Saturday, April 18, 2009

School Counselors Top 100 Posters

SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter #105

SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter #105 is now available online at http://www.schoolcounselor.com/NEWSLETTER/newsletter105.htm

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Keeping Kids Out of High-Tech Trouble

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GuardingKids.com: A Practical Guide to Keeping Kids Out of High-Tech Trouble

Russell A. Sabella, Ph.D.

From podcasts to porn, cyberbullying to cell phones, Dr. Russell Sabella helps readers understand the risks that emerge when high-tech tools, uninformed parents, and exuberant youth collide. Because kids are growing up with modern technologies, many are more expert than their parents. As a result, a parent's ability to make effective decisions for how technology is used may be compromised.

GuardingKids.com empowers parents, educators, and other care takers to better understand the electronic terrain. Readers will be better able to help children safely and securely navigate a minefield of inappropriate and risky situations.

http://www.guardingkids.com/

SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter #104

April 2, 2009

Welcome to SchoolCounselor.com, an electronic newsletter designed to advance counselors' level of technological literacy, application, and integration. You will find practical solutions and answers to technology related problems, especially as they apply to your job as counselor. If you would like to share a tip or trick, or if you would like to ask a question, e-mail Russ Sabella at newsletter@schoolcounselor.com.
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Highlights from SchoolCounselor.com


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

Must See Videos
New videos added since the last issue.
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/videos/
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Posters
Beautiful ... Inspiring .. Motivational ... Touching
Counseling Posters for your Office and Home
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/posters



TIPS AND TRICKS


New Handout: Summary of Resources and Tools for the Data Boot Camp for School Counselors Training
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/508472/summary-tools.pdf

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Creating Podcasts
Creating podcasts has many educational benefits. Students are able to create a product to share with a potentially world-wide audience! The process of putting together an audio recording is extremely valuable and is certainly a cross-curricular experience. I've divided up the process into four parts: preproduction, recording, postproduction, and publishing.
http://learninginhand.com/podcasting/create.html

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Using Tracking and Reviewing Features in Microsoft Word 2002/XP Tutorial
Microsoft Word 2002 includes features that allow you to track the changes made by multiple users, as well as a review function that allows reviewers to insert their comments within a document. These features are very useful when you are part of a peer group assigned to work on a project together. They also provide a means for instructors to comment on your work. It allows a peer editor or the instructor to keep track of the comments and changes made by various reviewers.
http://continuinged.uml.edu/online/tutorial/word_trackingxp/

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Microsoft Excel: Check out the F11 Trick for Making Quick Charts
This is a sample from the
Data Boot Camp for School Counselors and Administrators - CD
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/store/F11.html

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Convert PDF Files to Word Documents and Other Formats
Most of us know easy ways to turn a Word or other text document into a PDF, but what if we need to convert a PDF to Word? Today we will take a look at some methods to turn a PDF document into a Word or other text document.

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Recycle Old Electronics at Best Buy
Not only do they accept some items in-store, they have a trade-in program for "gently used" electronics and contact info for where to dispose of stuff you can't take to them. It's an interesting read.
http://www.jeremyduffy.com/recycle-old-electronics-at-best-buy/

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Microsoft Word lists for $230. You wouldn't want to pay that, even if you could afford it. Your best bet is Microsoft's Ultimate Steal, which is $60. That is the top-of-the-line Office package. According to Microsoft, the $60 price is a saving of 91 percent! Ultimate is available only to students. It includes Word 2007, along with the other Office programs. Those other Office programs could come in handy. If you continue with college, you will need Excel and PowerPoint. Additional Office programs may also be needed.
http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx

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Jing
If you're looking to share videos of onscreen action or screen shots with friends or business associates, the latest version of Jing will be most welcome. This edition allows users to capture screenshots, and then add captions, highlights, or directional arrows. Also, users can add their own voice to the onscreen action and then they can also upload the image or video. After uploading the image or video, they can also send a URL for the newly created document to anyone they choose. This version is compatible with computers running Windows XP and newer or MAC OS X 10.4.11, or 10.5.5 or later.
http://www.jingproject.com/

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Photo Recovery Programs
At some point in time, it’s happened to all of us: we’ve accidentally deleted photos from a memory card or hard drive. But this doesn’t mean that your precious memories are gone for good. Most memory card manufacturers offer software to recover images. For a fee, of course. Additionally, you can purchase third-party programs to recover images. Before you shell out your hard-earned cash, though, try free programs. Chances are, you can recover your photos without having to spend a dime. Click on the website for a table of these software programs.
http://www.komando.com/downloads/category.aspx?id=2938

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Turning Off Paragraph Hyphenation
Need to make sure that a particular paragraph never has any hyphenated words in it? You can make sure that Word won't automatically add any hyphens by following the easy steps in this tip. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007.)

The hyphenation tool provided with Word can be very handy when creating a document. There may be some paragraphs, however, in which you don't want Word to hyphenate words. You can turn off hyphenation for selected paragraphs by following these steps:

1. Make sure the insertion point is located in the paragraph you don't want to hyphenate.
2. Choose Paragraph from the Format menu. Word displays the Paragraph dialog box. (To display the dialog box in Word 2007, display the Home tab of the ribbon and click the small icon at the bottom-right of the Paragraph group.)
3. Make sure the Line and Page Breaks tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
4. Ensure the Don't Hyphenate check box is selected.
5. Click on OK.

Now, when you choose to do an automatic hyphenation, all the paragraphs formatted for no hyphenation are skipped, and only those paragraphs that are not formatted that way are hyphenated. If you use styles, of course, you can make this even easier by setting up some sort of paragraph style that has the hyphenation setting turned on or off according to your needs.

Source:
http://word.tips.net/Pages/T000916_Turning_Off_Paragraph_Hyphenation.html

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WORTHY WEBSITES AND SOFTWARE


Data Boot Camp Resources and Tools (handout)
This brief handout is a summary of the resources and tools that I recommend when doing my Data Boot Camp for School Counselors and/or ASCA Model™ training.
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/data-boot-camp-tools.pdf

Also see
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/datability.pdf and http://www.schoolcounselor.com/top5training.htm

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Symantec Launches Norton Online Family
Symantec Launches Norton Online Family That Connects Parents to Their Kids’ Online Lives and Introduces Advisory Council
http://guardingkids.blogspot.com/2009/03/ikeepsafe-symantec-launches-norton.html

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Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying involves the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, with the intention of harming others. The technology used includes e-mail, message boards, blogs, instant messaging, cell phone, text messaging, defamatory personal Web sites and/or online personal polling Web sites. Frequently, media such as sounds, text, video, altered graphics, and photos are incorporated into the piece to add to the attacks. This workshop endeavors to help you understand the nature of Cyberbullying and provides helpful tips for prevention and intervention among both bullies and victims. This presentation is given by Dr. Russell Sabella (see www.guardingkids.com)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/12757770/Cyber-Bullying

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Online Stopwatch
Everybody needs a stopwatch at some point -- and there's never one around!
Well... Now there is! Online Stopwatch! A Simple, Fast Flash Online Stopwatch and Online Countdown timer always available when you need it.
http://www.online-stopwatch.com/

Also check out:
http://e.ggtimer.com/

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DaButtonFactory - Another website button maker to create customized buttons online. You can apply variety of fonts, styles, colors, customize text, shadows, gradient, change button style… etc.
http://dabuttonfactory.com/

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Google Voice is Coming!
One number for all your calls and SMS; Voicemail as easy as email, with transcripts; Free calls, conference calling, and more.
https://www.google.com/voice/

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Cyberbullying Videos
http://guardingkids.blogspot.com/2009/03/cyberbullying.html and
http://www.metacafe.com/tags/cyberbullying/

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Printable Free 2009 Calendar
Source:
http://www.komando.com/coolsites/
CalendarLabs features a tool to help you print calendars. You can print yearly or monthly calendars. These calendars can be customized. For example, you can add holidays to your yearly calendar. Or, you can add a photo to your calendar. There are a number from which to choose. Alternatively, you can upload your own or use one from the Internet!
http://www.calendarlabs.com/

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TrueCrypt
Source:
Komando
Any time you take work on the road, you should secure your information. You just never know if it will fall into the wrong hands. One way to protect your data from prying eyes is through encryption. Even if you lose your thumb drive, your documents will be unreadable. You can also encrypt an entire hard disk partition. TrueCrypt can encrypt everything on your thumb drive. The program is not automatically portable, but it is easily made so. Read the steps on using Traveller Mode. The portable version will take up only 599 KB on a thumb drive.
Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux
http://www.truecrypt.org/

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Data Boot Camp for School Counselors
and Administrators - CD

Russell A. Sabella, Ph.D.

My newest CD is designed to help you become more proficient in using Microsoft Excel™ to make data an important part of your comprehensive school counseling program. From data-driven decision making, to monitoring progress, to reporting the positive impact you're having on kids -- this CD will demystify how it's done.

With the Data Boot Camp for School Counselors and Administrators, what you see and hear on the videos is what you do. At your fingertips, you'll have access to 30 videos and lots of graphics, tips, tricks, and resourceful links. This straightforward step-by-step approach makes learning how to use Microsoft Excel™ (and a bit of PowerPoint™) as easy and convenient as watching television. Data Boot Camp will help school counseling students, practitioners, administrators, and counselor educators to more easily unlock the power of data so you can more effectively support student achievement.

The content on the CD is equivalent to a full-day workshop in the computer lab!

Visit and learn more about the contents of the CD and view a couple of sample videos (Remember, these samples may take a few moments to load because you are online. However, on the CD, this is not an issue because the videos are all located on the CD itself!).
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/store/data-bootcamp.htm

$18.95 (FREE shipping)
Please allow 5-7 working days to arrive


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JUST FOR FUN


What are you getting free for your birthday?
Free stuff just for having a birthday? Maybe getting older has an upside, especially when free bowling, dinners, golf, movies, skiing and spa treatments are involved! The list is growing everyday! Companies all over the United States have free birthday treats just waiting for you!
Even better, some of their free birthday treats are good for your entire birthday month.
Kids, adults, even pets can receive enticing birthday freebies.
http://www.freebirthdaytreats.com/

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200 Free Online Classes to Learn Anything
A high quality education doesn't have to come at a high cost. In fact, it's possible to take classes from big names like Yale, MIT, and Tufts without ever submitting an application or paying a cent in tuition. We've compiled 200 online classes from these and other respected institutions, and you can take all of them with no strings attached.

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Consumer Reports: Relaxation Tips
Stress reactions can continue long after the initial irritation has passed. Allowing yourself even a brief break can help defuse a tense situation and possibly limit the harmful effects of stress on the body. The next time you're seething with frustration, try sipping a cup of tea, telling it all to a friend, or escaping for a five-minute walk.

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SoundZit - Search, listen and embed music tracks online. The site is build on YouTube and lists over 300 millions of songs.
http://en.soundzit.com/

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FunPhotoBox - Apply funny effects on your images online with a minimal effort. All you have to do is select one of the provided templates, upload your image and let FunPhotoBox do the rest.
http://funphotobox.com/

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Route 44 eagles on the Caltrans Eagle Cam
This particular pair of eagles has three eggs in its nest. Two hatched last week. The remaining egg should hatch soon.
http://www.turtlebay.org/caltranseaglecam.php
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Copyright, 2009. All Rights Reserved. Contact Dr. Russell Sabella at news@schoolcounselor.com.