Tech eNews 12-13-2012

Topics for this Tech eNews 12-13-2012

1. Registration is still open for Tech PD Classes

2. Please turn off computers before leaving for break

3. Thank you to Kim Dillon and Jay Bennett

4. Surplus Soon

5. Timecard Printing Guide

6. NCCE Computer Conference in Portland 2/26/13 to 3/1/13

7. Tech Blog Has Archive of eNews and other Tech Related Articles

1. Registration is still open for Tech PD Classes

Teachers and other staff are welcome to register for this year’s Technology Professional Development Classes.  A full list of classes is on the Technology website, and you can sign up using an easy online form.  Click here to sign up!

Classes this year include options for a shorter series of courses where you can still get clock hours (10 Websites in 2 90 minute sessions, Google Sites/Docs/E-mail/WESPaC Gradebook), new topics (Prezi, Digital Cameras & Photo Management), and some familiar favorites (iMovie, Excel, and the Document Camera class).  A full list of the course descriptions is here:

2. Please Turn Computers OFF Before Leaving for Break

As you are getting ready to leave for a wonderful, relaxing Winter break, please take a few minutes and turn all the computers in your classroom off.  Doing this saves electricity and keeps your tech support staff happy!  

3. Thank you to Kim Dillon and Jay Bennett for Leading the First Tech Classes 

A very big “thank you” to Kim Dillon and James Bennett for leading the first two Technology PD classes this year.  Kim’s Research Databases class was well received, and Jay’s Google Sites class was a great opportunity for participating teachers to spruce up their websites. 

4. Surplus Soon – Get Rid of Those Dust Collecting Paperweights  

If you have old, unwanted equipment in your classroom that you no longer have a use for, you can use the surplus process to get rid of it.  Your building’s inventory designee (Deana Degrande at CCMS, Deborah Mansfield at Cape, Marlene Leifsen at Gause, Kathy Stanton at Hathaway, Debbie Leifsen at Jemtegaard, and Misty Young at WHS) can help you process paperwork to dispose of the item appropriately, and remove it from your classroom’s inventory.  There will be a surplus run in January, near the end of the month, so work with your inventory person now to get items taken care of before break.

You can read more about the inventory and surplus process here, including finding forms to dispose of equipment.

5. Timecard Handout by Sean Elkinton 

Some staff have been having problems downloading and printing the new electronic Timecards.  Tech support staff person Sean Elkinton has developed a short guide to do this, starting from the computer’s login screen.  If you need help, please ask your building’s Tech Support staff person for help!

Click here to view, download, or print Sean’s handout.

6. NCCE Computer Conference Opportunity for Teachers Feb 26-Mar 1, 2013 

Are you interested in learning more about Technology and curriculum, and then teaching your colleagues about it?  If you are, please take a few minutes to look over the linked catalog for the NCCE (Northwest Council for Computers in Education) conference, which is in Portland this year.  The district is looking for a group of around 10 teachers to attend the conference, learn from the workshops, and then re-create them here for a larger group of our teachers.  

If this is something you’d be interested in, please use the Google Form to indicate your interest, the classes you think would be valuable, and how you’d be interested in teaching it to your peers.  David Tudor and Les Brown will decide on a list of attendees after the deadline, which is January 9.  

We are open to pairs of people who are interested in taking a workshop together to bring back and co-present, as well.

Information about the NCCE Conference:

http://www.ncce.org/2013-home-page.html

List of workshops:

http://www.ncce.org/2013-workshops.html

Link to the Google Form for Washougal to sign up:

https://docs.google.com/a/washougalsd.org/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dHBOclpFWXdKdEZQeXZfMmh3blRLNXc6MQ

Create and share a calendar

To create a new calendar, just follow these steps:

1. Click the drop-down arrow to the right of My calendars
2. Select Create new calendar
3. Enter information about your new calendar
4. Click the Create calendar button

To share that calendar with a specific person via e-mail:

1. In the calendar list on the left side of the page, click the down-arrow button next to the calendar you created above, then select Share this calendar. 
2. Enter the email address of the person you want to share your calendar with.
3. From the drop-down menu, select a level of permission, then click Add. (Once you click Add, the person you selected to share the calendar with will receive an email invitation to view your calendar.)

Re-posting from the Google Calendar support at http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=37095

Tech eNews 11-28-2012

Topics for this Tech eNews 11-28-2012

1. Register for Tech PD Classes

2. Labeling Personal Property as Yours

3. K-5 Progress Report Window Open

4. Prep for Mid-year Surplus

5. Turning on Video Mirroring

6. Internet Research Strategies Class is Thursday!

7. Turn on icon labels in Google Mail

1. Register for Tech PD Classes

Teachers and other staff are welcome to register for this year’s Technology Professional Development Classes.  A full list of classes is on the Technology website, and you can sign up using an easy online form.  Click here to sign up!  (Requires that you have a WashougalSD.org e-mail)

Classes this year include options for a shorter series of courses where you can still get clock hours (10 Websites in 2 90 minute sessions, Google Sites/Docs/E-mail/WESPaC Gradebook), new topics (Prezi, Digital Cameras & Photo Management), and some familiar favorites (iMovie, Excel, and the Document Camera class).  A full list of the course descriptions is here.

2. Labeling Personal Property as Yours

During the district wide inventory, a common problem that we run into are personal items not marked as “personal” equipment.  Tech staff have some small white labels you can affix to your equipment to help make sure it doesn’t get accidentally tagged during a future inventory.  If you have equipment you keep in your classroom, particularly items that are similar to equipment already owned by the district, it is helpful if you would label it.

3. K-5 Progress Report Window Open

The fall progress report window for K-5 teachers is open.  Teachers in K-5 can log in at https://www.edusoftdev.com using their first.last and their password to enter grades.  Make sure you choose “Washougal” as the district name.  If you have forgotten your password, contact your building tech support person, and they can help you reset it.

Some important dates for K-5. 

The end of grading trimester is 11-30-2012. 

The cut off date for Teachers to enter grades - 12-10-2012 at noon. 

Printing either by Teachers or Tech people - 12-11-2012

Report cards back to Teachers for proofreading - 12-12-2012

Report cards go home with students - 12-13-2012 (Kindergarten every other day) & 12-14-2012 everyone else

The window for Winter & Spring terms is posted here.

4. Prep for Mid-year Surplus 

If you have old, unwanted equipment in your classroom that you no longer have a use for, you can use the surplus process to get rid of it.  Your building’s inventory designee (Deana Degrande at CCMS, Deborah Mansfield at Cape, Marlene Leifsen at Gause, Kathy Stanton at Hathaway, Debbie Leifsen at Jemtegaard, and Misty Young at WHS) can help you process paperwork to dispose of the item appropriately, and remove it from your classroom’s inventory.  There will be a surplus run in January, near the end of the month, so work with your inventory person now to get items taken care of before break.

You can read more about the inventory and surplus process here, including finding forms to dispose of equipment.

5. Turning on Video Mirroring on a Mac

Sometimes when you turn a projector on or off while it is connected to a computer, the computer’s video mirroring setting will get turned off.  Here are some short steps to turn it back on:

For Mac:

Open System Preferences from the Apple Menu

Click Displays

Click the “Arrangement” tab, then check the box for “Mirror Displays”

6. Change Google Mail icons to Text Labels

Do you find yourself wondering what the icons in Google e-mail do, and are unsure which to choose for common tasks?  Tech Support Staff person Sean Elkinton wrote these steps for turning on Text labels, which can make the e-mail interface easier for some people:

Click the sprocket to go into Google Mail Settings

Find the option for “Button Labels”

Click the Radio button to set it to Text instead of Icons

Scroll to the bottom and click Save.

To view a set of directions with screen shots, click here.

7. Internet Research Strategies Class This Thursday

Join WHS Teacher/Librarian Kim Dillon for a lesson that will model research strategies to use with your students to help them find and recognize high-quality, researched, free, student-friendly websites on the Internet, and how to avoid citing biased, non-factual websites in their assignments. 4-7 PM; WHS Library lab on Thursday November 29, 2012.

Block e-mail as junk messages

One of our staff people had a large volume of unsolicited e-mail, or junk e-mail, coming into her account.  She was disconcerted by the e-mails, which were coming in at a pretty high rate over a couple weeks.

How to teach your google e-mail to treat messages as junk:

Please use the junk e-mail option to "teach" your e-mail that these are junk mail

It looks like a small stop octagon with an exclamation point in it. (see attached picture)

If you teach it that a few of them are junk e-mail, it'll start hiding them from you.

Add a link to a Google Site webpage

Go to the page on  your Google Site where you want the link.

Click the pencil in the upper right to "edit" the page

Type in the text you want the link to look like - this can be something like Math resources for 4th grade or whatever

Highlight the text

Click the small link button (looks like a chain link) in the row of tool bar buttons:



If you are linking to a different site, click Web Address in the left column of the box that comes up, then Paste or type the link into the box that says "link to this URL."

You can check the box to have it open in a new window if you want it to do that.

Make sure you hit OK, then save changes.

Tech eNews 11-7-2012

Topics for this Tech eNews 11-7-2012

1. Upcoming Tech PD classes - Research Strategies 11-29-2012

2. Userbox on the Konica copiers

3. Steps to disable "re-open at login" setting on 10.7 Mac computers

4. Inventory reminder - moving equipment

5. Printing timecards - please ask for help if needed

6. Getting rid of old equipment

7. iPad Pilot in 5th Grade Classrooms update

8. K-5 Report Card Window

9. Flickering Monitors Make you Crazy

10. Using SchoolDude Helps Us Help You

11. Update Notice Never Goes Away

1. Tech Professional Development Classes Starting November 29, 2012

The first Technology Professional Development Class will be Thursday, November 29th, in the WHS Library from 4-7 PM.  Kim Dillon and Les Brown will be presenting the Research Database & Strategies Class.  This 3 hour class (clock hours approved through ESD) will cover both free and paid online research databases that are available to you and your students.  Some are provided through the Fort Vancouver Library system, which makes them available to residents and teachers in Washougal to use with students.  Come explore these high quality sites, and find out about strategies to help you teach your students about how to discern worthwhile sources of information online.  E-mail les@washougalsd.org to register.  The complete list of Winter classes will be posted soon.

2. Userbox on the Konica Copiers

Tech support person Sean Elkinton provides these instructions on how to use the "Userbox" on the Konica Copiers.  

  

The UserBox is a folder on the copier that stores your documents that you want to print.  It can hold

all your print jobs you send there until you are ready to print them.  Once the UserBox is setup on your

computer then it functions the same way as a printer so when you print to the copier it is automatically

copied to your UserBox.

To use it:

1) login with your code

2) push user box button

3) push 2nd item in menu "Use Document"

4) push "Search UserBox"

5) select your UserBox icon and select OK

6) select document and push Print

7) push start button

If you don't know your code, please contact your building's Tech support person, who can help you reset it.

3. Steps to disable "re-open at login" setting on 10.7 Mac computers

Does your Mac re-open about a billion windows each time you log in?  Is it making you wait 10 minutes to be able to do anything productive while it drags out every file you've ever looked at?  Tech support person Linda Henderson provided these instructions to disable the "re-open at login" option on the new Teacher Macs, running 10.7 or higher, which have this annoying (to some) feature turned on by default:

Open the System Preferences

Click "General"

Un-check the box at the bottom of the screen for "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps"

Close System Preferences

To view the directions with screen shots, click here. 

4. Inventory reminder - moving equipment

Help us keep the inventory up-to-date!  When you move equipment from room to room, please contact your building's inventory designee to let them know you've moved it.  They may ask you to fill out a transfer form.  You'll need to know the room number of the new location, along with the tag number from the equipment.  Click here for a list of Inventory Designees and a link to the forms.

5. Printing timecards - please ask for help if needed

The Tech Support Staff want you to know you can get help if you need it, when you need to print your timecard.  If you don't regularly log into your user account, you may need help adding the printers to your account.  Please ask them for help, and they'll get you "hooked up" to the copier nearest to you.  If you can, please try to use the same computer each time you print your timecard.  Once the printer is configured on that computer for your account, it will stay "set" from month to month!

6. Surplus that old unwanted/unused equipment

Do you have old, unwanted, or unused equipment in your classroom that you don’t want to keep? Ask your building's inventory person where to have it moved, and let your building administrator know you want to get rid of it. The deadline for identifying items as surplus is January 18, 2013.

7. iPad Pilot in 5th Grade Classrooms update

Three Fifth Grade Teachers and a Special Education Teacher are participating in a pilot of iPads in their classrooms.  Erin Hayes from Hathaway, Erin Maier from Gause, and Chelsea Meats and Stephanie Closson at Cape are using iPads in a "one to one" pilot, helping the district Technology Team evaluate and collect data about how tablet devices can help students!  This project is funded by the WSD Tech Fund, and will produce comparison data around test scores, attendance, behavior, and other metrics which will help the Tech Team decide whether to expand this into more classrooms next year.  Stay tuned for more details as we gather data about how these devices impact learning.

The Pilot was featured in a great story written by Jodi Thomas, and published in the Camas Washougal Post Record.  Click here to read a short excerpt from it, or look in this week's Post Record for the full version.

8. K-5 Report Card Window

The cut off date for entering grades into the K-5 report card system will be December 10th, 2012, at 12:00 Noon.  Please contact your building support person if you are having problem logging in.  The link for the report card site is on the For District Employees Page, in the left sidebar. 

9. Flickering Monitors Make you Crazy

A number of the black cables that connect the new monitors at WHS to the PC computers have failed.  This bad batch of cables has affected about 15 or more staff people.  If your teacher computer at WHS is flickering, jumping around, or going black spontaneously, please put a work order into SchoolDudes, and Kenneth will get you a replacement cable. 

10. Using SchoolDude Helps Us Help You

Speaking of SchoolDudes -- Besides keeping your tech staff happy (and who doesn’t want that?), using SchoolDude to report problems with your technology helps you! Once you’ve put in a request, you’ll get an automatic e-mail response letting you know it’s been entered. The system will update you whenever Kenneth, Sean, Linda or Les makes any changes to the work order. You can log back into the SchoolDude system to view the status of all of your tickets, which can be helpful if we’ve given you steps on how to resolve something. The SchoolDude system helps the district track time spent on problem machines.  Problem machines are identified by the number of tickets assigned to them, and get replaced when we have the opportunity.

To get started, visit the “For District Employees” page on the WSD Site, then click “Technology/Maintenance Requests” in the sidebar. If you need the password, please contact your building's tech support person.  Note that the login uses your old e-mail address (with the k12.wa.us ending) unless you updated it using these directions.

11. Update Notice Never Goes Away

ADOBE FLASH NEEDS AN UPDATE!  Windows has found critical updates for your computer.  Your computer will burst into flames if you don't install this important update from company b!  Many staff are complaining that they're getting almost constant reminders from just about every software application saying that they need updates.  If you are experiencing this, please enter a work order into SchoolDude (directions above) and your Building's friendly tech support person will install the updates, buying you a reprieve from these dire update warnings.

Disable "re-open at login" option

Instructions for turning off the feature

“Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps”

Open System Preferences and click “General.”

Un-check the box at the bottom of the screen for “Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps.

Close System Preferences by clicking the red dot in the upper left corner.

Tech eNews September 27, 2012

Tech eNews September 27, 2012

1. Welcome to Linda Henderson, our New Tech Support Assistant
2. Welcome to Kenneth Mai, our New Tech Support Assistant
3. Welcome to James Bennet, new Tech Coach at WHS
4. Questions about the Online Timecards
5. Google calendar embedded in webpage doesn't show events

1. Please welcome Linda Henderson, Tech Support Assistant

Linda Henderson, currently subbing for Tech Support, is the new Tech Support Assistant who will be serving Cape Horn-Skye and Canyon Creek Middle School. Linda is a native of East Wenatchee, Washington, and graduated from Central Washington University with a degree in Systems Analysis. Linda has served on the district's Technology committee in the past, and is currently subbing in the Tech Support job. Linda has worked as a bookkeeper for several businesses in the area.

Linda originally moved to the Portland area from Seattle to start a deli with a friend in Milwaukee, a business that continues to thrive. Linda is the mother of a current Canyon Creek 6th grader as well as a WHS Sophomore, and a 2012 WHS graduate. She enjoys camping and volunteering with the Boy Scouts, cooking, and fishing with her husband.

Linda will start at 7:30 AM each morning, and work the following schedule:

Monday 7:30-11:30

Tuesday 7:30-11:30

Wednesday 7:30-1:30 (long day)

Thursday 7:30-9:30 (short day)

Friday 7:30-11:30

Staff with questions for Linda can reach her at Cape extension x3671. You can e-mail Linda at linda.henderson@washougalsd.org, or reach her by entering work orders in the School Dude system.

Linda will be sharing an office with Amy Seufert, in room 148b on the Cape side of the building.

2. Please welcome Kenneth Mai, Tech Support Assistant

Kenneth Mai is the new Tech Support Assistant who will be serving Washougal High School and Hathaway Elementary. Kenneth is an Oregon Institute of Technology graduate who has recently worked for Office Ally in Vancouver. Kenneth has an extensive technology background, having worked in tech jobs in Las Vegas, Hawaii, and Portland. He and his wife Thao, who recently married, are looking to relocate to Washougal from SE Portland where they currently reside. Kenneth is originally from Vietnam, and emigrated with his parents in 1980. Kenneth enjoys camping near Garibaldi on the Oregon coast each year, is an avid fisherman, and enjoys playing pool in his spare time.

Kenneth will be starting at 7:30 each morning at WHS, and then working afternoons at Hathaway. Staff with questions for Kenneth can reach him at WHS at ext. 3206, or at Hathaway at ext. 3823. You can e-mail Kenneth atkenneth.mai@washougalsd.org, or reach him by entering work orders in the School Dude system.

Kenneth will be starting at WHS late next week.

3. Please welcome James Bennett, Tech Coach at WHS

Jay Bennett is working 1 period a day doing technology coaching at Washougal High School this year. He’s working on helping teachers move from Tier 1 to Tier 3 in Technology use, integrating technology into their curriculum. WHS staff who are interested in working with Jay can stop by and ask him about a project they are interested in doing with students, or shoot him an e-mail.

4. Questions about the Online Timecards

Question 1. How do I get to the new online timesheet?

Answer. You can find it by going to the District Web Page and selecting the link in the upper right hand side of the page, "For District Employees". On the left side of that page click on the link "Timecards".

http://www.washougal.k12.wa.us/districtemployees/timecards.htm

Question 2. Is the new timesheet a spreadsheet that I have to fill out?

Answer. Yes. Please fill it out using Excel and then print it up and sign it and had it back to your school secretary or the person that handled your old time sheet.

Question 3. Can I use the same spreadsheet for each month?

Answer. No. The spreadsheet will be updated for each month so check back at the website and download the one for the month that your filling out the timesheet for.

Question 4. If I work in multiple buildings, do I do more than one timecard?

Answer. Yes, if you have more than one supervisor. If you work more than two or more positions that have multiple supervisors, you'll need to do one timecard for each of the positions you hold, and then have the supervisor for each job sign the relevant timecard.

5. Google Calendar Not Showing for Students or Parents from Home (embedded in class webpage)

If you have a Google Calendar embedded in your webpage that is not showing up for parents or students from home, it could be that your "sharing" settings are not correct. You can use these steps to set it so that parents and students can see events on your calendar.

Log into your WSD web based e-mail.

Click on the word calendar in the black bar.
Click on the triangle next to "My Calendars"
Find the shared calendar in the list, and click Edit sharing for the row with that calendar in it.
Check the box for "Share this Calendar with Others" and also "make this calendar public"

Choose see all events details from the drop down menu

Click Save

Useful bookmarks when the WSD Internet Connection is down

The K-20 Internet Connection at Washougal School District is down again today.  K-20 (our Internet Service Provider) has been alerted to the problem, and is working with the circuit providers to come up with a resolution. 

E-mail
Some people have asked about the web based services being unavailable, and I wanted to note these things:
When the K-20 connection is down, you can still access your WSD e-mail from home or any other place that the Internet is still up.  Use this link to get in: https://mail.washougalsd.org  or http://www.gmail.com

WESPaC
You can still access WESPaC (both the Web and Citrix) to get into the student information system, HR, and the fiscal system.  The bookmark page is linked here: 
http://bookmark.washougal.wa-k12.net

SchoolDude
You can still get into School Dude, via the address www.schooldude.com to report problems.  You'll log in using your e-mail address (still the old one for most people) and your password. 

Installing apps via Configurator requires removing restrictions and enabling store on iPads

We have several iPad carts which are managed via a MacBook running Apple's Configurator software. We have had a few small problems installing apps, which are apparently caused by the configuration we are trying to use on the iPads.

We have created a configuration that has restrictions set to prevent students from using the iTunes store and to prevent them from installing apps in our managed environment.

These are set like like this:

Having both of these checkboxes appears to prevent Configurator from pushing apps (both paid and unpaid) onto the iPads.  We saw the following symbol in Configurator

and this error in the Console.

To solve this, we had to edit the applied restrictions and apply those to the cart of ipads, and then re-install.  Note - we found that we had to unselect the apps in the configurator, then allow Both Use of iTunes store and Installation of Apps, apply that to the iPads, then go back and try installing Apps.  Simply turning this setting on during the same sync was unsuccessful.

Afterwards, we went back and edited our restrictions back to the original settings, which is how we want it left.

New Teacher Scavenger Hunt

Link for the list of items new teachers need to find on the District website, in their handbook, policies, or the Tech Blog.

  Download this Word document

Editing a group in your web e-mail

If you're using the web-based Washougal e-mail, and you need to modify the Contact group that you created, you can do this: Click the word Mail in the upper left corner Choose Contacts from the drop down list Click the name of the group in the left column Find the people you want to remove, and then check the box next to their name Now click the "more" button, then delete contacts This will remove them from your group and also from your address book online.

iPad Gestures you might find useful

Working with Apple's professional development services, we had an excellent trainer, Anthony, from Apple work with our iPad pilot teachers.  The teachers who participated found the first couple hours with Anthony to be incredibly useful.  Here are some of the most handy tips we got, many of which you may not figure out when you first start using an iPad:

Putting your five fingers on the screen and pinching/squeezing them towards each other will close an open app

 

You can double tap the home button (small circular button at bottom) to open the Multi-task shelf.

You can also do a gesture to get to this:  Four fingers swipe up opens the “multi-task shelf” of recently open apps

Why do you want the multi-task shelf?  The multi-task shelf shows apps that are already open (have been opened recently).  If you swipe to right, will open the another set of apps that you can't find elsewhere!  Rotation lock, brightness, controls for volume; airplay control for connecting to an AppleTV, iTunes forward/back/pause are all found in here.

Four finger swipe side to side scrolls between recently used apps.  So if you've opened Safari, and opened Mail, when you swipe four fingers on the screen from right to left, it'll move from one to the next.  Swiping the same direction again will go to the next last opened app.

To force quit an iPad app, you can use multi-task shelf (four finger swipe up), then press and hold the app.  It will start to "wiggle."  Click the red icon – symbol to force quit it.

Closing (force quitting) doesn’t save memory or impact device use; All it does is reset a “stuck” app. 

To create a folder for apps when you're looking at them on the iPad's home screen, just drag one app on top of another. You can move a folder down to the Dock if you want to keep them there, too.  The folder will open when touched, and let you choose the items inside of it.  

If an app inside a folder has a notification (like Mail with the number of unread messages) that notification will show up on the folder app icon as well.

TPEP Self-Evaluation Tool

As principals and teachers begin to get used to the new Teacher Principal Evaluation Process (TPEP), the following self-evaluation tool can be used to look at current practice and look for ways to continue to improve. 

TPEP eval tool

Turning off the sound on an iPad

One of our staff with an iPad just asked how to turn off the sound.


There's a couple ways to turn off the sound, you can pick whichever is easiest for you.

On the right side of the iPad, toward the top, there's a volume control "rocker switch" which you can push on the down side of multiple times, which will turn the volume to "zero" which is off.  When you push it, you'll see a grey indicator show up on the screen with a volume bar.

Above that switch, there's a small two position switch.  If you push it toward the back of the device, it mutes the device.  Again, you'll get an indicator on the screen, a speaker with a line through it, to tell you you've muted the device.

You can double click the home button (the small round button at the bottom) and then swipe to the right to access the sound controls, too.  This is a handy spot to get into, as it also has controls for the brightness, the music controls, and if you're hooked up to an Apple TV, where you can turn on mirroring for AirPlay.

Voicemail quick reference cards

Here's a printable "quick reference" card for the Norstar voicemail systems in use at Cape/Canyon, Jemtegaard, District Office, Hathaway and the Bus Barn.  Download the .pdf file to print a sheet of these if you want to share with co-workers.


Listen to your new messages: 2
Listen to your saved messages: 6
Replay the message: 11
Replay 9 seconds: 1
Pause/continue: 2
Forward 9 seconds: 3
Skip to the end: 33
Play previous message: 4
Forward a copy: 5
Skip to the next message: 6
Play envelope information: 7
Save a message: 77
Erase the message: 8
Reply to message: 9
Volume control: *

Tips and Shortcuts for Web Based E-mail

Google's Gmail web interface has a lot of hidden features and shortcut keys that you can use.  To view a list of these, please download this .pdf document.  One really handy one is hitting tab, then space bar or enter to send a message.

http://2136722317829374289-a-googleapps-com-s-sites.googlegroups.com/a/googleapps.com/deploy-google-apps/Home/resources-user-adoption/quick-reference/Google_Mail_Shortcuts.pdf

Printing from the new e-mail system

When you're viewing an e-mail in the new e-mail system, you can print it by clicking the little "print" icon which looks like a printer, which is in the upper right corner of the e-mail you're viewing.  

If the message is part of a thread of messages, and you only want to print one of them, you can click the small down arrow next to the header info to the right of the the sender/recipient info, and choose "Print".  

If you scroll to the top of the thread of messages, the small print icon pictured above will be at the top of the entire thread.  Clicking it will print all of the messages in the thread of messages.

Printing Your Progress Reports (For Grades K-5)

Elementary teachers who are interested in printing their own progress reports using the Edusoft dev software, and one of the copy machines, can do so using this printable instruction sheet created by Justin Gilson with help from Sean Elkinton. 

Make sure you test print just one before you run a class set!

http://www.washougal.k12.wa.us/blog/print-k5-progress-report.pdf

Toolbar items missing in Excel 2011

If you're used to the tool bars in Office 2008 for Mac, you're used to having a specific set of buttons on each row of your tool bars, with certain items like "format borders" always being visible.

In the newer versions of Excel and Word 2011 for Mac, the applications will start hiding items from your "ribbon" if the Excel/Word window is not full screen.  For instance, when you shrink an Excel Spreadsheet, you'll end up with a sub-set of the tools available, and there's not a way to get them back without making the window larger (or digging in the menu to find them)

In the screen shot below, the Excel window is set to be almost the entire width of the screen, and you get the full set of items in the ribbon (note the format borders icon is showing).

In the screen shot below, the Excel window is set to be about 1/2 the width of the screen, and the format borders icon, which was between the underline U and the fill background paint bucket, along with many others, have been dropped off the ribbon!

One solution is to drag the window using the right lower corner to make the ribbon show more items.

If you want, you can customize the ribbon by opening "Excel" menu, then going to Preferences.  Click the ribbon item, and uncheck some of the items that you don't use.  This will allow more items that you DO use to show up when the window is more narrow, hopefully keeping the items that are "must haves" for you!

Microsoft Office for Mac Applications not showing data

If you have Microsoft Word or Excel 2011, and opening spreadsheets or Word documents does not show any content, it could be a font conflict keeping it from showing the data.

You can use the "Font Book" Application to fix this.

Quit any open Microsoft Applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
Open the Applications folder on your hard drive
Open Font Book
Click File, then "Restore Standard Fonts"
It may say it didn't find any, but this will fix the issue.

Quit Font book, and re-open the document, and see if it's fixed.

Embedding a Calendar in Google sites - required step is sharing calendar first

If you're going to embed a calendar in your Google Site, you have to make it public.  You can do this by following these directions:

Click "Calendar" in the black bar at the top after you've signed into Google Sites or your e-mail

Find the calendar you're wanting to embed (or that you've already embedded), and hover your mouse to the right of the calendar's name.  A small triangle will show up, click it once to access a drop down menu

On the drop down menu, click "Calendar Settings"

On the page that shows up, click Share this calendar, near the top under the name of the calendar

On the sharing tab, check the box for "Share this Calendar with others"

Also check the box for "Make this calendar public" and choose "see event details" from the drop down menu to the right

Click Save to save this change.

For a step-by-step guide to embedding the calendar, click here:

http://support.google.com/sites/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=157219

Stop Mac 10.7 from re-opening all the windows in an application after you re-open it

For those who are annoyed by the helpful feature of the new Macs running 10.7


The new Mac computer has a "feature" that's meant to be handy.  When you quit a program (Command + Q) or File/Quit, it is going to re-open any files that are currently open the next time you open that same application.

This can be handy for starting up in the morning when you want to carry on where you left off, but if that's not what you want, it can be annoying!

To prevent this, there's a couple things you can do

Instead of hitting command + q  you can do command + option + q to have it not re-open those windows

OR

You can do Command + w to close each of the open windows, and then Command + q

OR

you can choose to disable this system wide:
Go into System Preferences, then General, and uncheck the "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps." option.

Excel formula to generate a date + a certain number of years

You can "add" a number of days using a formula in Excel to calculate a date plus x number of years.

The syntax works like this:

Put the date in Cell A1

In Cell B1, put in a formula that says =A1+(365.25*20) and then format the result as a date (Format menu, format cells, click date and MM/DD/YY)

The attached spreadsheet has the formulas for 20, 25, and 30 years, as well as a Years to date which uses the "today" function to subtract the current date from the date in A1, and then calculates it into years. 

You need to do 365.25 to account for Leap years (although the date creeping back by 10 days over the course of 40 years probably doesn't matter)

Tech eNews May 22, 2012

1. Welcome to Justin Gilson, our New Tech Support Assistant!
2. Thanks for Feedback on Survey to Improve the Tech PD Classes
3. Getting Your Computers Ready for Summer
4. Google Sites Step by Step
5. WSD Tech Funds - What, where, when?
6. Surplus that old unwanted/unused equipment!
7. LCD Projector Bulb Replacement
8. Creating a Vacation Message


1. Welcome to Justin Gilson, our New Tech Support Assistant

Please welcome Justin Gilson as the new Tech Support Assistant for Cape Horn-Skye, Canyon Creek, and Washougal High School.  Justin comes to us from Havre School District in Montana, where he worked doing Tech Support for several years.  He is a graduate of Camas High School, and recently relocated back to the area, and is excited to be working in schools again.  Some people may recognize Justin from the Camas Talent Show, where he performed magic tricks for the audience.  Justin enjoys geocaching, an activity using GPS coordinates to locate hidden containers, let him know if you know of any interesting 'caches' in the area.  Justin is replacing Anthony Collver, who has taken a position with ESD 112.

WHS Staff can reach Justin at ext. 3206, and Cape/CCMS staff can reach him at ext. 3513 or via e-mail at justin.gilson@washougalsd.org

2. Thanks for Feedback on Survey to Improve the Tech PD Classes
Thank you to the 30 staff people who completed the paper and digital versions of the survey on making the Technology Professional Development classes better work for you.  We'll analyze the data collected, and use it to make adjustments to the schedule, the course topics, and try to make the classes useful for you.  The schedule should come together soon, and we'll have a survey of interest on topics and themes for the classes, as well as some suggestions for alternate times/days.

3. Getting Your Computers Ready for Summer
In the past, some WSD staff have placed garbage bags over computers to keep dust out.  None of our tech staff have noted a problem with excess dust settling into computer equipment when it is off, so this isn’t necessary.  Please save yourself the trouble, and leave the bags for the garbage cans.

Please make sure you turn all of your computers off before you leave.  If you have a laptop that won’t be used over the summer, you should charge the battery fully, and then take it out of the computer for storage.  If possible, store the battery in a refrigerator that’s turned on. If you have an iPad or other device with an internal battery, you should fully charge the battery, and then turn the device completely off before you leave.  Leaving a device in "sleep" for an extended period of time can damage the batteries.

As much as is possible, please leave your computer’s cables all plugged in.  We are aware that the custodians will move much of the equipment to clean carpets, but doing this will cut down on the time it takes to get everyone back up and running in the fall. 

4. Google Sites Step-by-Step Guide
If you missed one of the Google sites classes, but are still interested in setting up a webpage for your classroom or department, you can use the excellent step-by-step guide created by class facilitator Rochelle Aiton to guide you through this process.  You can download the guide here.  Once you have a webpage set up, send the link to your new page to Les Brown, and he can link it to the appropriate school/department page.

5. WSD Tech Funds - what, where, when?
WSD Tech funds. What are they? Where do they come from? What do they pay for?
Voters approved a new Technology levy on February 9, 2010, which collect $250,000 each year for four years, starting in 2011. This year the Tech funds have been used to pay for new Teacher computers for all teachers at Washougal High School, and a current project to replace all teacher computers in grades K-8. Tech funds pay for “standard” software, including Microsoft Office, Inspiration, and Sophos Anti-virus. They also pay for Network infrastructure that allows network accounts for all staff, including the web server and home-folder servers.

6. Surplus that old unwanted/unused equipmentDo you have old, unwanted, or unused equipment in your classroom that you don’t want to keep? Mark it as “surplus” on your year-end inventory, and let your building administrator know you want to get rid of it. The deadline for identifying items as surplus is June 8.

7. LCD Projector and Bulb Replacement
Let Sean or Justin know if your projector’s image is darker than it used to be, has changed color, or is showing spots or dots in the image. In some cases, a new bulb is all that’s needed, and for most classrooms, the Tech staff has an extra bulb. If your projector’s problem can’t be fixed with a new bulb, we’ll put it on the list to get replaced.

8. Creating a Vacation Message
If you are going to be out of the office for an extended period of time, you can create a vacation message which automatically responds to your e-mail, letting folks know you’re gone.

- Log into your district e-mail.  http://mail.washougalsd.org/
- Log in as yourself (first.last) with your e-mail password.
- Click the Sprocket in the upper left, then choose Mail Settings
- On the General tab, scroll down to the Vacation Responder section
- Click the Radio button for "Vacation responder on"
- Enter the text you want to have sent to people who send you email in the box
- Set an end date if appropriate (recommended)
(Note: You can opt to have the message sent to anyone, or just people inside the district.)
- Make sure you scroll down or up to click the save button! 

If you didn't sent an end date, when you get back, follow the same directions, and set the responder to "off" to remove the message.