Instructify

BY: REBECCAH HAINES

Has this situation ever happened to you? You’ve gotten word of a last-minute assembly at school. The daily schedule is about to change, and your classes will only last 30 minutes. That awesome inquiry lab you had planned for today is just not going to make it. So what do you do now? When I’m in this situation I often turn to the Graphic Organizers at Eduplace.com.

We all use graphic organizers. They help students make meaning of text and organize their thoughts. And as described in the situation above, they can be pulled into a lesson quickly to make it a more meaningful learning experience. (more…)

PDF to Word, recently out of closed beta and now in open beta, touts itself as “The Most Accurate PDF-to-Word Converter.” There are many PDF to Word conversion utilities, both for pay and for free, available on the web these days, but none of the free tools handled pdf files like PDF to Word does. This service handled everything I threw at it.  Many of the other conversion utilities are unable to convert any special formatting or images contained in the PDF files, but it seems PDF to Word had no trouble in handling these items.

Back in January of 2008, Instructify reviewed a free application called Free PDF to Word Converter.  One clear advantage that PDF to Word has over this app, and the many others that are available, is that PDF to Word is online. There is nothing to download or install. This is especially important in many education settings where the installation of software is prohibited. In the one test I tried with Free PDF to Word Converter, I attempted to convert a PDF report from Google Analytics. PDF to Word Converter failed and told me that the file is either corrupt or encrypted (neither is true.) PDF to Word handled the conversion perfectly.

PDF to Word is a far superior product to any others that I tested. The ease of use and the fact that it’s online and free, make it, by far, the best utility available for PDF to word conversion. -JERRY SWIATEK

PDF to Word

Related stuff:

Liberate your documents with Free PDF to Word Converter

Edit PDF files online for free with PDFVue

Zamzar: the easy file converter with an exotic name

Have you ever received or found a PDF file that you needed to make a few changes to, but either you didn’t have Adobe Acrobat or had no clue how to use that application? Yeah, me too. There are tons of services that allow you to convert those pdf files to Word documents, but the formatting always seems to get screwed up. That’s why it was so exciting to hear of a brand-new online service from the folks at Docudesk called PDFVue.

With PDFVue you can upload any document from any computer without having to have expensive software. Once you’ve made your changes you can simply download the updated PDF or share its secure PDFVue link.

Using this great tool could not be any easier. Upload your PDF file, mark it up with additional text, links, change colors or add sticky notes. You can also add additional images or forms options such as radio buttons, drop down boxes or text boxes. Then, click the share button to share your document with anyone you choose or click the download button to download your new document to your computer. It’s really that simple.

The service is still in beta, so there may be the occasional bug here or there, but in all of the testing I’ve done, it has worked flawlessly. The end result is a clean, very professional-looking new PDF file.

Still unsure? Check out their Quick Start Guide here. -JERRY SWIATEK

PDFVue.com

Related stuff:

Share writing projects with millions of people with Scribd

Zamzar: the easy file converter with an exotic name

Liberate Your Documents with Free PDF to Word Converter

Securely share your files online with Adobe Share

Teachers have a lot to do on any given day, and it can be difficult to find time to sit down and create nice, simple worksheets that perfectly complement your lesson plans or design calendars to help organize both you and your students. Butthanks to the Internet, there are tons of resources you can take advantage of to make your tough job a little bit easier.

The Worksheet Library is an online resource full of worksheets, calendars, planners, newsletter templates, bookmarks and tons of other useful materials on subjects like math, science, and language arts to use in your kindergarten through sixth grade classroom. You can check out more than 500 materials available on the site for free (all the free worksheets are designated with the little “free” icon next to them), and you can sign up for their free weekly worksheet which is conveniently sent directly to your e-mail.

As an added bonus, the site also offers free teaching tip articles for grades K through 6 on topics like report card comments, time-saving advice, and icebreaker exercises, which are useful to both novice and experienced teachers alike.

To reap all the benefits of the site, you do need a membership, though you should be able to find enough free stuff to be worth your while. And they add new materials each week, so there’s always something new to check out!

We know you’re busy, so let the Internet do a little bit of the work now and again. Really, it doesn’t mind! – LAUREN FROHNE

Worksheet Library

Related Stuff:
It Doesn’t Get Much Worsely
Print Calendars for Your Students
Organize Your Life with Printable Planner Forms