Since the summer, New Hartford schools have begun subscribing to BrainPOP, an exciting website for elementary and junior high students that offers curriculum-based content in the subjects of Science, Math, English, Social Studies, Health and Technology. Lisa Crouch, 2nd grade teacher at Myles Elementary School, (pictured below working with some of students in her classroom) has been one of the early adopters who has been actively using BrainPOP in her classroom.“I used the animated feature movie about plants. It was perfect for my students. I plan to use it every time I introduce a new topic.” Lisa has the BrainPOP user name and password taped to the top of each of her classroom iMacs. This helps each student access the website independently at any time right in her classroom! To make it even easier for her students to use BrainPOP outside of her room, Mrs. Crouch has worked with Kathy Donovan, Myles Technology Teaching Assistant, to conveniently link to BrainPOP off their 2nd Grade Computer Class web page. This is a great example of the collaborative efforts of a classroom teacher and Technology TA working together to use interactive websites that help children feel more successful in their learning. If you would like to learn more about BrainPOP, Maryanne Krasinski and Tom Arcuri, the district’s main trainers on BrainPOP, offered several training sessions in the fall through the Teacher Center. Feel free to contact them to request a session or search the My Learning Plan District Catalog to see if any upcoming training sessions have been scheduled for the near future!

As you know, when you double-click on a document or file to open in Mac OS X, the Finder will automatically launch a specific application that can handle that type of file. While this works fine for most day-to-day tasks, sometimes it is not what you want. Suppose, for example, that you have a JPEG file that you downloaded from the Internet using Safari. By default, downloaded JPEG icons display an icon based on the Preview application. This means when you double-click one of them, it will open in the Preview application. If you want to edit the image that you downloaded with another application such as Fireworks, you usually have to jump through some hoops to make the image open in the other application. In this case, you would launch Fireworks, then choose File > Open, locate the file, and then open it. Did you know there is a much quicker way to open files in any program of your choice ? If not, this trick is sure to save you some time the next time you need to open a file in a specific program.

Believe it or not, using a couple of simple steps, you can instantly choose which application will open a specific type of file! The steps here show you how to use this great time-saving tip. Here's how..

1. Click the Finder icon in the Dock. Mac OS X will open a new Finder window; if you already have a Finder window open, it becomes active.
2. In the Finder window, Control-click (hold down Control on the keyboard and click with your mouse) on the desired file to open a contextual menu.
3. In the contextual menu, move your mouse down to the Open With submenu and move into the submenu by dragging toward the arrow. A list of all applications that are capable of opening that type of document will appear, (see diagram to the below.)
   
   
   
4. From the list, click the desired application you want to open the file with. Mac OS X will launch the application (even if its not running) and automatically loads the document or file using that program!! Pretty cool, right?

ARTSEDGE is the Kennedy Center's interactive education program for K-12 teachers, parents and students. Founded in 1991, ARTSEDGE supports the creative use of technology to enhance teaching and learning in, through and about the arts. Through its Web site, as well as innovative print and integrated media materials, ARTSEDGE offers free, standards-based teaching materials for use in and out of the classroom, media-rich interactive experiences, professional development resources, and guidelines for arts-based instruction and assessment. Developed more than 10 years ago as a cooperative agreement between the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States Department of Education, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, ARTSEDGE was one of the first 100 ".org" sites on the Internet. Though it has grown substantially in the last decade, the program's goals remain constant. ARTSEDGE aims to connect people to people, to connect people to resources, and to build a new base of knowledge in the area of arts education.

In 1999, ARTSEDGE joined MarcoPolo, the consortium that offers free, standards-based, discipline-specific educational Web sites for K-12 teachers and students.Through ARTSEDGE's partnership with MarcoPolo, a consortium of national education organizations, state education agencies and the MarcoPolo Education Foundation, the MarcoPolo Content Partners have develop standards-based, discipline-specific educational content focusing on the arts for K-12 teachers and students.

To achieve these goals, ARTSEDGE offers teaching materials, resources for Arts Education Advocacy, and media-rich, student-friendly activities. Accessing the media-rich features is one of the nicest features on the site. For example, the Look•Listen•Learn section of the site features a wide range of video, audio, interactive, and white paper documents that can be used in a variety of classroom situations for teaching the arts, art appreciation, and art history. Check out the site today for some new resources for your classroom instruction! The Quick Links above in this newsletter connect directly to some of the key features of 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 next 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!

Thursdays, November 2 & 9
Ed Video Online for Secondary Teachers

Tuesdays, November 7, 21, & 28
Introduction to Classroom Web Publishing

Wednesday, November 8
Using Bullets and Numbering in Microsoft Word

Wednesdays, November 8 & 15
Fix and Forget it Classroom Webpage

Thursday, November 9
Intermediate PowerPoint

November 9 & 29
Graphics Processing

Mondays, November 6 & 13
Ed Video Online for Elementary Teachers

Tuesday, November 14
Introduction to iCal

Wednesday, November 15
Introduction to Keynote

Thursdays, November 16 & 30
iMovies Without a Digital Video Camera

Monday, November 27
GradeQuick Tips and Tricks

Wednesday, November 29
SchoolCenter School: Exploring the New Features of Your School Website - November

Thursday, November 30
Beginning iMovie

iCal Users
Download November Events