Highlights from SchoolCounselor.com

Top 5 Training Topics for School Counselors
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/top5training.htm

Must See Videos
New videos have been added since the last issue:

• Educating Students about Depression and Bullying

• Dan Gilbert: Why are we happy? Why aren't we happy?

• Merit Pay, Teacher Pay, and Value Added Measures

• 10 year old intellect, Dalton Sherman's keynote speech

• Online Safety 3.0: Rethinking Net Safety Together

• Lentil As Anything featuring Leon Booth

• Facebook Privacy Settings 2010

• Bullying - Stop with Friendship (Spanish Version)

• Gary Lauder's new traffic sign: Take Turns (This video exemplifies data driven decision making and leadership.)

• Greyson Michael Chance Rocks Ellen - CBS News

• Tom Wujec: Build a tower, build a team | Video on TED.com

• 20 Solution-Focused Techniques

• Microsoft imagines 2019

• Excel Magic Trick 570: Remove Duplicate Records Excel 2007 / 2010 Feature

• January 16, 2007 -- Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, challenges the idea that well be miserable if we don't get what we want. Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel truly happy even when things don't go as planned.

TIPS AND TRICKS

Creating Compelling Charts
Here is my handout and powerpoint for download for this presentation.

Also ...

- How to NOT spend $ 150,000 and still dress up your charts

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Good-Bye Bully Machine (Hardcover)
Source: School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 5--This book equates living with bullying to being around a scary machine that is "loud and powerful, with spinning wheels and whirling blades. It's cold and mean and looks kind of dangerous." The kid-friendly text explains that bullies are not always bad people and gives possible reasons for their actions. Different types of behavior are explained, including "mean words," "cruel actions," hurtful teasing, and picking on others in "quiet or sneaky ways." The authors provide tips for dealing with negative behaviors and encourage readers to take a stand against bullying and unplug the bully machine. Fox's enticing, edgy, collage artwork will draw readers in. Small photos of children interacting in social situations blend with cut-out words, machine parts and gears, and other images to send a strong visual message. "Bully-Busting Activities" are appended.
http://amzn.to/cJacHw

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Outlook 2007 Training Courses
Looking for more in-depth training courses on Outlook 2007? Check out what's available including free online courses on creating great email signatures and managing your inbox.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102188671033.aspx

Also see ... What's new for Training on Office Online?
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA101863071033.aspx

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Cyberbullying Curriculum
The following is a summary of available and comprehensive curriculum or lesson plans for helping children with knowledge, skills, and attitudes about cyberbullying and technology safety. Resources where chosen if they included a set of coherent and comprehensive curriculum. Additional resources that can be used to develop your own customized lesson plans can be found at http://www.guardingkids.com/ under Resources and Links. If I missed one, please contact me for consideration.
http://bit.ly/7BSci

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Make a Quick Thermometer Chart to Compare Targets and Actual
Comparing values is one of the reasons why we make charts. So today I am going to teach you a handy little trick to make a thermometer like chart to compare targets with actuals. This type of chart is very useful when you have a bunch of sales targets and you want to measure how the performance has been
http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/12/17/quick-thermometer-chart/

Also see:
http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/06/26/thermometer-charts-in-excel-howto/

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Mikogo is an easy-to-use cross-platform desktop sharing tool, ideal for web conferencing, online meetings or remote support.
http://www.mikogo.com/

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Internet Addiction Test
How do you know if your child may be addicted to the Internet? Many parents at least ask their children how much time they're spending on the Internet. Trouble is, most kids are apt to lie, especially if they're already addicted. If the computer is in their room, you have no way of knowing the truth. The following test may help you determine if you are dealing with Internet addiction in your home. It will be helpful to only consider the time your child uses the Internet for non-academic related purposes when answering.
http://www.ikeepsafe.org/TEST

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Hector's World Safety Button™
The Hector's World Safety Button is a free download to help protect you when you are on the computer. Ask your teacher or parent to help you choose the right Safety Button from the list below. After they have installed the Button, a Hector's World character will swim in the top right-hand corner of your computer screen. If you see something that makes you feel confused or scared when you are using the computer, you can click on Hector (or one of his friends) to cover the screen while you get some help.
http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/5_7/hectorsworld/safetybutton.aspx

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Google Translate eSpeak
Source: Research Buzz
Google Translate has added the speech synthesizer eSpeak, which is adding text-to-speech for Afrikaans, Albanian, Catalan, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Latvian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese and Welsh.

The translation can be conducted on the fly, after pasting in content, or by uploading a document. Next to the translation you will see a button to begin text to speech (i.e, the program will read the translation back to you).
http://translate.google.com/#

WORTHY WEBSITES AND SOFTWARE

Using Wolfram|Alpha in the Classroom
Wolfram|Alpha is a free online computational knowledge engine that generates answers to questions in real time by doing computations on its own vast internal knowledge base. Our long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone. This can be valuable to educators in many ways. Could this also help parents better help their children with homework?
http://www.wolframalpha.com/educators/

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Google to Index Your Embarrassing Twitter Trail
Source: PCWorld
Billions of Twitter posts will no longer fade into obscurity now that Google is indexing them all in a massive, searchable database. Google announced a new search feature that lets users look at an entire history of tweets on any subject, in any time frame. The feature will roll out over the next couple of days, but you can see it in action now through a special link.
http://bit.ly/cUmQmj

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Microsoft Fix it Center makes getting support easier than ever because automatic troubleshooters solve the issues you have now and prevent new ones.
http://fixitcenter.support.microsoft.com/Portal/

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The Countdown Clock
As a teacher there is no longer any need to wonder where the minute or second hand was when you told your students they had 5 minutes. You can use these timers immediately or you can customize them to fit any theme you might currently be studying. This timer is a good basic clock that can countdown almost any time from one hour down. Simply open it, start the PowerPoint show and click on the time to start.
http://people.uncw.edu/ertzbergerj/ppt_timers.html

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Free Widgets and Tools
Looking for some great free educational widgets and tools for your site or social media pages such as Facebook or MySpace? Select a widget from the following list that works for you and add it to your page in minutes.
http://www.education.com/tools/?cid=90.389

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Cool School Tools!
An ever growing list of tech tools that can help you better communicate, collaborate, manage and deliver your school counseling program.
http://kevinhoneycutt.org/
or directly to
http://web.me.com/khoneycuttessdack/kevinhoneycutt.org/Cool_Tools.html
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Word 2007 Add-in: Microsoft Math
The Microsoft Math Add-in for Microsoft Office Word 2007 makes it easy to create graphs, perform calculations, and solve for variables with equations created in Word." http://bit.ly/bxmU6R

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PaperRater
Robust grammar checking allows you to find those pesky mistakes and correct them before turning in your paper.
http://www.paperrater.com/

Also see Vocabulary Builder
http://www.paperrater.com/vocab_builder/index

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CutMyPic, 3 simple steps that allow you to quickly upload a picture, crop it (with optional round corners and/or a drop shadow), and mail it to a friend or save it to your computer.
http://www.cutmypic.com/

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Clock Your Connection
Are you certain you're getting the Internet speeds you're paying for? Find out with the bandwidth test at Speedtest.net. Just click 'Begin Test', and the performance calculator will evaluate your upload and download speeds to see exactly how your Internet performance measures up.
http://speedtest.net/
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JUST FOR FUN

CalorieConnect.com is a dynamic diet and exercise service. Simply record your foods eaten and recreational activities with our user-friendly interface and we'll provide you with a custom fitness profile including nutrient tracking, daily targets, advice, and detailed printable reports.
http://www.calorieconnect.com/service.php

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What should I read?
Enter a book you like and the site will analyze our database of real readers' favorite books (nearly 70,000 different titles so far, and more than a million reader recommendations) to suggest what you could read next. (You can register on the results page and build your own favorites list.)
http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/

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chanceXchange
chanceXchange is a free service where you can trade unwanted games, films, music and books for those things that you really want. Simply list items you have finished with and the items you would like... we'll do the rest. "FreeCycle without the FreeLoaders"
http://www.chancexchange.com/

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Bite the Credit Card Sharks Back!
When credit card companies sends you unsolicited mail, print out a few and send in the postage paid return envelope.
http://bit.ly/aSZrR6

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NGC Custom Screen Saver
Source: Kim Komando
Most people still use a screen saver, though. Why? Well, they're fun. It's just another way to personalize your computer. It gives your computer personality while you're not using it. But default screen savers are pretty boring. Switch to the NGC Custom Screen Saver. National Geographic employs some of the best photographers on Earth. They work in the most exotic and beautiful places imaginable. And their best photos are in this screen saver.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/screensaver

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TripWow
It's a jaw-dropping slideshow featuring your vacation pictures. "Slideshow" hardly does TripWow justice; it's more like a movie! In minutes, you can create an amazing slideshow using your own vacation pictures that you can easily share with family and friends.
http://tripwow.tripadvisor.com/tripwow

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MyPaint is a fast, free, and easy open-source graphics application for digital painters. It lets you focus on the art instead of the program. You work on your canvas with minimum distractions, bringing up the interface only when you need it. MyPaint comes with a large brush collection including charcoal and ink to emulate real media, but the highly configurable brush engine allows you to experiment with your own brushes and with not-quite-natural painting. Before beginning it is a good idea to read the quick-start tutorial to see how the program is meant to be used. You can also visit the MyPaint Wiki.
http://mypaint.intilinux.com/

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Says-It.com image makers allow you to create your own funny photos and graphics - simply type in some text and choose from a few simple options. You can create your own church sign, make an official seal, have your own fire or police badge, and more. Once you've picked your options and created your image, you can use it for whatever you like - save it on your computer, upload it to ImageShack image hosting for use in blog or forum posting, or have it applied to a variety of high-quality merchandise from Zazzle.com, including stickers, mugs, keychains, and magnets.
http://www.says-it.com/
Source: TechSupportAlert

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Sabella & Associates, LLC, 4922 SW 26^th PL, Cape Coral, FL 33914
Sabella@Schoolcounselor.com