Public Domain Pictures

Don't forget to remind your students that not every picture on the internet is free for their own use.  There are ample sites that have public domain pictures available for your use:  Pixaby, Flickr, Wikimedia Commons, and Public Domain Pictures, to name a few.  However, if you don't want to search several different sites you can use the advanced feature that Google offers.  Go to Google and key in the search term, choose images, choose the gear shift (in the upper right hand corner), choose the advanced search and scroll all the way down to usage rights, select one of the free to use and share options that suits your preference.  This is a really handy way of selecting hundreds of photos that are available and free to use!

Free cloud storage options

Some of you have been asking about Cloud storage options for your files.  Cloud storage is an excellent option for backing up your data.  Some cloud storage sites even offer more free storage space than our school servers and they are free and accessible from anywhere.  I have listed a few options below.  I use DropBox, Google Drive and Sugar Sync but I have listed others that I have heard about and that offer even more space.



 






Name: Dropbox
Free cloud storage: 2GB

 

Name: Google Drive
Free cloud storage: 5GB 

Name: MediaFire
Free cloud storage: 50GB




 
Name: Microsoft SkyDrive
Free cloud storage: 7GB

Name: MiMedia
Free cloud storage: 7GB

.

Name: SpiderOak
Free cloud storage: 2GB










Name: SugarSync
Free cloud storage: 5GB









Name: Uploadingit
Free cloud storage: 5GB





Name: Symform
Free cloud storage: Up to 10GB






Name: Syncplicity
Free cloud storage: 2GB

Grant and Funding Resources

If you are interested in building a project for school and looking for funds you may be interested in the new site, GetEdFunding, developed to help educators and institutions find the funds they need to supplement budgets. GetEdFunding is a free resource, which hosts a collection of more than 1,000 grants and other funding opportunities culled from federal, state, regional and community sources and available to public and private, preK–12 educators, schools and districts, higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations that work with them.

Smartboard Troubleshooting

Symptoms	Solutions
Ready light on SmartBoard is red (Smartboard is receiving power but not communicating)	Unplug the USB cords, count to ten and plug back up.  Unplug the USB cord on laptop and try a different port.
Ready light on SmartBoard is blinking green (SmartBoard is communicating but the software is not working)	Reinstall the SmartBoard product drivers Software
Ready light is off (Smartboard is not receiving power)	1. Check USB connections.    2. Unplug the USB cord on Smartboard and try a different port on laptop.

Password Protection for your Macbook Pro 10.6.8

If you want to set up password protection so students can't use your laptop

Go to the Apple menu > System Preferences > Security > General

make sure there is a check next to the "Require Password" box

Checking your SPAM filter

Below are the directions for checking your quarantined email that has been caught in the SPAM filter

1.   In a web browser, navigate to https://sayreutm.sayreschool.org.  If prompted by a security certificate warning, click to continue, permanently storing the certificate if desired.  Bookmark the link.

2.      Log in with your username and network password.  This differs from our previous SPAM filter, which required your Groupwise password.  You will then see the welcome screen:

 

       

3.      Select the Mail Quarantine tab to view mail that has been quarantined.  The messages are listed according to the category by which they are flagged, such as Malware, SPAM, Expression, etc.  You can sort by sender/subject and/or received date.  If you see a message that you wish to allow, click the “Select action” drop-down button on the left of the message and select Release.

4.      From the drop-down menu, you can:

4.1.   View - opens a window with the contents of the message.  This allow you to determine whether or not it is SPAM.

4.2.   Download - downloads locally as an .eml file.  Useful if you intend to save the message for future reference or as a backup.

4.3.   Delete - Note, once deleted, it cannot be recovered.

4.4.   Whitelist sender - whitelisting marks the sender as safe and will allow delivery to your mailbox.  Useful if you frequently receive from a sender(s). Note: items that contain malicious content will always be quarantined, even if the sender is on the whitelist.

4.5.   Release – releases from quarantine to your mailbox.

4.6.   Release and report as a false positive - Similar to 4.4 above, with the additional step of reporting to our SPAM engine so it can be evaluated as safe.

    

5.      The Mail Log tab lets you view all messages sent to you, including delivered, quarantined and rejected items.  Delivered items will be highlighted in green, quarantined in yellow, and rejected in red.

5.1.   Note, you can only view items in the mail log.  If an item has been rejected, but it was something you needed, you may add the sender to your whitelist.  You may need to have the sender resend the message.  As long as it doesn’t actually have malicious content, it will pass through to your mailbox.

        

  

6.      On the Whitelist tab, click the “+” symbol to add email addresses or domains that you want to mark as safe, and allow into your mailbox.

6.1.   I.E., emailuser@domain.com or domain.com.

7.      Please note that even if a user or domain is in your whitelist, if there is any malicious content it will be quarantined.

8.      On the Blacklist tab, enter any addresses or domains from which you repeatedly receive SPAM.

9.      Select Log Out when you are finished.