I stumbled across a neat tool to help you search for a book/item in your local library. The basic gist of the thing is that if you are viewing a page which contains the items ISBN in the URL, you can simply click on a bookmarklet in your toolbar, which will automatically search for the ISBN on your local libraries catalogue (of course, you must set it up to search your library). I took the opportunity to create a bookmarklet for the University of Regina’s library:
U of R LookUp
If you drag the above bookmarklet into your browser toolbar, and then click on it when viewing an Amazon, BN, ISBN.nu, All Consuming, or any other page for which the ISBN of an item is included in the URL, a new window will be opened and automatically search the University of Regina library for that item. Pretty handy, I think.
Note:
If the bookmarklet above is not working for you, you can try the equivalent from a post on Alec’s blog.
One great feature of Mac OS X is the ability to customize your keyboard shortcuts in ANY application. An incredibly handy feature to save some extra time when you have a frequently used menu item. The way to set up these keyboard shortcuts is through the “Keyboard & Mouse” preferences panel in your System Preferences. Click on the “Keyboard Shortcuts” tab, and you can edit any existing shortcuts, or click on the “+” button to create a new shortcut.
I have really enjoyed using this feature to save myself some time. However, I did run into problems when attempting to assign keys to AppleWorks (which is a Carbon application, not Cocoa). The shortcut would appear beside the menu item, and the menu would flash when I hit the shortcut keys, yet the command would not be executed. If anyone knows of a way around this shortcoming of Carbon apps, I’d be interested to hear it.
I ran across this site (simpsonsmath.com) today, which is a compilation of mathematical references made in the Simpsons. Not only that, but there are also a few pre-made classroom activities. Very neat way of engaging your students.
You may also want to check out the Mathematics on Futurama site.
Much of the material is suited toward higher level mathematics, but some of it could easily be used in an advanced high school classroom.
As you can see (if you have visited before), this site is undergoing some major redesign changes. Please excuse the dead links (will be fixed soon, hopefully…), and enjoy the new look!
