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eNews Issue #155

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Issue #155
Date of Publication: May 31, 2016

Welcome to the SchoolCounselor.com eNewsletter which is 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.

Videos-iconMust See Videos

From SchoolCounselor.com

Managing Group Data and Communications
I created this video specifically for my counselor educator colleagues although it might be helpful to anyone who supervises groups of students and needs to keep track of information and communication. In this example, we will use Google forms, sheets, and voice to more easily keep up with different aspects of a group.
https://schoolcounselor.com/video-managing-group-data-and-communications/

PDF Tricks
Deal with PDF files more effectively and efficiently by learning how to: Complete a form that does not have fillable fields. Insert your signature Email the completed form from right within the application (in this case, Foxit PDF Reader) Summarize Comments made in the PDF Merge and split PDF files with ease.
http://www.schoolcounselortv.com/2016/03/pdf-tricks.html

Creating a thermometer chart in Microsoft Excel
A thermometer is a common way to measure intensity and this also works well for depicting student progress in a fun way. This video shows you how to do it with “percent of homework completion” as the outcome.
https://schoolcounselor.com/creating-a-thermometer-chart-in-microsoft-excel/

This video is included among many others in the online workshop at http://www.mydatabootcamp.com/

Creating a Pre to Post Chart in Microsoft Excel
This works especially well when you provide Excel with a very simple data set that contains only pre and post data (in addition to student or group identifier). You can do this in under a minute using a relatively newer feature in MS Excel (starting with 2013) called Recommended Charts.
https://schoolcounselor.com/creating-a-pre-to-post-chart-in-microsoft-excel/

Using Microsoft Word Styles
This tutorial demonstrates how to use Microsoft Word Styles which has at least four different advantages.
https://schoolcounselor.com/using-microsoft-word-styles/

Quickly Access Your Most Popular Sites
If you saved just an average of 5 minutes a day looking for stuff online, that would translate into approximately 900 minutes or 15 hours by the end of the year — a full day or two of work!
https://schoolcounselor.com/speed_dial_the_web/

Google Forms Custom Themes & More
I’ve been campaigning for Google to add the ability to customize themes for online forms for some time. Recently, I was so happy to see that it is finally available.
https://schoolcounselor.com/google-forms-custom-themes/

From SchoolCounselorTV.comtv

TIPSResources, Tools, and Tips from Russ Sabella …

– Keeping Kids Out of High Tech Trouble. This site supports Dr. Russell Sabella’s work on educating children, parents, educators and other stakeholders 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://www. guardingkids.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.
https://schoolcounselor.com/newsletter/

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

– Twitter. Postings about all things 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://bit.ly/Sabella-Playlist




toolsTECH TIPS AND TRICKS

New Options for Filtering YouTube in Schools

If your school uses Google Apps for Education you can now whitelist (approve for viewing) an entire YouTube channel instead of just individual videos. Learn more:
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2016/04/new-options-for-filtering-youtube-in.html

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Dropbox Hack

Wish I knew this one a while ago.If you want people to be able to directly download a shared file from Dropbox as opposed to viewing it, simply change the “www” at the beginning of the URL to “dl” without the quotes!
Source: Stack Overflow

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3 Google Calendar Hacks that Will Make You More Productive

Google Calendar is a great tool for staying organized and keeping track of your events. To make sure you’re maximizing everything it has to offer, check out these three hacks for Google Calendar that can help you save time and be more productive.
https://www.bettercloud.com/monitor/the-academy/3-google-calendar-hacks-that-will-make-you-more-productive/
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Email Address Extractor for Gmail – YouTube

The email extractor for Gmail finds email addresses inside messages and saves them in a Google Spreadsheet. It finds emails in the TO, CC, FROM, CC fields and the content of the message body. You can then import the email list in your mailing list, Google Contacts, Outlook or any other address book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpkGFXMgmNk

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pluginAddins, Plugins, Extensions (Oh my!)

My top addins for various software including the Chrome browser. Add-ins are special files that extend the functionality of a program. In other words, they make your work simpler by making multi-step procedures available at the touch of a button or keystroke. Add-ins can help you to do many tasks related to data, documentation, scanning, charting, or even more customized needs. Although essentially the same, some programs call addins by a different name such as plugin (WordPress, Firefox, etc.) or extension (Chrome).
http://bit.ly/top-addins

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24/7 Sign In

The easiest way to manage visitor sign ins & stay organized
https://247signin.com/

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Google Slides Q&A

Try a new feature in Google Slides: Slides Q&A. This update helps speakers connect with their audience and collect real-time feedback. With a simple link displayed on a Slides presentation, audience members can submit questions from their phones, laptops, and tablets—and vote on those they want answered the most.
https://docs.googleblog.com/2016/05/slidesQA.html

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Excel-Chart-TemplateUnit 5: Multimedia Results Report | My Data Boot Camp 2.0

One of the many lessons available when you get a 2 year pass
http://www.mydatabootcamp.com/unit-5-multimedia-results-report/
Learn more at http://www.mydatabootcamp.com/

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Publish Your Podcast to Google Play Music

Publish your shows now to connect with your audience and reach millions of potential listeners on Android.Broadcast to the world, in three easy steps.
https://play.google.com/music/podcasts/publish?u=0#

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6 Google Calendar Tips | The Gooru

Using these 6 tips, you can utilize the full feature set that Google Calendar has to offer. Making a separate calendar for a conference room or embedding a video call in an event invite can drastically increase efficiency and clarity in your life and schedule.
https://www.bettercloud.com/monitor/the-academy/6-google-calendar-tips/

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6 Features in the Gmail Compose Window You Didn’t Realize Were There

The Gmail compose window is full of features. Just when you thought you knew it all, here are six features that you didn’t realize were there. From creating block quotes to selecting from a list of canned responses, the Gmail compose window can take care of a lot. You might not even have to open a new tab in your Chrome browser!
https://www.bettercloud.com/monitor/the-academy/6-features-in-the-gmail-compose-window-you-didnt-realize-were-there/

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Google Tutorials – YouTube Playlist from Richard Byrne
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtx-qUNKJwDz6b_3NaGTkGXaTPrLCpacY

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Excel Pivot Table Webinar Replay
http://www.myonlinetraininghub.com/replay-xpt-0416

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Get A Facebook Security Checkup | Gizmo’s Freeware
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/get-facebook-security-checkup.htm

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webWORTHY WEBSITES AND SOFTWARE

NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) is a free “screen reader” which enables blind and vision impaired people to use computers. It reads the text on the screen in a computerised voice. You can control what is read to you by moving the cursor to the relevant area of text with a mouse or the arrows on your keyboard. NVDA can also convert the text into braille if the computer user owns a device called a “braille display”.

Homepage

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Resize your image or photo online

Resize Your Image is a magnificent tool (image and photo resizer) to help you maintain your website, to send images via email or to resize large images to print it. Not only does it let you determine its size (in pixels), it also brings down the size of your file.
http://resizeyourimage.com

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Free Screen Sharing, Online Meetings & Web Conferencing

Collaborate instantly with free screen sharing, unlimited audio, and ridiculously simple video conferencing. No registration required.
https://www.join.me/

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The Teacher’s Guide To Twitter | Edudemic

Twitter has proven itself to be an indispensable tool for educators around the globe. Whatever skill level you may be, Twitter is downright fun and worth your time. So here’s a useful guide that was curated from Edudemic’s archives in an effort to put something together that was a bit easier to read than random blog posts.
http://www.edudemic.com/guides/guide-to-twitter/

Also check out:

Three tools to stay safe on Twitter
https://about.twitter.com/safety/three-tools-to-stay-safe

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School Counseling Program Profiles on Pinterest
https://www.pinterest.com/Guidance_Career/school-counseling-program-profiles/

These were originally created by Piktochart

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Stupeflix

Make videos online with photos, clips, music.
https://studio.stupeflix.com/en/

Also see:
Wideo – Make animated online videos free
http://wideo.co/en/

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PDFTiger

PDFTiger is a desktop application that quickly and accurately create PDF documents from Word, Excel, Powerpoint, txt or Images. PDFTiger can also convert PDF files into editable MS Word Documents, Rich Text Documents, Plain Text Files, Images, HTML Files, and Shockwave Flash SWF Files. In batch mode PDFTiger will convert more than 10,000,000 files at a time.
http://www.pdftiger.com/

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Poll Maker – Create & Publish a Free Poll in Seconds
http://www.poll-maker.com/

Also see:

New Polling Feature Added to Google Classroom http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2016/04/new-polling-feature-added-to-google.html#.V0oeRZErJqN

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1001 Free Fonts – Download 31531 Fonts

The majority of fonts on this website are freeware, but a small percentage are shareware so if you decide to keep any shareware fonts you’ll need to register them.
http://www.1001freefonts.com/

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Annenberg Learner

Helps to advance excellent teaching in American schools through the development and distribution of multimedia resources for teaching and learning.
https://www.learner.org/resources/browse.html

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About.me

A simple, beautiful one-page website spotlighting what’s important to you. In less than two minutes, you can create a free page that looks great on any device.
https://about.me/

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Watchkin

Watch Youtube videos without distractions in a family-friendly environment.
https://watchkin.com/

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JUST FOR FUNjust_for_fun_dog

Perfect Potluck
A free online tool for coordinating meals for groups.
http://perfectpotluck.com/
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21 boredom-busting websites that will entertain you forever
http://inktank.fi/most-entertaining-websites

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The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever: NPR
http://apps.npr.org/commencement/

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sleepyti.me works by counting backwards in sleep cycles. Waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle leaves you feeling tired and groggy, but waking up in between cycles wakes you up feeling refreshed and alert!
http://sleepyti.me/

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Fast.com (from Netflix)

How fast is your download speed? In seconds, Fast.com’s simple Internet speed test will estimate your ISP speed.
https://fast.com/

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Edible Flowers – How to Make Bacon Roses – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSpCUFkDddM

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

 

About Dr. Sabella

3bc592c Dr. Russell A. Sabella is currently a Professor in the Department of Counseling in the College of Education, Florida Gulf Coast University and President of Sabella & Associates.