Teachit Timer

I recently did a post about Online Timers for the classroom. http://scottfirenza.blogspot.com/2014/01/online-classroom-timers.html

Since then I have discovered a new timer that is really cool and works really well.

 Teachit Timer allows you to set hours, minutes, and seconds to count down an needed time. You can also have the clock run beside it and set various sounds when the timer is done.

  http://www.teachit.co.uk/custom_content/Timer/clock3.html

How to take a Screen Shot

Many people ask how to make screen shots of their computer screen for various reasons. Here are some solutions I have used.

1.  TechSmith just came out with a free extension for the Chrome browser. Easy to use and a great option for those with ChromeBooks. After capturing your image in Chrome the image is saved in your Google Drive. Make sure to download the App and Extension, and of course the Chrome Browser.
http://www.techsmith.com/snagit-google-chrome.html

2. Purchase SnagIt for your computer. Works everywhere on your computer. http://www.techsmith.com/snagit.html

3.  Greenshot is a free and open source screenshot tool. It utilizes the print screen key on your keyboard to create the screen shot. Download from http://getgreenshot.org/

4.  SmartNotebook has a camera icon that will allow for screen shots to be entered directly into SmartNotebook.

5.  Go old school and just press the PrtScn Key (Print Screen) on your keyboard to take a snapshot of the entire screen and then use a photo editor (easy as using the paint program on your computer) to edit your image.

6.  With our Windows 7 computers we have in district you can also use the Snipping Tool that is built into Windows 7. Just go to your Start button, All Programs, the Accessories folder, and choose Snipping Tool. Now you can create a free form snip, a rectangular snip, a window snip, or a full screen snip.

If you have others you like to use, let me know in the comments section.

Pick the perfect color scheme

I will be the first one to admit that I am not the most artistic person. Never have been. In elementary school one time we had to color an Easter bunny coloring sheet (as a teacher I now those are keep busy keep quiet sheets). Mine was brown, scribbled, outside the lines... just a mess. The nicest thing my teacher said about it is that my bunny looked fuzzy. Definitely tried to make me feel better about my lack of talent.

These days when I have to put together a presentation, web page, logo, flyer... I use a couple of tools to help me with colors. I also recommend this to my online HS Web design class.

Color Schemer -  http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html
select your color and a selection of colors come up that look good with your original selection.
This also gives you the RGB and HEX codes for your color.


Color Scheme Designer - http://colorschemedesigner.com/
You can set just mono color, complement, triad... more stuff I don't totally know all about. You can also check for color blindness and get the RGB and CSS codes for your HTML. You can also see your color scheme against a light page example and a dark page example.



No more excuses for bad color combinations.