SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter #148
Date of Publication: November 26, 2014
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
news@schoolcounselor.com
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Please take
a moment to visit our Sponsors:
Get
AWESOME
with Microsoft Excel
and using data in your work!
With this new online tutorial, you will find both written
and detailed video instruction demonstrating data skills in
a user-friendly manner. What you see is what you learn.
Throughout the program, you'll also see many bonus articles,
links, and tips. And, best of all, in addition to the many
descriptive pages, you’ll have access to 39 videos covering
206 minutes of tutorial footage. And, until December 15th,
the program is 50% off! Click here to see the lessons.
Click here to
purchase your two year pass at 50% off. The final price is
only $11.
http://www.mydatabootcamp.com/
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Going
to College in California: Student & Family Connections and
International & Out-of-State Students are Kindle books, and
available only on Amazon.com. Think of them as your "getting
started" pocket guides, something that you can reference
quickly, easily, often, and anywhere. You can read these
books on a Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Android phone, or any
device that has the Kindle app installed, including laptops
and desktops.
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Games and Play to Enhance
Counseling and Teaching Strategies, Vol I and II is
Grace Wilhelm's new DVD set that gives you demonstrations
and ideas to integrate play therapy techniques into
everyday, familiar games in order to teach students
counseling strategies for stress management, anger control,
study and organization skills, making friends, test taking,
communication skills and more. It is engaging, creative and
FUN! The techniques are easy to replicate for all age groups
and in all settings for individual, small group and
classroom lessons. Get your creative juices flowing! A six
page booklet is included with each DVD.
http://counselorgames.com/
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Must See Videos
New videos have been added since the last issue:
● Life-Changing
Baking Tricks Everyone Can Do
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
– Pinterest.
Lots of resources for counselors, parents, and
others.
http://pinterest.com/rsabella/
– YouTube.
Counseling related playlists and more.
http://www.youtube.com/user/cyberprof
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TIPS AND TRICKS
9 Rules For Emailing From Google Exec
Eric Schmidt
I like the last one the most which I have found quite useful.
From all my accounts, I forward to my gmail account with lots of extra
key words. Once in gmail, I can archive the email and make it easy to
find later.
http://time.com/3425368/google-email-rules
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Wordcounter is a word count and a
character count tool. Simply place your cursor into the box and begin
typing. Word counter will automatically count the number of words and
characters as you type. You can also copy and paste a document you have
already written into the word counter box and it will display the word
count and character numbers for that piece of writing. In addition, word
counter automatically shows you the top 10 keywords and keyword density
of the article you're writing.
http://www.wordcounter.net/
Also know that Microsoft Word has a version of this feature available,
see
here.
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Microsoft Excel: Selecting Cells
There are much faster ways to select a dataset than using the
mouse and dragging the cursor. Click in the first cell you want to
select and hold down Ctrl+Shift, then hit either the down arrow to get
all the data in the column below, up arrow to get all the data above, or
left or right arrow to get everything in the row (to the left or right,
of course). Combine the directions, and you can get a whole column then
everything in the rows left or right. It'll only select cells with data
(even invisible data). If you use Ctrl+Shift+End, the cursor will jump
to the lowest right-hand cell with data, selecting everything in
between. So if the cursor is in the upper left cell (A1), that's
everything. Even faster: Ctrl+Shift+* (the asterisk) will select the
whole data set no matter what cell is selected. (Image)
Source:
http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/327311/20-excel-tips-for-becoming-a-spreadsheet-pro/1
Want to become awesome with Microsoft Excel? Check out
http://www.mydatabootcamp.com/
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Great Microsoft Excel Shortcut Keys
Excel, like any great software, has many excellent keyboard shortcuts.
Here are some of the best.
●Ctrl+; —Inserts today's date.
● Ctrl+Shift+:—Inserts the current time (the colon is what is in
a clock reading, like 12:00).
● Ctrl+Shift+#—Changes the format of a date.
● Ctrl+5—Apples a strikethrough to the text in a cell.
● Ctrl+0— Hides the current column.
● Ctrl+9—Hides the current row.
● Ctrl+F6—Switches between open workbooks (that is, open Excel
files in different windows).
● F2—Start editing the current selected cell (much faster than
double-clicking).
● Shift+F10—Opens the right-click menu for the cell you're in.
Source:
http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/327311/20-excel-tips-for-becoming-a-spreadsheet-pro/20
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FollowUpThen | Email
Reminders via Email Itself
Clear out your inbox. Shorten your
to-do list. Never forget to follow up. All with a simple email address.
https://www.followupthen.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Time Elapsed Analysis & Reporting
System (T.E.A.R.S.) is a Microsoft Excel add-in that
automatically calculates the total amount of time that you have spent in
different aspects of your work. After exporting your calendar data from
Microsoft Outlook to Excel, this add-in extracts elapsed time, sums up
the number of hours in each category, and then produces both a table and
a chart. If you ever wondered where your time goes, you will want to use
T.E.A.R.S. to learn more.
http://www.schoolcounselor.com/tears/
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
20 Awesome Things Google Can Do For You
A list of helpful things Google can do for you, along with a few
fun secrets that not many people know about.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/5vTuxx/tuZNWE$4:5WFJ4YE!/www.lifebuzz.com/google-tricks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AVG AntiVirus Free does a great
job of blocking and eradicating malware, and it includes extras such as
a secure shredder, Do Not Track protection for your browser, and the
ability to schedule automated scans.
http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage
Also know that many Internet service providers (e.g., Comcast/Xfinity)
provide great antivirus software for free. I get Norton Security Suite
and I love it. Does more than keep the computer clean but also tuned up
and humming. In addition to antivirus, I highly recommend malwarebytes
which is available at
https://www.malwarebytes.org/antimalware/.
The free version needs to be run manually about once a week. I schedule
this using Windows task scheduler (see
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/schedule-task#1TC=windows-7)
to learn more.
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Test your internet connection speed
to make sure you are getting the speeds that your provider promises. I
use two of them now and then when I think something isn’t quite right:
http://www.speedtest.net/
http://speedtest.comcast.net/
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WORTHY WEBSITES AND SOFTWARE
RAW
Raw is an open web app to create custom vector-based
visualizations from your data. That’s a fancy way of saying that it
creates fancy charts.
http://raw.densitydesign.org/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MozBackup is a simple utility for
creating backups of Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mozilla
Sunbird, Flock, SeaMonkey, Mozilla Suite, Spicebird, Songbird and
Netscape profiles. It allows you to backup and restore bookmarks, mail,
contacts, history, extensions, passwords, cache etc.
http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yet Another Duplicate File Remover
Another duplicate file finder/remover. But this one is ULTRA
FAST, safe, easy to use and of course free and open source.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/yadfr/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pixlr has been a favorite online
photo editor and mobile app for years. Now, you can get the same Pixlr
experience with even more fun and powerful tools on your Mac or Windows
computer.
https://pixlr.com/desktop
I still love the online version:
http://apps.pixlr.com/express/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Quote Pic Maker for Facebook, Twitter,
Google Plus, Wallpapers, E-cards, Prints
QuotesCover.com turns any ordinary saying texts into a beautiful
typography art picture for use on Facebook, Twitter header, Google Plus,
E-Cards, Wallpapers, and Prints.
http://www.quotescover.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7-Zip is a file archiver with a
high compression ratio.
http://www.7-zip.org/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LastPass Password Manager
Like many of you, I use a lot of sites and services that require
a log in with a password. Complex and different passwords for different
sites are an absolute requirement these days and I suspect that only
people with total recall can get along without a password manager. My
favorite is LastPass. This works on multiple platforms and has served me
very well.
https://lastpass.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
( OFFTIME ) - Life Unplugged. - Android
Apps on Google Play
( OFFTIME ) lets you customize your connectivity so you can do
the things that matter. Unplug and focus on your work, be with the
people you care about, or simply enjoy some peace of mind.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.offtime.kit
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
calm.com
Source:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/and-relax.htm
Calm is a web-based service that helps you to relax after a particularly
busy or stressful time. Just sit back, plug in some headphones if you
want, then head to the web site. You can choose a period of 2, 5, 10, 15
or 20 minutes for your session. And you can choose whether you just get
to hear calming music, or whether there's also a soothing voice too.
Combine those with the flowing, meditative graphics on the screen (or
just close your eyes if you prefer) and you'll be back to a calm state
in no time.
http://www.calm.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AllDup - Find Duplicate Files
A free tool that helps you to find and remove duplicate files on
your PC.
http://www.alldup.de/en_download.htm#alldup
____________________________________________
JUST FOR FUN
Atari Arcade
http://www.atari.com/arcade
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FlightGear Flight Simulator
The goal of the FlightGear project is to create a sophisticated
and open flight simulator framework for use in research or academic
environments, pilot training, as an industry engineering tool, for
DIY-ers to pursue their favorite interesting flight simulation idea, and
last but certainly not least as a fun, realistic, and challenging
desktop flight simulator.
http://www.flightgear.org/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sleep Talk Recorder app
Do you need solid evidence that your spouse snores? Do you talk
in your sleep? The Sleep Talk Recorder app listens for noises while
people slumber and starts recording the second it hears any mumbling
during the night. The Sleep Talk Recorder is active all night, but it
doesn't eat up the space on your phone. It turns on when there's a
noise, a loud snore.
iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sleep-talk-recorder/id391767653?mt=8
Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.madinsweden.sleeptalk&hl=en
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Story of the#web25
The World Wide Web has gone from
“never heard of it” to “can’t live without it” in 25 years. It took off
because of its instant user appeal, but also because it’s open and free.
From HTML to hacktivism, the W3C to MP3s, lolcats to LulzSec, from one
website to over 180 million, here are its defining moments.
http://www.storyoftheweb.org.uk/
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Sabella & Associates,
LLC, 4922 SW 26th PL, Cape Coral, FL 33914
Sabella@Schoolcounselor.com
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