The Madness Continues!

(In the order they were emailed to me)
(Don't miss "Peter's Laws" at the bottom)

The idea of the "answer engine" is to anticipate what the searcher is looking for based on the input (remember Ask Jeeves??) the difference is that the result is not a list of web sites to choose from but a computed set of data related to the enquiry. In the words of one commentator: "Wolfram Alpha computes answers to factual questions: This is going to be big"

"It doesn’t simply return documents that (might) contain the answers, like Google does, and it isn’t just a giant database of knowledge, like the Wikipedia. It doesn’t simply parse natural language and then use that to retrieve documents, like Powerset, for example. Instead, Wolfram Alpha actually computes the answers to a wide range of questions — like questions that have factual answers such as “What country is Timbuktu in?” or “How many protons are in a hydrogen atom?” or “What is the average rainfall in Seattle?”

Think about that for a minute. It computes the answers. Wolfram Alpha doesn’t simply contain huge amounts of manually entered pairs of questions and answers, nor does it search for answers in a database of facts. Instead, it understands and then computes answers to certain kinds of questions." Nova Spivack: (from the above cited article)

This could be a "This changes everything" concept.

The knowledge base is structured (unlike Google) and curated (unlike Wikipedia) and excels in specific and factual fields (It started with mathematics) but the concept is amazing!!

BTW it has only been available since May 15th which might be why we haven't heard of it yet (or at least I hadn't!)

Here is the link: http://www.wolframalpha.com/

If you have time (10 min) here is a well presented video of the capability:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html

In my opinion, the concept of the answer engine (if not this particular site) has the potential to be every bit as big as Google within 2-3 years, probably sooner!

Gregory D. Taylor

Trenton Central High School Librarian

www.bibme.org is a citation creation site. It is great because if you put the ISBN number in it will usually create the whole citation. It does the same for web sites as well. My students enjoy using it for works cited because it is so easy to use.

Suzanne M. Martin, M.Ed./NBCT

Media Specialist

Columbus E.S.

www.ascd.org is my favorite.

Heather Jackson, Ed.D.

Principal,

Mott Elementary School

I would have to say that my favorite website is, well....., my own. www.autoracing1.com or www.ar1.com

Dave Cipolloni

TCHS

Paperbacks For Educators
http://www.any-book-in-print.com/

They offer current educational reading to help students in the classroom and offer some very interesting and thought provoking quotes. I receive a free weekly newsletter after signing up.

Thanks for including us in your last issue. I hope they find someone to continue your effort as it has been helpful through the years.

Linda Wyatt-Simpson

Harrison School Counselor - 609.656.4747

"TrackStar is your starting point for online lessons and activities. Simply collect Web sites, enter them into TrackStar, add annotations for your students, and you have an interactive, online lesson called a Track. Create your own Track or use one of the hundreds of thousands already made by other educators. Search the database by subject, grade, or theme and standard for a quick and easy activity. There is a fun Track already made for each day of the year, too."

This site is fantastic - you can make your own track by searching what other sites teachers have used,

but just be sure to check the links before you assign a track to students.

http://trackstar.4teachers.org

JoAnn Leigh

Librarian

Kilmer School

www.qvc.com

www.enchantedlearning.com

www.cnn.com

www.facebook.com

www.pogo.com

Susan Mueller

2nd Grade Teacher

Harrison Elementary School

I like the website www.tlsbooks.com it has a lot of good reinforcement materials for the elementary grades.

Cathy Dismukes

Stokes Elementary

This is a great website for parents. www.mommydocs.com.

Melissa Bridgewater

Teaching Liaison

Early Childhood Dept.

http://ipl.org/

thanks Pete

Lynn Vogel

Library Media Specialist

Monument School

This site is an inspirational site. And you can sign up for daily devotional emails (A simply sentence). Let me tell you Pete, there has been many, many, times that I’ve come into work feeling down or feeling tired (Mondays) and I see the email, I click on it and it’ll say something positive that’ll remind me that every day is a good day.

Victory923 website can be found at http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeuew82/

Marisol Tirado

Abbott Office

http://www.ncld.org/

This is one of my favorite websites.

"National Center for Learning Disabilities" ncld@ncld.org

Carmen Regalado

Learning Consultant

Trenton Public Schools District

Child Study Team # 2

http://www.mommydocs.com/

Practical pediatric information for Moms, by Moms and Doctors…

This could be shared with teachers who can share it with parents… (I’m going to find some more J this is FUN!)

Gena Clark

Early Childhood Department

This is a website that I used to create a class blog for my social studies classes. http://www.21classes.com

Jacqui Gaskill

Mott School Social Studies Teacher

My all time favorite and a great resource for pk-2 teachers is www.mamalisa.com

Maria Rojas

Early Childhood

Here is one loaded with Power Points for instruction on a every content area and strand. Teachers can download these for future usage with students. As reinforcement kids can enjoys the games linked to his site:

Pete' Power Point Station at http://pppst.com/

Also www.Edheads.com is great for learning about technology and human anatomy; kid performs surgeries on the knee, hip and brain in an animated simulation. My students really love this place.

Vondalyn Fannin

Computer Teacher

Franklin School

I have a website that I really enjoy called http://leerburg.com/ . They have a weekly newsletter that gives all kinds of information about breeding and raising dogs...and the equipment and videos that can help you along the way. Although the site focuses on working dogs such as police dogs, I have learned much to help me with my toy poodles and Maltese.

Kirsten Fleisher

Kilmer School

www.accuweather.com

www.refdesk.com

www.dubyaspeak.com

Angelo Mitala M.L.S.

Media Specialist

S.L.P.D.

TCHS @ West Campus

www.imdb.com Internet Movie Data Base - EVERYTHING you never wanted to know about every movie (and some TV shows) ever made!! You can even add comments and little facts you know about a movie.

www.ellarslie.org The Trenton City Museum - find out all the great things happening right here in our city!

Judy Sears

Art Teacher

Trenton High School

www.teachertube.com is a favorite of mine.

Thanks for everything.

Marlena Ventura

Kilmer School

Here is my website: www.nje3.org

Jermaine Kamau

TCHS West

Please include the following in your last Monday Madness:

http://www.caring.com/

National Family Caregivers, and Well Spouse Association.

Mary Leong

TCHS

I have a website for you- www.crayola.com. There are FANTASTIC resources for teachers including a certificate maker, lesson plans, coloring pages that can be printed or colored online as a game, and other cool things. By registering with your email address, they will send you project ideas and other goodies via email.

Sandy Jimenez

Columbus

www.teachertube.com

Curtis Aubry

Business Learning Community

TCHS Chambers St. Rm C102

Lots of free education software for schools:

http://www.schoolforge.net/education-software/educational

Free Easy, Quick Online Grade Calculator:
http://web.weatherfordisd.com/EmployeesLinks/tools/GradeCalc.asp

Marilyn Western's Technology Tips for Classroom Teachers:

http://www.edzone.net/~mwestern/tutorials.html

Television producers web that creates and distributes programs to spark curiosity and lively classroom discussions:

http://www.izzit.org/index.php

Free Online Learning for anyone:

http://alison.com/

15 hours of free computer training in 180 easy to follow 5 minute lessons:

http://www.180techtips.com/index.htm

Dr. LeBeau's Free Educational Resource for Teachers, Students & Curious Adults:

http://www.suelebeau.com/index.html

Beyond Books: Helps teachers educate the new generation of middle- and high-schoolers with rich, up-to-date, original content, linked to the best of the web.

http://www.beyondbooks.com/index.asp

Jaime Maniatis

Daylight Twilight High School

Here is a site that's great for ESL teachers and Classroom teachers with ELL students: http://www.everythingesl.net/

Margaret Mason

Grant School

http://www.madsencycles.com/

They're a new cargo bike company. Neat, huh? I am a big cargo bike geek-- I built myself a trailer for my mountain bike this winter, and my summer project is building a cargo trike to use to carry my kids to church.

Madsen is currently having a contest to boost traffic on their site-- one of the top 20 traffic generators gets a free bike. I am borrowing space on a friend's website to enter myself, so if it wouldn't be too gauche, could you post this link for me so people can click through to the site?

Here's that link: http://magical-massage.com/links.html

Colin Campbell

West

Don’t leave school without these websites!

Lesson plans from Core Knowledge: http://www.coreknowledge.org/CK/resrcs/lessons/index.htm

Math activities, games, etc. from Mathwire.com: http://www.mathwire.com/

Math Solutions literacy in math lessons from Marilyn Burns: http://www.mathsolutions.com/index.cfm?page=wp9&crid=56

Math web quests for all levels: http://www.teach-nology.com/teachers/lesson_plans/computing/web_quests/math/

Professor Garfield – creative site with emphasis on reading & writing for K-3 students: http://www.professorgarfield.org/pgf_home.html

Fun power points (particularly the one about diet for stress): http://www.edzone.net/~mwestern/funppt.html

Suggestions for incorporating writing in math: http://www2.ups.edu/community/tofu/lev2/journaling/writemath.htm

Judie Winogron

Math Coach

Office of Curriculum, Instruction, & Assessment

My favorites are:

www.scholastic.com and

www.pbskids.com

Ms. Austin

Washington School

What the view is from the top of the highest mountain in the Northeast.

http://www.mountwashington.org/weather/cam/index.php

Enchanted Learning icon

Still a great site for just about everything educational.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html

Starfall.com, Where children have fun learning to read!

Great site for pre k to second grade, depending on skill level.

http://www.starfall.com

http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=10&e=gamesByAge&mcat=game_preschool

Bob Pearson
P.J. Hill School

For any of the schools that have gardens this is a fantastic website…it is also a great site for teachers who may want to incorporate gardens within their teaching subject…gardens lend themselves to math, science and language arts also health and wellness. The website is: www.kidsGardening.org

Sandy Jones, RN

School Nurse

Grace A Dunn Middle School

jjjjjj

My Email Has Disappeared!

"All of my email has disappeared from my Inbox and as soon as new email arrives and I click on it to read it, it also disappears!"

If you are having the above problem it is because your email box is set to show you "Unread Messages" Look at the top of your email window next to INBOX. Click the drop down box next to INBOX and change it to say "Messages" like this:

How Can I Change My Password?

You should not keep the basic password (first initial, last name) that was assigned to you when you first got your email address, it is not secure.

So, to change it, first logon to your computer, then hit Control Alt Delete and on the next screen click on "Change Password". Choose something you'll remember!

How Can I Block JUNK Email???

1. Using your browser, log into your email account.
2. Select "Options" on the left column of commands.
3. Scroll through the options to the Privacy and Junk E-mail Prevention section.
4. Check the "Filter Junk E-Mail" Selection
5. Click "Save and Close" at the TOP of this section.
6. Select a SPAM mail message, highlight it and press the RIGHT mouse button to bring up the maintenance menu.
7. Select "Add Sender to Blocked Senders List"
8. This list can be managed by going to the Options section and selecting the "Manage Junk E-mail Lists" radio button.

My computer or printer won't turn on or won't connect to the Internet.

Look behind your computer and printer and locate the power cable. Follow it and make sure it is plugged into a working electrical outlet. If it is plugged into a plug bar, make sure the plug bar is turned on. Try another outlet. If no Internet, follow the Ethernet cable (usually yellow or gray or blue) from the back of the computer to the wall, make sure it is plugged in.

My computer is incredibly slow what can I do? (Popups, Bad Email)

Your computer is infested with "Spyware". You need to visit our Downloads section and download and install Ad Aware and Spybot. These will remove Spyware from your computer.

What basic maintenance should I do? (Can't access a web page)

Cleanup your computer. Open Internet Explorer. Go to Tools/Internet Options. Click on "Delete Files", check "Delete all offline content", click "OK". Click "Clear History. Click OK.

What do I do when my computer freezes?

Unfortunately, computers are not perfect. They do make mistakes. Press, Ctrl-Alt-Delete ONCE. After pressing it, then click on Task Manager. Highlight any processes for which you may have been working on such as Microsoft Word and then click End Task. Note: Please save your work periodically! If the problem persists, you need to contact the Help Desk.

What does it mean if I get the message, "Bad or missing operating system", "insert boot disk" or "Couldn't find NTLDR"?

You have left a floppy disk in the computer and you need to remove it. Afterwards, reboot the computer.

What does it mean if I get the message "Bad username or password"?

This means that the system does not recognize your login credentials (i.e. username and/or password. Passwords are case sensitive, therefore, carefully re-type your password being sure to use the correct case. Also, be sure to check that there are no blank spaces after your username or password.

Humor, Human Interest - From the Internet

The Poster "Peter's Laws" has been hanging in my classroom/office since 1992. I purchased it in the college bookstore of Susquehanna University when I took my daughter Jennifer there to begin her freshman year of college. Seemed like a pretty good creed to me then and still does today.

"Peter's Laws"
"The Creed of the Sociopathic Obsessive Compulsive"

If anything can go wrong, Fix it! (To _ _ _ _ with Murphy!)
When given a choice - Take Both!
Multiple projects lead to multiple successes.
Start at the top and then work your way up.
Do it by the book . . . but be the author!
When forced to compromise, ask for more.
If you can't beat them, join them, then beat them.
If it's worth doing, it's got to be done right now.
If you can't win, change the rules.
If you can't change the rules, then ignore them.
Perfection is not optional.
When faced without a challenge, make one.
"No" simply means begin again at a higher level.
Don't walk when you can run.
Bureaucracy is a challenge to be conquered with a righteous attitude, a tolerance for stupidity, and a bulldozer when necessary.
When in doubt: THINK!
Patience is a virtue, but persistence to the point of success is a blessing.
The squeaky wheel gets replaced.
The faster you move, the slower time passes, the longer you live.

And a personal note from me, always ask yourself this question before beginning any work related project: "Does this in any way help teachers teach or kids learn?" If the answer is no, you're wasting your time!