Who would have thought to use iTunes as a curriculum reference when planning an Open Court, social studies, or science lesson? Lucky for his students, Mr. Jeff Knapp, sixth grade teacher at Myles Elementary School, (pictured below) has had that thought and now realizes that iTunes can be so much more than just for listening to 30 seconds of your favorite Bruce Springsteen song, or buying the latest episode of The Office to sync to your iPod. Believe it or not, iTunes offers thousands of both audio and video podcasts and many of these podcasts are perfectly suited for use in your classroom environment. For example, one of Knapp's favorite video podcasts to share with his students comes from National Geographic. "I have found many crossover topics in my 6th grade science lessons as well as our Open Court Reading lessons,” says Knapp. Mr. Knapp discovered the National Geographic podcast three years ago after taking an in-service class on podcasting led by Mr. Tim Ferguson, Elementary Band teacher and has been using the resource in his classroom ever since. “The students love watching them. Most of the National Geographic podcasts are only about 3-6 minutes long. They are a perfect way to actively engage your class in your lesson or if you have a few minutes left in your class, they make a great fit to extend learning beyond the lesson,” stated Knapp. Students really enjoy the podcasts being used in class as well. “I love when we get to watch a podcast in science. They show the coolest things, like a shark getting beat up by a dolphin!” said one student in Mr. Knapp’s class. “I like the one where they put maggots on a person’s wound to help clean it. It was gross, but educational,” said another sixth grader. Last year, National Geographic had a podcast on the ruins at Mesa Verde. It went perfect with the sixth grade Open Court unit Ancient Civilizations. The students read a non-fiction story titled “The Search for Early Americans.” The story went hand in hand with what the students saw on the podcast. They felt as if they were already experts on the archeology used in the story due to the strong background knowledge that was gained from the podcast. To access these free podcasts, simply launch iTunes and navigate to the “iTunes Store” on the program's sidebar. Once in the store, browse through the top podcasts on the lower left of the store screen or click on the “Podcast” link in the “iTunes Store” main menu. With so many podcasts available, there is sure to at least one that could be used by you in your classroom. Also, keep an eye on My Learning Plan for workshop opportunities on using iTunes podcasts creatively in your classroom in the near future!

Downloads from the web are a necessity these days. With the wealth of information teachers need to download from the web, it is quick to get overwhelmed with the sheer number of files one downloads even during a single work session. One of the easiest ways to manage your downloads more effective is using your web browser's Download Manager features as well as Mac OS X Leopard itself to assist in the task. Here are some tips to help you make the management of your downloads even easier with Firefox as well as Safari.

THE DOWNLOADS FOLDER - A NEW & NECESSARY ITEM
New to Mac OS X Leopard is a dedicated Downloads folder. This folder is a special part of your user account specifically set up for storing all files you download. The purpose of the Downloads folder is not only to give you a location so you know exactly where your download went but it also helps you know exactly where to go to get your downloads. In addition, it also serves to keep other areas of your user account such as your Desktop clean so your account is easier to work with as well as better performing. To access your Downloads folder, you can do so in one of three ways:

1. Open the Macintosh HD. Locate your Home directory in the Sidebar and open it to locate your Downloads folder inside.
2. In the Finder, choose Home > Downloads.
3. In the Dock on your school Mac OS X account, your Downloads folder will appear above your Documents folder.

POINTING FIREFOX TO YOUR DOWNLOADS FOLDERS
By default, Firefox downloads all files on your computer to your Desktop. Although this is convenient at first, you will quickly see that your Desktop quickly becomes a jumbled mess of downloaded files. To fix this problem, just set Firefox to point its downloads to your Mac OS X Downloads folder. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Launch Firefox and then choose Firefox > Preferences.
   In the Preferences window, you should be seeing the Main section.
2. In the Downloads area of this section, click the button that says Choose... next to the Save files to field.
3. Point to the Downloads folder in your Mac OS X user account, (see circled area in diagram below).

4. Close the Firefox preferences window. All files that download in Firefox will now end up in your Downloads folder rather than the Desktop!

REVEALING SAFARI DOWNLOAD QUICKLY
By default on your school account under Mac OS X Leopard, Safari will automatically download all files to your Downloads folder! Anytime you download files with Safari, just click on the Magnifying glass icon in Safari's Download manager to reveal the file in your Downloads folder, (see circled area below.)

Established in 1982, the Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT) has been a leader in working with educators to integrate technology into the curriculum. With its location in the College of Education at the University of South Florida, Tampa, FCIT was established to assist over 1,200 pre-service teachers who graduate from USF each year as well as thousands of in-service teachers in Florida. With funding from the Florida Department of Education, Office of Instructional Technology, FCIT provides many instructional resources for Florida's teachers and students. While this collection of resources is specifically for the benefit of Florida teachers and much of the content relates to the Sunshine State Standards, any teacher can benefit from the majority of these materials including lesson plans, web features, reading practice for students, educational websites and materials for making the most of technology resources in the classroom. This collection of resources has something for everyone, whether you are a veteran teacher or a novice. FCIT's Educational Technology Clearinghouse (ECT) is a treasure trove of educational resources that can be searched by subject or topic. Some of the most popular areas of the ECT are its media resources such as copyright-free educational relevant clip art or digital assets for use in presentations. For those that teach Social Studies, there are some wonderful content resources such as The Vietnam War: Oral Histories and A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust that offer some outstanding supplements to classroom instruction. English and Reading teachers can benefit from site features such as Lit2Go, a free online collection of stories and poems in MP3 (audiobook) format. For Math educators, there is a complete Math Portal that includes lesson plans, daily dilemmas (problem solving activities), performance tasks and more.

Beyond the subject specific resources, the FCIT site includes all kinds of resources that can be used by classroom teachers in general such as self-study courses available on using multimedia in the classroom, ideas on using data to make decisions, as well as resources on how to use the Internet creatively in the classroom. Finally and perhaps best of all is Tech-Ease, a whole series of technology tutorials for using all kinds of software and hardware devices on both Macs and Windows computers! It is no wonder that FCIT's award-winning resource and training websites receive over one million hits per school day. Check out the site today to see what it can offer you and your students in your classroom. For quick access to the fantastic web resources of the FCIT, simply use some of the QuickLinks above!

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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!

Monday, October 6
Mac OS X "Tech Talk, Tips, and Tricks" - October 2008

Wednesday, October 8
Web Publishing Basics for New Users

Thursday, October 9
How "Clean" is Your Computer? "Clean House" for Your Digital Files

Monday, October 20
Presentation Panache with Keynote

Tuesday, October 21
School Year Digital Scrapbook

Thursday, October 23
Digitally Organized Followup - iCal Planbook

October 27, 2008
Tips and Tricks with SmartBoard/Notebook

Wednesday, October 29
Making the Most of Your Digital Projector

iCal Users
Download October Events