Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Virus Alert

This came from my university, thought I would pass it on as it could affect you.

Computing Services would like to alert everyone to a virus that is infecting PCs on campus.   This virus is passed through a web page.  Please help us by not spreading this virus. 

When you go to any web page instead displaying the normal web page you get the page below.  If you click on the “Browser update” button your PC will become infected.  

If you see the page below, DO NOT CLICK ON THE BUTTON. 


Thursday, May 26, 2011

Can you Access a Bit.ly URL from your school?

I'm doing a quick poll to see if schools are blocking or allowing website address shortener bit.ly. First see if you can access this handout and then let me know by completing the Poll on the right side of my blog at http://counselingtechnology.blogspot.com/.


Thanks!

Monday, May 23, 2011

TODAY ONLY .. 'Born This Way [Album plus digital booklet]' by Lady Gaga

TODAY ONLY .. 'Born This Way [Album plus digital booklet]' by Lady Gaga (MP3 Download) for $0.99

Friday, May 20, 2011

YouTube - Tour Of Excel: Formulas, Formatting, Sort, Filter, PivotTables, Charts, Keyboards

YouTube - Tour Of Excel: Formulas, Formatting, Sort, Filter, PivotTables, Charts, Keyboards: "

"
Highline Community College Science Seminar: The Wonders Of Excel, May 20, 2011

Learn about the wonders of what excel can do with a tour of the different things that Excel can do:
1 Copy & Paste Special (2 Examples) (00:48 minute mark)
2 Keyboard Magic (3 Examples) (03:45 minute mark)
3 Number Format (06:03 minute mark)
4 Decimal (6:11 minute mark)
5 Date (5 Examples) (07:32 minute mark)
6 Percentage (15:02 minute mark)
7 Formulas and Relative Cell References (18:26 minute mark)
8 Formulas and Absolute Cell References (2 Examples) (21:47 minute mark)
9 Sorting (4 Examples) (27:27 minute mark)
10 Filtering (32:27 minute mark)
11 PivotTables (2 Examples) (35:19 minute mark)
12 Charts (6 Examples) (43:31 minute mark)

Thursday, May 19, 2011

SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter #125

SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter #125 May 19, 2011

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.


Highlights from SchoolCounselor.com

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

Webinars
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/webinars/

Handouts!
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/resources/publications2.htm


Must See Videos

New videos have been added since the last issue:

Using Google Sites
http://counselingvideos.blogspot.com/2011/05/using-google-sites.html

Ultimate Dog Tease
http://counselingvideos.blogspot.com/2011/05/youtube-ultimate-dog-tease.html

Thank a Teacher
http://counselingvideos.blogspot.com/2011/05/thank-teacher.html

Ipad in the Classroom
http://counselingvideos.blogspot.com/2011/05/ipads-used-as-teaching-tool-in-collier.html

School Counselor Advocacy Video
http://counselingvideos.blogspot.com/2011/05/casccescal-school-counselor-advocacy.html

First Follower: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy
http://counselingvideos.blogspot.com/2011/04/first-follower-leadership-lessons-from.html

New Videos on SchoolTube from ASCA
http://www.schooltube.com/user/SchoolCounselor

MTV Anti-Bullying
http://counselingvideos.blogspot.com/2011/04/mtv-anti-bullying.html

YouTube - Pink - Perfect (AHMIR cover) - Anti-Bullying video
http://counselingvideos.blogspot.com/2011/04/youtube-pink-perfect-ahmir-cover-anti.html

The Power of Words
http://counselingvideos.blogspot.com/2011/04/youtube-power-of-words.html

The Blueberry Story
http://counselingvideos.blogspot.com/2011/04/blueberry-story.html

 

Posters
Beautiful ... Inspiring ..
Motivational ... Touching
Counseling Posters for your Office and Home

Career Posters
Inspiration/Motivation
Change
Most Popular


TIPS AND TRICKS
Tip: Don’t minimize open windows just to get to the desktop
Source:
Gizmo’s Freeware
If you want to get to your desktop you don’t need to minimize or close any open windows as there are several ways to get to do this in Windows without closing or minimizing anything. The simplest way is to press the Windows key and the D key together. This will minimize all open windows immediately. Even better you can restore them again by hitting Windows D again. There are several alternative methods but Windows D is the simplest and best. It’s also easy to remember – just think “Windows Desktop”

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PowerPoint Do’s and Don’ts
View these historical presentation disasters and find out what not to do.
Click here.

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New in Gmail Labs: Background Send
This tip makes Gmail faster. One of the most common delays happens after you hit that “Send” button, when you’re waiting patiently for a couple seconds for Gmail to send your message. If you send a lot of email, that can add up to a lot of lost time. To help give you that time back, there’s a new feature in Gmail Labs called Background Send. Once you turn it on from the Labs tab in Settings, you can get on with what you’re doing while Gmail quietly sends off your mail in the background. You can keep reading your inbox, compose new messages, chat with people — all the things you’d usually do. You can even send more than one message in the background at the same time.
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/new-in-labs-background-send.html

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Back up Outlook data with the Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders Backup tool
The Personal Folders Backup tool provides a quick and easy way to back up the Outlook information of your choice to your hard disk or network server or share.
Click
here.

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The Best Online Tools For Real-Time Collaboration the Day...
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/03/02/the-best-online-tools-for-real-time-collaboration/

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Instant disposable Gmail addresses
Let's say you need to sign up for a mailing list that interests you, but you're afraid spammers might get your address. We'll call the list "exoticflowers". Sign up with the list using the address "johndoe+exoticflowers@gmail.com". Email to that address will still come to your "johndoe@gmail.com" address even though the "To:" will include that "+exoticflowers" in it.
http://lifehacker.com/#!144397/instant-disposable-gmail-addresses

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Use the "Spike" Feature in Microsoft Word to Copy and Paste Text
Source:
Lifehacker
Microsoft Word has a hidden feature that most people probably don't know about: a way to collect text on the clipboard from multiple locations, and then paste it all at once into your document. The Help Desk Geek blog details how this feature works: You start by selecting a block of text, and then use Ctrl+F3 to copy it to the "Spike". Once you've selected a number of entries this way, you can then paste the combined set of copied text back into the document with the Ctrl+Shift+F3 shortcut key combination, or by typing the word "spike" and hitting F3.

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Online Excel Tutorial for Beginners
This is a basic tutorial on Excel for beginners. Start with the first video and practice as you go along. Follow the links for more information and help.
http://chandoo.org/wp/excel-tutorial/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Free Book: The Windows 7 Power Users Guide
From the author of "Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out" from Microsoft Press, Mike Halsey, ‘A book for people who use Windows 7 at home or at work and know it can do more for them, but who don't know how. The Windows 7 Power Users Guide contains helpful how-to's, full colour pictures and quick tips to guide you through everything from using the Start Menu and Taskbar to backing up your documents and identifying and fixing problems. Also available in Paperback on the link below.”
http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/the-windows-7-power-users-guide/15662737
Paperback:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-windows-7-power-users-guide/7601470

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The Ultimate Scientific Calculator. From Microsoft. And It's Free
http://bit.ly/dIex4Q


Postings from Russ Sabella ...

– Keeping Kids
Out of High Tech Trouble. This blog supports Dr. Russell Sabella's work on educating children, parents, educators and other stake holders about the responsible use of technology. Included in these pages you will find helpful resources, lesson plans, links, and more. Russ's most recent book and workshops are primary resources for meeting this mission.
http://guardingkids.blogspot.com/

– SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter. The SchoolCounselor.com e-Newsletter is an electronic publication 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.
http://counselingtechnology.blogspot.com/

– Must See Videos. When I see a video that would be useful, inspiring, enlightening among counselors, I post it here.
http://counselingvideos.blogspot.com/

– Twitter. Postings about all thinks counseling, life, humor, and more.
http://twitter.com/rsabella
 
___________________________________________

WORTHY WEBSITES AND SOFTWARE


iSpring Free
Create Flash Presentations in PowerPoint
http://free.ispringsolutions.com/download.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NoReplyAll Outlook Add-In
The primary function of this add-in is to add a couple of buttons to the Outlook ribbon to prevent people from replying to all the recipients of your message or forwarding it. The add-in uses a facility built into Outlook and Exchange that is more lightweight than information-rights management but is not exposed in the existing UI. The add-in also includes a check for common email errors, such as omitting attachments or subject lines.
Download here.

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Word 2007 Redaction Tool
The Word 2007 Redaction Tool can be used to hide text within Microsoft Office Word documents. You can mark text to redact and then create a new, redacted version of the document in which the marked text is replaced with a black bar that cannot be converted back to the original text.
http://redaction.codeplex.com/releases/view/32251

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Microsoft Launches Free On-Demand Virus/Malware Scanner
The program is called the Microsoft Safety Scanner. To use it, download the file from Microsoft and then run it on your PC. The app is portable, so doesn't need an installer. When you run it, it will analyze your computer and detect, and remove, many of the most prevalent viruses.
Source:
Gizmodo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Google Image Chart Editor
Lots of options for building your own charts! Excel is probably best although this does give another great option.
http://imagecharteditor.appspot.com/

Also check out:
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dermandar: Create & Share Panoramas for Free in 3 Easy Steps.
Shoot your photos using a normal camera with no need for professional equipment. Create your panorama and preview it within seconds using our fast online tool. Share your panorama to share it with everybody or with only your friends.
http://www.dermandar.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dropdo
The smart file viewer. Dropdo is a file upload app that makes your files viewable right on the web instead of by downloading.
http://dropdo.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AOL AV
Fun, easy video chat for up to four people — no account required.
http://www.aim.com/av/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Digital Literacy Tour
“At Google, we support the education of families on how to stay safe online. That's why we've teamed up with online safety organization iKeepSafe to develop curriculum that educators can use in the classroom to teach what it means to be a responsible online citizen. The curriculum is designed to be interactive, discussion filled and allow students to learn through hands-on and scenario activities. On this site you'll find a resource booklet for both educators and students that can be downloaded in PDF form, presentations to accompany the lesson and animated videos to help frame the conversation.”
http://www.google.com/educators/digitalliteracy.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool. It can take a number of video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set. You can add additional custom audio tracks, subtitles as well as a menu for easier navigation.
http://www.dvdflick.net/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FocusWriter
FocusWriter is a fullscreen, distraction-free word processor designed to immerse you as much as possible in your work. The program autosaves your progress, and reloads the last files you had open to make it easy to jump back in during your next writing session, and has many other features that make it such that only one thing matters: your writing.
http://gottcode.org/focuswriter/

Also see:

Storybook is a free (open source) novel-writing tool for creative writers, novelists and authors which will help you to keep an overview of multiple plot-lines while writing books, novels or other written works.
http://storybook.intertec.ch/joomla/

____________________________________________

JUST FOR FUN


Livebrush is a drawing application. It employs an easy-to-use brush tool that reacts to your gesture. By combining simple motion controls with brush styles, Livebrush offers a fun and unique way to create graphics.
http://www.livebrush.com

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Microsoft Excel: Family budget (monthly)
This template helps you track your family expenses by category and monitor your spending. One cool feature is that it quickly identifies where you need to cut back. That's because it immediately calculates the difference between your actual spending and the targets you set at the beginning of each month.
Click here.

More templates
here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Crackle
I don’t know how it works but this site gives you free movies and television shows. I found it on my
Roku box. Amazing.
http://www.crackle.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spotify is a new way to listen to music
Any track you like, any time you like. Just search for it in Spotify, then play it. Any artist, any album, any genre - all available instantly. With Spotify, there are no limits to the amount of music you could listen to. Just help yourself to whatever you want, whenever you want it.
http://www.spotify.com/

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fluidTables
Wedding Seating Charts just got a whole lot easier! Design your wedding seating chart online and share it with the people who need it the most.
http://fluidtables.com/

____________________________________________

SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

SchoolCounselor.com does not knowingly send unsolicited e-mail. This Newsletter is for subscribers only. If you received it and did not subscribe, please let us know using the link on our home page. We will remove your name immediately.

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TO UNSUBSCRIBE from this newsletter, simply visit go to the signup page at
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UNSUBSCRIBE with your old address and SUBSCRIBE with your new one.

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____________________________________________

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http://www.schoolcounselor.com/privacy.htm
____________________________________________

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http://www.schoolcounselor.com/advertising.htm
____________________________________________

The SchoolCounselor.com newsletter may contain links to sites on the Internet owned and operated by third parties. SchoolCounselor.com is not responsible for the availability of, or the content located on or through, any such third-party site. Information in this document is provided "as is," without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and freedom from infringement. The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document. SchoolCounselor.com will not be liable for any damages of any kind arising from the use of this information, including, but not limited to direct, indirect, incidental, punitive, and consequential damages.

Sabella & Associates, LLC, 4922 SW 26th PL, Cape Coral, FL 33914
Sabella@Schoolcounselor.com

What Every Parent Should Know About Formspring: The New Cyberscourge for Teens « Rachel Simmons

What Every Parent Should Know About Formspring: The New Cyberscourge for Teens
BY RACHEL SIMMONS | MARCH 29TH, 2010 | 79 COMMENTS
Last week, a Long Island high school senior committed suicide, and the website Formspring.me is suspected as a cause. Yet most parents don’t even know it exists. Formspring is the latest cyberscourge for teens. It lets you open an account and allows your anonymous audience – usually your classmates – to communicate with brutal honesty. By which I mean breathtaking cruelty.


Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Customized Webinars for School Counselors

Webinars from SchoolCounselor.com

Each webinar is customized for either 60 or 90 minutes. Other options available upon request.

Creating Compelling Charts: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

School Counselors, Administrators, and other Educators are compelled to make data driven decisions, monitor student achievement, and communicate results. Initiatives such as the ASCA National Model™ and RtI include these as critical components of an overall school counseling program. This workshop will help counselors understand the differences among various charts and their appropriate uses. This "nuts and bolts" training will also show participants how these charts are created and customized using Microsoft Excel and other productivity tools.

Demonstration

  • Overview what data looks like in Excel
  • F11 for creating charts
  • Disaggregation Charts
  • Creating a Picture Chart using PowerPoint
  • Creating a Waffle Chart using PowerPoint
  • Adding a goal line (RtI)
  • Change chart format (colors, font, etc.)
  • Save new format as template for future charts.
  • Animate chart bars or arrows (e.g., percent change).

Solution Focused Scaling with Students, Parents,
and Stake Holders

The solution focused counseling model encourages others to think about times when their problems did not exist, how these times contributed to the absence of the problem, and how to recreate such circumstances in their present situations. Focus is on the students/parents strengths and abilities rather than their weaknesses. Solutions are derived by the students/parents themselves and therefore not only are they more involved in their success, but the solutions fit their unique lifestyles. Finally, because they find their own solutions that work, often self-esteem is increased. With this emphasis of counseling on solutions rather than problems, counseling becomes brief. This webinar covers the popular solution focused scaling approach with lots of handouts and resources. Teachers who want to conduct solution focused conferences with parents should also attend.

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 webinar endeavors to help you understand the nature of cyberbulling and provides helpful tips for prevention and intervention among both bullies and victims.

Developing Multimedia Results Reports

This webinar will help participants to develop self-advancing, narrated, multimedia results reports. In essence, counselors will create a digital story that demonstrates the positive impact they have on students and other stake holders.

Guarding Kids from Harmful Online Content

The Internet is replete with pornography and websites that support eating disorders, self-injury, suicide, hate, and racism. This webinar overviews both human and technological solutions for blocking, filtering, monitoring, and setting up conditions and consequences for accessing online content.

Solution Focused Leadership and Organizational Development

Dr. Russ Sabella has held various leadership positions including Past President of the American School Counselor Association and President Elect of the Florida School Counselor Association. He has been a featured trainer at various Leadership Development Institutes and has helped many counseling organizations over the last 20 years to "get to the next level." In this presentation, he shares various solution focused principles that will help leaders to stay focused on what matters, to move from admiring problems to embracing solutions, and develop a "slow and go" attitude to building sustainability.

School Counseling 2.0: Communication/Collaboration Technologies to Reach and Teach Each Our Stake Holders

Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have great potential for helping school counselors disseminate important information and interact with students and stake holders. This comprehensive training incorporates focuses on free or almost free services that counselors can use to enhance their school counseling programs.

How to Use Google Docs to Collect and Analyze Data

Although student information systems house insane amounts of data, school counselors sometimes need data not collected (e.g., social, personal, career data). This webinar will demonstrate how to do this most effectively and efficiently using technology. Specifically, counselors will learn how to use Google Docs (free with a registered account) to do just this. Google Docs allows for free and unlimited data collection and can even provide a quick summary of your results! From homework completion rates, to event RSVP’s, to cyberbullying surveys, this webinar will show you how to do it.

Contact Dr. Sabella about a webinar for your School or Organization:

Russell A. Sabella, Ph.D.
Sabella@SchoolCounselor.com

Friday, May 13, 2011

Help Volunteer USA Get Free Books to Help Families


The Volunteer USA Foundation is seeking your help. They want to help 20,000 families obtain free books – and you can help. Simply read a short story or two online with your child or friends at http://www.wegivebooks.org/campaigns/love-read-learn.

Each time you read, Volunteer USA will get a free book donated to its Love.Read.Learn! program, which provides family-friendly workshops to give parents skills to help their children succeed. When you visit the link, be sure to select “Support Volunteer USA’s Love. Read. Learn! campaign.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

School Counselor Blog

School Counselor Blog. One of the best School Counselor blogs/webs sites around! Danielle has developed a relevant, resourceful, and active must-see place to be.

Blog Archive

Produced by Sabella & Associates, LLC

Copyright, 2009. All Rights Reserved. Contact Dr. Russell Sabella at news@schoolcounselor.com.