At a recent TA PD session we used Pixlr (like Google Docs, but for images) to create color splash images like the one below: The larger point is that Pixlr (http://pixlr.com/editor) is a handy tool to do simple edits like cropping and resizes up to intermediate ones like manipulating color, adding effects, and working with […]
At this week’s after school PD, we learned to use Excel to manipulate text and numbers with formulas and array formulas and look up information/fill in information automatically with VLOOKUP and LOOKUP. For manipulating text and numbers, use these formulas: CONCATENATE, CONCAT, “”&”” – combine two or more cells, strings, or numbers AVERAGE, MEDIAN, MODE, […]
Thanks to Eric, all parents now have a Canvas account linked to their child(ren). This means that parents receive the same email notifications as students when you create an assigment, leave a comment on an assignment, make an announcement, etc. This adds, at no time to cost to the teacher, another way to keep parents […]
It’s worth watching this five-minute video – especially the last half – which explains why your smartphone is like a slot machine. And if supressing notifications is a way to make your smartphone less addicting – literally – this video will help you with how to do that.
The desktop Office apps are more powerful than their Online counterparts, but the current release doesn’t support the real-time co-authoring that helps us collaborate. Luckily, you can opt into the “Fast Insiders” version that enables this key feature. While it’s technically an unsupported release, feedback from users so far is that it’s stable and gets […]
At the end of October, we noticed that many students had very few files in their OneDrive. The percentage of students with fewer than six files in their OneDrive reached as high as 66% for some grade levels. Since OneDrive use is critical for students’ abilities to create and collaborate, the English and Chinese departments […]
Grammarly is an extension for your web browser that checks the grammar of your emails, online documents and any other place where you enter text into a web page. Use it for your own communcations, or have students use it along with the Office Online apps to catch common mistakes or other areas where they […]
If you’re using OneNote Class Notebooks, you’ll be pleased to learn that you can mass-generate private links for parents to see the notebooks of their children: This will let you and the students share evidence of their learning with parents without letting them change anything in the notebooks. You can use an e-mail merge to send out […]
AirDrop is the fastest, most convenient way to transfer files between Macs and iOS devices. But what if you want to share files with a PC or Android device? You can use Bluetooth for that purpose. For example, on your Android phone you can share via Bluetooth and then receive the file on your […]
We’re doing a lot of good things here at NCPA, and one of the ways some teachers and staff have been showing appreciation is by sharing moments on social media when they’re proud of their colleagues. On Twitter, we’re doing this using the hashtags #pulaoproud and #我们NCPA. You’ll also notice the Twitter feed of #我们NCPA […]