Christmas with the Kids...

Christmas  is a very special time in the primary classroom...We put up the decorations, we sing carols, we prepare for the Christmas pageant...Most teachers will tell you that this is the term they enjoy the most.

Here are three of  my favourite Christmas-Themed websites, with a short description of each. Enjoy!

• http://www.northpole.com/:  Quite a good website, and will keep students of all ages entertained for hours...Click on the village houses to access the different activities available...Children can listen to stories, read about the Elves, watch the North Pole weather forecast, send e-postcards to each other and even send a letter to Santa Himself!

• http://www.whychristmas.com/:  For slightly older students, this websites explores different Christmas traditions around the world, with more stories to read, activities and fun games.  A special thank you to my colleague Marica Saliba for pointing this site out to me (thanks a lot!)

• http://www.claus.com/village.php:   This is another Christmas-Village themed site, where the children click on the different houses in order to read Santa's Posts, discover who is 'naughty' and who is 'nice', learn all about the Elves and the Reindeers and play Christmas-Themed games.

I hope your children enjoy these websites as much as mine did...Have fun !

Change of Passwords

Earlier this week, teachers currently teaching in state schools have received a notification asking them to change their internet/e-mail password.  This is necessary for security reasons.

I've had a couple of e-mails from my friends telling me that they could not access their e-mails (****@educ.gov.mt accounts) or unfilter internet sites at school.  For the benefit of all, here is a list of step-by-step instructions:

Scenario 1:  If you received the notification and have not been locked out of the system as yet...

1. Go to http://mail.gov.mt
   
2. When prompted,  enter corp/, followed by your username in the username line, and your password in the password line.
3. Outlook Express will load for you.
4. Click on 'Options'.  It is on the bottom left hand side of the page.
5. Scroll down until you see the 'Change Password' tab.  Click on it.
6. A blue dialog box will show up on the screen.
7. In the domain field, write corp.root.gov.mt
8. Write your username (without using corp/), your old password, your new password, and confirm your new password.
9. Click on OK to save your settings.  
10. Log out and log in again to test your new password.

Scenario 2:  If you haven't used your password for a while and have already been locked out of your account....(HELP!!!)

1. Enter the following URL in the address bar:  http://mail.gov.mt/password
2. You will see a blue dialog box.
3. Now go back to Scenario 1 on this article, and repeat steps 6-10.

If anything else fails...call MITTS on 25992777, and ask them to do the procedure over the phone.  However, it is best if you try to do it yourself....

And remember...change the password as soon as you receive the notification!  Otherwise you might get 'locked out' of your account.

Welcome !

Hello, and Welcome to my new Blog!

My name is Amanda and for the last couple of years I have been employed by the Curriculum Management and eLearning Department as an eLearning Support Teacher. I met many, many teachers, across all colleges on the Maltese Islands (including Gozo!) and I am pleased to say I made many friends too.

This blog is dedicated to all my friends who have asked me to help them with their various ICT-related problems in the classroom. Please feel free to submit comments and send me e-mails with your queries. Remember, I do not possess all the answers...however I might just know someone who can help :). Also, if you once had a problem and managed to solve it all by yourself (good for you!!) I would like to hear about it too.

So...welcome to my blog...and hope to see you again soon !

Amanda