Media Messenger
August 2009 Volume 1, Issue 1
Notre Dame Academy 4635 River Green Parkway Duluth, GA 30096
In this back-to-school issue:
Welcome back NDA faculty
Interactive whiteboards available here at NDApage1 Highlighting the new flip cameras – page 1 Helpful and free websites for everyone page 2 Professional development and help creating blogs –page 2 Techie tips-page2
Looking SMART this school year! Nearly every classroom at NDA is equipped with a SMART board, and teachers have found countless ways to use them to enhance instruction. Students have the opportunity to be engaged in PYP programs of inquiry using the SMART board as well as enjoying its
engaging interactive capacities. There are links to SMART websites for interactive activities in all subjects. We will continue with staff development to maximize use of this technology, and we’ll keep on sharing strategies within our school community. Be sure to keep the SMART
Technologies website www.smarttech.co m available for helpful teaching tools. Just for starters, here’s a great website to show your students using your SMART board. Google Earth’s website has www.GoogleLitTrips. com that will amaze you!
A picture is worth a thousand words Have you seen our new flip cameras? There’s only one word for them – awesome! Easy to use and even easier to share! Try one out in your classroom. You know that students love pictures, right? Record the next presentations they make in class and just watch the excitement! Let your students create videos and slide shows—great for assessments. Need more information about the flip camera? Check out the website www.theflip.com or come by and borrow one to use in your classes. You can take pictures or videos to instantly view on the computer or your SMART board. Then use Windows Movie Maker or one of the free movie making websites found within this newsletter for a great presentation.
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You go, Diigo! You know how it is…you found a great website, but now you don’t remember where it was. Or, did you find it on your home computer and now you’re at school? It’s hard to find them again and again! Now there’s a way to bookmark your sites and keep them available on-line at your fingertips with a Diigo social bookmarking account.
Techie tips: Ctrl + T opens a new tab when you’re on the internet. Ctrl + Z = undo. Ctrl + V = paste. Ctrl + A selects all the items in the current window. The Windows Logo + D minimizes all open windows and displays the desktop. F11 – toggle this key to hide all tool bars in a browser F5 – refreshes the current window
You’ll have access to your “favorites,” and you can manage and edit the sites easily. In addition, you may share bookmarks with others, have similar sites recommended by Diigo, and view your friends’ recent public bookmarks and activities. Try it at www.diigo.com. Open your account so you can keep all the sites in this newsletter for future reference!
Monday morning coffee and blogs… NDA classroom and special teachers will be creating our own blogs for the 2009-2010 school year. All new teachers are invited to come to the media center on Monday 8/3/09 at 8:00 AM. (Returning teachers are welcome too!) We will use www.edublog.org for the teacher blog set up. Experts will be on hand to advise those who are new to blogging. Bring your imaginations! Bring your mugs too…coffee and bagels will be served!
Cool free sites to check out www.FontFace.com – cool fonts! www.Gizmoz.com – awesome avatars www.Kerpoof.com – more movie-making www.Novlet.com – collaborative writing www.Xtimeline.com – web-based timelines on hundreds of people, places, and things www.Snagfilm.com – literally “snag” all or part of films