In music class at Myles Elementary, sixth grade students over the last few years been involved in a project that exhibits “perfect harmony” between technology and the skills they are learning in class. The innovative project has involved students working in groups of 3 or 4 to compose simple pentatonic melodies and expanded upon them using musical concepts such as retrograde, inversion, repetition and adding ostinati. They then notate their melodies using traditional notation and perform them on various melodic Orff instruments and/or soprano recorders. After creating their musical pieces, the compositions were performed by the students and recorded using Sound Studio by their teacher Mrs. Diane Battista (pictured above recording a group’s performance.) The last part of the project required that students come up with a name for their composition along with a name for their “band” and debut CD album. Mrs. Battista took digital photos of each group and students worked with Mrs. Kathy Donovan in the computer lab using Fireworks to create a CD cover. Finally, they imported their custom album covers into iTunes and printed an album jacket with a song list of music and artists. The covers were then put into CD cases along with an original burned CD of all the grade 6 compositions. The finished projects were then put on display in the school’s Media Center for everyone to enjoy. Mrs. Battista says students have thoroughly enjoyed working on this project and now have a CD album of their original music to remember their life as a “rock star”. If you want to learn more about using Sound Studio and iTunes creatively in your classroom, check out My Learning Plan to see what courses might be available in the near future.

You may never have even noticed the icon that appears at the top of every document window, to the left of the window title in Mac OS X. Its called the "proxy" icon and although its seems to be there mostly as a decoration for the top of the window, it is actually filled with a few somewhat hidden features that can be very useful. Below are some cool time-saving tips for the proxy icon that most OS X users never take advantage of. But now you can!

Proxy icon as saved state indicator
First and foremost, the proxy icon can easily tell you if your document has been saved or not.

• If the proxy icon appears as a solid icon, the document was already saved.
• If the proxy icon appears dimmed (in pale colors), the document been modified and has not been saved.

Proxy icon as file location indicator
Undoubtedly one of the most useful features of the proxy icon is that it lets you know the path of where a file is saved. This path is usually a succession of folders that show you exactly where the file is stored, (see example in the screen shot below.) To see the path to a document, simply click on its proxy icon while holding down the Apple key on the keyboard.

Proxy icon for drag & drop operations (like making a copy)
One of the coolest & more advanced uses of the proxy icon is moving or copying the file you are currently working on without needing the Finder! Because a proxy icon is just a representation of the actual file you have saved, you can use it to drag and drop a copy of the file quickly and easily. For example, suppose you are working on a Word document that you have saved in your Documents folder and you want to make a backup copy of the document on your USB drive to bring home. You can do this in a cinch using the proxy icon. The simple steps explain how to do this super cool trick!

1. Save the document after doing any edits as you normally would.
2. Move the document's window so you can see both the proxy icon of your document and the USB drive's icon on the Desktop.
3. Drag the proxy icon from the document onto the USB drive icon. You will see a green plus icon indicating you are copying the file on the USB drive.
4. Quit Word. You now have a copy of the document in both your Documents folder as well as your USB drive, thanks to a little help from the proxy icon!

The TechTrekers website is the work of Debbie Rollins, a former teacher who currently works as an educational consultant and national presenter. She has created this website as a free teaching resource to all educators. If you take a quick look around Mrs. Rollins' website, you will notice what a wonderful resource it is! She has done a wonderful job of gathering and organizing an amazingly broad collection of online resources with just about something to offer everyone, whether you are an elementary, junior high, or high school teacher. While most subject areas are covered in detail under their own pages such as Science, History, and Math, there are also excellent resources just for elementary folks such as the Early Elementary page. Finally, there are many pages on the site with great links and ideas that can be universally applied to any classroom. Some examples of these types of pages cover topics such as rubrics, Web Quests, or links that can connect you and your students to Virtual Field Trips to a myriad of places.

One of the most interesting and unique areas of the site is the Ask the Expert page with contact information for a wide range noted experts in various academic areas such as English or Math as well as interesting careers that kids often find fascinating such as astronaut, marine biologist, and volcanologist to name just a few. Another area that teachers may find useful is the Web Page Tools page that lists all kinds of free goodies you can use to enhance your school website. The Simulations page, which is most geared at the senior high level, offers a numbers for games that can make learning fun and meaningful in many subjects areas. For elementary and junior high audiences, the Scavenger Hunt pages offers some great ideas and activities that are sure to engage some of your kids. Check out the site today and see what you can find to use in your classroom! You are sure to find several items that will be that an be put to good use by you and your students! The QuickLinks above in this newsletter directly connect you to some select resources found on this excellent website.

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Eager to learn about new ways to use Mac OS X even better? Come to our monthly OS X "Talk, Tips & Tricks" session. Find out more.

Below are select technology courses to be offered by the Teacher Center this month. To learn more, log onto My Learning Plan then click the links below for more details about each class and/or to sign up right now online!

Wednesdays, March 7 & 14, 2007
Extreme Word: Taking Word Processing to the Next Level

Thursdays, March 8 & 15, 2007
Fix & Forget it Classroom Webpage

Fridays, March 9, 16, 23, & 30, 2007
Web Publishing For Breakfast

Monday, March 19, 2007
• OS X "Tech Talk Tips and Tricks" - March
• iPhoto Open Lab

Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Creatively Using the Drawing Tools of Microsoft Office Programs

Thursday, March 22, 2007
• Introduction to PowerPoint
• iPhoto Books, Calendars, and Cards - Oh My!

Monday, March 26, 2007
Intermediate PowerPoint

Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Spring Into Spring with BrainPop

Wednesday, March 28, 2007
SchoolCenter School: Exploring the New Features of Your School Website - March

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