Teach With Video

North Korean Money

Steven Katz — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:10:11 +0000

I was lucky enough to come across this North Korean 5o Wan bill last Saturday. A friend saw it in a tip jar, and I purchased it from the bartender. I don’t know anything about the bill, other than what is says in Wikipedia. For being 20 years old, the bill is in pretty good condition.

Front

Back

Change Language in Google Docs

Steven Katz — Sun, 13 May 2012 08:57:49 +0000

I created this tip for our new teachers, but figured other people might want to know how to do this.

Office Hijinks

Steven Katz — Wed, 09 May 2012 21:38:09 +0000

In the ed tech office we love a good practical joke. Well, we love playing them more than having them played on us. See below how what goes around comes around, as super science teacher JP teaches us what happens when you mix dry ice and water in a sealed bottle. Of course, I had to film it.

Paperless End of the Year Checkout

Steven Katz — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:20:12 +0000

Here’s my idea for digital checkout for teachers on the last day of school. Teachers receive a list (email) of what they have to do & who checks them. The people who check have editing privileges on the spreadsheet. They put an X (or initials, or a color fill) in the cell in lieu of a signature. Simple, and not a lot of setup. You could put a little more work into the spreadsheet by adding conditional formatting such as greying out the person when all cells are checked.

Connecting Teachers

Steven Katz — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 02:47:23 +0000

I am currently teaching a masters course that focuses on technology integration. I have an outstanding group of students with a variety of expertise and experience. From preschool teachers to university professors, these teachers have been working hard to create meaningful assignments for their students. They are also blogging daily, and have a lot of interesting perspectives. Please take a moment to read & comment on a few of their posts.

Aga Suzdorf Preschool
Estella Duan Mandarin
Curtis Colegrave University ESL
Melissa Hubley Aquatics
Robbie Sawlor University ESL
Ruth Yang Mandarin
Tim Munro Middle school P.E.
Alex Lopez-Barton Middle school social studies

Lisa Barnhart 3rd Grade
Richard Ball University ESL
Katherine Thomas Middle school science
Sarrah Abassi 2nd grade ESL
Kristina Chipping 1st Grade
Jonathan Mueller 4th Grade
William Song University ESL
Sarah Segal Middle school language arts

Thank you!

Should I integrate tech?

Steven Katz — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:20:50 +0000

I’m often asked by teachers if they should integrate technology into certain lessons. I’m not one who recommends adding tech to make projects look cool or more “21st century,” or to do the same old thing (with tech). For me, the answer to the question is simple. If I can answer “yes” to either of these two questions then I should use technology in the lesson.

1. Will the technology improve student learning?

2. Will the technology make the lesson/learning more efficient or organized?

If I answer “no” to both questions, I don’t use technology in the lesson. Simple.

Stop Motion Animation Challenge 4

Steven Katz — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 07:02:42 +0000

This is the fourth challenge for my middle school movie-making club that is creating stop motion animations. This challenge is “Multiple Objects.” It was inspired by this fireworks video. Below is the animation I created as an example for this challenge. I didn’t expect that the first part would take such a long time, but animating several objects at a time took much longer than only animating one or two. My plan was to tell more of a story, like darkening the clouds, then use staples to make it look like it was raining, and add some lightning. Unfortunately, the photography was so time consuming, I had cut the movie short.

You can also take a look at Challenge 1, Challenge 2, Challenge 3, and the Movie-Making Club wiki, where I am documenting what we are doing.

Once again I used the book stand to prop up my computer to take the photos.

I measured how much I moved everything to try to keep the movement consistent. I moved the paper like a conveyor belt, dragging the clouds with it, and then moved the plane so that it would stay in the center of each photo.

iPhoto: Digital Rogaine

Steven Katz — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 03:36:20 +0000

Last Saturday we took a family outing into Seoul, and my wife was snapping photos along the way. Unfortunately, she took a photo that caught me from behind, revealing my bald spot. Honestly, I’m OK with my hair thinning. When my friends joke about it, my typical response is, “Good thing I’m already married.” In fact, when I met my wife I had long hair (no thinning, no bald spot). Even though I’m really OK with my hair thinning (hmmm…that’s twice I’ve said this), I don’t want it displayed in photos. I can’t see the spot when looking in the mirror, and I’m taller than my wife, so she doesn’t see it often. Anyway, when I was browsing through iPhoto at the photos my wife took, I saw the spot in an otherwise lovely photo. A brilliant idea came to me: use the Fix Red-Eye tool to fix the bald spot. And it worked! Photo saved. Fortunately, the color on the tool matches my hair color. Apple really could improve iPhoto by adding “The New Fix Bald Spot Tool.” They could offer various hair colors. It would be great, and would help many, especially those who are using internet dating sites. Erase that bald spot with one mouse click!

Close up from original photo:

After using the Fix Bald Spot tool:

Nice, right?

Steve

PS. Don’t tell anyone about my bald spot. It’s just between us.

Creating Effective Passwords

Steven Katz — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 07:42:34 +0000

I have been giving a lot of password advice at work lately, & over the years I’ve read several different ways to invent passwords. I think I have a pretty good system for creating them. Here it is:

1. Come up with a password that has absolutely no significance. I call this the “root password.” Use at least six characters. More is better. So is a variety of letters, numbers, & symbols. example: k5$3b4
2. Memorize it. (You can write it down somewhere without worrying about it. Read on.)
3. For whatever site you need a password for, take two characters from that site’s name and then add them to the root password. Use the same system for all sites.
For example, you can use the first two letters of a site’s name. Facebook = fa, YouTube = yo Add them to the beginning of your root password and your password for Facebook becomes fak5$3b4, YouTube is yok5$3b4.

There are an infinite number of variations for this. You could use the first and last letters of a site’s name, second & third, capitalize them, add them to the end or in the middle of your password, or split them with a punctuation mark.

This system has worked for me. My passwords are different for all sites & they are easy for me to remember.

Two more bits of advice: If you use a mobile device make sure the characters you choose for your root password are easy to access. On my laptop the percent symbol, %, is just a shift key away, but on my iPad it takes three taps. It is still a good idea to change your password regularly. When you change your passwords simply vary your system or root password.

If you would like to check you password strength, passwordmeter.com can do this and also gives some ideas for creating a stronger (root) password.

Custom Page Size

Steven Katz — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 06:30:41 +0000

At school teachers are creating the yearbook pages for their classes, clubs, and groups. The page dimensions for the yearbook are not any standard size paper, such as letter, legal, or A4. I needed to teach the teachers how to change the dimensions so I made a simple handout that shows how this is done. I hope this is helpful.

Download Custom Page Size pdf