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Welcome to SchoolCounselor.com, an electronic newsletter designed to advance counselors' level of technological literacy, application, and integration. You will find practical solutions and answers to technology related problems, especially as they apply to your job as counselor. If you would like to share a tip or trick, or if you would like to ask a question, e-mail Russ Sabella at newsletter@schoolcounselor.com.

Congratulations to Trish J. from Hartford, AL. She subscribed to this newsletter on our new and updated list. Trish was picked in a random drawing from my SchoolCounselor.com Newsletter new subscription list to win a copy of the School Counselor Accountability & Task Analysis Program (SCAATAP; http://www.scaatap.com/).

You could win too a copy of SCAATAP or other prizes as well. Click here to enter.

Highlights from SchoolCounselor.com

WWW BootCamp Videos
In 2005, I designed a CD Tutorial called the World Wide Web Boot Camp for School Counselors. Some of the content is a bit outdated although most of it still contains many useful tips, tricks, and shortcuts. I've decided to trim it down a bit with the parts that are most relevant and useful and publish it on this website. As you already know, since 2005, much has changed and so I encourage you to use this as a beginning place or supplement to an overall [comprehensive] professional development plan for advancing your technological literacy.

The WWW Boot Camp video tutorials are step-by-step lessons that will assist you in navigating the web using browsers such as Microsoft™ Internet Explorer and a search engine such as Google.com™. There are over 30 videos so make certain to scroll down the menu to see all of them.
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/bootcamp/

Professional Development for School Counselors, Administrators, and other Educators.
http://files.getdropbox.com/u/508472/Top%206%20MAIN.pdf

More Must See Videos
New videos added since the last issue.
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/videos/
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TIPS AND TRICKS

Do you know these Double-Click Tricks in Excel?
Most of us think of mastering formulas, learning macros and being supergood with charts when we think of being productive with spreadsheets. But often learning simple stuff like keyboard shortcuts, using mouse and working with menus and ribbons can be a huge productivity booster for us. So as part of this installment of spreadcheats we will learn 7 very cool and effective double click tricks in excel. (as an aside, try saying double click tricks several times faster… ;) )
http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/06/12/excel-mouse-tricks/

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Read this before giving kids an iPod touch
http://www.komando.com/kids/tip.aspx?id=5697

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Top 10 Things To Do With Your Kindle
http://thekindlewarehouse.com/top-10-things-to-do-with-your-kindle/

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Mashable’s Twitter Guide Book Now Available for Download
A one-stop shop for getting up to speed with everything Twitter (Twitter).
http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/

P.S. You can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/rsabella

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Assign Keyboard Shortcuts to your Favorite Websites
Source: Labnol
firerfox keyword shortcuts We all have our own list of favorite websites that we like to visit several times a day. Now the point is how do you quickly access these frequently visited pages without having to type the URLs in the address bar?
http://www.labnol.org/software/website-keyboard-shortcuts/9354/

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Windows Movie Maker has been Updated
Create movies and slide shows from your photos and videos, and share them with your friends and family.
http://download.live.com/moviemaker

Note: Windows Live Movie Maker is not available for Windows XP or earlier versions of Windows.

Also updated is Family Safety - Windows Live
http://download.live.com/familysafety

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How to Secure Your Wireless Home Network
This article describes techniques a user can use to secure his or her 802.11b/g wireless home network. Securing a wireless network is very important because if you don't, your neighbors can not only borrow your Internet connection, but also access your files. Even worse, hackers can use your internet connection to upload illegal materials, and the FBI will ring your bell...
http://www.wikihow.com/Secure-Your-Wireless-Home-Network

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How to embed a YouTube video into PowerPoint
http://www.acoolsoft.com/knowledges/embed-youtube-powerpoint.html

and ... Free PowerPoint to YouTube - Free PPT to YouTube

Acoolsoft PPT2YouTube is a completely free tool which helps users easily convert fantastic PowerPoint to YouTube video for free. All you need to do is to import your PowerPoint files and click Start, after that, this PPT2YouTube tool will automatically convert PowerPoint to MP4 for free with animations, transitions, sounds and video clips retained. And then you can effortlessly upload it to YouTube for wide sharing.
http://www.acoolsoft.com/free-powerpoint-to-youtube-overview.html

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WORTHY WEBSITES AND SOFTWARE

PDFfiller lets you fill PDF Forms on-line: Fill in Form online. Fast, Easy, Secure.
http://www.pdffiller.com/

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listia
Source: www.Komando.com
When it comes to auction sites, eBay is top dog. There's just no competing with the array of buyers, sellers and items. But that doesn't mean eBay is the only auction site you should use. Explore a little! Listia is definitely one auction site that you should check out. All the items on the site are free! Well, they're kinda free. Instead of bidding in dollars, you use credits. There are a couple of ways to get credits. You can list an item on the site. Or, you can purchase them from listia. You'll also get credits for referring friends. And, for a limited time, Listia is giving away credits. You'll get $50 in credits for signing up and listing an item! Get rid of your old things and get some new things. You may have to pay for shipping. But you don't need to spend a dime to use Listia.
http://www.listia.com/signup/3882

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Create a family calendar with Windows Vista
This would work well for groups (i.e., your school counseling program calendar) as well.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/organization/vistacalendar.aspx

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Teens and Mobile Phones Over the Past Five Years: Pew Internet Looks Back
Teenagers have previously lagged behind adults in their ownership of cell phones, but several years of survey data collected by the Pew Internet & American Life Project show that those ages 12-17 are closing the gap in cell phone ownership. The Project first began surveying teenagers about their mobile phones in its 2004 Teens and Parents project when a survey showed that 45% of teens had a cell phone. Since that time, mobile phone use has climbed steadily among teens ages 12 to 17 – to 63% in fall of 2006 to 71% in early 2008.

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Microsoft DreamSpark
Source: Digital Inspiration
One of the benefits of being a college student is that you get discounts on lot of stuff especially computer software. Almost every software vendor offers educational discounts but Microsoft took that idea to the extreme when they introduced the DreamSpark program that allows students worldwide to download certain Microsoft tools for free.
http://www.dreamspark.com

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Noteflight® is an online application that lets you display, edit, print and play back music notation with professional quality, right in your web browser. You can work on a musical score from any computer on the Internet, share it with other users, and embed it in your own pages. And it's free for individual use.
http://www.noteflight.com/login

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Must See Video: Michael Pritchard's Water Filter Turns Filthy Water Drinkable
Too much of the world lacks access to clean drinking water. Engineer Michael Pritchard did something about it -- inventing the portable Lifesaver filter, which can make the most revolting water drinkable in seconds. An amazing demo from TEDGlobal 2009.
http://bit.ly/QSLuT

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Data Boot Camp for School Counselors and Administrators - CD Russell A. Sabella, Ph.D. My newest CD is designed to help you become more proficient in using Microsoft Excel™ to make data an important part of your comprehensive school counseling program. From data-driven decision making, to monitoring progress, to reporting the positive impact you're having on kids -- this CD will demystify how it's done. With the Data Boot Camp for School Counselors and Administrators, what you see and hear on the videos is what you do. At your fingertips, you'll have access to 30 videos and lots of graphics, tips, tricks, and resourceful links. This straightforward step-by-step approach makes learning how to use Microsoft Excel™ (and a bit of PowerPoint™) as easy and convenient as watching television. Data Boot Camp will help school counseling students, practitioners, administrators, and counselor educators to more easily unlock the power of data so you can more effectively support student achievement. The content on the CD is equivalent to a full-day workshop in the computer lab! Visit and learn more about the contents of the CD and view a couple of sample videos (Remember, these samples may take a few moments to load because you are online. However, on the CD, this is not an issue because the videos are all located on the CD itself!). http://www.schoolcounselor.com/store/data-bootcamp.htm $18.95 (FREE shipping) Please allow 5-7 working days to arrive

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JUST FOR FUN

TweetFeel: Twittering With Emotions
Source: http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/
Want to know the general emotional tone of a word? Run it through TweetFeel. TweetFeel will run a search for your term and divide the ensuing tweets into positive or negative. You’ll get a running tally of how twitterers feel about your particular word.
http://www.tweetfeel.com/

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Free Spanish Tutorials
http://www.studyspanish.com/

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Learn to Draw and Paint!
http://www.learn-to-draw-and-paint.com/

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The World According to Twitter
This looks like a fun read, too bad not available in Kindle
http://bit.ly/VyTQD

I’m amazed at home many books there are available now on Twitter! Check it out on Amazon.com.

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Take Back the Beep!
This may me more than just for Fun although did not quite fit into the other categories.
http://bit.ly/18zCD6

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Discover the Forest
Click on a zip code and it shows forests, trails, biking & hiking nearby. Take the kids! http://bit.ly/3OB3gs
 
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THE SQUIRRELIZER
Adds that ground squirrel to any image.
http://www.lutralutra.co.uk/squirrelizer/

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Search all of Craigslist
http://www.allofcraigs.com/
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