Tech Tips & Timely Tidbits

Thank you Carolyn Foote (Not So Distant Future Blog) for pointing me to the “PowerPoint Extreme Makeover” post on Dean Shareski’s Ideas and Thoughts Blog. The video is a YouTube, so for those of you who can’t access because it’s blocked by your district, I encourage you to view it at home. Here are some notes I took:

• Use contrasting background and text (what looks good on the computer screen may not look good projected on a screen)
• Start out with a script and build slides that are relevant to your idea
• One idea per slide (minimal text)
• The whole point of your presentation is to tell a story not have an audience read it off your slides.
• Use minimal animation and sound
• Frame text for emphasis and readability
• Use images instead of clipart and choose images that convey emotions (suggestion for images sources: Google Images, Flickr/Flickr Creative Commons, & Morgue File)
• Tech Tip: pressing the “B” key while in slide show will put up a black slide - useful if you want audience to focus on you and not the screen!

Just for fun: Pogue’s Post (The New York Times) wrote about Your Birth Tune - where you can find out the #1 song for the day you were born. Mines was “I’ll Take You There” by The Staple Singers.

Free Comic Book Day is May 3, 2008 - Visit the website to find participating stores in your area.

Cathy Nelson (TechnoTuesday Blog) has tagged me for the High School Daze to Praise MEME.

My initial reaction of a book that has rapidly caught on at my high school is Twilight by Stephenie Meyers, but you have to have been living under a rock if you aren’t aware of the popularity of this book with teens (both MALE and females) as well as with parents. Every other day I get asked when the next installment will be out? (Answer: August 2nd!) To me, books that get kids reading and begging for more is what makes books (and authors) great.

Since everyone already knows about this one, I though I’d blog about my second [but by no means a lesser choice since this is one of my FAVORITE new teen books/series] Bloody Jack: being an account of the curious adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, ship’s boy by L.A. Meyer.

“Life as a ship’s boy aboard the HMS Dolphin is a dream come true for Jacky Faber. Gone are the days of scavenging for food and fighting for survival on the streets of eighteenth-century London. Instead Jacky is becoming a skilled and daring sailor as the crew hunts murderous pirates on the high seas. There’s just one problem: Jacky is a girl…”

Jacky learned at a young age how to survive on the streets, but at least there she was a girl. Trying to keep her gender a secret while learning to be a ships boy AND falling in love with Jamie, a fellow ships boy, makes her time on the HMS Dolphin precarious at best, especially for a girl who believes she’s not very brave.

So far there are five books in the series. The books haven’t been as popular with my guys. Once they realize “Jacky” is a girl, they usually return the book without giving it a try. However, the girls I convince to give it a try all clamor for the remaining books in the series. Jacky is a strong character who doesn’t like lying about who she is but does what she must to survive. Full of humor, adventure, bloody battles, and a little romance, Bloody Jack is one I highly recommend to alleviate the high school daze.

The rules for Meme: High School Daze to Praise:

• Select and briefly review one teen novel, classic or modern, which is a sure antidote to the daze of high school.
• Title your post Meme: High School Daze to Praise
• Include an image with your post.
• Tag four blogger colleagues. Since I don’t have a network of folks yet (or at least ones I feel comfortable tagging) I’ll just leave this open for anyone who is reading my blog and is in either an educational or library setting and say “Tag, your it!”

I’m still playing catch up with my RSS reader, so lots of articles still to share. Here are just a few of the many item’s I’ve found interesting this week.

CNN.com: “Google Earth maps refugee crises” - “Users can download Google Earth software to see satellite images of refugee hot spots such as Darfur, Iraq and Colombia. Information provided by the U.N. refugee agency explains where the refugees have come from and what problems they face.”

BBC News: “Computer viruses hit one million”

NY Times: “Lacking Credits, Some Students Learn a Shortcut” - article regarding NY’s credit recovery programs.

ReadWriteWeb.com: “Seven Tips for Making the Most of Your RSS Reader”

Georgia Library Association: “Tech Tips to Save a Few Trees” - some interesting tips that I may have to try out myself!

Informania Blog: “This is What I’m Talkin’ About!” - shares a wonderful YouTube video called “Mathmaticious” in which a teen sings his math anthem! Hil-ari-ous!

ResearchBuzz.org: “Roundup 040508” - For sharing the following Berkley.edu article/videos: “The long-haired, acoustic guitar-strumming, third-year UC Berkeley student will be in Room 1015 of Evans Hall performing songs she wrote about math and science.”

Many of you may not know, I originally intended to become an archaeologist, but having realized that I’d be doing back breaking work in extreme temperatures for little pay, well I quickly changed my mind. However, I’ve still got an interest in articles such as this: CNN.com: “Archaeologists unearth 35,000-year-old tools in Australia.”

I’ve moved my RSS reader from Google to Bloglines since Google doesn’t notify me when I’ve updated my Tech Tips blog. I’ve unsubscribed and re-subscribed to it twice and it still wasn’t working right. No problem since moving to Bloglines. Hopefully, I’m the only one with this problem, but I doubt it. Will have to remember to email my school folks that if they are using Google Reader and haven’t been getting my Odds & Ends posts, then they need to subscribe via email and/or possibly switch to another reader.

Its been difficult switching over all of my feeds (plus adding new ones!) and getting used to the new interface. I have to admit that I “mark all as read” for many of the posts, especially for news and entertainment blogs. Now that I’ve had more time (Whoo Hoo! Spring Break!), I’ve been catching up and here are some articles I’ve found interesting today:

USATODAY.com: “Microsoft Surface arrives at AT&T first” - AT&T the first to use the Microsoft Surface tabletop like computer. For additional details on the new computer, go here.

USATODAY.com: “Google searchers could end up with a new tpe of bug” - hackers adding code/program that takes searchers invisibly to the hackers site then to correct site and leave a bug on the searchers PC that can steal your personal information.

USATODAY.com: “Personal gene scans: Vanity or science?” - for $1000-2000 you can have your genes scanned for 500,000 to 2 million of the 3 BILLION gene points. The scans look for specific health conditions, but is it really worth it?

Lifehacker.com: “Whiteboard: Erase permanent marker from your dry erase board” - I’m going to put the steps here since I know the site is blocked at school:

1. Get the board you want the stuff off.
2. Get a dry erase marker (yes, we will make marks to take marks) and a dry eraser.
3. Draw over what you want to erase (make sure you draw slowly to fill it in better).
4. Erase.
5. Done!

Endgadget.com: “Researchers turn brushing your teeth into child’s play” - a computerized toothbrush!

That’s all for today. More to follow, I’m sure!

Spring Break for Aiken County schools has officially begun. What did I do on my first day off? Chaperoned for the Spanish club field trip to the Columbia International Festival! That was an experience! The kids had a great time. The consensus was that the food was the best part of the day. Seeing the exhibits from so many different countries and cultures was good, too! The kids loved stopping by the Germany booth and speaking with Mrs. Heidi, the study hall teacher. She speaks perfect and unaccented English, so it’s a kick to learn she’s really from Germany! and to here her speaking German. Of course, my rudimentary high school German from a hundred years ago was of no help in translating.

So that was today, what will I be doing tomorrow? Overseeing drama club rehearsals for our one-act play which will be performed in less than a month at the Garcia Theatre Project/USC Aiken One-Act Play Festival. Yes, I do plan on spending SOME work free time over the break…taking three dogs to the vet, doctors appointments, wash laundry that’s been piling up, swap out winter wardrobe for spring, clean house, … oh wait, maybe I’d rather go back to work instead.

For those of you wondering why there is a golf photo on a post about spring break, you apparently aren’t from Aiken/Augusta. And no, I will not be spending any part of MY break golfing. Aiken County always schedules spring break to coincide with the Masters Tournament in Augusta. Golf is HUGE here and from now on I’ll always acquaint spring break with golf.

Flickr Photo: Golf @ Poppy Ridge by Shayan (USA)