Table of Contents - Vol. 21 No. 6 - March 2005

1. Pearls of URLs
   This monthly item will highlight Internet sites which are considered "gems" by educators.
2. Smart Art - Tyndall Park students showcase Ted Harrison
   Sheila Malcolmson, a grade 5 teacher at Tyndall Park School, shares how she integrated the distinctive artistic style of Ted Harrison into a Social Studies unit on the Arctic. With the help of Wendy Groot, these creative students designed a HyperStudio "Alphabet Book" which they illustrated using Ted Harrison's style. On-line readers can enjoy a much more extensive showcase of this creativity by visiting the Tyndall Park web site.
3. "Money Matters" - A common cents educational "freebie"
   Keith Strachan, of Cecil Rhodes School, shares an innovative educational activity that he created using the Flash programming language. In the "Play with Money" option, students are challenged to click on Canadian coins and determine the correct total or have the computer randomly display a variety of coins which the students must count. The "Play with Change" option presents students with word problems in which they are making a purchase. Items for sale vary from problem to problem as well as the amount of cash the student has. Students are challenged to determine the correct change or to indicate how much more money they need.
4. Food for Thought: "The Power to Teach"
   Dr. Frank Trujillo kindly permitted me to share his very motivating message with teachers.
5. "QUIZLINE" - A "four in a row" review challenge in Excel
   Brian Metcalfe designed an educational review tool "freebie" which will challenge students using a strategic game format. This activity, which is designed using an Excel spreadsheet with built-in macros, allows educators new to technology to utilize its motivational capabilities. All that is required of a teacher, or students, is to enter between 36 and 50 subject area review questions with their appropriate answers. Once entered, the Excel macros automatically take over and randomly assign the questions to 36 tiles on the Quiz Board. Next the class is divided into a "Blue" and "Red" team. Each team is challenged to select a tile strategically, answer the randomly selected question correctly, and claim the tile with their team colour. The team who claims four adjacent tiles in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction wins.
6. Freebie Favourites
   The first freebie is "Money Matters" from Keith Strachan. Be sure to read the instructions and precautions on this last page so that one can download the two necessary files and install them so that one's students or children learn how to count up coins and make change. The second freebie is Brian Metcalfe's "QUIZLINE.xls" Excel review tool. It is important to read the accompanying article, download the file and activate the macros.

Pearls of URLs

   Weather Photo Gallery at:    (Shared with me by Rhonda Morrissette from Greenway School)
     http://www.weather-photos.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=0&pos=0
     Jennifer Bomback, a grade 5 teacher at Greenway, used this weather photo slideshow as part
     of a weather unit and used the photos as inspiration to produce fabulous pastel drawings.

Smart Art - Tyndall Park students showcase Ted Harrison

As part of our Social Studies unit studying the Arctic Region, our grade 5 class read all the Ted Harrison books we could find and researched about the artist on the Internet. We studied his art technique and used tempera paint pallets to reproduce one of his paintings. These paintings were photographed with a digital camera and Wendy Groot, the technology support teacher, used the "Anfy" book flip slideshow applet to display these creations in an appealing manner. On-line readers are encouraged to view the Tyndall Park student showcase of Ted Harrison's style at:
                        http://www.wsd1.org/TyndallPark/intermediateprojects.htm

After reading “A Northern Alphabet” by Ted Harrison, our grade 5 class decided to make “A Tyndall Park Alphabet” in Ted Harrison’s distinctive style. Students were each given one letter of the alphabet to create a sentence using as many words as they could relating to our school. We used HyperStudio to draw the illustrations and type our text. We then printed out our Tyndall Park Alphabet book on photo paper. It looks fantastic! Two of the HyperStudio Alphabet cards are displayed below so that readers can appreciate the talents of these Grade 5 students. Thanks are extended to Wendy Groot for showcasing the student's talents on our Tyndall Park school web site and preparing this HyperStudio stack so that it can be shared with others.

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"Money Matters" - A common cents educational "freebie"

by Brian Metcalfe - Technology Education

Keith Strachan, the technology support teacher at Cecil Rhodes School, has recently been introducing the multi-media Flash programming application to his older junior high students. However, as any teacher knows, before one can teach new applications, one must become familiar with the capabilities of the new software. Keith is no different. He has been learning to master the intricacies of the Flash program by creating practical, classroom activities that the younger students and teachers in his school can use. Not only has he created an innovative activity called "Money Matters", he has generously allowed me to share it as a "freebie" with readers.

When the opening "Money Matters" screen is displayed in one's browser, the student has an opportunity to click on either the "Play with Money" or "Play with Change" activity.

"Play with Money"
In the "Play with Money" component, which is illustrated below, students initially are challenged to "Add coins and guess how much you have". Students begin in an exploratory fashion by clicking on any of the Canadian coins, ranging from a penny to a toonie, which are located along the right edge of the screen. Each click of a particular coin adds a copy of that coin to the inner frame.

Once the coins are added to the inner frame, students can drag individual coins to make certain, for example, that a loonie is not covering up a smaller dime or penny. The student is then challenged to determine how much money is displayed. Children can drag and group similar coins together and when they have counted up the total, they can enter the amount in the white box to the right of the dollar ($) sign. To check if the total is correct, one must click on the "rubrics cube" symbol to generate a happy or sad face with a variety of appropriate feedback messages. Before moving to another problem, one can clear or clean the inner frame area, by clicking on the "wash tub" icon on the lower tool  bar.

However the "Play with Money" is more than an exploratory activity. Under the "Make a problem" title one finds a red "A" and a green "B" button which generate two different types of coin-related money problems.

When one clicks on the "A" button, a random number of coins are generated and dropped into the inner frame and the student is challenged to enter the correct total at the bottom. Clicking the "B" button generates a random dollar amount and the student is then challenged to see is s/he can click on the correct number of coins to transfer an appropriate number to the inner frame which add up to, for example, the "$3.63" which is displayed below. Keith has added some additional features that students will find very useful. For example, if a child enters too many coins, one can simply drag the extra coin(s) to the blue "waste paper basket" icon in the lower right corner of the inner frame. In addition, a child can make change, by dragging a coin over the "smiley face with the $ mouth" on the left side of the bottom toolbar. For example, a loonie dragged over this icon will magically transform to four quarters while a quarter will be converted to two dimes and a nickel. In addition, there is a coin counter in the top right corner which can be a useful tool as teachers can ask students to show as many different ways that a constant amount can be displayed. In the example below, 12 coins make up $3.63 but can this same money value be illustrated with both fewer or more coins?

"Play with Change" 
This activity starts when the student presses the "Play" button in the top left corner to display one of a series of word problem in which the item, cash and purchase values are randomly displayed.  The student then begins the "making change" process by clicking on the respective coins at the bottom to introduce them to the inner frame where they are automatically totaled and the value is displayed in the bottom right corner. Students who add too many coins can drag off the extra coin(s) to the blue "waste paper basket" icon in the lower right corner. When the student believes s/he has displayed the correct change, s/he can click the "Check" button in the top right corner which will an appropriate happy or sad face together with an appropriate red feedback statement.

Not only are students presented with the typical type problem illustrated below in which they have sufficient money to make a purchase but Keith has also introduced situations in which the student does not have sufficient cash to make the purchase but must determine what combination of coins are needed to make up the deficiency as in:

You have been sent to The Bay to buy a beyblade with $10.00 in cash.
If your purchase costs $16.49, how much more money do you need?

I encourage you to download Keith's "Money Matters" activity from the "Freebie Favourites" at the end of this newsletter. Try it with your students and get their reaction. Although it is a "freebie", I think that as a recipient of this innovative education activity, you are obligated to send a brief note of appreciation to Keith Strachan who has spent a great deal of his own time and energy in developing this activity for students.

Keith, on behalf of all our readers and the students who will benefit from you contribution, I say "THANKS for caring and sharing!"

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Food for Thought: "The Power to Teach"

by Dr. Frank Trujillo

I feel sometimes powerless and small, overwhelmed and inadequate, engulfed in thoughts and feelings that perhaps what I am doing is insignificant, that my life's pursuit, that my teaching, is futile.

And I say "Who am I to change the world? Who am I to think that I can make a difference?"

And then I reflect on the young people under my charge, and I think about my role and about what power, if any, I have.

And I find that I am not devoid of resources or strength, that I am, indeed, endowed with talent and ability and strength.

I do, after all, decide what will be taught. No one else. And it is largely my prerogative when it will be taught and how, and where, and why it will be taught.

To a great extent I determine the curriculum. And the richness and intensity with which it is taught is in my hands.

I have that power.

And I have the ability to think and to plan and then to implement; to select from my repertoire of skills the one best suited to my purpose, yet still able to adapt myself to student needs with the dexterity of an artisan.

Most adults would be fortunate to perhaps last out one day overseeing a roomful of kids. My orchestration makes enlightened music of the chaotic din.

I guess you could say this is power!

I have the power. I have the vigor to motivate, the fullness to laugh, the courage to control. I have the power to uplift and to create and, when I'm red-hot, the intensity to inspire! I can form my students into lines or circles, triangle or squares.

My influence is such I can turn their very feelings into F's or A's.

With just one look I can let a student know that everything is well with the world and that he or she has a perfect right to aim for the very top of it all!

And I can use my hands, turned up to lift them up. Or turned down to keep them down.

What power do I have in the system? In the eyes of my students I am the system.

And I have the power to lead them places they did not know existed, to build them back up when society tears them down, to catapult them higher than I myself will ever reach; and to push them gently, but assuredly, into the unknown, painting for them in broad brush strokes a future I can never hope to see.

And every day I have the wherewithal in my classroom to build walls or to build bridges between the generations.

And it is within my discretion to design a rigid, competitive structure or a cooperative, helping network in my classroom.

I even affect the weather! What I do every day determines whether their world will be indifferent cold or sweathouse hot, or warm, inviting, alive and vibrant with learning.

I have an awesome power.

If I succeed I pass the knowledge about what is important to the next generation. And, because their world will be the better for my labor mine is an important service to a just cause.

Mine is a present power and a future power. If I can reach the children of today I touch the children of tomorrow. Mine is a giving power.

All that I know about the world and about how one learns about the world I must give.

And in the giving of my gift, I receive my greatest power: the power to teach my students to learn how to learn.

Empowering them is of the essence, for if their teacher feels sometimes powerless and small, how insignificant must they sometimes feel?

And when the last day comes, and it is time for us to part we gather together, say our good-byes, and separate.

After that there is sadness but a certain contentment that I am sure only teachers feel.

It is a happiness that comes from knowing that a part of us forever, transplanted, lives... No, thrives! inside of each individual who has gazed at us across tired brown desks and called us "Teacher."

Even on a down day -- when I'm feeling puny and insignificant-- even I try hard to remember that all it takes is one person -- just one person! -- to make a difference in their lives.

And, there is no reason in the world that that person cannot and should not be me! I can make a difference! That is my power. That is the power to teach.
 

[The Power to Teach is reprinted in Bits and Bytes with the written permission of the author. For information regarding Dr. Trujillo's esteem-building writings and publications, log on to www.ProTeachPublications.com]

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by Brian Metcalfe - Technology Education

What is it? QUIZLINE is an Excel "freebie" tool which educators can use as a unique method to review concepts. Although it was designed to be used on a single computer, hooked to a projection device for displaying to the entire class, pairs of students could use this activity sharing a common computer. The "Quiz Board", shown below, is a six-by-six matrix of tiles which the opposing "Blue" and "Red" teams get to claim, in turn, if they answer a review question correctly. Teams alternate choosing a strategically located tile by number (1-36) and if they answer the random question and it matches the answer provided, the teacher or "referee" gets to claim the tile by clicking the appropriate "Blue" or "Red" button. This action converts the chosen numbered tile to the team's colour and adds 10 points to the team score. To win the challenge, the team must get four adjacent squares of their colour in a row (be they horizontal, vertical or diagonal). If, after all the tiles are captured, neither team is able to claim "four in a row", then the team with the most points wins.

Why develop such an activity? Three situations have motivated me to create this QUIZLINE challenge. First, I have recently been working with some talented educators at Sister MacNamara School who are looking for educational activities that they can introduce to their classes using a projection device. Secondly, a number of our schools are purchasing SmartBoards which are touch-sensitive display panels that connect through a projection device to show the computer application. QUIZLINE will take advantage of the SmartBoard capabilities allowing the teacher to review concepts covered in class directly from the SmartBoard display. Thirdly, and probably most importantly, I wanted to find or create an activity that educators, new to technology, could use with their class without having to know a great deal about software or technology. Although QUIZLINE has a number of features that are activated with macros (subroutines of programming code or instructions), the user simply clicks on labeled buttons to navigate through the activity, oblivious to the programming commands that are happening "behind the scenes".

Where do I get it and how do I set it up? One can download this program from the "Freebie Favourites" page at the end of this newsletter. However, when one attempts to open the QUIZLINE.xls Excel file on one's computer, the person will be warned hat the file includes embedded macros which "could contain viruses". It is recommended that one follow the three step process to open Technology Education created or approved macros which was outlined in an article last month entitled "If macros are indeed the key ... check that they are virus-free!"

It is VERY IMPORTANT that the user DOES NOT RENAME QUIZLINE.xls. The built-in macros all point to particular reference points within "QUIZLINE.xls" so this filename cannot be altered if one wishes to use this review activity as it was intended. However, if a teacher wishes to build up a variety of QUIZLINEs, to review different concepts, it is recommended that one store each QUIZLINE in a folder which identifies the contents of the review material as illustrated below:

- My Documents\activities\science\QUIZLINE.xls
- My Documents\activities\mathematics\QUIZLINE.xls
- My Documents\activities\worldwarII\QUIZLINE.xls
- My Documents\activities\chapter8\QUIZLINE.xls

A metaphor may help clarify the situation. Consider the QUIZLINE activity to be a ready-made skeleton on which each teacher can display a different skin, be it review questions and answers in Chemistry, a Grade 6 unit on "flight" or a Canadian explorers review.

How does one prepare the review questions and answers? Although the last question may have appeared to be somewhat technical, new users of technology need not be intimidated by this QUIZLINE activity. When one opens this QUIZLINE Excel file for the first time, an "Instructions" worksheet is displayed which will guide the new user through the preparation stage. In reality, a teacher need only enter the review questions and answers since the skeleton structure is already created. For example, when one clicks on the "Step 1" button in the "Instructions" worksheet, one will automatically be transferred to the "Q & A" (questions and answer) worksheet shown below. Here, the teacher must type a review question over top of the generic "QUESTION #??" place holder in column B with its corresponding answer entered over top of the corresponding "ANSWER #??" in Column C.

To prepare QUIZLINE for classroom competition, a minimum of 36 and maximum of 50 questions, with corresponding answers, must be entered in the "Q & A" worksheet. QUIZLINE will automatically select  36 random questions from the list provided and place them in a random pattern behind the tiles in the 6 x 6 "Quiz Board" display. However if a teacher does not enter any more than 36 questions, it is important that the "QUESTION #??" and "ANSWER #??" placeholders be cleared. One can highlight each "QUESTION #??" and "ANSWER #??" cell and press the <Delete> key or highlight the questions and answer placeholders from question #37-#50 and click the Edit>Clear>Contents menu items. When all the questions and corresponding answers have been entered and reviewed in this "Q & A" worksheet, one simply clicks the yellow "Back to Instructions" arrow to complete the assignment process and start the competition. During the entry of questions and answers, it is important for the user to periodically save the QUIZLINE.xls file.

How does it work? When one returns to the "Instructions" worksheet, one finds "Step" buttons which are initially red coloured. As each "Step" button is pressed an action in initiated and the button changes to a "green" colour to indicate that the activated steps is now a "GO". In summary, the Step buttons accomplish the following:

- Step 1 - transfers the teacher to the "Q & A" worksheets where the 36 - 50 questions and answers are entered;
- Step 2 - initiated a macro which selects randomly selects 36 questions and their corresponding answers from those provided;
- Step 3 - initiates a macro which copies the 36 randomly arranged questions into 36 different "Question" (Q#) worksheets, the corresponding 36 answers into similarly arranged 36 "Answer" (A#) worksheets (which have previously been navigationally linked) and displays the "Quiz Board" ready for the challenge to begin.

All that is left is for the teacher to divide the class into a "Red" and "Blue" team, flip a coin to decide which team goes first, and ask each team to select a tile by number (1 - 36). If the team answers the question correctly, one must click the team's colour button to capture that respective tile and add 10 points to the team total.

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The following "freebies" are shared with our readers. One is encouraged to download the resources to your own computer in one of two ways. In most cases, one simply needs to click on the link and the browser will ask if one wishes to "Open" the file and view its contents or "Save" the file to the local hard drive. The "Save" option allows users to download the "freebie" and store it in a particular folder on one's local hard drive for later use. An alternative way of downloading "freebie" files is to navigate to the "Freebie Favourites" page with one's browser and if clicking on the link, as noted above, does not prompt one to save the file to one's own computer, one can right-click on the "freebie" link. When one right-clicks to download a file, the browser will prompt one to "Save Target/Link As". Left-clicking this option will allow one to navigate to an appropriate folder on one's hard drive and save the filename for later use.

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