HP Desktop w/17" LCD ...$499

Great value! These won't last long.

Off-lease HP DC7100 Small Form Factor
3.0 GHz
1 GB RAM
80 GB hard drive
CD-RW/DVD-ROM
XP-PRO
3 Year limited warranty
Includes keyboard and mouse.
Includes 17" LCD!

$499

Please call today to reserve these units. They are going fast.

USB Flash Drives

USB Flash Drives
1 GB $7.99
2 GB $12.49
4 GB $20.99

I understand that Solid State Drives are going to see some incredible price drops later this year. 128 GB Solid State drives are supposed to drop in price by 1/2 soon. Watch this space for more details.

How to Use Your Projector

Tips for Using Your Voice Effectively

Make sure you speak loud enough for the audience to hear you. Nothing is worse than having to strain to hear a speaker present. So, before you begin a presentation, have someone stand at the back of the room and tell you if you can be heard.

Don't speak in a monotone voice. The easiest way to put an audience to sleep is by speaking in the same voice for a long period of time. Make sure you use natural speech patterns — with highs and lows — instead of a flat monotone.

Alternate the pace of your voice. By speaking at different speech rates for short periods, you can add energy to your speech pattern. Just look at the way you speak in normal conversation. You will notice that sometimes you speak quickly and sometimes you slow down.

Slow down for important points. By slowing your speech rate for key points, you can emphasize important points.

Use the pause. Silence is an excellent exclamation point. By slightly extending a pause, you can add emphasis to a key point in your presentation. All presenters pause naturally, but the best presenters plan their pauses for maximum impact!

Drink water. Before presenting, have a glass of water. Water can prevent potential voice problems during a presentation. You can also use a sip of water as a pause in a presentation.

Bonus Tip! Check out the national news! News anchors provide some of the best examples of effective voice usage.

From Epson Presenters Online

Grant Opportunity

GREER/FTE GRANT
ITEA Professional Development

The Foundation for Technology Education announces the $1,000 Greer/FTE Grant, made available through the generosity of Dr. Wm. David Greer, Jr., DTE. Its purpose is to encourage professional development participation of classroom teachers and supervisors in Technology Education. The successful applicant will receive a check in the amount of $1,000 to offset the expenses of attending an International Technology Education Association Conference.

Eligibility Requirements:
Applicant must be an ITEA member and register for the ITEA Annual Conference.(Membership may be enclosed with scholarship application).
Applicant must be a technology education teacher or supervisor for secondary education grades 6-12.
Applicant must NOT have attended more than three (3) previous ITEA conferences.
Applicant must attend the conference awards ceremony where award is presented.

Application and Deadline: Applicants must submit an application package, postmarked by December 1, that consists of four (4) sets of the following required items:
Applicant's name, address, phone, fax, email, school name, grade level, subject(s) taught, previous ITEA conferences attended, and other pertinent data. (1 page.)
A brief history of the applicant's professional participation activities, which may include curriculum projects, professional association memberships, positions held, grants/scholarships received, awards, etc. (1 page.)
An explanation of why the applicant is seeking the grant. (1/2 to 1 page.)
Knowledge/experience the applicant expects to gain from attending the ITEA conference. (1/2 to 1 page.)

Mail to:
GREER/FTE GRANT Foundation for Technology Education 1914 Association Drive, Suite 201 Reston, VA 20191-1539703/860-2100, FAX 703/860-0353itea@iteaconnect.org

Grant Presentation: The grant is provided directly to the teacher or supervisor and will be presented at an appropriate time during the ITEA Annual Conference.

Grant Opportunity

PITSCO/HEARLIHY/FTE GRANT
Excellence in Teaching Technology

The Foundation for Technology Education in cooperation with Pitsco/Hearlihy & Company proudly announces the $2,000 Pitsco/Hearlihy/FTE Grant in honor of Tom and Mary Hearlihy. The grant is for a technology teacher at any grade level (K-12). Its purpose is to recognize and encourage the integration of a quality technology education program within the school curriculum. Criteria include: (1) evidence of an effective quality technology education program, (2) documented success in the integration of technology education with other academic subjects, and (3) plans for professional development via the anticipated grant.

Eligibility Requirements:
Applicant must be an ITEA member and register for the ITEA Annual Conference.(Membership may be enclosed with scholarship application).
Applicant must be a teacher (elementary or secondary) who is successfully integrating technology education within the school curriculum. (Applicant above the elementary school level must be a Technology Teacher.)
Applicant must attend the conference awards ceremony where award is presented.

Application and Deadline: Applicants must submit an application package, postmarked by December 1, that consists of four sets of the following required items:
Letter of application with a clear explanation of: (a) the technology education program, (b) how technology education is integrated with other academic subjects, (c) plans for using the grant, and (d) identification details -- school name, grade level, address, telephone, and home address.
School-based curriculum materials and/or a 5-to-10-min. video (1/2" VHS) illustrating how technology education is integrated with other academic subjects in the school.
Three recommendation letters which confirm the success of integrating technology education with other subjects. One letter must be from the principal and at least two from other academic teachers.

Mail to:
HEARLIHY/FTE GRANT Foundation for Technology Education 1914 Association Drive, Suite 201 Reston, VA 20191-1539703/860-2100, FAX 703/860-0353itea@iteaconnect.org

Grant Presentation: The grant is provided directly to the teacher and will be presented during the ITEA Annual Conference.

Web Cams

I have not had a lot of calls for web cams the last few years. I know there are lots of you out there who like to have people look at you over the Internet. How do you choose the best camera? I found this site and I recommend it. This guy has too much time on his hands. He is experimenting with all brands and models. Pictures and info on most models. Check it out if you are looking for a camera.

Cowboy Frank's Webcam Reviews

Book Review-The Dissident

There are books that you may pick up and start reading that have an interesting story. I find that I can get hooked on a book in the first few pages. I will overlook the sloppy characterizations, poor style and any other short comings if there is a good plot. The most disappointing thing is to get into a book with potential and not have it pan out in the end. A book that fits in this category is The Dissident, by Nell Freudenberger. The story is about Yuan Zhao, a Chinese artist and dissident that has the opportunity to spend a year in Los Angeles to further his art. He lives with a liberal, upper class family made of cliches. Yuan in China is part of the underground art scene. His avant-garde style gets him into trouble with the authorities. In LA, he is a quiet, observer of those around him. His inability to create new art scares him. Yuan finds himself teaching art to girls at a private school. One of the students has talents that Yuan is inspired by. This leads to tragedy for all involved.

I learned something about myself from reading this book. Nell Freudenberger does a nice job of using language and pacing similar to other books I've read recently by Chinese authors. These have been difficult books for me to get through. I have decided that I don't care for this style. In addition this book had a very promising start, but the story went nowhere. The book felt sloppy with no real direction. There were too many pages without a quality wrap up. Not my kind of book in the end. If you do decide to read this...

Enjoy!

HP LaserJet Printers Drop in Price

It seems hard to believe that HP can sell a LaserJet printer for under $50. This printer has a small footprint, reasonable speed (15 ppm) and typical operating costs (just over $.04 per page). Great for a personal printer. Not really networkable or color, but plain inexpensive. This price is only good until July 19, 2008 unless HP decides to extend this offer.

Do you need color? HP has lowered the price of its 3600n Color LaserJet printer to $399. Great low to medium volume printer that has a built in network connection. Up to 17 ppm and a recommended monthly usage of 1000 to 3000 pages, this is a fine printer for a small work group. Cost per page is average for entry level color lasers at just under $.12 per page.

1.5 TB Hard Drive Shipping in August

Not enough storage space in your PC? Just wait! Next month Seagate is releasing a 1.5 terabyte hard drive. hat represents a whopping half-terabyte jump over the previous 1TB max—a move they attribute to their perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology. Best news may be that these drives, have a 5 year warranty.
In addition to the release of this desktop drive, Seagate announced the release of 2 laptop drives with 500 GB capacity. One is a 5400 rpm and the other spins at 7200 rpm. These are the largest laptop drives now available.
Highlighting Seagate's growth, the company announced it plans to ship its 2 billionth drive within 5 years. The 30 year old company shipped its 1 billionth drive earlier this year.

July 4th Weekend

I had a pretty packed 4th of July weekend. Started it off by heading to the lumber yard on Wednesday night to grab some new decking for my dock. Just moving this from the store to my car to my house led to a sore back. On Thursday night I was able to get out and prep most of the dock so I would be ready to go on Friday morning. My darling wife Sheri was more than a little obliging by helping me with laying out the new decking, drilling holes and screwing down the planks. We got done in the early afternoon just in time for the annual boat parade. Our friends came over with their boat and we spent an hour decorating it. After the neighbors set off their cannon, the line of boats took off around the lake shore. It was a small turnout this year...only about 15 to 20 boats. We were speculating why there were so few boats. One obvious reason was that gas is running about $4.50 per gallon. The other reason we came up with is that 2 cycle engines have been banned on the lake. Lots of people who have older boats didn't want to risk putting around and risk a big fine. All in all, we had a good time. After a barbecue, we settled down on our deck to watch the fireworks. The economy is still pretty good considering how much money people spent on fireworks. Each house tried to outdo the next with elaborate displays that went on for over an hour. When the show was over I was glad to call it a night.

On Sunday I went to the Mariners game in Seattle. They were playing Detroit and the M's have been doing pretty well lately. We had no traffic on the drive to Seattle and arrived with 5 minutes to spare before the start of the game. The sun was out and it was quite comfortable. The game proceeded at a quick pace. The Mariners scored a run early in the game. The Tigers came back in the 5th to tie it. The Mariners needed to go to their bullpen early and often. By the end of the 9th inning, the Mariners had used 5 pitchers. Detroit on the other hand had only used their starter Nate Robertson. We went to extra innings and it was still any ones game. Detroit brought in Joel Zumaya and he was consistently throwing 100 mph. Neither team was doing much. The Mariners brought in their 6th pitcher of the game in the 10th. He pitched 4 very good innings. In the 15th, things turned ugly. The Mariners gave up and decided to bring in their 3rd string catcher to pitch. This guy had never pitched at this level. There was a large contingent of fans who had stayed to this point. We deserved better than to be treated to a circus side show. Of course he gave up a double. The runner advanced on a wild pitch. He scored on a fly ball. In the bottom of the 15th, the Mariners were 3 up and 3 down. In the post game show, the Mariners manager Jim Riggleman said that he wasn't willing to play for a tie in the 15th. This was a very disturbing concept. Why go out to play if you don't intend to win? I often get the opportunity to bid on projects. I look at them closely and decide if I want to "play". A big determinate is whether or not I can win. In business, you make choices to participate or not. If you want to play, then you play to win.

ISTE Unveils New Tech Standards for Teachers

Revised framework focuses on what teachers should know to help students become productive digital learners, citizens

Schools looking for a framework to help guide their teachers' use of technology in the classroom have a new resource at their disposal: The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has issued new technology standards for teachers. This is a significant overhaul of the standards introduced in 2000.

Those first standards focused on what teachers should know about, and be able to do with, technology. The new standards expand this focus to include what teachers should know and be able to do "to promote students' abilities to learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly digital world."

"We've got to have teachers prepared to prepare today's students for the challenges of a new digital world," explained ISTE Chief Executive Officer Don Knezek at the launch of the new framework.

The new standards include five categories, each with its own set of performance indicators:
(1) Facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity,
(2) Design and develop digital-age learning experiences and assessments,
(3) Model digital-age work and learning,
(4) Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility, and
(5) Engage in professional growth and leadership.

Under the category "facilitate and inspire student learning and creativity," for example, there are four performance indicators: (1) Promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking, (2) Engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources, (3) promote student reflection using collaborative tools, and (4) model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students.
For every performance indicator within each category, ISTE has included a rubric that describes what meeting the standard would look like at four levels of proficiency: beginning, developing, proficient, and transformative.

The "transformative" proficiency level is new to the revised standards, and it's indicative of ISTE's more recently articulated focus on really transforming education through the use of technology, not just layering technology over traditional educational practices, Knezek said.
The revised teacher standards represent the second step in ISTE's effort to update all of its ed-tech standards. At last year's NECC, ISTE unveiled new NETS for students, and the group kicked off an effort at this year's conference to revise its NETS for administrators, which will be released at NECC 2009.

Kim Vidoni, educational technology coordinator for the Nevada Department of Education, said her state is in the process of revising its ed-tech plan and technology standards, "and we'll be looking to these new NETS for teachers as we do this."
From eSchool News

Dennis' News and Views

We finally have had a couple of days of warm weather and it has helped change everyone's attitude. It appears that summer may actually arrive this year. On Sunday, the whole family got into the lake for the first time this year. It was pretty darn cold. I got a close up look at our dock and decided it was time to get new decking put down. That is the project for this weekend. Even the Mariners have improved the last couple of weeks. A new manager has scared some of the players into trying harder. It's too late for this year, but it sure is a good lesson for the future. Sports players that have huge guaranteed paychecks can loose the incentive to work hard and improve. It takes a special type of manager to work with older, established players to keep them sharp. I would love to see the Mariners not totally embarrass themselves the rest of the season.
All year long, we put up with mediocre weather. It doesn't get really cold in winter. Spring and fall are mostly gray. When summer hits, we look forward to getting outside. Going on vacation in summer doesn't make much sense. We were invited to go to Las Vegas later this month. I can't imagine going there in July. Other than regular trips to Seattle to see the Mariners, we don't have any plans of getting out of town. On the other hand, the summer is a great time to have family visit us. Last week my in-laws were up from California. It was nice to have them visit and spend time with the family. The big activity we all participated in was assembling jigsaw puzzles. My brother-in-law Bob is coming up to visit next month. We look forward to having people here so that we have an excuse to go swimming, have bar-be-ques and be lazy. Keep on coming!
My son Jack is a trivia maven. I like to go with him once a week to a local establishment that has a trivia night. Once a month or so, Jack writes the questions and host the event. Last week, our whole family joined together to write the questions. I wrote a category on the Dodgers, my son Tom wrote questions on mythology and video games and my lovely wife Sheri wrote questions on short people. Jack wrote the rest of the questions on obscure topics I had no idea about. There was a good turnout of players and we all had a good time. It never ceases to surprise me how many people know lots of useless information.
I'm hoping to go see Wall-E in the next week or so. Any other movies that I have to see this summer?