Sunday Scoop {11.30.14}

The Sunday Scoop is based on the popular 3-2-1 graphic organizers so many of us use with our students. Tell us three things you HAVE to do, two things you HOPE to do, and one thing you're HAPPY to do (because these days, we could all use a little motivation to find something to be happy about every week!). It's a short and sweet way to connect with each other every Sunday (or Monday... the linky will stay open all week!)

Here's what to do:
1. Just save the image above, add your text to it (we use PowerPoint), and post! You don't even have to explain yourself any further if you don't want to.
2. Include the button above and a link to our  blog on your post.
3. Link our post up here on Sunday morning (or whenever :) )
4. Be a good blog reader, and leave some love for the two posts before yours!

Here's the Scoop on my week...

3 things I have to do...

1. I have my first observation of the year on Tuesday. I am pretty much all organized and ready. Just a few last minute changes today (I always second guess myself and change a few days before) means I need to make some copies and organize so everything will go *hopefully* perfect.

2. I have a few products in the works that I really really really want to get posted before the big sale on Monday and Tuesday. All of my store will be 20% off plus you can get an additional 8% by entering the promo code TPTCYBER. 

3. Yep. Start planning for January. This will be MAJOR for me in the next few weeks. My husband and I have a wedding to attend at the end of December and I have made the decision to leave my classroom on December 23rd and not return until January 5th. I will hopefully not need to go to the school at all over holiday break- which means I need to get my ducks in a row before then! 

2 things I hope to do...

1. Now that Thanksgiving has passed, it is time to get the tree and decorations up. I love the holiday season and the hubs doesn't. Today I was jamming out to Christmas music and he cranked up his music in the other room. It is a love/hate relationship for one month. :)

2. We have snow... my are very low to the ground. This means that their bellies and legs get wet every time they go outside which for these two... is constant. They love to play and roll wrestle with each other in the fresh snow. They come inside wet and stinky. 

1 thing I'm happy to do...

1. With him coaching and me spending hours on end at the school... we haven't had the best schedule match. Today will be the first day in about 2 weeks that we actually have the entire day together without something planned for one of us.

Link up below with your Sunday Scoop!! :) Can't wait to hear all about your day/week!

An InLinkz Link-up

Freebie Friday!

This week has been SO busy for me (as it probably has been for you). I attended an AMAZING math workshop conference with 5 of my colleagues and I learned a ton. It was one of those seminars that you leave asking yourself, "Why haven't I been doing this all along?". Have you ever attended a conference like that? 

I have plans to share tons of ideas with you as I implement math workshop in a whole NEW way in my classroom. It will be something that I will have to work at changing over the next few weeks. Hopefully over our holiday break, I can tell you all about it. My students love doing Daily 5 (as do I) and we also do a partial math workshop. Daily 5 is a smashing success in our room. Math workshop.... um... not so much. This conference has changed my entire way of thinking about math and I am so excited!! Anyways...

Today we are linking up with the Teaching Blog Addict for their Freebie Friday. Below you can find three of our favorite freebies from our stores! Go check them out and then stop over at the Teaching Blog Addict to see what other freebies teachers have linked up with!

I hope that you had a blessed Thanksgiving and enjoyed spending some time with all of your families. For those of you that will be Black Friday shopping today.... good luck! My husband and I were able to go last night and get the few things we wanted! 

Sunday Scoop (11/23/14)

Time for the Sunday Scoop!  What are you up to this Thanksgiving week?

An InLinkz Link-up

Five for Friday (11/21/14)

Happy Friday! I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for one of my favorite linky parties...

In honor of the last Friday before Thanksgiving, I am writing about some of the random things I am thankful for.  

Okay, before we get started on the random, these are the not-random 5 things I am thankful for: my Lord and Savior, my son and daughter, my family, my friends, and my job.  

Now to the random....

Soccer and Volleyball

Soccer and Volleyball are so much more than sports to me.  They are opportunities.  Opportunities to connect with my children.  Opportunities to bond and bridge the gap between mother and child. Opportunities to nurture and encourage. Opportunities to cheer and yell.  Opportunities to give to my children the most important possessions I have... my time, my attention, my support, and my love.

Smart Phones

What a cool time we live in!  I can call anyone, anywhere in the world from any place in my life- my car (most often), my classroom, my backyard, my shopping trips to Wal-mart.  What a way to stay connected!  And the amazing things the phones can do.  They are not just phones anymore; they are computers- AT OUR FINGERTIPS that we carry in our PURSE or POCKET.  

The Walking Dead

TV has come a long way, baby, and I am enjoying the ride.  It is seriously like going to the movies each week. Enough said.

Crayons

How many pictures have I seen over the years made from crayons? My son and daughter colored more beautiful creations than I can ever count.  Priceless works of art each and every one of them. My students use them in the classroom to depict everything from their wildest dreams to a math problem to friendly notes. How would the world look without them? Plain. Bland. Boring. Colorless.

Cameras

Digital, Polaroid, 35 mm, smart phone cameras, and video cameras all capture a little piece of history in an instant.  A moment frozen in time.  A fragment of the past grasped forever to cherish. Snippets of fun and happy.  Pieces of sad and tragic.  Fractions of proud and monumental.  A scrap of time to treasure instead of forget.

So those are my 5 random thankful for's.  What are yours?

Tech Thursday: PowerPoint Graphic Tips and Tricks

Technology Thursday is a weekly linky dedicated to all things technology related. Share reviews of websites or apps you've tried, tech tips that make your {teaching or personal} life easier, and helpful tutorials. Our hope is that this linky provides a place for teachers to share and learn new ways to use technology and engage students!

Be a rule follower!
Rule #1: Include the image above and a link to our blog somewhere in your post.
Rule #2: Be a good blog reader...visit the two blogs who link up before you and leave some love on their pages!
Rule #3: This linky is not intended for product promotion. You may include products you've created in your posts, but they should not be the sole focus of the post.

Today I am going to show you the "Potential" in PowerPoint for adding graphics and clipart. I LOVE clipart and have a huge stash! :) In this post I featured a background by our very own Kristen (Chalk and Apples) and you can find it HERE. The clipart kid I used is from Melonheadz. You can get it HERE. The frame I used is from a pack that I purchased from Lovin' Lit. You can get it HERE.

First, I want to show how to insert an image into your powerpoint. I use the super easy drag and drop method! ;) I tend to change my mind 100 times when making a product so I tend to drag multiple images in at the same time and try different things out with the layout. Below you can see the frame that I chose to use.

This frame is not centered when I first drag it in. When I click on the image and then select the format  picture button at the top it brings up a toolbar with tons of options. One of those options is align. You have to click into this twice. Once to get it to the middle and once to get it to the center. (One is horizontal center and one is the vertical center.)

Now that my frame is where I want it, I am going to pull in my background image. (Usually I start with the background, but I wanted to show you how to reorder images.) I choose to use this stripes image. When I first drop it in my file, the stripes are going vertical so, I rotate the image by clicking on it and then using the little green circle at the top of the image. You can also use the rotate option under the format picture toolbar.

Obviously, I want my background to be behind my frame. This is an EASY fix. Select the background and then go up to your format picture toolbar again. Select reorder and then send to back. You can also select to reorder objects, which brings up a screen that shows all of the layers, just drag them around so they are in the right order. You can also select bring to front, bring forward or send backward. These are VERY helpful! I reorder objects often.

Next up is pulling in a cute kid image. Seriously, I am in love with these "thinkers" from Melonheadz. I resized and moved this image so it was on the edge of my page and part of her is a little bit cut off. I like when the images are cut off... just my style.

PowerPoint makes it so EASY to add effects to your images, clipart and shapes. To be honest, it is one of my favorite features! All of the options are underneath the format picture tab again. I decided to use a shadow with this image. You can click on the shadow options to adjust the color/size/blur/distance/transparency. I usually just adjust color or size. I added a black shadow and bumped up the size to 102%.

I decided that the background needed a black frame to make it pop. I added this by adding an outline to my digital paper. Select your paper, then click on the format picture toolbar. Click on where it says border and a variety of options pop up. You can select different colors, lines, weight etc. for your border.

Last step was to add a text box, change the fonts so they were cute and ta-da a quick little graphic.

Here are a few other tips that are handy to know about in PowerPoint when working with images.

1. Command + Z is a shortcut for undo.
2. Command + Y is a shortcut for redo.
3. When resizing an image by dragging its guide points, hold the shift key and drag from only the corner guide points. This will keep the proportions of your image intact so it doesn't get stretched out.
4. When you have an image selected, you can also adjust the transparency of it so that it is just a "faint" image. This is handy when you have a busy background that you want to not be as dramatic or if you are layering lots of images. Transparency is an option under the format picture toolbar.

I hope these graphic tips help you out when you are using PowerPoint to create different items for your classroom, blog or TpT store!

An InLinkz Link-up

Sunday Scoop {11/15/14}

The Sunday Scoop is based on the popular 3-2-1 graphic organizers so many of us use with our students. Tell us three things you HAVE to do, two things you HOPE to do, and one thing you're HAPPY to do (because these days, we could all use a little motivation to find something to be happy about every week!). It's a short and sweet way to connect with each other every Sunday (or Monday... the linky will stay open all week!)

Here's what to do:
1. Just save the image above, add your text to it (we use PowerPoint), and post! You don't even have to explain yourself any further if you don't want to.
2. Include the button above and a link to our  blog on your post.
3. Link our post up here on Sunday morning (or whenever :) )
4. Be a good blog reader, and leave some love for the two posts before yours!

Here's the Scoop on my week...

I was so proud of my Yearbook Club kids on Friday night at our Fall Festival! They did a great job of roaming around and taking pictures of the entire event. Now, I need to go through and delete the blurry ones so we can make some yearbook pages on Wednesday.

Wouldn't you know it, I finally caught my husband's cold on the one day I couldn't miss school - Fall Festival day. Hopefully the weekend will be enough to heal up and be ready for next week!

I HAVE to write lesson plans for this week, but I HOPE to also get my sub plans for next week done. We're leaving this weekend to head to my in-laws' for Thanksgiving.

What are you up to today? Link up and share!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Bright Ideas Round-Up!

Welcome to the November edition of the Bright Ideas Link-Up! This one is a special one! Over the past 10 months, teachers have shared thousands of great ideas through our monthly Bright Ideas event. This month, we’re re-capping all of those great ideas, just in case you missed any! Below you will find some of my bright ideas from the past several months:

We shared some great ideas for using dry erase... off of the whiteboard... You can check it out here.

In August, we shared three of our favorite back to school tips...

We shared how highlighters have saved our sanity...

A simple trick for decluttering your computer area...

 

And an easy way to help students remember all of their passwords...

I hope that you’ve enjoyed these bright ideas, and that you have found an idea that you can use in your own classroom. Be sure to check out the link up below for tons more bright ideas from my friends!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Tech Thursday: PowerPoint Photo Potential

Technology Thursday is a weekly linky dedicated to all things technology related. Share reviews of websites or apps you've tried, tech tips that make your {teaching or personal} life easier, and helpful tutorials. Our hope is that this linky provides a place for teachers to share and learn new ways to use technology and engage students!

Be a rule follower!
Rule #1: Include the image above and a link to our blog somewhere in your post.
Rule #2: Be a good blog reader...visit the two blogs who link up before you and leave some love on their pages!
Rule #3: This linky is not intended for product promotion. You may include products you've created in your posts, but they should not be the sole focus of the post.

I must admit that I have been more of an Excel person in the past.  I think we sometimes get stuck on a program and use it as our "go to" for everything.  That is how I was about Excel; I knew how to use the other Microsoft products but just ... didn't ....much.  Until this summer, I had only used PowerPoint for making a few presentations.

Wow! I didn't know what I was missing!  Being an Excel stuck in the mud, I have had to jump on a fast track trying to come up to speed on all the "potential" in PowerPoint.

Today, I am going to write about one of my favorite parts to PowerPoint.  I am going to blog on how to edit photographs or pictures.  This a really fast and easy way to get some fantastic effects on your photographs without having to learn an additional more complicated program like Photoshop.

We are going to focus on PowerPoint's Format tab and the Picture Tools.

The Picture Tools will appear when you have inserted a photo or clip art into your document and you have selected the object.  I'll just focus on photos now, but these effects can be done with any clip art. I will be using my beautiful daughter's volleyball photo for demonstration purposes.

PowerPoint Photo Basics

Just a note: these tips will vary slightly on a Mac.  I am a PC girl.

Cropping a Photo
Once you select your photo, you can crop the photo right in PowerPoint.  The Picture Tool tab will show up above the Format tab.

Select your photo.
Go to Picture Tools.
To the right, you can see the crop tool.
Click on the "crop" button and crop tools will appear on the edges of your photo.
Click and drag the tools to resize your photo.
Click again on the "crop" button to actually crop the photo.

Cropping a Photo into a Shape
Click on your image.
Click on the Picture Tool Tab.
Go to Crop and select the drop box this time.
Select "Crop to Shape" and choose the shape that you want.
Presto chango!

   

Correcting the Color 

Click on your photo image.
Click on the Picture Tool Tab.
Now direct your attention to the left side of the screen.
Select the Corrections button.

PowerPoint will show you what the picture will look like as you move over the mini pics.
Select the color corrections that you want and you are set!  The simple selections shown include Sharpening and Contrast.

Changing Colors

I particularly love black and white photos so I love this feature!

Click on the image.
Click on the Picture Tool Tab.
Again direct your attention to the left side of the screen.
This time select Color.

PowerPoint will show you what the photo will look like so make sure to hover over the mini pics before you choose.  The mini pics show simple choices such as Saturation, Tone, and Recolor.

Click to choose.

Even after you have changed the photo to black and white, you can click on the Color or Corrections buttons and find more ways to change your photo into the perfect image.

Artistic Effects

Click on the image.
Click on the Picture Tool Tab.
Direct your attention to the left side of the screen.
This time select Artistic Effects.
Mini pics will pop up with some cool changes for your photo.  Hover to see the effect on your pic.
Click on your favorite!  (BTW my daughter doesn't like these!)

   

Remove Background

Click on the image.
Click on the Picture Tool Tab.
Direct your attention to the left side of the screen.
Click on Remove Background.
A new menu will appear.

The new menu will give you the following options: Mark Areas to Keep, Mark Areas to Remove, Delete Mark, Discard Changes, and Keep Changes.

You use a fine point "pen" to move around the photo to select areas to remove or keep.  The pink areas are those that will be removed.  Please note that this tool works better on high contrast photos.

Here is the picture when I was finished. (Only a few minutes!  I promise!)

And here is the pic when I added layers of paper, graphics, and text!  This photo got the express approval of my daughter.  She loved it!

Hope these basic photo tips can help you in some way!

If you haven't already joined the PowerPoint "team" or are looking for a few new tricks, don't forget to keep reading our PowerPoint Potential series here on Teaching Trio!

An InLinkz Link-up