Free Quick References for You

Greetings

Today I will be sharing with you a web site where you can get access to quick references on various software programs for free. Once you download the quick reference guides, you can print the two pages out as a colorful pdf document. You can also glue them back to back and laminate them. You now have a quick reference guide for all the Microsoft Office and Adobe software titles listed above.

All you have to do is go to http://www.customguide.com/ and click on the Product Tour tab. Look on the right hand side of the screen and fill out the following information below to access the free quick reference guides.

These quick reference guides can assist you in your training needs. Hope you enjoy these free guides. We will see you next week with another exciting topic. Take care.

What is Storyline Online?

Greetings

Storyline online is a great web site that has Hollywood stars read to you. You will find the following stars reading to you: Betty White, James Earl James, Tia & Tamera Mowry, Amanda Bynes, Sean Astin, Al Gore, Esai Morales, Hector Elizondo, Lou Diamond Phillips, Elijah Wood, Jason Alexander, Haylie Duff, Amber Rose Tamblyn and Camryn Manheim. This web site keeps growing. As of today, they have 23 stories all read by the Hollywood stars above. Storyline online is funded through The Screen Actors Guild Foundation.

The books that are read by the stars have related activity questions, ideas and concepts to help your child learn even more. You can also download activities guide that have the story and ideas in a pdf format. They also have a newsletter you can subscribe to where you can get updated information on their web site. You can also purchase the book for a nominal fee. All stories read, last between 5 – 10 minutes. You and your child will enjoy this free web site to improve your child’s reading skills.

When you decide to let the video play, it will stream the video at speeds of 56K for dial up, small; 150K for broadband, medium; 300K broadband, large and 512K broadband, best quality. When the video plays, you can also choose the option to show the captions. The captions allow you to see the words and sentences being read to you. You can also pause it, rewind, fast forward it to your favorite part of the story.

You will also notice as the person reads it to you via video you will see pictures that zoom in and out from the book. This unique video concept will make it a memorable experience. Try it out today at http://www.storylineonline.net/ Hope you enjoy the site. I will see you next week about another exciting topic in technology.

Teaching with Claymation: Part 3 of 3

Hello

Today I will be discussing animation tips when working with claymation. One of the most important tips I can tell you is to be careful with your background and remember to keep it simple. Here are 10 animation tips.

1. You can simply use construction paper and different color cut outs as well as clay to make scenic items such as clouds, rain, flowers, trees, etc.

2. When you are planning your claymation video, you may want to shoot the scenes backwards with your digital camera.

3. Take 8 - 15 frames per second of finished video (approximately 450 pictures = 30 seconds of video!)

4. Move your character in small amounts at a time.

5. Have handy some wet wipes to keep your hands clean.

6. Avoid moving items in the scene that are not suppose to move.

7. Change the camera view or zoom occasionally.

8. Make sure you set your camera on a tripod and use fresh batteries.

9 Your digital camera needs to be cleared of all pictures before you start taking pictures.

10. Make sure your students have all their materials and supplies before taking the pictures.

Here are 7 video tips you want to be aware of.

1. Take out any pictures where you can see hands.

2. Add background music, sounds and voices. It can be very challenging to use voices to lip movements in stop motion animation; voice-overs are much easier.

3. When adding music use free sources for educators like http://www.freeplaymusic.com/

4. When filming, set the camera on a tripod close to the background. Make sure the background is in the frame.

5. Once filming begins, make sure the camera does not move.

6. Take many pictures. You can always delete excess pictures later.

7. Move characters approximately 1/4 of an inch between shots.

Check out these examples.
Mario's Pizzaria.



Stop, Drop, and Roll!



The Butterfly Cycle


Transformations

After you have all your pictures, audio, and sound bytes, create one folder on your desktop and place all the items in it. To produce your move you want to use a free movie editing program on your computer called Movie Maker 2.
To find Movie Maker on your computer go to "Start" and the program is either in the accessories folder or in your programs file. Look for the little color film real with a tailing filmstrip icon. You want to be familiar with this program. For a free video tutorial please visit: www.atomiclearning.com/moviemaker2 To put the finishing touches on the movie you will add titles, credits, narration and music in Movie Maker 2.
Free Resources
Royalty Free Music Sites
http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/
www.beatmode.com/free-loops/
www.mfwp101.com/freemusic.htm
www.flashkit.com/loops/
www.hooverwebdesign.com/sounds/index.html
http://www.freeplaymusic.com/
Sound Effects
www.pacdv.com/sounds/index.html
Hope you enjoyed the 3 part series on claymation. We will see you next week with another exciting topic in technology. Take care.

Teaching with Claymation: Part 2 of 3

Greetings,

Today I will be discussing how to build characters and props. I will also talk about how to build your backdrop or background. Let's get started, you will need the following items to build your characters.

* Armature for the Skeleton, which will provide strength and flexibility.

* To create the bulk and shape of the character you will need to cover the wire with foil folded into strips. You can also use styrofoam as well.
* Colored nonhardening modeling clay
* You also might want to visit an art and craft store to get plastic eyes, mouths and noses for your character.

To mold the clay on your character you can use your fingers ore plastic spoons to shape the clay. If parts of the character will move, it may be easier to make two or more clay pieces of that part such as a winking eye or moving mouth. You can also use the clay to build props like clouds, lakes, rivers, trees, etc. on to colored construction paper for your backdrop or background. You can also use sand, grass, dirt, rocks, twigs, marbles and confetti etc.
After you have all the supplies you are ready to set your stage.
1. When students are working with claymation there should be no more than 4 to a group.
2. Students will need to create a flowmap of step by step of the movement of the story.
3. Make the characters.
4. Make the backdrops or background - The backdrops can be done in a shoebox, shad.ow box, on a chair, in a cubby hole, base of a chair, on colored construction paper or poster board (Remember to keep it simple).
5. Work on lighting - Do you want the characters to stand out more?
6. Think about the camera view, taking the photos and making the movie.
Next week I will be discussing animation tips, video tips, filming tips, producing the movie, adjusting timing, adding titles, credits, narration and music. I will be sharing free tutorials and additional web sites for more ideas. I will also be posting more examples of claymation projects. See you next week.

How to Access Free Movies, Music, Books and Audiobooks!

Greetings,

Hope you are doing well. This week I will be discussing a place where you can access free resources within your community. You can get popular DVDs, Cd's, books, and audiobooks at your own local library. It's amazing of the statistics of how many people actually have a library card, it is about 2 - 5% of the population. That's maybe one one out of twenty individuals who have in possession a free library card.

All you have to do is visit your local public library, and search for the resource you are looking for. Once you find your resource then you will need to sign up for a free library card. You can even do a search online in some cases. If they do not have the resource you are looking for, then you can place a request for them to get it through interlibrary loan. They search hundreds of libraries for you throughout the country.

I have received resources from as far as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles to name a few. You may have to wait a few days or weeks. Some of the movies I borrowed recently include the following: Avatar, Julia and Julia, Wall-E, The Power of One from the 1990's, The Karate Kid part 2 and 3 back from the 1980's. A few books and audiobooks I have checked out include books by John Maxwell, John Wooden, Stephen Covey and Eric Jensen to name a few.

Hope this helps you out as you look for the resources you want or need in the future. As summer comes to a close, millions of children will be returning to a new school year within the next month. Over the next two weeks I will be blogging about how to be an effective classroom manager. I will also be sharing with you a few slides of my First Day of School PowerPoint. This is the same PowerPoint that was recently featured in a Presentation by Dr. Harry K. Wong. Hope to see you soon.

How to Get a Free E-mail Account

Greetings,

This week I am blogging about how to get a free e-mail account. There are a lot of teachers and people who do not know that they can get an email account for free. I personally use http://www.mail.yahoo.com/ http://www.gmail.com/ and http://www.hotmail.com/ accounts. The reason you want a free e-mail account is you can send pictures, audios, videos and interesting web sites to all your family and friends. Remember it's all for free. You can also choose your own e-mail screen name.

I like googles email account (Gmail) because you can send an attachment up to 25MB in size. Do you remember about 10 -20 years ago when we use to use save documents on plastic 3.5 inch floppy disks?

25MB is equal to almost 18 3.5 inch floppy disks. It's amazing how far technology has advanced.
Another reason I like using yahoo.com is because yahoo has an instant messenger (IM). With the instant messenger download application you can chat in real time with family and friends that have the same yahoo instant messenger. You can also use it with your web camera and see the other person in real time while chatting with them. I hear you can use http://www.skype.com/ to do the same thing.

Try these free e-mail accounts and let me know which ones you like best. Next week I will be blogging about how to access free books audio books, music Cd's, DVDs and more. See you next week.

How to Search Google?

Greetings,

Hope you are doing well today. I will be blogging about how to do a Google search for documents, pictures, and videos. When you go to http://www.google.com/ you need to type in the search box you topic of interest, and then you type the following file extension in quotes:

1. For MS PowerPoint Documents you type “ppt”

2. For MS Word Documents you type “doc”

3. For MS Excel Documents you type “xls”

4. For Adobe PDF Documents you type “pdf”

5. For Flash Videos you type “swf”

6. For a specific phrase you need to type it all in quotes

If you want more options, then click on the right side of the box under Advance Search. Next, you will see the following options under Advance Search.




Then you can follow the instructions in the search boxes. If you go to the last topic on Need more tools, you can pull down the drop down arrow boxes to get more options on your search. You can even narrow down the file search to a particular type of file.


For example, let’s say you are looking for an interactive flash web site when teaching a concept or objective; all you have to do is pull down the drop down box and choose Shockwave Flash. Once you chose this option, then all you will find are flash video sites. Try it out with the water cycle. If you want more search options, please visit the following: Advanced Search Tips

To look for pictures you need to go to http://www.google.com/ and hover your mouse on the top left side of the screen, and you will see a blue Images link. Click on the link, and then type the name of picture you are searching for in the search box. You will do the same for Videos. Hope these helpful tips help you out. I will see you next week with another topic.

What is the Hat?

Greetings,

Today, I will be blogging about the Hat. The Hat is a random number/name generator you can use with your students. This application makes sure each person is randomly drawn equally. What's neat about this application is once you download it, you do not need to be connected to the internet.

One of the great features of this application are the fun special effects. The generator will make a toggle noise and a drum beat noise as the names are being shuffled and selected. This tool has given me another option to use, besides my traditional popsicle sticks in a cup. The popsicle sticks in a cup still works, except this generator has sound effects and is very visual. This makes it more exciting for the students.

To download this free and fun tool you can visit the following web site: http://www.harmonyhollow.net/hat.shtml
Here is what it looks like after you have downloaded it.

The fist thing you want to do is input the students names manually.


Once you select the Add Names Manually button, you will see the following window screen. You will need to type in your students name to add them to your list.

After you have all the names of your students in your class. You have two choices.

1. You can shuffle the names and the names will jump around from top to bottom to different position. You can either chose the name on the very top of the list or the bottom of the list. Then you can chose to delete the name.

2. You can chose to draw the names randomly out of the Magic Hat. The student will see his or her name appear on the middle part of the hat.

I personally like using the Magic Hat, that way the students are selected randomly to answer questions when I am presenting a lesson to the students. The names can only be chosen one time, so it is a true random sample.

Once you have drawn all the names of the students, you will see an indicator that says all the names have been drawn out. Then you can reshuffle, and continue to draw out the same names randomly.

If you have more classes you can chose to delete the names, clear the list or import the names into the generator.

You can also go into the options setting and change the interface or sound effects if you would like.

I hope you enjoy this fun and useful tool. I know your students will enjoy it. Remember download it and play with it, and you will be ready for your students when you need to ask questions to your students randomly. Hope his helps you out. See you next week.

What is Cool Timer?

Greetings,

Hopefully you had a great Fourth of July spending time with family and friends. This week I am sharing with you a timer you can download to use as a stopwatch or a count down timer with your students. All you need to do is visit the following site to download it for free: www.harmonyhollow.net/cool_timer.shtml

Once you download it you will not need an internet connection to run the program. Here is a screen shot of what it looks like, once you have downloaded it.

Your students will enjoy watching the countdown timer when they are in working in small groups, or independent practice. After you have downloaded the program, you can choose different built in alarm sounds to sound off when the time expires. You can even personalize the timer by having a short message scroll across the screen.


Another feature on this free timer is you can change the colors of the digits, buttons, and backgrounds to match your needs.

You and your students will enjoy all these unique features on this free timer. Hope you enjoy this tool. I would recommend you downloading this program to your home computer so you can play with it. Once you have learned all the different features I mentioned above, you will be ready to download it your computer at school.

Next week I will be sharing with you a fun random number generator you can use with your students to make sure they are picked randomly when you ask them questions. Yes, you can even type their name in the random generator to personalize it. See you next week.

Part 2 of What is IVC?

Greetings,

This week I will be sharing more of the free activities we participated in during the event. Remember you can also participate in these activities with your students. Here are 7 of the most popular ones:

1. Monster Match Exchange

2. Animal Exchange

3. Community Exchange

4. Read Around the Planet

5. Math Marvels

6. Mystery Quest Beaches

7. Whirlidurb: Shane Sings

1. Monster Match Exchange Project: Two classrooms are paired up and each class will have the opportunity to draw their own monster. The first class will communicate or write a description of their monster and post it online. The second class will then get the opportunity to draw a monster that matches the description of the first classroom. Both classes will meet via video conference to compare and contrast the original drawing of their monsters. For more information on this exciting project please visit: www.humbleisd.net/monster/ and http://disdvideoconferencing.pbworks.com/Monster+Exchange

2. Animal Exchange Project: Two classes are paired up and will select an animal that is found in their state or region. Each class will prepare a presentation about an animal to share with the other class. The presentation should be about 5 minutes long and include the habitat, movement, description and what it eats. The presentations may include the following a visual, sound, act out motion/movement, or a song/poem about their animal.Each class can break up into groups and each group will will research the topics listed above. Both classes will meet via video conference to give their description to the other class. Next, both classes will research online what the other classes animal is. Both classes will take turns to meet via video conference to guess the other classes animal.

3. Community Exchange Project: Both classes will prepare a presentation about a community to share with the other class. The presentation should be about 5 minutes, and include visuals. Here are a few ideas that you may want to include in your project: information about demographics of community; cultural institutions, zoos, museums; schools including size, curriculum, structure; a map of the community/city/state; type of food that is popular, favorite sporting events and trivia. After each class presents via video conferencing there will be time for questions and answers.

4. Read Around the Planet Project: This is a project that celebrates National Education Association's Read Across America. Classrooms use interactive video conference to connect with other classrooms "around the planet" and read to each other. The presentation should be about 5 minutes and can be related to reading or promoting literacy. Here are a few ideas that a project may include: skits or plays, raps or songs; puppet show, readers theater, poetry, sign language, illustrations, dramatizations, student-centered books, original poetry, songs and trivia. For more information on this project please visit: www.twice.cc/read

5. Math Marvels Project: Both classes will prepare problem solving and communicating solutions/strategies using higher order thinking skills. Students will create math problems to communicate via video conference to each other to solve. The two classes will use good math problem solving skills and use various strategies/discussions. Students will need to create problems that have an answer of a number before the video conference. After each class has had time to solve the math problem, they will share their response via video conference. For more exciting information about this project, please visit: http://katyvc.pbworks.com/Math-Marvels

6. Mystery Quest Beaches Project: Both classes will prepare a 5 to 7 minute presentation on a mystery beach. Each class may divide researching the clues for their beach. When creating the presentation, students will need to clearly communicate effective clues to the other class via video conference. You may use the following ideas to create clues: region, location and place.

Beach Clues:

Region

1. Describe how land and sea areas define the country's borders.

2. What other landmarks are close to the beach?

Location

1. What is the latitude or longitude of the beach?

2. What is the relative location of this beach?

3. Which direction from the country capitol do you travel to reach the beach?

Place

1. What body of water is closest to the beach?

2. What is the area of the country in which the beach is located?

3. What is the primary language of the country in which the beach is located?

4. What is the population of the country in which the beach is located

5. Name and describe a tourists attraction near your beach and illustrate if possible.

6. What is the population of the nearest city?

7. Describe one or more notable physical landforms in or near this city.

Once all the clues have been communicated from both classes via video conference (30 min.), then the research begins on the Internet (20 min.) to figure out the location of the beach. After all questions are answered, then each group will present their answers to the other class. Both classes will need to create a visual poster with the correct name of their beach. The correct mystery of the beaches will be revealed by students at the end of the video conference.

For more information on this project and to get a notes template, please visit: http://mysteryquest.wikispaces.com/

7. Whirlidurb Project: Introduce video conferencing to you early childhood classes through different animated characters that will be singing and asking them questions. The different animated characters are created with animated avatars that the presenter uses to communicate with your class. Your students will absolutely love this activity. For more information on this program, please visit: http://shanesings.whirlidurb.com/

These were just a few activities and projects you can participate in with video conferencing equipment. I hope you get the opportunity to conduct a virtual field trip or a video conference event with your students. We will see you next week with another exciting topic.

What is Scribd and SlideShare?

Greetings,

Today I am excited to share with you Scribd.com and SlideShare.com in greater details. These are both web sites where you can download or share valuable resources. Ok, let's get started with Scribd.com. If you click on the picture below, it will take you to the website.



Check out Scribd 101
or you can watch the video below.



Remember, if you are interested in creating your own blog, and publishing your own blog, it is as easy as clicking on this link below to get the instructions. http://mikejmoran.typepad.com/visual_media/2009/11/creating-a-blog-using-blogger.html or you can click on this link below to see the document http://www.scribd.com/doc/22339943/Creating-a-Blog-in-Blogger If you want to download the power point or PDF then you can become a member of http://www.scribd.com/ for free and download all types of free informational documents. You can post any online document to share with the community. You can also charge for people to download your document and you keep 80% of profit.

Now we are ready to talk about SlideShare. Slideshare is a web site where you can also download free resources.
If you click on the picture below, it will take you to SlideShare.



Check out SlideShare 101
or you can watch the video below.



Stay tuned for next week. I will be sharing with you how to download YouTube videos for your next presentation. Videos are always useful and helpful in getting your point across to your audience. See you next week.

Using Video Footage with Other Compatible Software: Part 5

Greetings,

Today we will be reviewing other ways to share your movies through online web sites, and how to work with other compatible software programs. Ok, we will start with the share menu option at the bottom of the menu it looks like this:

When you click on the Email option you will see this menu:

All you have to do is drag your video to the box and follow the prompts on the screen to email your video to your family and friends. You can also have your own flip channel

You can also share your videos online on the following web sites below. Just drag the video to the box and follow the prompts. If you choose the option, other web sites it will allow you to export it to a folder on your desktop.

When you are exporting your video, you will see the action bar light up on the bottom right. You will see a light blue bar and it will move from left to right, depending on how long your movie is. Once it is finished your movie will be in MPEG format.

If you want to convert it into an avi, wmv, flv or swf you need to use a media file converter. You can get a free one at www.formatoz.com/download.html Once you download it, you will see the following options: (Remember to click on the picture to see a larger version)

Choose your file format options on the left side and follow the instructions and the program will convert your file for you. If you want to edit your files in Windows Movie Maker 2, you want to change the file format to wmv. You can add your movie to MS Office PowerPoint 2007. You can also edit your still pictures in PhotoStory 3 if you wish.

Let's get started with how to import your video in Windows Movie Maker 2. Just follow these simple steps.

1. Open Windows Movie Maker 2, it is under Start ->Program Files menu.

2. On the file menu on the top left, click Import Into Collections or in the movie task pane under Capture Video, click import video or import pictures. In the file name, enter the path and the name of the file you want to import, and then click import.

To add your movie to MS Office PowerPoint 2007, follow these steps:

1. Make sure you copy your movie in the same folder as your PowerPoint presentation before you add the movie to your presentation.

2. Click on the slide you want to show your movie on.

3. On the Insert tab, in the Media Clips group, click the arrow under Movie.

4. Click Movie from File, locate the folder that contains the file, and then double-click the file.

To insert a picture

1. Click on the slide you want your picture on.

2. On the Insert tab click on picture.

3. An insert picture window will appear, locate the folder that contains the file and then double-click the file you want to add.

If you don't have Photo Story 3, it's a free download, click here Simply follow these steps to Import and arrange your pictures.

1. On the Import and picture page, click Import Pictures.

2. In the File Browser dialog box, on the All Files tab, click the folder where your pictures are located on your computer. Select one or more pictures, then click ok.

3. Your pictures will be added to your Photo Story project.

If you don't know how to use Movie Maker 2 or Photo Story 3 simply go to google and type the following: "Movie Maker tutorial" or "photo story 3 tutorial." I Hope these blogs have been helpful in assisting you in using the new Flip Digital Camcorder.

Next week, I will be blogging about slideshare and scribd. These are web sites where you can sign up for free, and download and share your own resources with others.  I will see you next week with another exciting topic.

Working with Video Footage and the Software: Part 4

Hello,

Today, we are discussing how to work with the new video footage you have filmed using your Digital Flip Camcorder. The first thing you need to do is pull on the latch on the side of the camcorder, and the USB Connection will come out. You then plug this into a USB port on your computer.

Once you plug it in you will need to install the software that is inside the camcorder. That's right the software is built inside the Flip Camcorder. No need for an installation disc. When you plug it in, the following menu will come up:

You will choose the top option View Your Flip Camcorder Videos Using the Programs Provided on the device. Click OK and then you will see a licensing agreement by flip that you must agree to. Once you agree, you can install the software. Next you will see this menu:

Follow the instructions for installing the software. It may ask you to restart your computer to use the software. Sometimes this is not necessary. Once the software is on your computer you will see the following menu or the videos will automatically start loading in the software.

You can click on the first option View & organize videos, and all your videos will load on the screen, like below or they may load automatically. Most of the clips you will see are from a snow storm we encountered on my way to Abilene, TX. back in December of 2009. For the full edited video please visit: http://mrybarra.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-flip-camera-by-flip.html This is the first view in which you can see the videos lined up on the left side.

Here is the second view option that you can choose to work with.

Here is the third view.

To edit your videos, simply click on the scissors and you can trim it the way you want. You can also resave your movie with the new edited video.

During the edit process you can chose to resave it or replace the current video.

When you are ready to make your movie, click on either of the Movie buttons down below.

To create your movie, you just click and drag the videos into the boxes that are listed 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Every time you add a video a blank video box will appear in case you want to add more videos to your movie. When you are done you can click on the Magic Movie button and your move will be created automatically or you can click on Full length to continue making your movie.

Next, you can add titles and credits to your movie. Simply click in the white text area and type your title. When you are done click Next

You can also add background music to your movie, if you prefer. The software comes with it's own type of music or you can add your own music.

Now, you are ready to name your movie and save it to your computer. You might want to change the location of where you want to save it. You probably want to save it on your desktop so you can easily find it.

If you go to the create menu, you can also take snapshots of your video. Yes, you can save any part of your video as a picture.

Just click and drag the picture you want and then click on save. It will save it to the Flip Digital Video Library.

Now, you are ready to create a DVD.

Here is a closer view of the Create DVD menu above. Flipshare will save your Movie in a folder on your desktop.

Next week, we will be reviewing other ways to share your movies through online web sites, and how to work with other compatible softwares. See you next week.