The “X for Teachers” program, which had expired December 31, 2002, has been extended until March 31, 2003.  This program allows any K-12 teacher in the U.S. or Canada to obtain a free copy of Mac OS X for their use at home or work.

On January 25, new versions of iMovie, iPhoto, and iDVD will be available.  Along with iTunes, these four applications will become the new “iLife.”  They will all integrate with each other seamlessly, giving the user the ability to access their media in one application directly from any of the others.  You may download iMovie 3 and iPhoto 2 for free, but iDVD will require a $49 upgrade fee.

Changes in iMovie include brand new transitions and effects, a more precise way of manipulating audio, and the ability to add “chapters” to your movie—allowing you to browse to specific scenes, should you choose to put your movie on a DVD.

The updated iPhoto includes some very cool tools.  There is a “1 Click Enhance” button that cleans up dark, distorted, or otherwise less than perfect digital photos quickly and easily.  There also is a “Retouch Brush” that allows you to touch up specific areas of imperfection in your photos.  Additionally, iPhoto 2 gives you the ability to create Photo CDs from your photo albums.

Two new Powerbook laptops were announced.  To compliment the existing Titanium Powerbook with the 15-inch display, they have added a new anodized Aluminum Powerbook with a 17-inch display and a smaller version with a 12-inch display.  Be sure to look for the hilarious new commercial advertising these two new models.  The spot features the 7’6” NBA player Yao Ming and Verne Troyer (also known as “Mini-me”).

Available now is a new presentation creation application called “Keynote.”  It is comparable to Microsoft’s PowerPoint, but is much easier to use, and contains the ability to add and customize unique effects to your presentation.  In addition, you can open existing PowerPoint presentations in Keynote, and save your Keynote presentations in PowerPoint, Adobe PDF, or QuickTime formats.  For educators, the price is $49.

Also priced very reasonably for educators, at $149, is the new “Final Cut Express.”  This is a slightly slimmed-down version of the popular “Final Cut Pro” software used by many movie studios.  With Final Cut Express, you can perform virtually any kind of digital movie-making you can think of.

Should you have any questions, or would like more information, please go to www.apple.com.  As always, you may email me at jshoffner@amphi.com, and I may be able to assist you as well.

Last year, I was introduced to our school server.  Our school Technology Specialist created a space for each student on our school server.  This is a place for them to save their work that can be accessed from anywhere on campus.  This feature allows for students to begin something in the lab and finish it back in the classroom, or the other way around!  This eliminates the transportation of files on a disk from place to place. The server is also backed up every night, so the loss of student work is less likely to occur.  The first thing that I teach my students each year, in regards to technology, is how to save to the server from the classroom and the computer lab.  For some of them, it is a skill that they pick up immediately, while others need more practice at it. My students are happier that their work is safe, and I am not hauling disks around.  If you’re not using this feature, please consider it. It will save you headaches and stress in the computer lab.  I will never go back to disks again!

LD 218  500 Nations
Narrated by Kevin Costner, 500 Nations is an eight-part documentary that looks at life in North America before the arrival of Europeans. It follows the epic struggles of Indian Nations as the continent is reshaped by contact.

V 714  African Americans Tell Their Story
This program introduces several well-known African Americans by showing youngsters in the act of dramatizing their lives. The program features an African American family as they watch the action on a video screen in their living room.

V 157  American Indians: A Brief History
Scattered across North America are monuments that serve as reminders of the continent’s first people. This film explores some of these places - clues to the history of the first Americans.

Eyes on the Prize
Eyes on the Prize is a six episode series that covers the struggles of the Civil Rights years from 1954, the awakening to the march from Selma to Montgomery Alabama in 1965 when thousands joined together to march 50 miles to freedom.
Titles are:
V 088 Awakenings
V 089 Fighting Back
V 090 Ain’t Scared of Your Jails V 091 No Easy Walk
V 092 Mississippi: Is This America?
V 093 Bridge to Freedom.

Eyes on the Prize II
Eyes on the Prize II is an eight episode series that covers the Civil Rights years from 1964, following the trajectory of Malcolm X concluding in the mid-1980’s with an examination of two cities, Miami, Florida with the destruction of Overtown to Chicago where the city elects its first Black Mayor.  Titles are:
V 307 The Time Has Come
V 308 Two Societies
V 309 The Promised Land
V 310 Power
V 311 A Nation of Law
V 312 Ain’t Gonna Shuffle no More
V 313 The Keys to the Kingdom, V 314 Back to the Movement.

V 713  The First Americans
This video presents the customs, cultures and contributions of several Indian tribes of the U.S.

V 134  Great Americans: Martin Luther King
This film traces the public career of Martin Luther King Jr. and examines King’s belief in non-violent protest.

V 715  Hispanic Americans Tell their Story
This program is part of a live-action video series entitled, “America’s Multicultural Heroes.” The program gives an overview of some important events and achievements of the Hispanic people in the Americas, along with clarifying the meaning of the term Hispanic.

LD 037  The Life of Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman?
This is a dramatization chronicling the major events that led Sojourner to become a powerful force for good, a force that helped change the United States.

LD 105  Martin Luther King Jr.
This interactive program presents the issues and events that shaped the life and contributions of America’s foremost Civil Rights leader.

V 740  Native Americans: People of the Desert
This video introduces students to Native Americans of the Southwest and helps to establish an affinity for their culture.

CDR 057  Scholastic Smart Books: Malcolm X - By Any Means Necessary
This biography follows the life of Malcolm X from the death of his father in 1931 to his incarceration in 1964 where he converts to the nation of Islam followed by his assassination in 1965 while delivering a speech in Harlem’s Ballroom.

V 775  Success Through Education: A Salute to Hispanic Excellence
This program shows a group of Hispanic students, encouraged by a group discussion leader, actor/director Edward James Olmos, speaking out about their experiences, feelings, and values.

V 085  Women: For America, For the World
Prominent American women challenge the economic and political realities.

All these titles are available for checkout from the Media Center by filling out the media ordering forms or calling Claudio at 6214. You can also email - caraya@amphi.com.

This year my favorite toy was an MP3 player made by Apple called the iPod.  Apple makes three different sizes; a 5, 10, and 20 Gig as well as Apple and Windows versions.  Of course, I had to have the biggest and the best, so I chose the 20 Gig iPod.  I have taken my entire CD collection and copied it to the iPod.  Now I have over 3,000 tunes (which equates to over 10 days of music) to listen to, and it is only at 2/3’s capacity.  Using iTunes to manage my music collection is easy and works seamlessly with the iPod.

So, if you want to have music to go, I’d recommend an MP3 player.  There are so many different ones to choose from and they vary in features and cost.

If you have a favorite techno-toy and would like to share your experience, please feel free to either contact me or submit an article to Peggy Steffens for our next Tech Talk issue.

SFB (School Facilities Board)
The State has been working on cabling all the classrooms in Arizona for over 18 months.  They have been working on cabling our District for that entire time.  To date only 4 sites have been cabled: Holaway, Copper Creek, Amphi High, and Wetmore and still none of them are completed.  My staff and I are working very hard at completing this project but it has been slow going.  Six more sites are slated for cabling over the next six weeks: El Hogar, La Cima, Donaldson, Rio Vista, Mesa Verde and Amphi Alternative.  We are hoping to be more successful with this next set of schools.

Refresh Program
Each year the District funds the replacement of older computers.  This year we will again be evaluating the classroom computer inventory and determining which computers will be “refreshed.”  When we refresh computers, it means that we put a new computer in place of the old one and send the old one to the Warehouse for the auction.  The reason we don’t simply leave the computer at the school for continued use is as follows:
1) The older computers are out of warranty, and often parts are more difficult and expensive to obtain.  2) The computers are unable to run today’s  software because of inadequate RAM or disk space, or the operating system is too old.
3) We don’t have additional licenses for installing the core software on computers.
4) We aren’t staffed to support more computers and the related peripherals.

The Technology Department will be contacting each school in January to develop a plan to order and replace older computers by the end of this year.  I’d like to thank all the Repair Technicians in advance for all their hard work and expertise required to do this each year.

Welcome to Jamie Gurulé
I am pleased to introduce you to our new interim Graphics & Printing Manager, Jamie Gurulé.  Jamie has worked in both school settings and non-profit organizations as a graphic design artist for a number of years.  She was most excited to get this position with Amphitheater School District because she enjoys working in an educational setting.

Jamie graduated from Goddard HS in Roswell, New Mexico, and has lived in Albuquerque, Tucson, Seattle, Dallas, and Roswell.  She moved to Tucson last year with her family and was looking for a position in a school district because she enjoys the people and doing something for young people.  Jamie is looking forward to making Graphics & Printing more user friendly and implementing some new areas of service.

Jamie enjoys music and movies, she is an avid Star Trek fan, and loves working with young adults. Please welcome her and make her feel right at home in Amphi.
Good Luck Jamie!

Featured Ed Tech Lesson – Folktales – Write Your Own Tale
This month we will feature a 4th grade lesson written by Suzi Cook from Walker School entitled Write Your Own Tale. This is a perfect lesson for students reading and studying folktales.  In this lesson, students will connect to the Internet, read and analyze stories/folktales written by other students from around the world, and then write their own short folktale to be published online.  This lesson will take approximately 6-8 one hour sessions.  Suzi provides the directions she will give to students when they are online.  Students will be motivated to create high quality folktales in order to see their work published online.  You can view this lesson at www.amphi.com/~technology/standards/lessons/edtech/cook1.html

Featured Ed Tech Lesson - Can You Haiku?
We are also featuring a 5th/6th grade lesson written by Liesl Mitchell from Coronado K-8 school entitled Can You Haiku? In this lesson, students will learn about the traditional Japanese poetry form Haiku and write their own poems using digital photos they have taken as inspiration.  Students will learn to import digital photos into a word processing document.  They will then write a haiku to go with the digital photo and use the formatting capabilities of the word processor to format their poems. You can view the entire lesson at www.amphi.com/~technology/standards/lessons/edtech/mitchell1.html

He was always positive and friendly, and certainly had outstanding technical abilities.  He contributed to the success of our GroupWise Email implementation as well as to the support of our networks and the Pentamation users.  His smiling face, sense of humor and contributions will be missed.

He has accepted a position with the Arizona Highway Patrol and will be stationed in Kingman, Arizona.  I’m sure you’ll all join in with me and wish him the best of luck!

Primary Reading Sites –all primary sites listed below can be found at www.amphi.com/~psteffen/prireading.html

ABC’s and 123’s-this site has activities for letter recognition. http://www.mtnbrook.k12.al.us/tech/abc123.htm

ABC Mommy and Me - an alphabet recognition program that displays the letter in uppercase and lowercase and if the student clicks on the letter it will say the letter. http://www.lil-fingers.com/abc/by.html

Alphabet Action - displays the letters of the alphabet and students can click on a letter and see it, hear it, and see a word that begins with the selected letter. http://www.learningplanet.com/act/fl/aact/index.asp

Alphabits for Kids- provides 6 alphabet activities for students including matching letter, letter comes before, letter comes after, matching upper and lower case letters and more. http://www.edu4kids.com/alpha/

Building Language for Literacy-students find matching letters and rhyming words at this site. http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bll/index.htm

Chicken Stacker - students must select the word with the correct vowel sound. http://pbskids.org/lions/games/stacker2.html

Dolch Word Lists - provides 11 lists with the words and activities to have students participate in. http://www.theschoolbell.com/Links/Dolch/Dolch.html

Early Childhood Learning Education Network - provides activities about colors, numbers, letters, shapes, words, and more. The activities are outstanding and do not require the students to read information. http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.htm

The Hungry Thing - a phonetic awareness activity that asks students to match pictures that rhyme. http://www.sbceo.k12.ca.us/~summerld/hungry/rhyme/cake.html

Language Arts Activities - provides interactive activities for colors, numbers, alphabet, spelling and more. http://www.primarygames.com/reading.htm

Learning Planet - provides interactive activities about numbers, counting, and the alphabet. http://www.learningplanet.com/stu/kids0.asp

Name Talk: Exploring Letter-sound Knowledge in a Primary Classroom (K-2)-students explore their knowledge of letter sounds and then use a stapleless book tool on the Internet. http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=3

PBS Between the Lions - provides songs, stories, and activities. http://pbskids.org/lions/

Sadlier Oxford Phonics Activities - a great wealth of phonics activities for grades K-6. http://www.sadlier-oxford.com/index_phonics.htm

Seuss University - provides reading activities for use online and to print out and play. http://www.seussville.com/seussville/university/reading/

Sight Words - provides cards that can be printed and activities for grades 1-4. http://www14.brinkster.com/readwrite/sightwords2.htm

Words and Pictures-A site with different activities to help with developing readers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/index.shtml

Fluency Through Fables-this site has several fables to help students improve comprehension. There are also online quizzes for the students. http://www.comenius.com/fables/

Scholastic Reading and Language Arts Content Index - provides a variety of lesson plans, reproducibles, and activities in reading and language arts. http://teacher.scholastic.com/ilp/index.asp?SubjectID=1

Power Proofreading - students select their grade level and must proofread selections of text and correct the errors. http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hme/k_5/proofread/index.html

Interactive Spelling: Adding “ed” - a tutorial on when to add “ed” to words. http://www.educate.org.uk/teacher_zone/classroom/literacy/ed_presentation.htm

Prefix Skills - provides matching, concentration, word search and flash cards on prefixes. http://www.quia.com/jg/65963.html

Dositey.com-Language Arts activities for grades K-2. http://www.dositey.com/homek2.htm

Rebus Rhymes - designed for children who are learning how to read and enjoy selecting the words they can read in their favorite nursery rhymes. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Rhymes.html

Sentence Quest: Using Parts of Speech to Write Descriptive Sentences (K-2)-a lesson to help students in sentence creation. http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=6

Alfy Storyville - provides interactive stories for primary students. http://www.alfy.com/Storyville/index1.asp?FlashDetect=true

Animated Picture Book- a picture book story with animated pictures designed for primary students. http://www.liveandlearn.com/bigsml.html

Dino-Mania-this site has web based book activities to study dinosaurs.
http://www.marshall-es.marshall.k12.tn.us/jobe/Read-Write/dinosaur/maindino.html

Early Childhood Technology Literacy Project - provides books in PowerPoint you can download to use with early emergent readers. http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/curriculum/littlekids/downloads/ebooks/index.html

Sesame Street Story Corner - provides animated stories and other activities for primary students. http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/?scrollerId=stories

Stories by Hiyah.com - a collection of fairy tales and fables to read aloud to students. http://www.hiyah.com/library.html

Scholastic Reading and Language Arts Content Index - provides a variety of lesson plans, reproducibles, and activities in reading and language arts. http://teacher.scholastic.com/ilp/index.asp?SubjectID=1

Power Proofreading - students select their grade level and must proofread selections of text and correct the errors.  http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hme/k_5/proofread/index.html

Reading Exercises - provides reading passages and the students must answer inference, main idea, vocabulary, and detail questions. http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/exercises/main/reading.html

Online Reading Skills - provides mini-stories with cloze exercises, speed-reading exercises, and other reading passages with activities. http://eslus.com/LESSONS/READING/READ.HTM

Shaquille O’Neil: Using a Basketball Star to Motivate Readers - provides a read a-loud of Shaq and the BeanStalk and interactive activities for students to participate in. http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=8

CNN Interactive Reading Source- provides current and archived articles for students to read and then answer comprehension, vocabulary and sequence questions. http://www.literacynet.org/cnnsf

New York Times Learning Network - provides students in grades 3-12 with news summaries, daily news quiz, word of the day, test prep question of the day, daily lesson plans, news snapshot, and more.  http://www.nytimes.com/learning/index.html

Sadlier Oxford Phonics Activities - a great wealth of phonics activities for grades K-6.
http://www.sadlier-oxford.com/index_phonics.htmhttp://www.sadlier-oxford.com/index_phonics.htm

Scholastic Explorers - students read and interact with information about explorers such as Native American cultures, ocean life, endangered environments, and more.  http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/explorer/index.htm

Language Arts WebQuests - WebQuests are Internet activities that promote critical thinking in students as they solve real world tasks in an inquiry based learning environment using reading, comprehension and problem solving skills. http://webquest.sdsu.edu/matrix/3-5-Eng.htm

Wild World of Words - provides activities on spelling, decoding, word building and word meanings. http://www.ash.udel.edu/ash/challenge/word.html

Language Arts Activities - a variety of spelling, reading and grammar activities.  http://www.joelson.addr.com/languagearts.htm

Interesting Things for ESL Students - provides word games, puzzles, quizzes, proverbs and much more. http://www.manythings.org

Prefix Skills - provides matching, concentration, word search and flash cards on prefixes. http://www.quia.com/jg/65963.html

Rooting Out Words -students must select the appropriate root of the words. http://www.funbrain.com/roots/index.html

Measuring Time - a cloze activity for children. http://www.quia.com/cz/5892.html

Tall Tales - provides numerous links with information and activities on tall tales. http://eduscapes.com/42explore/talltale.htm

Authors and Books - provides links to author information, tips for writing from well known authors and more.  http://www2.scholastic.com/teachers/authorsandbooks/authorstudies/authorstudies.jhtml

Research Starters - allows students to read information to get ideas for starting research on a variety of topics. http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/researchstarters/index.htm

Immigration - reading materials and activities about immigration and Ellis Island. http://teacher.scholastic.com/immigrat

America’s Story - the Library of Congress provides information on the fifty states, amazing Americans, American history, and more. http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi

MysteryNet’s Kids Mysteries - features mysteries to solve, scary stories, and magic tricks for kids. http://kids.mysterynet.com/info/

Writing Workshop - Scholastic provides interactive lessons for writing on oral history. It provides a mini lesson and information on prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, reviewing, and publishing. http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/writing

Lessons tied to MUSD Writing Standards for 5th Grade - provides a variety of writing lessons and activities tied to the standards. http://www.geocities.com/fifth_grade_tpes/standards.html

Poetry for Kids - provides numerous links with poetry information and activities. http://eduscapes.com/42explore/poetry.htm

Poetry Express - provides tips and techniques and ideas for writing poetry. http://www.poetryexpress.org

Young Writers Workshop - students can select a story, print out the graphic and story starter and finish the story on the lined paper. http://www.meddybemps.com/9.700.html

Folktale Writers Workshop - students learn from two authors about writing folktales.  The students learn how to write folk tales, brainstorm ideas and can publish their folk tales on the web. http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/mff/folktalewshop_index.htm

Houghton Mifflin Reading Scene: Online Book Reading Group - provides several books with information and activities and allows students to post answers to questions that others can read. http://www.eduplace.com/readingscene/index.html

Houghton Mifflin Current Events - provides a news article, quiz, word game, and a place for students to share their feelings on news topics. http://www.eduplace.com/ss/current/index.html

Interactive Venn Diagram - students enter a title and information for the two circles and then can add words and drag them to the appropriate part of the Venn diagram.  Students can print the Venn diagram. http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/venn/index.html

Quickly Moving Or Removing Toolbar Buttons
You can quickly move or remove a button on a toolbar in Office. To move an Office 97 toolbar button, hold down the Alt key, click and hold the button, and simply drag it to a new location. To remove an Office toolbar button, hold the Alt key, click the button, and drag it into the document area and release.

Undoing a Past Step in Microsoft Office
If you wish to undo a step that you did 2 or 3 steps ago, you do not have to click “Undo” 2 or 3 times. You simply have to click the down arrow next to the “Undo” button in the toolbar, and choose which step you want to undo. All steps done after that will be undone as well.

Inserting The Date and Time
There are two ways of inserting the date and the time in an Office document. The first way allows you to insert a date that will remain the same. You can do this by:

Clicking the Insert menu at the top of the window.
Then clicking Date and Time.
Then you choose the format of your choice and click OK.

There is another way of doing this that inserts the date. This date is then updated to the current date each time you open the document. In other words, if you insert the date today and print tomorrow, tomorrow’s date will be in the document. You can do this by selecting the Update
Automatically box before you click OK after following the steps stated above.

Q. Can I upgrade my operating system to Windows 98 or Windows 2000?
A. No.  The District does not have blanket licenses for operating systems.  The operating system that came with the computer is all we have the license for.

Q. I have Office 2000 on my new computer. Can I get it installed on the rest of the computers in my classroom?
A. No.  We only have licenses for the machines that were purchased with Office 2000.

Q. The District supports Netscape.  Can I download Netscape 6.0 or 7.0?
A. No.  The district only supports Netscape up to version 4.79.  If you have an older computer, Netscape 6.0 will cause freezing, slowness and other errors.  Also, the way Netscape stores profile information is different in these newer versions and we may not be able to save mail, bookmarks or address books if your computer goes down.

Q.  Can I get my printer replaced?
A.  No, unfortunately we do not have the money to replace all the old printers in the District.  Deskjet printers are purchased by each site out of their own budget.

This year the keynote speaker will be Jamie McKenzie, a well-known national technology speaker, who is a strong proponent for staff development and teaching students to use higher-level thinking and reasoning skills while utilizing technology tools.

The conference will also feature exhibitors and presentations on the Internet, multimedia, telecommunications, curriculum integration, and presentation graphics. Registration information may be obtained on the web at www.ed.arizona.edu/techconf/ or by contacting your Technology Coach, Patti Greenleaf, or me. Several schools send groups of teachers to make the learning more meaningful. This is a great way to share and learn together.

The Internet has many outstanding educational uses, but it does have a dark side that we must be prepared for. Some of the dark side elements include harassment, stalking, hacking, hate crimes, theft and fraud.  You will be amazed to know how easy it is for predators to stalk your children on the Internet without ever engaging them in a chat or email.  The purpose of this event is to help you learn about the potential dangers on the Internet and ways to protect yourself and others.

Lupita Murillo will moderate a panel of experts that include a representative from the police and sheriff’s department, a librarian, technology director, and Superintendent.  The representatives from the sheriff and police department will first give an overview about the potential problems on the Internet and give ideas for parents to protect themselves and their children.  The rest of the panel will make remarks and then open it up for audience question and answers.

Encourage your colleagues, parents, and neighbors to attend this informative event.

Open the query atom and instead of using the “export” command, use the “display” command, and run the query as you normally would. Once the query results are displayed, click “data” on the menu bar, and then select “export list.” You will then be prompted to select a place to save the document, and to give the document a name. You can save the document anywhere you would like (your computer desktop is convenient and readily visible). Name the document making sure to give the document an .xls extension, i.e. students.xls. Giving the document an .xls extension will allow the document to open up in Excel (assuming Excel is installed on your computer). Finally click the save button. Once the document is saved, open the document up by double clicking on the document’s icon. Make any changes to the formatting of the document that you wish, and then click “file” on the menu bar, then select “save.” You will again be prompted to give the document a name and a format type to save the document as. The name you previously used for the document will already be in the “file name” text box, however you will need to change the “save as type” selection from Text (tab delimited) (*.txt) to “Microsoft Excel workbook (*.xls). Click the save button. You will be warned that the document already exists and would you like to overwrite it. Click yes, and your exported document is complete.

It is very important that our District be consistent with disciplinary actions and in order for this, every school must follow the guidelines for each incident.

Each student and teacher in Amphitheater School District has an account. The students and teachers can log in at www.coxednet.org.  The Tech Specialists at each school are in charge of administering the accounts; they can add or delete accounts and can change passwords.  If you do not know your username and password contact the Tech Specialist at your site.

Arizona School Services through Educational Technology (ASSET) is responsible for providing professional development to teachers.  They provide a CEN Overview class that is 3 hours long. During this three-hour workshop, educators will access and use the CEN base package content.   There is also a fifteen-hour course on CEN Integration.  Lisa Boyer, Jeannie Wager, Patti Greenleaf, and I are all qualified ASSET trainers who can provide training at your site. Several schools have already provided training to their teachers.  If you are interested in having training at your site contact one of the trainers listed above.

Best CEN Software on the Desktop
Amphitheater teachers have had a chance to review the software and the titles listed below are the ones they believe are some of the most beneficial to enhance the curriculum.

Maps 101 – provides over 4,000 up-to-date maps and historical maps available for printing and numerous interactive maps. They have a section with maps for K-3 students, and a section with current events and maps.  In addition there are interactive activities and classroom resources.

Whale of a Tale - an interactive multimedia program that helps students develop reading, writing and listening strategies and techniques.  The program’s colorful cartoon characters maintain the student’s interest while primary curriculum concepts are taught. There are Whale of a Tale activities for language arts, social studies, science, and math.

Visual Plane Geometry - helps students achieve an intuitive and visual understanding of planar figures through the extensive use of digital animation, virtual reality exploration, and curriculum content. The program provides an interactive experiment environment for the manipulation of two-dimensional shapes.

School Kit Rex Learning Modules - each module provides step-by-step directions for students to follow in an interactive tutorial that uses technology as a tool to solve a problem.  Some of the module titles include: Book Talk, Write your own Fable, Research Guide, Cause/Effect Organization, Explorers of the New World, Life Cycles, Battles of the Revolution, Food Web, Solar System, Persuasion and Politics, and more.  A class to learn to use these programs is being offered on April 29th from 4:00-6:00 p.m. at Wetmore Training Lab.  You can sign up for this class and others at techreg.amphi.com.

College Capital – provides information to students on scholarships, athletics, colleges, college alternatives, financial aid, and a personality assessment.

Easy Type – an interactive and entertaining keyboard instruction program. This program does not work on Macintosh computers, but the SFB is looking for a typing program for students with Macintosh computers. This is a great program for students to be able to practice their keyboarding skills at home and at school.

We Help Kids –provides diagnostic tests in reading and mathematics. The base package that is available for free does not offer tests in all grades, but if they have your grade, the test preparation questions are excellent for practicing for statewide assessments.

Frog Guts – an online frog dissection program without the formaldehyde smell.

Adventure Online Math – provides math activities in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, equalities and number sets.

Marco Polo – provides a link to the Marco Polo Site that has outstanding standards-based lessons and activities.  There is a great wealth of resources and lesson plans for math, reading, social studies, science, economics, humanities, and the arts at Marco Polo.

There are many more great programs for you and your students.  Advise parents of this great resource and help them know which programs would benefit them if they have a home computer.

To start using the Epals feature of the Cox Education Desktop, you must talk to your Tech Specialist who is your school Epals administrator to have him/her assign you as a monitor for your students’ email accounts. If you have any questions please feel free to contact your Tech Specialist or me or take the “How to Use Epals with Cox Education Network” class offered on April 7, 2003 from 4-5 pm.

If you want to set Mozilla to not open pop-up windows follow the steps below.
Go to Edit and pull to Preferences.
Click the + in front of Advanced.
Click on Scripts and Plugins.
Uncheck the box in front of  Open unrequested windows.
Click OK.

Realize that you might encounter problems if a program uses a pop-up window as a legitimate part of the web page– it will not open because you have turned that capability off.  So, you will need to go back in and check the box for that web site.

Laser printer toner and inkjet ink cartridges also can be the root of the problem. Some toner cartridges have been refilled and will leak toner dust on the print product causing ghosting or failure of the fuser.  Please look at the product before purchasing a recycled toner cartridge. The same goes for recycled ink cartridges; they tend to go out faster and dry up causing you to replace them sooner than necessary.  I would recommend that you do not purchase these due to lack of longevity and close cost of a new cartridge.  Recycling is a good idea but when it comes to failure of your printer it’s not worth the hassle.

Laser and inkjet printers do get dirty from normal usage.  Paper dust and lack of lubrication will cause a printer to fail. Loud noise and failure of the print head to print is a good sign the printer needs to be cleaned and lubricated.

For the past several years this department has serviced Amphi School District with the ability to mass-produce photocopies with minimal cost to the schools.  Now it is time to go the next level.  That level includes the “Graphics” in the title Graphics and Printing.  We are hoping that you will entrust to us your graphic design needs in the future.  Why?  Excellence.  Have you ever seen a brochure or a sport program that just grabbed your attention and thought, “I wish I could handout something like that?”  Do you want to upgrade your newsletter to be eye catching as well as informational?  Or maybe you just want to update your logo.  Well, now you can - all you have to do is envision the plan and the rest is up to us!

At Graphics and Printing we want you to see us as part of your team offering you an invaluable service.  Want more information on what we can do to help you?  Call me at 4057 and I would be glad to stop by and talk with you personally about your school’s individual needs and the options you have.

Many students have read well beyond the highest level each year. The program encourages students to read quality books and students have indicated that they are enjoying reading more than ever. The goal of the program is to develop lifelong learners who love to read. Success of the program is based on the principle that practice improves reading.

The program comes with tests and additional tests can be purchased from the company. Packaged sets of tests are available or customized sets can be ordered to meet a library’s specific needs.

Copper Creek has included our Accelerated Reader Program in our strategic plan. Our goal is for 100% participation by our students.

To check the version number:
1.  Click on the Help menu in Netscape.
2.  Click on About Communicator.
3.  This will show what version you have.

Note: In Linux this window comes up when you first start the program, automatically.

A watermark allows you to add an image to your Word document that is faint and visible through the text.

Insert a picture into your document by either selecting Insert from the Menu Bar, slide to Picture and select Clip Art for a clip art picture or From File for a picture that you have from some place else.
Follow the steps to insert the picture or clip art.
Now click on the picture to select it and then click on the Text Wrapping icon on the Picture Toolbar.
Choose Behind Text.
If necessary click in a blank space on the document then click back on the picture to get white handlebars and you will be able to move your picture to the center of the page and resize.
Make sure the picture is still highlighted with handlebars around the picture, and then click on the Format Picture icon on the Picture Toolbar.
Make sure the Picture tab is selected and click the down pointing arrow next to Color in the Image Control section and choose “Watermark.” If needed, adjust the brightness and contrast in the same box. The higher the brightness number, the dimmer the picture becomes, to more resemble a watermark.
Click on the Layout tab in the same window to make sure Behind Text is selected and click the “Advanced” button. Uncheck the box next to Move object with Text and click OK and OK again.

Microsoft PowerPoint
Recording A Voice—Recording a voice to a presentation can make it a more professional piece. It is also a wonderful technique to utilize with students. You must have a microphone for your computer to do these steps.

Be on the slide you want to add the recording to.
Go to the Insert menu and select Movies and Sounds.
Click Record Sounds.
Click the Record button, the one with the red circle.
Read your script aloud.
When you’re done click the Stop button, the black rectangular one.
Click OK.

To listen to your recording run your slide show and click the little speaker that appears on the slide.

Our community booklet was accomplished with the help of our classroom’s digital camera. We first went into action by taking pictures to show the effort that we have put forth to make our community one. The pictures help to show our way of learning, how we work together and interact.  We then got different points of view from Mrs. Ritzel’s history students about what they interpret from community. Afterwards we put our hands together to create our booklet of community.  The book is a physical reminder of what community means to us and will be shared with new students as they become part of our community.   This booklet only exists because of the help of our digital camera and our classroom’s thoughts representing community. This comes to show how a simple digital camera and a classroom with positive thoughts can help to make a difference in spreading a school’s community.

As the phone administrator for Amphitheater for over three years, I have noticed a reoccurrence of the same problems over and over again. So, I put together a list of common problems and possible solutions for users—old or new—so they can troubleshoot and quickly fix their problem. Cut this article out and place it in a convenient area so you can refer to it if you experience a phone problem.

Problem 1: I can’t access my voicemail
Possible Solution:
1.) Usually the password for the voicemail box is the same as the extension number, so that should be tried first. If the password is unknown, contact the phone administrator for the password to be reset back to the extension.
2.) When a password is entered wrong five times in a row the Meridian voicemail system will disable the mailbox. In this case contact the phone administrator to reset the mailbox.

Problem 2: I can’t call a certain extension and it gives me a “quick busy” signal
Possible Solutions:
1.) If possible, check to make sure the extension you are calling is properly forwarded.  Phones that are accidentally forwarded to a nonexistent number will produce this “quick busy” when they are called.  To properly forward a phone, see Problem 3.
2.) If possible, try to contact someone in the vicinity of the questionable phone to see if it is unplugged or disabled.  Then, if necessary, inform the phone administrator of the suspect phone.

Problem 3: My phone is forwarded and I do not get any messages
Possible Solution:
1.) The phone will remember the last number you forwarded to and by simply pressing the forward button twice your phone will be forwarded to the last numbers you entered in the forwarding feature.  But sometimes nonexistent numbers are accidentally typed in, so you must check to make sure your phone is properly forwarded.  To do this, turn off forwarding by pressing the “forward button” once (the solid black triangle to the left of the forward button will disappear). The forwarding feature is now disengaged.  Then press the forward button once again (you will then see a blinking black arrow to the left of the “forward button”). Type 5100 (voice mail number) or any number you want your extension to go to.  Then press the forward button again (you will see the black triangle become solid). This will reengage the forwarding feature. Do these steps every time you want to forward your phone to ensure that your phone calls are going to the proper place.

Problem 4: My phone can’t dial anywhere
Possible Solution:
1.) Check all the buttons on the keypad.  A stuck button will disable the dialing capability. To stop buttons from sticking clean the keypad by using an alcohol-based cleaning solution (e.g. Windex) with a cotton swab.

Problem 5: I record my new voice greeting but callers still hear the old voice greeting
Possible Solution:
1.) Make sure all old external, internal and temporary greetings are deleted before a new one is recorded. To do this, log into your mailbox.  Then dial 821 (this is the external greeting).  Press 76 (this is the delete command) that will delete anything that was previously recorded.  Then press 4 (this will back out to the beginning). Now dial 822 (this is the internal greeting). Press 76 to delete.  Then press 4 to go back to the beginning.  Finally, dial 823 (this is the temporary greeting). Press 76 to delete. Then press 4 to go back to the beginning. Now you are ready to record a new greeting. You want to record only an external greeting!  All calls will default to this greeting. To do this, dial 821. Press 5 to record your greeting. Press # to end the recording. Then follow the system prompts.

Problem 6: When I leave a message in another voice mailbox someone else’s name and extension plays before my message
Possible Solution:
1.) Make sure the old personal verification is deleted and a new one is recorded. To do this, log into your mailbox. Then dial 89 (this is the personal verification feature). Press 76 to delete the old personal verification.  Press 4 to go back to the beginning. Dial 89 again.  Press 5 to record.  Press # to end the recording. A new personal verification is now recorded.

It is for this reason, that in recent months some major updates have been made to the Technology Department’s Security Alert web site.  On the newly updated site you can find alerts concerning problems such as current viruses, virus hoaxes, and security holes.  There is also a new section entitled Security Basics, which details basic steps you can take to help keep your computer from being violated.  The following is a summary of this information.  To see the site and the information in its entirety please visit www.amphi.com/~technology/security/.

Security Basics:
Windows Update-This is a Microsoft site that offers patches for Windows systems and all security holes to date that are discovered on a regular basis.  Frequent visits to this site are a good way to ensure that you are protected. The URL for the site is v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp.  For detailed instructions on how to scan for the updates please visit the Security Basics portion of the Security Alert site and click on Windows Update.

AntiVirus Software Updates-AntiVirus software must be updated on a regular basis so that it may download new virus lists in order to effectively do its job.  If this list is not updated, newer viruses can slip right past the software.  Most software automatically updates itself, but it is a good idea to check your configurations to make sure that it does or that it is set to make these updates.  Otherwise, it is recommended you manually update the software once a week.

Microsoft Outlook Default Settings-Many prevalent viruses spread by using the Outlook address book on an infected machine.  This is quite effective in most cases because Outlook is defaulted to save every email address ever replied to.  Imagine the problems this would create if you have ever replied to an email with a large number of recipients.  To learn how to turn this default off please visit the Security Basics portion of the Security Alert site and click on Outlook Express Default Settings.

Current Alerts:
Microsoft Security Hole-A serious security flaw has been found with Microsoft’s Virtual Machine, which is used for running Java applications on PCs.  The flaw potentially allows an attacker exploiting it to take over a user’s entire system.  Microsoft says that the best way to prevent an attack is to upgrade to Virtual Machine 3809 that is available on the Windows Update web site.

Major Microsoft Security Hole-This security hole can be especially damaging as it allows any PC running MDAC (a program that helps Microsoft download data) prior to version 2.7 to be hacked if the user simply views a malicious HTML email or web page.  No opening of attachments or any other user action is required.  Even after visiting the Windows Update site and getting a patch, the PC is still vulnerable.  If the user visits a tainted web site, the earlier version of MDAC can be reinstalled without notice.  How does this happen?  If the user has ever installed an updated Windows component and happened to check the box that says, “always trust Microsoft,” then the unsecure version of MDAC still has a valid digital signature for Microsoft.  The best way to avoid this is to make sure you have no trusted publishers.  For information on how to do this visit www.amphi.com/~technology/security/alert/alert006.html.

Jdbgmgr.exe Virus Hoax-This virus hoax generally comes in the form of an email from a “friend” stating that in order to protect your machine from a virus you must find and delete the file named jdbgmgr.exe on your computer.  This file is actually a java debugger and deleting it may cause your browser to have trouble viewing sites that require java.  This is not a critical system file, and if it is deleted, it is fairly easy to reinstall.

Klez Virus- If you have ever received a virus notification saying that you sent a virus to someone that you never actually emailed, it is most likely due to the Klez virus.  Typically, what happens is that someone on the Internet gets an email that has your address, along with someone else's from the District.

This person has Outlook or Outlook Express. They sent out messages infected with the Klez virus with your address in the From field. Our virus protection system stops the email and sends a message to you stating you sent this message even though you had no part in the exchange.  To learn more about this virus visit www.amphi.com/~technology/security/alert/alert004.html.

As you can see, there are many different varieties of security violations that can occur when you are connected to the Internet.  The best way to avoid them is to stay informed and to invoke some basic security measures to protect your computer.  Frequent visits to the Security Basics web site can help you to do this.

Next Tech Talk issue:  monitor care.

The Deep Web is getting increasingly more press, particularly as it has become easier to navigate.  Easy enough, in fact, that it is possible to guide student researchers through some of its content in a timely manner.  Sometimes called the “Hidden Web” or the “Invisible Web,” the Deep Web is a vast collection of databases and non-textual files on the Internet that cannot be accessed by general-purpose search engines like Yahoo or Excite.  In fact, the majority of the information available to be viewed on the Internet is stored in these databases, and is often more useful to student researchers than what they would find through searching the more commonly known search engines.  That means that every time students search the Internet for informational research and they use general-purpose search engines, they are missing a large percentage of what is available to them because the search engine they are using can’t reach it.

A study released by BrightPlanet estimates that the Deep Web may contain almost 550 billion documents, as compared to the 1.2 billion pages that Google has deemed accessible through conventional search engines.  Some of the sites dedicated to accessing Deep Web content are listed below.  Leading student researchers to sites that search more than the Surface Web can greatly enhance their searching power and help them find more of what they are looking for!

Useful sites for accessing the Deep Web:
www.completeplanet.com/
www.freepint.com/gary/direct.htm
www.invisibleweb.com/
www.brightplanet.com/
www.internets.com/

For a picture of the whole program screen, be in the program you would like the screen shot of.
Click the Print Scrn key on your keyboard. It is up by the F12 key.
Open the Word document you would like to paste the image to.
Click the Paste icon on the toolbar or go to Edit and select Paste.
This places the whole screen image into Word then you would adjust it like any other picture.
If you would like a screen shot of a Dialog box or Window that opens in the program, you must have the Dialog box or Window open in the program.
Click the Alt+Print Scrn on your keyboard. The Alt key is next to your space bar.
Open the Word document you would like to paste the image into.
Click the Paste icon on the toolbar or go to Edit and select Paste.
This places just the Dialog box or Window image into Word then you would adjust it like any other picture.

In the First Grade Computer Lab, Alphabets were played…
Everyone enjoyed the ABC’s on screen.

In the Second Grade Computer lab, Color Poems were created…
Kidpix rainbows showed their joyful feelings.

In the Third Grade Computer Lab, Internet Safety was discussed…
Journal writing helped their safety posters.

In the Fourth Grade Computer Lab, Cyber Safari was explored…
Everyone had some treasure hunt fun.

In the Fifth Grade Computer lab, Busy fingers played with Keywords…
Patterns focused in their young minds.

In Prince Elementary, all grades were taught “Human Computers”…
Everyone is becoming computer literate.

From all of us at Prince Elementary, A Very Happy New Year…
Because everyone will be into technology.

One of the methods used is a PXE boot. PXE is the Pre-boot eXecution Environment, which is part of the Intel Wired for Management (WFM) standard. PXE allows a workstation to boot from the network before accessing its on-disk operating system. If you have purchased a new workstation from Compaq, IBM, Dell, HP or many other vendors recently, that workstation is probably PXE ready.

ZENworks is another powerful tool that we use on District computers via Novell network. ZENworks provides workstation management, control and imaging remotely. To provide PXE support in ZENworks for Desktops, Novell collaborated with Diamond Network Technologies. Some of the benefits of ZENworks PXE are listed here: 1) It eliminates the need to deploy Linux imaging partition to workstations. 2) Eliminates the ZENworks Imaging “double boot” required on both Linux and Windows. 3) Automates workstation registration and operating system deployment for new workstations by using intelligence built into the ZENworks Imaging Policy. 4) Creates a fast-boot process. For example, the Linux imaging engine is only started if necessary. Typically, the PXE boot process adds less than 10 seconds to a normal workstation boot, and the user sees nothing new. These new ZENworks capabilities extend ZENworks management to workstation hardware—not just the Windows operating system. In short, using ZENworks and PXE, we can re-image an entire lab of computers remotely in a short time and also maintain control of these individual workstations as well.

If a family owns a personal computer, the children have access to work on any assignment from preschool to college level.  For those families without a computer at home, the school library or public library is a nearby substitute.

Technology is helping students become more responsible and more curious at the same time. A child can often do his/her research alone. As different programs open, a child becomes interested in related topics. Exploration leads to new fields of knowledge and the desire continues on and on.
Parents do play a part in this. We cannot force our children to do their work, but we can inspire them (in a fun way) by suggesting the Internet options available.

Some classes fill very quickly so you need to sign up as soon as possible.

Don't miss our GroupWise classes to learn about our new email and calendaring program.

New Classes for this Spring include:
• PowerPoint Features You Can Use in Class Presentations
•  Internet Literature Ladders
•  Elementary Reading Sites
•  Free Technology Tips and Tutorials
•  How to use Epals with Cox Education Network
• How to Create Distribution Lists in Our Voicemail System
• How to Use Word to Launch Web Pages
• Free Lesson Plans to Invigorate Your Classroom
• Online Research Modules
• How to Download and Install Plugins
• Interactive Free Learning Modules from School Kit Rex

These classes are available to all Amphitheater employees including substitutes and student teachers.

Sign up today and be a role model for life-long learning.

The tool bar and other features should be very familiar for all of the current Netscape users.  The underlying code has been completely rewritten so it is compatible with all of the new web sites, something that the old version of Netscape is having more and more problems with these days.  The other great feature is that it has built in blocking for popup/pop under ads so popular with web sites these days.

To activate the popup blocking go to the Edit menu.  Choose the Preferences option.  Expand the advanced option by clicking on the plus button next to it.  Choose the Scripts and Plugins option.  There you will see a large window titled ‘Allow scripts to:’ with a series of options with check boxes next to them.  Uncheck the top entry box that says ‘open unrequested windows.’ You have just stopped all the annoying popup adds.  Depending on how much you wish to control what sites can do with your browser you can also prevent them from moving your browser windows around or, hiding the menus (ever get to web page and all your buttons disappear?).  The only drawback to this is if you go to site and you need popup windows to work for that site you will have to follow the above steps but place a check by the open unrequested windows but this should be a fairly rare occurrence.  Watch this space for future tips on the new web browser.

To turn the tab bar on constantly so that it appears even when only one page/tab is open, go to the Edit menu.  Select Preferences.   Click on the plus next to Navigator to expand that menu.  Select the Tabbed Browsing option.  In the top options box labeled Tab Display uncheck the box next to ‘Hide the tab bar when only one tab is open.’  Now the tab bar will also be available even with only one window open.

Yes you can.  When you go to type in a name in one of the fields that are expecting an address (To: Cc: Bc:) GroupWise will attempt to fill in a name for you as you type.  This feature is called auto fill.  By default GroupWise will assume that you are entering a last name and will attempt to fill it from the search order of address books.  I will explain what that means soon.  You can change this and request that it search by first name by opening the address book (under tools).  When the address book opens go to View -> Name format.  Select ‘Show first name then last name’ and click ‘OK’.  Then, when you type you have a built in auto fill of the district by first name.

While you are in the address book you might also want to right click on the words ‘Name Completion Position’ and select ‘Name Completion Search Order.’  This gives you a chance to pick which address books you want to auto fill to look through when typing in a name.  You probably want to have Frequent Contacts and your personal address book in the ‘Selected Books’ side with Frequent Contacts on top.  Whatever address book is at the top of the ‘Selected Books’ column will be the first searched.  You can’t get rid of the Novell GroupWise Address Book.  Keep in mind that each tab in the main address book window is called an address book.

Frequent Contacts is a special address book.  By default whenever you send a letter or reply to a letter, those addresses will automatically be added to your Frequent Contacts folder.  This will help your GroupWise to auto fill with the names you use most instead of just the District list.  For example, I often send mail to Ron Shannon.  If I were to type in Ron it would attempt to fill with a different Ron since there is a Ron with a last name that is alphabetically before Shannon.  Once I sent a letter to Ron then he was immediately stored in my frequent contacts address book.  Since I added Frequent Contacts in the ‘Selected Books’ as listed above it will search there before going to look in the main address book.  If a name comes up other then Ron Shannon then all I have to do is delete it from my frequent contacts or move it to a different address book that is lower down in the ‘Selected Books’ list.

We would like to make this a regular Tech Talk column.  If you have any GroupWise questions that you would like to submit please Email them to GroupWise Mailbox in GroupWise or groupwisemailbox@amphi.com for Netscape.