-10 year olds
http://www.nrich.maths.org.uk/primary/apr00/letme.htm
Suitable for 11-12 year olds
http://www.nrich.maths.org.uk/primary/apr00/penta.htm
Some great lesson Plans
http://www.eduniverse.com/edu/lessonp.asp
Some more great lesson plans searchable
by grade/subject and keyword.
http://www.eduniverse.com/ace_intel/searchplan1999.asp
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8. Readers Comments
Dear Friend,
Thank you for allowing me to share your most-informative
site.
You have restored my faith in the human race. I am a recently-retired
educator/administrator with a new computer. Your creativeness
should not go
unnoticed. For designing this comprehensive offering, you should
be highly
commended.
You are going to enjoy a rainbow-filled future
!
Mrs. Marshall
Hi Cathy
Fantastic job you are doing.
(Hope this doesn't sound too picky - I do appreciate the amount
of
work you put into this newsletter)
But in reference to the above item I thought that the term IBM
compatible had been overtaken by the term PC given that IBM is
only
one in a series of computer hardware manufacturers. People I
communicate with seem to use PC and MAC to describe the two types
of
computers.
Bye
Muriel
Interestingly enough, the older power Macs were called 'Power
PC's so
I guess I tend to distinguish the machines that way. The correct
way
is probably to distinguish them according to their operating systems
- Windows or MacOS. The grape vine has it that the Mac OS X
will be
able to operate on IBM computers in the not too distance future
so it
will confuse everything again. But not really, I have always
preferred the Mac OS interface, so it will be great to operate
it on
both types of computers.
"The new alphabet book by Gisela Hausmann
aptly titled "Obvious
Letters" will quickly become a treasure to both children
and their
caregivers" Maries Wiseman, Canada - check it out at
http://www.1second.com/edu_easy.html
I enjoy reading your e-zine because, like
teachers in other environments, I'm interested in covering various
subjects
in interesting and memorable ways.
Thanks,
Debi Polen
AlphabetDP@aol.com
Hi Cathy!
I am a new subscriber and wanted to express how thrilled I was
to see
something about homeschooling in the latest issue! I am gearing
up to
homeschool my 5 year old (kindergarten) this year and am looking
forward to more issues of your newsletter!
Keep up the good work!
Debra
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9. Readers Requests
Dear Cathy,
As a PE specialist teaching Art I need all the help I can get
with
topic Ideas and how to incorporate the CSF into my lessons. Any
Suggestions???????????????
Thanks Kerrie.
Dear Cathy,
Thank you for all your trouble. I have been curious, since
this has
never happened before to me (and I've been online quite awhile).
But the
problem seems to have been mine! If anyone else complains, tell
them to
click on "View" on the top of the screen and to undo
the check mark next
to "View Attachment Inline". This reduced everything
(your letter too)
to an attachment, which, when opened, was clear reading.
I really appreciate all your trouble and apologize for
the extra
work!
By the way, I was a foreign exchange student to Australia
in 1968. I
love your country! I attended Orange High School in Orange, NSW
at that
time. What a great experience.
Thanks again, for all your help. I'll be more careful about
jumping
to conclusions in future!
Jean
Other subscribers who are having trouble with their email might
like
to try Jean's idea. Please let me know if you are having any
trouble
receiving Virtual Teacher.
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10. Next Issue Virtual Teacher will take a look at Art and Craft
resources
on the web. I am also looking to review some great school
sites, so if your school has a good site send along the URL and
I
will review it here, so far I have had no response to GOOD SCHOOL
SITE requests, are there any out there?? Send this newsletter
along
to 20 friends, they'll appreciate the help and ideas. Send in
your
requests, and comments, and please correct any errors I may make,
or
any great ideas you have. I would like to expand the teacher
tools
section, so if you have any great ideas just send them to me as
a
.doc, html, or pdf or just as a cut and paste to an email.
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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!!!
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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.
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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:comfilm1@optusnet.com.au
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