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YOUR COMPUTER IS YOUR FRIEND!

Welcome to today's summer academy, Your Computer Is Your Friend. My plan for the today is to get you as comfortable as possible with these gorgeous MacBook Air as well as the operating system, internet platforms, and the included software. You will also learn about various can't miss resources and software that may be helpful to you in your daily life or as a teacher.

Care and Feeding of Your Laptop

This information comes directly from Apple's Support page.

1) When carrying your MacBook, in a bag or briefcase, make sure that you keep small objects such as paper clips, staples, and coins, away from your laptop. They can get lodged inside the ports or the disc drive and jam up the entire works. 2) Your power charger has a magnet on it that can erase digital data on your iPod, iPhone, MP3 player and credit card. Always keep the power adapter away from these items. 3) When cleaning your computer, make sure it is shut down first. If you're doing a deep clean, you should unplug it and detach the battery. Use a damp, soft, lint-free cloth to clean the computer’s exterior. Avoid getting moisture in any openings. Do not spray any type of liquid directly on the computer. Don’t use aerosol sprays, solvents, or abrasives. 4) To clean the screen, make sure the power is off. Use a damp, soft, lint-free cloth to clean it. Don't spray liquid onto the screen. 5) Never, ever leave your computer in a hot or cold car. It's very bad.

Desktop/Finder
That big space sitting on your screen right when you open it up is called your Desktop. Most likely this is where you have a lot of items sitting. The Desktop is being run by Finder. Finder allows you to access practically everything on you Mac, such as documents, folders, and disk drives.

One of the absolute best things that you can do to keep your computer running faster is to not store every file and folder on your desktop. Store them in the MacIntosh HD. The more items that sit on your desktop, the slower the processor is going to run. Some try the trick of putting a folder on the desktop and then throwing everything in there. It makes no difference to your computer whether you have 99 individual items or a folder with 99 items in it. It slows down your machine the same. So keep that desktop clear. Use your hard drive - you can put millions of items in there - or get an external hard drive and put things on there.

KEEPING THAT HARD DRIVE ORGANIZED When you open up your MacIntosh HD (hereafter called the Hard Drive), you will hopefully see a sidebar. There may be a Favorites section, Devices, Shared, and Tags. If not, we will fix it. In my Favorites, I keep AirDrop, Applications, Desktop, Documents, Downloads, and Teacher. I don't worry about anything else. You can change your view at any time as well as change whatever is in the sidebar.

Overy my 18 years of teaching in both music and computer, I've both created and collected thousands of resources. I try to keep them organized in folders. Yes, it takes a lot of time and effort, but one of the best ways we can teach our students is to model behaviors. Start teaching them how to organize by showing them how organized you are.



Now, it's entirely possible that you may forget what a document is called or where you put it. It happens all the time! You can simply do a spotlight search. Hold down Command-Spacebar and type in anything you remember about the document - even if it's a phrase. Spotlight will search the entire computer and any attached drives for those phrases or words.

==Saving/Folders == // **Saving Documents** // Be careful with long file names. The server doesn’t like that. Also, don’t use spaces in a file name. They get corrupted more easily. Also, do not use / or - in file names.

// **Using folders** // Divide your documents into folders (Go to file --> New Folder): Chapter One or Geology Civil War Divide your “Major” folders into “Smaller” folders. For example: Folder “8th Grade Computers” has folders within titled “Powerpoint”, “Word”, “Keyboarding”.

// **Where to Save** //
 * Desktop ** - this should be working documents
 * Documents ** - easy access. This is the best place to save on your machine. To get there, double click on the hard drive (Macintosh HD) and find Documents on the left.
 * Server ** - for professional files only. (IEP’s, Lesson Plans, Tests, Etc). Do not put photos, music, or movies on your server folder.
 * External Hard Drive, CDs, or Pen Drive ** . It’s always good to have an external source to save your documents to. Some teachers burn their documents to a blank CD, others copy them on to a pen drive or external hard drive. 4GB pen drives are usually around $10 and you can usually buy a 500GB external hard drive for under $80. The best time to get these items are around Christmas, Tax Refund Time, and Father’s Day and Back To School. Obviously, these will come out of your own pocket, but they are worth it.

// **Saving to the Server** // Connect to the Server. In Finder, click on the Go Menu and choose Connect To Server. You will need your email username and password. Drag your documents or folders from your computer to the server. Quit and close the application before saving to the server. Do not drag the Macintosh HD icon from the desktop or server. It is best to drag items from the server to the machine to work. Do not try to work directly from the server. This will slow down the network for everyone and also make work very slow for you.

System Preferences This is where you can really begin to customize your MacBook. Just as you might think, these are extremely personal in nature. What works best for me, is often not what might work best for you. We're going to go through these one at a time and look at what each one will do.



Force Quit
Sometimes an application refuses to run properly and it gets frozen. This often happens when trying to open too many applications at once, or when a script is not running effectively online. You should only Force Quit when absolutely necessary. Doing so will lose any unsaved changes. There are several different ways to Force Quit. You can go up to your Apple Menu, choose Force Quit and then choose the application you want to close. You can hold down your Option-Click on the application in your Dock and choose the Force Quit option. Lastly, hold down Command-Option-Shift-Esc for three seconds to quit the front most application. A quick tip - whenever I have to Force Quit an application, I always restart my computer. Restarting your computer fixes 97.15% of computer problems. Also, 67.42% of statistics are made up! ||

==Photo Booth == Photo Booth is an application that lets you use the built-in iSight camera to take pictures or video. It's important to know how to use this because the students do and you may have to fix problems within it. Within Photo Booth you can add effects. You have to add the effects first before you take a photo or video. It will even do green-screen effects with built-in backgrounds/video, or you can add your own. Pick a neutral background and step out when it tells you!

Stickies
Stickies is an application on your Mac that functions as digital post-it notes. I have them turned off of all the student laptops in my building - otherwise, the students will write notes to each other. For myself, I use them to store information, including internet passwords (NEVER MY MAIN COMPUTER PASSWORD OR NETWORK PASSWORD), books I need, items I don't want to forget, to-do lists and more. If you use Stickies to store passwords, make sure you export them every now and again and save them. Very important!

==Disk Utility == Open up MacIntosh HD>Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility. This can do various operations. I run Disk Utility quarterly (more often if the computer is being funny). Select your disk, then click Verify Disk Permissions. When that is done, Repair Disk Permissions. This is slightly similar to defragmenting your hard drive on a PC. This can take a while, so be patient. You can also use this to create Disk Images and to Burn folders to CDs.

==Keyboard Shortcuts == Why use keyboard shortcuts? 'Cause they're faster. And awesome. Refer to this cheat sheet: .
 * [|Details]
 * [[file:pugsteacherhelp/MacOSX-Shortcuts-PocketMod.pdf|Download]]
 * 93 KB

You can print it out and carry it like a little booklet.

Zidget
Zidget allows you to add printers within the district. Open up Firefox, Safari, or Chrome and type Zidget in the address bar. Just that word. Follow the instructions on the screen and you'll be able to print to various printers like a champ.

==Help Desk == To access the Help Desk type the word "helpdesk" (no quotes) into the Firefox or Safari browser. Just that word. You will have to login with your network username and password. Then figure out what your problem is. I mean your computer problem. Do not call up Tech and Media, it just slows down the whole process. Once you fill out the forms, the system generates a work ticket to the appropriate tech and media person. They will contact you and tell you what your next step is. Often, it's to box it up and have it sent to ACE. If it's your machine, they will send you a loaner. Have problems fixed, don't go on with a broken machine.

==Changing Your Network Password == You will now actually have to use the HelpDesk website. At school, just type in helpdesk into your web browsers URL bar. There is a link on there to go to the Password Reset Site Please note, if it is your first time using this, you will need to use the Password Enrollment Site first. Your password must be between 6 and 8 characters and they cannot repeat within 365 days. Your password may contain letters, numbers, symbols, and are case sensitive. Your password should not be something easily associated with you. Do not share any of your passwords with anyone. Failure to do so will result in a Board Policy 815 violation. Do not write your password down on a sticky note and set it on your laptop. The students will find it.

==Backing Up == I'm going to go slightly off topic and talk about backing up your photos. If you have photos stored on your laptop, it is critical that your have them backed up somewhere else. Your digital photos are the only item on your computer that you can't replace if your computer would crash. You can't get them back. There are several different ways to back up - you can burn your photos to a CD or DVD, store them on an external hard drive or pen drive, or use online photo storage.

// **Burning to a CD or DVD** // you will need to purchase an external DVD drive. There are some here.

// **External hard drives** // come in many different formats. You can have a portable one, which would run off of your computers' power, and can often cost more and hold less. Or you can have a standard external hard drive which plugs into an outlet. This is totally up to you. Most standard hard drives are much sturdier, but you can't transport them too easily. You want to make sure you have a MacIntosh compatible hard drive. Western Digital probably makes the best external hard drives and you can see several right here. The cost for external storage has decreased dramatically in the last five years. It used to cost around $1 per GB of space, now they are much less. The best times to purchase an external hard drive is Back-to-School, Father's Day, and around Christmas, particularly Black Friday. I was able to purchase my 1 TB external hard drive for $59.99 at Target (but I did have to be in the store at 5 am with all the crazies!).

// **Online photo storage** // can range from free to costing between $25-$100/year. I store my photos online at several places. My fallback is Facebook. You can set any photo so that only you can view it. Facebook does downgrade the quality of the photo slightly, but in a pinch you still have them and it's free. Flickr is initially free.

==Help Feature == The best way to find out how to do anything is to use the Help feature built into every Apple Application. Go under that window and start typing what you're looking for. If that doesn't work, Google the problem. Between these two steps, I find the answers to most of my questions and the questions of teachers and students.

==<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Moodle/GoogleDocs/Wikispaces ==

You can request your own Moodle Course from Shannon Ziegler. Google Docs allows students to create and collaborate word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings. They can share them with anyone with an email address including you. What a super easy way to collect work! It runs very similarly to Microsoft Office and Apple's iWork suite, it just lacks some of the power.

Wikispaces is an easy to create web site. I use this much more than my district website. You can create one within District Moodle or create one through Wikispaces itself. The site you are on right now was created through the district's private label Wikispaces account.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Internet
To add a bookmark in either Firefox, Safari, or Chrome you can just use Command-D or drag it into the bookmark bar. I like to keep my bookmarks organized into subjects, because I have so many.

To create a new Tab, just use Command-T. I usually have 5 or six tabs running at a time.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 160%;">Screenshots

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How to take a screenshot of your entire screen

 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Press Shift-Command (⌘)-3.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Find the screenshot as a .png file on your desktop.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How to take a screenshot of a selected portion of your screen
> While dragging, you can hold Shift, Option, or Space bar<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> to change the way the selection moves. >
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Press Shift-Command-4. The pointer changes to a crosshair.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Move the crosshair to where you want to start the screenshot, then drag to select an area.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">When you've selected the area you want, release your mouse or trackpad button. To cancel, press the Esc (Escape) key before you release the button.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Find the screenshot as a .png file on your desktop.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How to take a screenshot of a window
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Press Shift-Command-4. The pointer changes to a crosshair.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Press the Space bar<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">. The pointer changes to a camera.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Move the camera over a window to highlight it.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Click your mouse or trackpad. To cancel, press the Esc (Escape) key before you click.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Find the screenshot as a .png file on your desktop.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This works with windows in the Finder and most apps.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">How to take a screenshot of a menu
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">These steps capture the contents of a menu, but not its title:
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Click the menu to reveal its contents.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Press Shift-Command-4. The pointer changes to a crosshair.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Drag to select the menu.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Release your mouse or trackpad button. To cancel, press the Escape ( esc<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">) key before you release the button.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Find the screenshot as a .png file on your desktop.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Click the menu to reveal its contents.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Press Shift-Command-4. The pointer changes to a crosshair.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Press the Space bar<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">. The pointer changes to a camera.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Move the camera over the menu to highlight it.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Click your mouse or trackpad. To cancel, press the Esc (Escape) key before you click.
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Find the screenshot as a .png file on your desktop.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">To Screencast

> >  >  >  >
 * 1) <span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.5); color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Launch QuickTime Player and choose File, New Screen Recording (the keyboard shortcut is Control, Command, N).
 * 1) <span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.5); color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Press the Record button.
 * 1) <span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.5); color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">A screen with additional instructions will appear. Choose Start Recording and begin your tutorial.
 * 2) <span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.5); color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">When you’re finished, click on Stop Recording on the Menu Bar.
 * 1) <span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.5); color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">To edit your recording, click on the arrow on the right side of the QuickTime controller at the bottom of the window and choose Trim.
 * 1) <span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.5); color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Drag the handles to select only the frames you want to keep in your recording.
 * 1) <span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.5); color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">When you’re happy with your selection, choose Trim. The grayed out frames will be removed from the beginning or end of your recording.
 * 2) <span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.5); color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">To save your edited tutorial, choose File, Save As.
 * 3) <span style="background-color: rgba(255,255,255,0.5); color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Select a format and save location, then choose Save. Your tutorial will be ready for upload to a website where students can access it.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;"> <span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Awesome Websites
TinyUrl - allows you to shrink a long website into something much shorter and easier for students to copy down/type. Keepvid - allows you to save video from Youtube Free Technology for Teachers - this site is a treasure trove of fantastic resources. While I've never even been able to go into 1/1000th of the information on here, I look forward to trying new techniques. Apple Support Apple Support Communities Kathy Schrock's Guide For Educators Powerpoint Game Templates Internet4Classrooms MacIntosh How To Teachers Pay Teachers Pinterest ReadWriteThink Math Interactives

==<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">My Favorite Applications (for Personal Use and Classroom) == Keynote Pages Numbers GarageBand Photos iTunes Chrome iMovie Gimp ComicLife Boxer FX Photo Studio iBooks Lego Digital Designer Monolingual Snapheal Astropad Monosnap Mousepose

==<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">My Favorite Places to Buy and Legally Get Free Music == Amazon MP3 - don't forget to check out their monthly $5 albums here! iTunes eMusic

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Downloading From Youtube

Open up Firefox. Search for add-ons. Click on that link and search for Youtube Downloader. Click Add To Firefox. Restart Firefox. Then you can open up Firefox, go to Youtube, and click the download button underneath.

<span style="font-family: "Arial Black",Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">My Favorite Google Extensions

Google Bookmark Manager Google Art Project Trump Filter This Is Fake Magic Actions For Youtube Honey Spoiler Shield EasyBib Grammarly Google Dictionary Google Translate

The final topics, if we have time, are below. I will go over any questions you may have.

Email

District Teacher Pages

Google Earth

iLife/iWork/Comic Life (if time)