Ramblings 5

Baggetta_Ware Ramblings October 1, 2007
Volume V

Hi, folks. Wow! Didn't September just fly by? Hope you are all enjoying your new classes and getting into some interesting work. I've got another idea I used to use to introduce new subjects to my classes, that I want to pass on to you. It deals with using the power of advertising to grab your kids' attention. Of course, I have another free monthly software download to tell you about. Just in time for OCTOBER and HALLOWEEN. It's called Ghost Writer for Windows PC. It's a little fun game you can install on your Windows computers around Halloween and let your student practice some new words. It also makes a fun class if you have a projection system or Whiteboard to use in your classes. It's available now at our website. I've started two new sections in the Ramblings. The first is called Teacher Humor. I'm always receiving lists of teacher jokes, as a retired teacher, and they often remind me of the humor that was inherent in the job. So I'll pass along a few to maybe brighten your day. The second new section is Famous Quotations. Perhaps you will be able to use some of these in your classes. I liked posting these on the blackboard and let them just sit there for students to mull over. Writer's Almanac alerts you to some writers who were born in the month of October. I would also like to take this opportunity to let Baggetta_Ware users know about an update available for The Anything Academic Test Generator. We've had lots of requests to do something about generating multiple choice tests, so we've added this feature to the program. We also hope to do this for all of our test generators in the future, so read below and stay tuned. We've also got a new stand-alone program that will allow teachers of any subject to quickly generate many variations on multiple choice questions. We cover that below too.

Send your emails to abaggetta@comcast.net. Read on and see what this rambling is all about.

Have a great month.
Best,
Al Baggetta

Using the Power of Advertising To Grab Your Students' Attention
Did you ever notice those small ads in the newspaper that keep appearing daily, usually in different parts of the paper. They usually are some cryptic message like "Going To the Ball This Year?" or "I'm One -- how about you?" Well, they certainly grab your attention so that whenever you get a new newspaper you begin to wonder if there's going to be another today -- perhaps with some more detail, and what the heck is this all about? You find out eventually that these ads were the precursor for some major event that was being held in your town, or some new product has come into the market. Movie studios use these "teasers" quite often to prep an audience for a new film. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. Most importantly it grabs your attention like a magnet grabs some metals.

    The reason I mention this is that I used to use this little trick in my classes to get the students prepared for an up coming subject. For example, I might be planning a unit of grammar (Yetch! I hear in the background), maybe studying participles or some other distasteful subject. Well I'd start early, long before I started the lessons in class, by placing a small poster outside my classroom door (I'd get there early so it was easy to post this when nobody was around). If we were going to lead into participles, for example, I might put just a cryptic message like: "Don't misplace these." It's amazing what interest a phrase like this will generate amongst your students.
     Kids would come into class: "Ok, Baggetta, what's this sign all about?"
     I, of course, would play dumb. "What sign?"

They'd explain to me what sign they were talking about, and I of course would play dumb and dumber until finally they'd lead me out in the hall to show me.

Then I would give them a smile -- but no answer. And so it would go.

I'd leave the sign up for several days and then mysteriously replace it with another: "The Dangers of Dangling." This of course would arouse even more interest.

Eventually we'd get to the point where I'd introduce the lesson -- never mentioning the signs, of course -- and it was always interesting to see the "light bulbs" go on when the kids realized that they were actually studying about participles all along and didn't realize it.

Like the movie mogul's teasers -- Sometimes the response was good, sometimes not so good -- but it grabbed their attention. Give this a try in your classes and let me know how it works out for you.

Teacher Humor (Beware: Some are a bit corny)

Mother: Does your teacher like you?
Son: Like me, she loves me. Look at all those X's on my test paper!
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Teacher: How can you make so many mistakes in just one day?
Pupil: I get up early!
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Mother: How do you like your new teacher?
Son: I don't. She told me to sit up the front for the present and then she didn't give me one!
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The Winter Break was over and the teacher was asking the class about their vacations. She turned to little Johnny and asked what he did over the break.
"We visited my grandmother in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania," he replied.
"That sounds like an excellent vocabulary word," the teacher said. "Can you tell the class how you spell 'Punxsutawney'?"
Little Johnny thought about it and said, "You know, come to think of it, we went to Ohio."

Here's one you can tell our classes:

The Chicken With Three Legs

The farmer smiled. "Dunno. Haven't been able to catch one yet."

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Important News: Baggetta_Ware now supports instant downloads when you order programs using Pay Pal or your credit card via Pay Pal. Now you don't have to wait to get your programs. Click "RETURN TO MERCHANT OR RETURN TO BAGGETTA_WARE" and you will be delivered to a page from which you can download your purchase immediately.
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Famous Quotations

Francis Bacon: Aim Quotes
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

    Mark Twain: Challenge Quote
    Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by
    the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade
    winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover

Will Rogers: Decision Making Quotes
Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.

Aristotle: Inspirational and Motivational Joy Quotes
Pleasure in the job put perfection in the work.

Henry Ford: Inspirational and Motivational Joy Quotes
Profit is a by-product of work; happiness is its chief product.

    Greatness Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
    To be great is to be misunderstood.

More to come next month.

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Important News: Baggetta_Ware NEVER charges for UPGRADES. If we fix or improve a program you can
download it for free with proof of purchase. Most companies thrive on the money they make from upgrades, but we feel you should have the security of a well running program from the start, so we offer upgrades and fixes at no charge. Hey! We make mistakes like everyone else, but we also make amends.
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Ghost Writer -- Free Program of the Month
   Just in time for Halloween!

Install this program on your computers and let your kids have some fun learning new horrific words (words that are familiar in everyday use). Lots of tension, graphics, and sound effects for your kids to get their fangs... oops! minds into.

Makes a great class program, too, if you have a projection unit or a Whiteboard. Presents new words for vocabulary. Fun to use and free from Baggetta_Ware this month. Go to our main page www.baggetta.com to download.

WRITER'S ALMANAC
This is a partial list of some of the more well-known authors born in the month of October. Familiarize your students with them.

Oscar Wilde, born October 16, 1854
Noah Webster, born October 16, 1758

Katherine Mansfield, Born October 14, 1888
e. e. Cummings, Born October 14, 1894
John Kenneth Galbraith, Born October 15, 1908
Mario Puzo, Born October 15, 1921

Instructional Step-By-Step Videos Available for Download from Baggetta_Ware – No Charge.

We have some instructional videos on our website, so if you'd like to view them, go to the Baggetta_Ware Computer Lessons via our main page. Just click on the logo and start viewing. You can download the files to your machine if you like (use right click and Save Target), and you can even download a printed version of the video, if you need to slowly study it. Most of the material is relatively simple and geared toward new users of Windows and our programs, but anyone is welcome to view and comment.
Coming next month: We are preparing a series of tutorials for users of My Classroom Library. These will be appearing on the lesson page as well. If you are on our mailing list, we will let you know as soon as we post them.
Fix Completed: One of our users has kindly alerted us to a link error on the lesson's page, in last month's addition on how to download educational videos from YouTube.com. We suggested the GOM player but gave the incorrect web address. We've fixed that so you can now go directly to their site from the link we've posted in the lesson.

New Upgrade Available for The Anything Academic Test Generator. If you already own this program and are using it, please send us an email with your purchase information, and we will send you the link to the upgrade (which we offer free to previous owners). The new upgrade will allow you to add a list of multiple choice questions and answers and then generate dozens of variations on these questions, answers, or questions and answers. You can use The Anything Academic Test Generator to create tests or worksheets for any subject. DEMO version is available for new teachers who are interested.

Another NEW Test Generator -- My Multiple Choice Test Maker

Many of our test generator users have been asking for a multiple choice test generator that will take a list of questions and answers and produce tests or worksheets, in many variations from the same list of questions. Well, we've done it with My Multiple Choice Test Maker.

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DEMO DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE
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If you are a teacher you will want to have My Multiple Choice Test Maker at your fingertips. Wouldn’t you like to be able to type up a multiple choice test and then be able to take that test and change the order of the sentences and/or the choices, instantly? Wouldn’t you like to be able to quickly make a different test on the same topic for each of your classes without having to retype everything again? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to outwit those less than honest students by giving each a test different than they learned about in a previous class? Well, with My Multiple Choice Test Maker you can do these tasks very easily, and each test or worksheet that you produce will have its own answer key – and you can set up the key to match the word choices or the letter choices.

My Multiple Choice Test Maker has the ability to create multiple choice tests built from a list of questions and answers you prepare for your specific class and topic. The file of questions is saved to your computer and then used by the program at your command. These lists are easy to prepare, and we have even included a simple-to-use question and answer editor for your convenience.

Bye, For Now
Well. This brings us to another conclusion of my Ramblings. Hope you enjoyed this issue, and please send me your comments and ideas for future issues. Remember to come and visit us at Baggetta_Ware. We have lots of interesting Windows software for student reading and teacher Classroom Management. Also be sure to check out our Literary Test Generators -- the programs that will allow you to quickly generate hundreds of tests or worksheets and variations as well. We also have Social Studies, Grammar, and the versatile Anything Academic Test Generator, for teachers of any subject (see new upgrade info above). For those who need ready-made tests, take a look at our newest section called Literary Exams with dozens of tests ready to go.

We'd like to spread the news about Baggetta_Ware and we hope that you will help us. We also have another software gift for you, if you recommend our site to one of your colleagues or friends. Just click the button on our main page and you can fill out the simple form. We won't nag your friends, but if they are interested they can come and visit us too. Thank you for your help.

Al Baggetta