Basketball Practice and Game schedule posted!

Well folks! It's time for Hoop season! The VCS Vikings are hard at work preparing for the upcoming season which begins next week! Come and cheer on the boys and girls as they battle it out with their opponents on the basketball court. Go Vikings!

Download the Practice and Game Schedule HERE or click the "Sports Schedules" link to the right of this page. It is a PDF file so you will need the free Adobe Reader to view it.

Student Podcasts!

The kids are now creating podcasts and we've got some posted! They've been working hard a learning a lot! Many more coming soon. Check them out here!

Breakfast with Santa

Breakfast with Santa
Saturday, December 1st
8:00 to 10:00
Vassalboro Community School Cafe
Cost is $3 for Children and $3 for Adults

Santa will be there so come bring the children and get their picture taken with Santa. There will be crafts to do as well: Reindeer food, Christmas Mouse, Reindeer candy cane ornament, Holiday pin, Gift bag and Story time.

Breakfast includes pancakes and sausage.

Happy Thanksgving!

All of us at VCS would like to wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving! We certainly have a lot to be thankful for! Enjoy your time with family and friends!

Episode 3 of the TechTip podcast!

download episode 003 in MP3 format (plays on most common MP3 players and computers)

download episode 003 in OGG format (free and open source format high quality...works very well with Linux)

Ahh the magic of technology. I'm actually sitting in my pickup truck writing these show notes having just recorded the third podcast episode from the comfort of the drivers seat while I wait for my daughter to get out of basketball practice. Pretty cool huh? Know what else is cool? A great little Firefox Extension called Foxmarks. Foxmarks is a bookmark synchronizer. Check out the show notes for this episode to learn much more!

Flamingo raffle winner!

Mrs. Gram, the VCS assistant principal, donated a giant stuffed flamingo to be raffled off to raise money for the Vassalboro Food Pantry. Tickets were sold for 25 cents or 5 for a dollar. "I wanted to find a way for the kids to be able to be involved in donating to the food pantry", said Mrs. Gram. "We raised $55 for the cause!" Check out the image below of Mrs. Gram and the lucky winner!

Thanksgiving Dinner at VCS!

This may not be the case in many schools, but here at VCS the kids and staff simply LOVE the food! Our lunch program is AWESOME and the kitchen staff is incredible! Today we had a fantastic Thanksgiving Dinner with all the fixin's! The little mini pies were made by our wonderful kitchen staff...(no they did not come pre-made). Everyone got a pumpkin pie, lots of turkey....a bunch of cranberry sauce and much more! YUM! Hat's off to the lunch ladies for such a terrific meal...we're very lucky here at VCS! Check out the pics from our dinner.

Thanksgiving at VCS

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TechTip Podcast Episode 002!

download episode 002in MP3 format (plays on most common MP3 players and computers)

download episode 002 in OGG format (free and open source format high quality...works very well with Linux)

Today we're talking about setting up extensions and themes in Firefox. It doesn't matter whether you use Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X. Firefox is cross-platform and so are the extensions and themes! It's really easy...listen to the podcast and then check out the show-notes for links, screenshots, and more!

Click here for the show notes

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The TechTip Podcast!

Here is the first in what we hope will be many episodes of the TechTip Podcast! Episode One is all about "podcasts" and how you can have fun listening and learning! There are podcasts out there for everyone ranging from technology, news, hobbies, entertainment, celebrities, movies, music, comedy, and much more!

Listen to the podcast in MP3 format
Listen to the podcast in OGG format

(MP3 format will play on most computers, iPods, and other MP3 players. OGG is an open source high quality format that plays well on many audio players and computers...especially with Linux-based computers and audio players)

See the show notes for links and more information about this episode!

Typing reports on your home computer (Do's & Don'ts)

View and print original document...click here

Each year we run into many problems with kids typing their book reports and term papers on their home computers and then they are unable to print them here at school. In fact, this is so common I've decided to write this post in an effort to educate folks on what to do and what not to do.

STOP using Microsoft Works...(or at least save the document differently)

Many home computers come with Microsoft Works. This is an old consumer-grade program that ships with many computers as a cheap alternative to Microsoft Office. We do not advocate running out and spending a lot of money on MS Office, instead you have a couple choices. The first one is to use Microsoft Works, but to either print the document at home...or be sure to SAVE the document in MS Word format (.doc) or in plain text format (.rtf or .txt). You do this by selecting "file type" when using "Save As". The second (and preferred) alternative is to use OpenOffice. OpenOffice is free and open source....so you can download it and install it on your computer with absolutley "no worries". We use OpenOffice here at school. Simply go to http://www.openoffice.org....select "download OpenOffice" and then download the version for your version of Windows (XP or Vista). If you do not have a connection to the internet or if you have a very slow connection (dial-up)....simply send in a blank CD or $2 to cover the cost of a CD and I'll be happy to burn a copy for you.

STOP using floppy disks! (pretty please?)

Most new computers do not have floppy disk drives anymore. When your child brings in a report on a floppy disk....we usually have no way to read it as we don't have floppy drives in our computers. Floppy disks are no longer commonly used....they have been replaced with USB flash drives or thumbdrives. These can be purchased from us for $15 or you can buy them at any store like Walmart, Target, Staples...etc. They range in price from as low as $10 to as much as $60-$70 depending on the size you buy. Flash drives hold the equivalent of hundreds of floppy disks and are much easier to use. The images below show what the look like and how they insert into your computer (front or back....or side of laptop)