How much do I love Gmail? Let me count the ways...

Like many people, my Gmail inbox sometimes feels overwhelming. Too many emails which are not of immediate importance, perhaps group emails that I have delivered in daily digest format, alerts from social networking sites such as Twitter and Google+, just to name a few. I often worry that while rushing to delete unnecessary emails that I am going to accidentally delete an email from a friend or work colleague.

Google has provide a way to reconfigure your email box to automatically sort your incoming email into separate tabs depending upon several categories:

You decide which categories you want to turn on, then your incoming email is automatically sorted into the appropriate category. Social media emails go into Social, business emails go into Promotions, email from individuals goes into Primary. Email list subscriptions go into Forums. A flag at the top of each tab will alert you when you have new messages in that category. Want to move a message from a tab into your Primary tab? Simply click on the Star next to the email and the message will be moved.

I'm hoping this new tool will increase my efficiency in sorting through incoming messages! If you're interested in turning the feature on, here are directions:
1. Click on the Gear icon

2. Select Configure Inbox

3. Decide which tabs you wish to utilize. Place a checkmark next to them, along with a checkmark next to Include starred in Primary. Click on SAVE.

Return to your inbox and preview how it looks. Don't like the tabs? No problem, return to the gear, Configure Inbox option and uncheck all the boxes, your email box will return to the previous one big list style.

NEISD Teacher Web Resources

One of the life lessons I have learned the hard way is that when you leave an institution, your teacher web pages often are deleted. The following resources were created for NEISD teachers to assist them in using their Teacher Web system to schedule and send reminders to parents for teacher/parent/student conferences. Although the menu alignment has changed slightly since these videos were originally created, they detail the key components of the tools.

I have learned my lesson and now create everything on sites/blogs that I own/control, however I wanted to preserve the links to these videos for my former colleagues. I hope NEISD teachers will be able to take advantage of them in the future!

How to Use NEISD Teacher Web to Schedule Parent Conferences




How to Send Parent Conference Reminders via NEISD Teacher Web




How to Duplicate a Previously Created Teacher Conference Schedule

Stamping Images Using PowerPoint

If Paint isn't your speed, or if you have a large number of images that you want to collect all at one time, try using PowerPoint to stamp image credits onto your photos. Watch this movie for a demonstration:

Stamping Images on a Mac

How to use Preview to quickly stamp image credits onto photos using your Macbook.

Stamping Images Using Microsoft Paint

A movie I created demonstrating how to use Microsoft Paint to stamp image credit on photos.

Stamping Images Using Skitch on Your iPad

As part of my Digital Citizenship training for teachers that I am presenting this summer, I include a teach piece on different ways to stamp images with source credits.

Here is a movie that explains how to capture an image on your iPad and stamp it using the free app Skitch.