December 15, 2009

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.

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Highlights from SchoolCounselor.com

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

– Webcast: What Kids Learn When They Create with Digital Media
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/videos/2009/12/webcast-what-kids-learn-when-they.html

– The Role of Bystanders in Cyberbullying
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/videos/2009/12/role-of-bystanders-in-cyberbullying.html

– Media Effects on Body Image
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/videos/2009/11/media-effects-on-body-image.html

– Social Media Revolution
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/videos/2009/11/social-media-revolution.html

– 20 Solution-Focused Techniques
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/videos/2009/11/20-solution-focused-techniques.html

– Video Games in Theatres
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/videos/2009/12/video-games-in-theatres.html
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Check out the Kindle Wireless Reading Device on Amazon.com. I absolutely love mine and the price has been reduced by almost $100!
http://bit.ly/6HcDPN


TIPS AND TRICKS

Microsoft Excel (2007): Transposing Data
Have you started entering data in rows, but then decided that you would rather have it arranged in columns instead? Excel 2007 makes it easy to transpose data from rows to columns, and vice versa. Watch this demo to learn how.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA102506881033.aspx

This is also accomplished by EZANALYZE:
http://www.ezanalyze.com/help/transpose.htm

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Format Charts Faster in Excel 2007 [quick tips]
Most of us use chart formatting options to change the way grid-lines, data series, labels, axis, titles, plot areas look. Chart formatting is one of the areas where people spend most time. This page will teach you a quick productivity hack to speed up chart formatting.
http://bit.ly/8IEYaG

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Google Lets Parents Lock in SafeSearch
Google has long allowed parents a SafeSearch filtering setting that keeps kids from using the search engine to find inappropriate sites like those with explicit sexual images or text. The problem was that kids could easily change those settings. Starting Wednesday, however, the company is allowing parents to lock those settings to make it harder (though not impossible) for kids to bypass the settings.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10395112-238.html

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Microsoft Word: Keeping Tables on One Page
Need to make sure that your smaller tables stay on a single page? Here's a handy trick you can use to enforce this rule. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007.)
http://word.tips.net/Pages/T000864_Keeping_Tables_on_One_Page.html

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ERASER: REALLY Wiping That Hard Drive Clean
Before you give your old computer away ...
Source: Komando
When you delete files from the Recycle Bin, they're not really gone. They linger on the hard drive, out of sight, but still within reach. This can spell trouble if you're getting rid of a computer. This program is a handy tool that deletes files permanently. It overwrites a file's space several times over with meaningless data. The result is a deleted file nearly impossible to recover. Eraser even meets military standards (5220.22-M) for digital deletion. And it includes a Nuke Boot Disk feature. This creates a boot disk that can quickly erase an entire hard drive! That can come in handy when it's time to sell your computer. Eraser is Free software.
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

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How to Insert Sum Formula in a Word 2003 Table
http://www.ehow.com/how_2277253_insert-sum-formula-word-table.html

For Word 2007:
http://www.lockergnome.com/windows/2008/01/07/use-formulas-in-tables-word-2007/

Also see
Perform calculations in a table for common
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HP052567361033.aspx

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Creating Graphs
A tutorial from the National Center for Educational Statistics, especially designed to accompany the Create a Graph website here.
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/pdf/graph_tutorial.pdf

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Google Adds Live Updates to Results
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Unveiling significant changes to its dominant search engine on Monday, Google said it would begin supplementing its search results with the updates posted each second to sites like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. Read more:
http://bit.ly/87mz7X

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Microsoft Office 2007: Use CTRL+F1 to Collapse ribbon
Collapse Ribbon in MS OfficeIn office 2007 (and 2010) you can immediately collapse the ribbon by pressing CTRL+F1.
Source: http://bit.ly/5GI57O

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Microsoft Excel: Use Shapes and Images to make Prettier Charts
One of the annoyances of charts is that they all look like boxes (except for pie charts, they just look wrong). Boxes might be ok when you are making 1 or 2 charts. But a whole dashboard of boxes can look little rigid. So how can we make the charts peppy without losing any effect?
http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/12/03/use-shapes-in-dashboards/

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WORTHY WEBSITES AND SOFTWARE

Poll Everywhere: Live Audience Polling
For your next parent or staff meeting, have members use text messaging from their cell phones to answer a live poll. Results update live in your web browser or PowerPoint.
http://www.polleverywhere.com/

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WebAnywhere is a web-based screen reader for the web. It requires no special software to be installed on the client machine and, therefore, enables blind people to access the web from any computer they happen to have access to that has a sound card. Visit wa.cs.washington.edu to access WebAnywhere directly. And, it's completely FREE to use!
http://wa.cs.washington.edu/

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School Tools is a daily web cast that is helping to create educational environments that foster ethical, responsible, and caring young people by modeling and teaching good character through an emphasis on universal values that we all share.
http://schooltoolstv.com/

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SoundSnap
Not just a sound library. Choose from 100,000 sound effects and loops.
http://www.soundsnap.com/

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Google Sites Templates
Site templates are pre-packaged sites that anyone can use to make creating your own website even easier. This is especially valuable for students so that when you're making your site you can now skip a few steps, and instead of making a site from scratch, start with a template. You can use site templates to organize, publish and share information about your school, class, projects, fraternity or sorority, school club, intramural teams, or any other organization or event. Additionally if you create a site that you think others might like or use, you can create a template and add it to the gallery!
http://googleforstudents.blogspot.com/2009/11/introducing-google-site-templates.html

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Bully Bust 2009, CSEE's awareness campaign designed to reduce bullying in our schools. Before you do anything else, please sign the STAND UP Pledge to join the collection of students and adults committed to reducing bullying. Then, dig into the information, activities and resources to start making a difference! BullyBust provides critical resources and supports to create a school-wide effort against bullying.
http://www.schoolclimate.org/bullybust/

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Free Conference Calls
Set up free conference calls (a great way to talk during an online demonstration). Schedule and host conference calls for free, and they'll even record and transcribe them for a fee. Http://www.freeconference.com

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Weebly for Education
Source: Julia Taylor, School Counselor
Weebly is perfect for creating classroom websites, student e-portfolios, and websites for assigned projects. Our drag & drop website editor is stunningly simple to use, and appropriate for use with students of all ages. Weebly enables your students to express themselves creatively using a variety of multimedia features, all within a protected environment that you control.
http://www.weebly.com/

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Microsoft Newsletter Templates
Some require Microsoft Word and others require Publisher
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT101043281033.aspx
 

Data Boot Camp for School Counselors and Administrators - CD Russell A. Sabella, Ph.D. 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

Educational Game: Immune Attack
You must navigate a nanobot through a 3D environment of blood vessels and connective tissue in an attempt to save an ailing patient by retraining her non-functional immune cells. Along the way, you will learn about the biological processes that enable macrophages and neutrophils – white blood cells – to detect and fight infections.
http://fas.org/immuneattack/

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Google Books now includes Magazines
http://books.google.com/books?as_pt=MAGAZINES&rview=1

TypeNow: Fonts
These fonts are based on fonts used for movies and products.
http://www.typenow.net/themed.htm

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Clicker
Clicker is the complete guide to Internet Television.
http://www.clicker.com/

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PicClick
The Visual Ebay Shopping Experience
http://picclick.com/

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10 Great Blogs for Food Lovers
http://www.the20life.com/2009/11/16/10-great-blogs-for-food-lovers/

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Become a Celebrity: Put Your Face on Magazine Covers and CNN
http://www.labnol.org/internet/tools/put-your-photo-magazine-covers-cnn-celebrity/2010/

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Google's Movie Showtimes, Digitally Remastered
Did you know you can immediately discover movie times and locations by typing a simple search on Google (try entering the word movie and your zip code)? Google recently improved movie results by including more detailed movie pages, genre filters and a new map view.
http://www.google.com/movies

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Boston Symphony Orchestra's Concert Preview Podcasts
Learn about past and future music programs performed by the BSO. We hope you find these previews as well as the exclusive videos to be educational, insightful and entertaining.
http://www.bso.org/bso/mods/toc_01_gen_noSubCat.jsp?id=bcat12650019

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Faux Fire
The fastest and easiest way to get cozy with a fire is through our homepage at http://fauxfire.com. Its always crackling and can be accessed on any computer with an internet connection and a flash enabled web browser.
http://fauxfire.com/

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Add Custom Frames to Your Photos
Source: Komando.com
With Christmas on its way, it is time to think about Christmas cards. You'll want to send your warmest season's greetings to family and friends. Photo cards have become quite popular in recent years. These feature a photo of your family surrounded by Christmas decorations. This year, why not create your own photo cards? It is much easier than you think. In fact, you don't need to know anything about photo editing.
http://www.hp.com/hho/hp_create/photo_frames_borders.html

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This Week in the History of Psychology [iTunes]
Written and produced by Professor Christopher D. Green of York University, "This Week in the History of Psychology" is a delightful and engaging podcast series. Its intended audience is students in university level courses on the history of psychology, but a wide variety of persons will find the work here compelling. Each week Professor Green has an interview with an expert who talks about a key event from the annals of psychology. The interviews begin with a short overview of said event, along with a celebration of the week's birthdays and other related anniversaries from the world of psychology. Currently the site has several dozen interviews, including discussions on Freud's only trip to the United States and Emil Kraeplelin, the man behind the modern categories of mental illness.
http://www.yorku.ca/christo/podcasts/

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