Moving On…

movingon.jpg

I have some good news. I have accepted a job as a technology resource teacher in a local high school. I start in August, and I am so happy I’m bordering on giddy. The school is in the same county as Byrd (where Tom and I currently work), and Tom and I expect to collaborate on some new projects.

As you know from previous posts, our middle schools students work on iBooks. Our high schoolers, on the other hand, work on Dells. This will be a challenge for me. I haven’t work on a Windows machine in quite a while, so this is a call for help. I need to know the places to go to find interesting 3rd party software and freeware. How have you modified your machine to maximize your time and productivity? If you are working on two different platforms (Mac/PC), how do you live in these two different worlds with some sense of harmony? Any advise would be relished!

3 thoughts on “Moving On…

  1. I, for one, am very excited that you are going to be a trainer! Congratulations Jim! We’re going to have a great year next year!

  2. Jim;
    Congratulations! Your new school is getting a gem. Keep looking for each child’s unique gifts, let them know what you see, encourge their gifts to come forward. Plant seeds that will bloom over their lifetimes.
    In appreciation,
    pete

  3. Must Have Software (for the transition from Mac to PC):

    Windows PhotoStory – Cool program for creating dynamic slide shows with the Ken Burns Effect. I think it’s actually better than iMovie for this (check my blog for some student work).
    http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

    Audacity – I know you can use this on a Mac as well, but without Garage Band, this is the program to use for audio recording.
    http://audacity.sourceforge.net

    ComicBook Creator – Not as cool as Comic Book Life, but is a reasonable replacement (not free though) http://www.mycomicbookcreator.com/

    WinXP PowerToys – TweakUI and Image Resizer are a must. Now that I’m looking at this again I see some others that may have potential.
    http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

    Irfanview – Lightweight image editor/converter. It will do batch conversions.
    http://www.irfanview.com/

    Picasa – Basically iPhoto from google.
    http://picasa.google.com/

    CutePDF – Free pdf creator. It just acts like a printer. You need both the app and the converter, so say yes when it asks.
    http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

    Foxit Reader – A very light weight PDF reader. I don’t even install Acrobat Reader anymore. It has become bloatware.
    http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

    Real Alternative – A real player alternative. Get this instead of Real Player. Trust me on this real player is very intrusive on windows machines.
    http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm

    Pidgin – Used to be Gaim. This is a great opensource IM client.
    http://pidgin.im/pidgin/home/

    Nero – Not free. Nero is my favorite suite for burning CDs or DVDs. I got mine really cheap from surpluscomputers.com (they sell OEM copies)

    That’s all I can think of for now…

    Good luck with the transition. I just went the opposite way last year.

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