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PowerPoint 2007- Creating Visuals

My school updated all computers with the newest version of Microsoft Office 2007 suite last summer. I have to admit, that I have been slow to warm up to it. I do want to share with you the feature of creating visuals from PowerPoint 2007, that I am enjoying tremendously. I don’t necessarily use it only in a presentation style slide, but I am printing them out for flyers or use a screenshot in letters, tutorials, and now blogs.

The example below is from a chart, I am creating for our faculty. I get asked many times what program they should choose when wanting to create a digital story. I usually tell them, it depends on what kind of media they are working with that determines the program that is most suitable.

Create an empty slide with no title, then on your Toolbar ribbon, choose the Insert tab and click on SmartArt.

This will allow you to choose from a large variety of visuals. You can pre-select from lists, processes, cycle, hierarchy, relationship, matrix or pyramid style graphics here. Don’t be too concerned in picking the "right" layout here, since it is very easily changed and edited later on.

No you can enter your text in an outline form, or if you choose directly into the visual.

Just right click on a button and choose to add a shape after, before, below or above. The rest of the layout, including the size of buttons and font will adjust according to the quantity of shapes you choose.

Once you have all your shapes and labels in place, it is time to have fun with colors, design, style and layout.

Just by moving your mouse over the different choices, the layout will adjust accordingly.

Changing colors…

Choose from 2-D or 3-D styles

And change the look again, by simply moving your mouse over another choice. Very cool.

Some New MAC Shortcuts (at least for me)

February 3, 2008 Mac, Tips 4 Comments

I am still a relative newbie to the MAC (converted almost a year ago to a Macbook). So if you are a MAC pro, don’t even read further. If you are a newbie yourself, you might be interested in the following shortcuts that I learned of :

  1. FN-Delete
    1. will allow you to delete from your cursor on forward. I missed that function from the PC (backspace vs. delete)
  2. CTRL and two finger mousepad scrolling
    1. will allow you to zoom into a specific area on your screen. (Thanks @GingerTPLC on Twitter for this tip)
  3. Command +
    1. will make your text larger
  4. Command -
    1. will make your text smaller
  5. Command -R
    1. Refreshes the page

When I learn of a shortcut, I usually make myself a note and stick it to the computer screen. I force myself to use the new shortcut every day if I want to start internalizing it.

What kind of shortcuts do you use on a regular basis? Can you contribute some cool new ones to my list?

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Guest Posts

Quality Commenting- Student Guest Post by Zoe M.

zoe

I invite few guest bloggers to share posts on Langwitches. This makes it especially rewarding to be able to present to my readers an incredible young lady. Zoe is growing by leaps and bounds as a blog writer and commenter. She is a fourth grader at the Martin J. Gottlieb …

(3 Comments)

Annotexting

annotexting

The following is a collaborative guest post by Michael Fisher and Jeanne Tribuzzi , of the Curriculum 21 Faculty. The companion LIVEBINDER OF INTERACTIVE TOOLS IS HERE. Expecting students to read deeply and draw meaningful conclusions is at the heart of the Common Core ELA standards. Students are asked to …

(No Comments)

Teaching English through Film and Screenwriting…

YouTube

I am honored to be able to cross-post Stephen Wilmarth’s blog post below on Langwitches. If you are interested to read more about Steve’s International Experimental program at the Number One Middle School in Wuhan, China take a look at: Take a Peek into China’s First 1:1 iPad Class Learning…Young …

(No Comments)

Professional Development

edJEWcon- A Visual Reflection of a New Kind of Conference

edJEWcon-toolkit

I am slowly coming down from an incredible high this past week.  I was part of a team (Andrea Hernandez, Jon Mitzmacher and myself), that envisioned, organized and ran an education LEARNING conference. This was a first  for me, since I have only been a participant an/or  a presenter at such …

(No Comments)

Action Research- Quadblogging Trailer

If you are interested in following the blogs of the International Action Research teams on “Quality Writing through Blogging”, take a look at the following trailer and visit the classroom and student blogs to see for yourself the progress they are making, draw your own conclusions about blogging with students. …

(2 Comments)

Perspectives and Talking at Cross Purposes

perspective1

Perspective is defined as a mental view or outlook. Your perspective is influenced by so much and luckily is not set in stone. Your life experiences, your learning journey, the people you meet, culture, geographic location and the language you speak contribute to your current perspective. My own perspective  was …

(4 Comments)

What am I Reading?

Silvia's bookshelf: currently-reading

Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of GlobalizationLost on Planet China: The Strange and True Story of One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation, or How He Became Comfortable Eating Live SquidThe World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First CenturySECRETO BIEN GUARDADOThe Digital Diet: Todays Digital Tools in Small BytesFacebook Marketing: An Hour a Day

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Silvia Tolisano's currently-reading book recommendations, reviews, quotes, book clubs, book trivia, book lists

Action Research: Quality Writing on Blogs


In the month of March 2012, an International team of 4 elementary school classrooms are conducting Action Research about quality writing through blogging. You can support them by giving them an authentic global audience and modeling quality commenting on their posts.

Here are the participating classrooms with links to student blogs.
International School of Prague (3rd Grade)- Team Czech Republic
International School of Zug and Luzern- Team Switzerland ( 4th Grade)
Martin J. Gottlieb Day School- Team USA (4th Grade)
International School of Bangkok- Team Thailand (5th Grade)

21st Century Learning

The Evolution of the Classroom Schedule

schedule-pencils-1-1

Thank you to Andrea Hernandez for the image of the classroom schedule that inspired me to put the following  visual of the Evolution of the Classroom Schedule together. No Pencil Class> Computer Class> 21st Century Learning > Learning It will take classroom teachers, who understand that “21st Century Learning” cannot …

(No Comments)

Annotexting

annotexting

The following is a collaborative guest post by Michael Fisher and Jeanne Tribuzzi , of the Curriculum 21 Faculty. The companion LIVEBINDER OF INTERACTIVE TOOLS IS HERE. Expecting students to read deeply and draw meaningful conclusions is at the heart of the Common Core ELA standards. Students are asked to …

(No Comments)

The Digital Learning Farm and iPad Apps

iPadApps-DigitalLearningFarm

I previously published a chart of Bloom’s Taxonomy and iPad Apps, which I use regularly when planning projects or look to reinforce certain skills and literacies. Since I also rely heavily on The Digital Learning Farm concept (based on Alan November’s work), I felt it was time to create a …

(23 Comments)

The Digital Learning Farm in Action

The Digital Learning Farm and iPad Apps

iPadApps-DigitalLearningFarm

I previously published a chart of Bloom’s Taxonomy and iPad Apps, which I use regularly when planning projects or look to reinforce certain skills and literacies. Since I also rely heavily on The Digital Learning Farm concept (based on Alan November’s work), I felt it was time to create a …

(23 Comments)

Screencasting Apps for the iPad

Explain Everything

Teaching ourselves, our students and other educators how to use screenshooting (images) and screencasting (video) tools is a relevant skill to have that integrates in so many areas. Think Tutorial Designers (A role from the Digital Learning Farm) or the Flipped Classroom model. Being able to create, share and take …

(7 Comments)

The Teacher as a Conductor of an Orchestra

Slide14

Should Teachers Be More Like Conductors? This bog post from 2009 took me to the following TED talk by Itay Talgam. Although I am not a musician, nor listen to much classical music, I was mesmerized. This TED talk was geared towards organization leaders, but I so agree with Tania …

(4 Comments)

Global Education

Perspectives and Talking at Cross Purposes

perspective1

Perspective is defined as a mental view or outlook. Your perspective is influenced by so much and luckily is not set in stone. Your life experiences, your learning journey, the people you meet, culture, geographic location and the language you speak contribute to your current perspective. My own perspective  was …

(4 Comments)

Walking the Walk: Action Research

back-up-tak-with-action

I have been blogging for 6 years now… I have written extensively about blogging (131 posts categorized “blogging” on Langwitches) I have shared two guides for teachers to start blogging with their students “Stepping it Up: Learning About Blogs FOR your Students” Part I: Reading Part II A: Writing Part …

(4 Comments)

Curriculum21 Podcast Episode with Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay

c21-podcast

I had the opportunity to speak to Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay. Two educators who are making a difference in their students’ lives as well as thousands of other students and teachers from around the world. Vicki is a teacher from Camila Georgia. She blogs on the Coolcatteacher blog and …

(1 Comment)

Blogging With your Classroom

Hyperlinked Writing in the Classroom- From Theory to Practice

what2link2

This is the follow up post to the theoretical Wondering About Hyperlinked Writing. The post ended with Now…on from the wondering, theory and resources…to the practice in the classroom. I am ready to bring hyperlinked writing (and reading) as an important genre into the classroom! Can one just start “throwing” …

(6 Comments)

Wondering About Hyperlinked Writing

typwriter-hyperinked-writing

Almost 4 years ago, I wrote a post on Langwitches titled Teaching Hyperlinked Writing and Reading. 4 years later, many (most?) teachers have not heard, let alone are teaching and coaching their students in the use of hyperlinked writing. The word “hyperlinked” is still being underlined in red as I …

(6 Comments)

Quality Commenting- Student Guest Post by Zoe M.

zoe

I invite few guest bloggers to share posts on Langwitches. This makes it especially rewarding to be able to present to my readers an incredible young lady. Zoe is growing by leaps and bounds as a blog writer and commenter. She is a fourth grader at the Martin J. Gottlieb …

(3 Comments)

iPads

iPad Apps and Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom iPads Apps

I felt it was worthwhile to update the Top Post (over 25,000 views) on Langwitches: Bloom’s Taxonomy for iPads I have added links to each app represented on the visual.   Remember: Exhibit memory of previously-learned materials by recalling facts, terms, basic concepts and answers. describe name find name list …

(6 Comments)

My Ten Most Used Apps to Become Fluent on the iPad

ipad

It is no secret, that I enjoy my iPad tremendously. I even proclaimed, now and then, that I love it! From the beginning, I approached the iPad with one goal in mind: I wanted to become fluent in using it. There is a distinct difference, in my opinion, between being …

(4 Comments)

The Digital Learning Farm and iPad Apps

iPadApps-DigitalLearningFarm

I previously published a chart of Bloom’s Taxonomy and iPad Apps, which I use regularly when planning projects or look to reinforce certain skills and literacies. Since I also rely heavily on The Digital Learning Farm concept (based on Alan November’s work), I felt it was time to create a …

(23 Comments)

Digital Storytelling

Transliteracy- QR Codes and Art

qr-code-jamie

Transliteracy is defined on Wikipedia as The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. The modern meaning of the term combines literacy with the prefix trans-, which means …

(11 Comments)

Why and How to Participate in Teddy Bears Around The World Project?

TBAW-project

I posted a few weeks ago about the ongoing Teddy Bears Around the World (now in its fourth year) project. The project blog and hub can be be found at http://www.langwitches.org/blog/travel/teddybearsaroundtheworld/ I have created a How-to-Guide in order to articulate how and why to join such a project, to make …

(3 Comments)

Teaching English through Film and Screenwriting…

YouTube

I am honored to be able to cross-post Stephen Wilmarth’s blog post below on Langwitches. If you are interested to read more about Steve’s International Experimental program at the Number One Middle School in Wuhan, China take a look at: Take a Peek into China’s First 1:1 iPad Class Learning…Young …

(No Comments)