Transcript
TSD Technology Toolbox September 2007 Volume 4, Issue 1
Texas School for the Deaf
Sharee Darcé
Crossword Forge It has been awhile since we’ve had a crossword program here at TSD. Well, we have one now and I’m sure you are going to love it. Crossword Forge is an easy to use crossword and word search puzzle maker. You can quickly put together a puzzle for any subject without having to worry about formatting or planning out the puzzle. The program opens up in the Puzzle Editor. You just add your clues and answers here. Making the puzzle is as easy as pressing a clearly marked “Make Puzzle” button. Other editing features are organized by activity in tabs. You can add a title, change the backdrop, and change the puzzle type. The program allows you to make a primary and secondary title. Background options allow you to turn off the solid background to save on ink, or add a picture that relates to the puzzle’s subject matter (GIF, JPEG or PDF).
The puzzle tab allows you to toggle between making crossword and word search puzzles. Once clues and answers are entered, you can apply them to both types of puzzles. You can make the puzzle more challenging by changing the level of difficulty. I don’t tend to like word search puzzles too much, but with this program you can create them and make it so that hidden words must be guessed from clues, rather than just matching word to word. In the “Advanced” tab, you can change the dimensions of the puzzle. You can also control the size of each block, which comes in handy for younger students or students with visual impairments.
Puzzles can be printed out or saved as interactive puzzles you can run from a browser. Burn them to a cd and send them home with kids.
TSD Technology Toolbox
Crossword Forge continued… The language options control how the “Across” and “Down” tab appear. One language preference is the ability to create a restricted word list (ex. a list of swear words) for word search puzzles. Users will be warned when offending words are randomly generated in their word search puzzles. Also, Crossword Forge has a built in spell checker. Puzzles can be printed on paper or exported as pictures and PDF, for use on the web or in print materials.
“As your island of knowledge grows, so does your shoreline of wonder.” Anon.
But my favorite feature of this program is the fact that puzzles can be exported as interactive puzzles. If you choose to export the puzzle to the “Web”, you can create an interactive puzzle that can be uploaded to a web page, saved to computer or burned to a cd to be opened on any computer with a browser (Safari, Internet Explorer, Netscape.) The puzzle has eye catching animations and you can add automatic hints. To use the puzzle with a class and an ACTIVboard, there is an input alphabet included. Or, if you don’t have an ACTIVboard, students can just type in letters from the computer. Please contact the helpdesk to have this program installed on your teacher computer. I think it will be very helpful in reinforcing vocabulary learned in class as well as requiring students to practice their comprehension by reading clues.
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Tea ch er R es ou rces on th e We b If you’re working from home and don’t happen to have access to Crossword Forge, there are some sites on the web that allow you to make different kinds of puzzles, tests and practice materials. Check these out…
Discovery School Puzzlemaker http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducatio n.com/html/globalHome.jsp?password= pswd&id=guest Here you can make word search, crisscross, double puzzles, fallen phrases, math squares and mazes.
Educational Press http://www.educationalpress.org/ This site allows you to make flash cards, bingo cards, study sheets, quizzes, and flash games.
Flashcard Exchange http://www.flashcardexchange.com/in dex.php Here you can create your own flashcards for students to study online.
Easy Test Maker https://www.easytestmaker.com/login. aspx At this site, you can create multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer, and matching tests to print out.
TSD Technology Toolbox
October Ideas It’s almost October. For the little ones, that means Fire Safety Month. Check out these sites relating to Community Helpers and Safety: Firetruck Gallery www.sparky.org/firetruck/gallery/gall ery.htm Ladder54: Photos of Apparatus www.ladder54.com/Photosapparatus.ht m
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Mac Tips! – Adding Web Pics to iPhoto Do you sometimes find pictures on the web that you would like to keep? Maybe you are browsing Flickr or looking at a friend or family member’s web site. Here’s how to add those pictures from Safari to iPhoto: 1. Open Safari. 2. Now browse to the web site you want. Click on the photo you want, especially if it is only a thumbnail.
Home Safety Tips:Home Fire Safety Tips
3. Once you’ve found the image you want, just “right click” on it, or hold down the “CONTROL” key and click.
www.homesafetycouncil.org/safety_gui de/sg_fire_w002.aspx
4. When the contextual menu shows up, choose “Add to iPhoto Library.”
Alphabet Soup:Fire Safety www.alphabetsoup.net/firesafety/firesafety.html
October is also time for Columbus Day. Here are some sites where you can learn more about Columbus:
5. Now it will launch iPhoto and put that image in your library.
ECE/Elem – Debbie Boatright SND – Ellen Weed MS – Sandy Kimball HS – Michelle Halvorsen
http://www.columbusnavigation.com/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/famousp eople/standard/columbus/index.shtml http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/co nWebDoc.137 http://www.mariner.org//educationala d/ageofex/columbus.php http://www.win.tue.nl/cs/fm/engels/di scovery/columbus.html scovery/columbus.html
Tech Mentors:
Web Sites of Interest : Ancient Greece http://www.ancientgreece.co.uk/men u.html For Kids Who Love Books (gr 3-8) http://www.alanbrown.com Fall Color (gr K-8) http://www.ncnatural.com/fall-color/ Good Typing (gr 4-12) http://www.goodtyping.com/ Wonderful Math Site http://mathwire.com/
CTE – Dan Guerra
Texas School for the Deaf
Sharee Darcé Curriculum Specialist
RSS – Real Sim ple Syndication With the advent of Web 2.0 and all the tools that go along with it, it has become really difficult to keep up with all of the content out there. You could spend hours reading Web logs (blogs) or searching for updated content, or you could save some time and use RSS feeds. RSS feeds are a great way to keep track of new information. RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary, depending upon whom you ask. Most blogs, podcasts, and regularly updated sites publish a “feed” to which you can subscribe. Here are a few easy ways to start collecting feeds:
Phone: 462-5212
Both Safari and Firefox will permit you to subscribe to RSS feeds right from the browser. First, you will need to set up your RSS preferences in the preference menu of the browser. It is a good idea to store all of your RSS feeds in your bookmarks bar so you can just pull down a menu or click on one button to see what is new.
E-Mail:
[email protected]. tx.us
Then all you need to do is find some relevant feeds to subscribe to. News outlets and standard Web sites are increasingly adding feeds for their content. There are also lots of blogs out there relating to education. Our very own Twyla Loftin has a Web log going for her history class. On a site you want to subscribe to, look for a text link in one of the side columns that says “Syndicate this site (XML).” Or, it might say “RSS 1.0 (or 2.0). But, most of the time you will see an orange icon that looks like this: Click on that and then bookmark that page. Here are some sites you might want to check out and possibly subscribe to: http://mrsloftin.blogspot.com/ http://discoveryeducation.typepad.com/media_matters/ http://www.kathyschrock.net/blog/ http://web.mac.com/jennifergingerich/iWeb/jennifergingerich/Blog/Blog.html
