Adobe Education Leaders

I taught five years of math and science so I feel a bit out of my comfort zone writing this post. I was dabbling around with the Photoshop Elements 5.0 project creation tools when I stumbled on a neat interactive Flash photo gallery. The wizard allows for the easy creation of a “digital photo book.” The author can add photos, titles, and captions with a few clicks of a mouse; the reader can interact with the digital book by flipping the pages.
After a few strenuous minutes of deep thought (some people are marathon thinkers…I think more in short sprints), I figured the interactive book would make a great how-to writing activity. If I remember correctly, the how-to paper was an essential skill taught in my elementary and middle school days. It usually involved the following steps:
• Prewriting
• Drafting
• Revision
• Edit
• Publish
• Presentation
The interactive flip book would make a great prewriting activity for how-to papers. Students would create a digital photo gallery that would double as an outline for their how-to paper! After completing the “outline” (actually photo captions) they could add photographs using digital cameras. Finally, they could publish their projects to the web.
My finished example
See how it is done

Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional’s ability to use Microsoft Word’s mail merge functionality for PDF creation and email is both powerful and extremely useful.
Educators frequently send notes home that end up vanishing (usually found in a wad at the bottom of a backpack) before they find their way into the hands of parents. Why not distribute the notes via email and by hand? Acrobat 8 Professional makes it easy to email and print personalized correspondence using Microsoft Word mail merge technology.
At the beginning of each school year a teacher can spend a short amount of time creating an Excel database containing his students contact information. This small amount of work can yield high-dividends, as the teacher will be able to use (and reuse) the database to quickly create a letter in MS Word, personalize the letter with mail merge, and print and email the letter using Acrobat.
I often have teachers ask how I am able to “so quickly” distribute letters that include personalized student information. I smile and reply, “Work smart, not hard….let the computer do the work.”
Acrobat 8 Pro has the ability to use a Microsoft mail merge to generate and email PDF files to parents. Now parents have the option of receiving a letter via email or by hand (or both) with little extra energy from the teacher!
Check out this video tutorial to learn more about the process.