I use iCloud to back up my iPhone, including my photos and videos, but I have also starting using Google Photos.  I used Picasa when it was active, so I have some Google Photos already, and I used to have an Android (RIP, my HTC) so I have a lot of Google Photos from those days.

After installing the Google Photos app, I went into settings (the three lines on the top left) and choose Back up & sync.  

I made sure my photos were set to auto-backup at the free storage quality.  Google started saving my photos, and whenever I check it, I see a nice collection of my recent photos and screenshots.  I don't know how the photos will print, but I back up my photos at full-size to my computer and this Google Photos option is free.  We all know that free is good.
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There is a setting called "Free Up Space", which will remove photos that have been backed up.  I plan to use this when I am low on phone storage, which  happens frequently.     I am leaving the "Limit cache size" option off, because I like seeing the little thumbnails, but for someone who had a lot of photo storage space issues, limiting the cache might be a good options.

Imagine Thomas Cromwell maneuvering through region restrictions to access the enhanced edition app for Wolf Hall. UK residents can download the app, but when a US or Canadian customer searches Itunes Apps for Wolf Hall, Apple helpfully responds, "Did you mean golf ball?"

The star of Wolf Hall wouldn't put up with limited availability. The book is long and complex, and if Thomas Cromwell thought the audiobook should accompanied by the ebook, he'd make his own enhanced edition. "I'll make or mar," he promises in a voice of restrained urgency, and that thudding motto is the heartbeat of Hilary Mantel's brilliant Wolf Hall.

Making an Enhanced Edition ExperienceListening to the audiobook while reading the ebook gives the sense of an enhanced edition, especially when coupled with Slate's Audio Book Club Wolf Hall discussion podcast. Listening to and reading Wolf Hall is easily done by using:

• a Kindle with the ebook and mp3 file (Audible files work well on the Kindle's mp3 player, as both are Amazon.com products)
• a Nook with with ebook and mp3 file (be careful of the file sizes available - Nook advertises that it holds 26 hours of mp3 files, and Wolf Hall is slightly over 24 hours.)
• with the Kindle or Nook app and the audiobook file on an iTouch or iPhone.
• with the UK Enhanced Edition app for iTouch, iPhone, and iPad.

To listen and read simultaneously, downloading the ebook and audiobook files. The next step is lining up the sections is made easier by knowing key areas. It is unlikely that anyone will listen to Wolf Hall for a solid 24 hours, so alignment will be necessary.

Aligning the Wolf Hall Audiobook to the Printed and Kindle Ebook Editions
The ebook and printed book has 6 sections divided into 3 parts each. The audiobook has 3 parts divided into 7 chapters. The audiobook is structured for listeners, so to read along with it, use the keyword search for locations. Here are the main guiders:

• Audiobook Part 1, Chapter 1 is page 3 in the hardback, about page 43 in the Nook, and mark 349 on the Kindle.
• Audiobook Part 2, Chapter 1 is page 152 of the hardback and mark 3900 on the Kindle.
• Audiobook Part 3, Chapter 1 is the middle of page 352 of the hardback and mark 8889 on the Kindle.

The Nook's page locations are harder to determine, because Nook pages repaginate based on font choices. When using a Nook, keyword search by phrases during will help realign listening and reading if necessary.

When it comes to audiobooks, Audible vs. iTunes is a microcosm of Amazon vs. Apple. Audible has more choices, and iTunes is easier to use for purchases.Simon Slater's Performance StyleSlater's Cromwell speaks with a direct, commanding tone. Even when he is persuading and manipulating, Cromwell's voice is controlled and clear. Slater elevates his tone Cromwell elevates in status, and Cromwell sounds almost stately when he talks to Mary Tudor. Thomas More has a cartoonishly arrogant voice, and More's lines drip and hiss. It is not until More is condemned to die when Slater momentarily simplifies More's voice. Anne Boleyn is winsome and haughty, Mary Boleyn is charmingly sly, and Slater's performance of the Spanish ambassador Eustace Chapuys is energetic.

Much of Slater's narration sounds like a sports cast. Wosley frets, Cromwell counsels. Henry muses, Anne wheedles. More opines, Norfolk roars. Even the omniscient narration is done with Cromwell's tone, as the book is written with Mantel's unusual 3rd person case used in a 1st person structure. This occasionally leads to reading errors, since it is hard to determine which "he" is being spoken of – Wosley, Cromwell, More, or Henry. Even Slater makes errors in who is speaking to whom, which is why a homemade enhanced edition of reading while listening makes valuable untangling the characters.

The magnificence of Wolf Hall is attested to by its awards - The 2009 Booker Prize, Time's Top 10 Book of 2009, The National Book Circle Fiction Award, but it is a book that requires a lot of focus. An ebook/audiobook combination is for sale through the Wolf Hall Enhanced Experience app, but clever readers can be a bit Cromwellian and "make or mar" with available technologies.
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Wolf Hall Publication Information
Wolf Hall was written by Hilary Mantel and published by Henry Hold in October 2009. It is available as a Kindle and Nook book through MacMillian books, and there is an enhanced UK Wolf Hall app. The ISBN is 0805080686.
The Wolf Hall unabridged audiobook was released by Macmillan Audio in November, 2009. It is performed by Simon Slater. The ISBN is 1427210160. It is available on Audible.com and iTunes.

This review was originally published in 2009 and updated in 2010.  Some links may go to the Wayback Machine as I try to restore old article from the now-defunct Suite101.

There are two tools I like to use when reading in the Safari web browser on my iPad, especially if there are a lot of ads on a page. This is good information for personal use and for teachers to share with students in the classroom.

When there are four lines on the top left corner of your browser, clicking those moves the screen into a reading-friendly view.

By clicking on those lines, you launch the Reading View, and the four lines turn black.

Images that are included in the article remain, but ads and formatting that can seem cluttered on a small screen disappear.

In the following examples, notice how the Wikipedia notice disappears, and how the screen color and font size and type is adjusted.

Easier reading is just a few clicks away!

I joined the National Writing Project as a Teacher Consultant after my second year of teaching, when I went through the Oklahoma State University Summer Institute.

Today I am the webmaster for the OSU Writing Project and one of the teachers involved in the College Ready Writers Program, as well as a Co-Director of Youth Programming.

There have been many times over the years that I have needed an idea, a resource, or feedback, and the Writing Project is my best source. I recently recommended some children's books and activities to a friend who works at a high school alternative school, and when I went back to find my student examples, I discovered that the activities I recommended came to me from an OSU Writing Project workshop in 1998.

This past summer, I attended a Shakespeare workshop at OU, and one of my Writing Project teacher friends is getting ready to teach Shakespeare with the material I collected at the conference. How lucky I am to both gain from the resources and get to be the resource at times!

If if you need professional development related to literacy, try the Writing Project in your state. It is career-changing and life-enhancing!

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One of my college students asked me how to print on Blackboard today, and my quick response applies to any program, not just Blackboard.

If you are on a PC, pressing the CTRL key and (keep holding down the CTRL key) press the P button. With both buttons pressed, the print dialouge box should appear and you can print the page.

If that fails, the Print Screen option is an additional ways to print: CTRL and PRTSCN on the keyboard will capture your whole screen.

 have taught students in sixth grade through college, and the Six Traits of Writing* adapts to every level.  This semester I am teaching Comp 1 and I found a great resource for teachers who use Six Traits in Zane Bloser. I have used their PowerPoints in the past, and they are adaptable so I made them more college friendly by strengthening the examples and using text sets from They Say, I Say.  

I have no affiliation with the company, I just like their materials and recommend them to other teachers.  The Zane Bloser presentations are loveable because:

• they are free
• they are customizable
• they have words that highlight so that you can see the examples.​

It is actually tricky to highlight in PowerPoint, so it is nice to have a pre-made presentation.  In order for the highlighting to stay consistent, however, I had  to copy and paste the theme into the current presentation.

To do this, copy the original slide, and then move into your new presentation.  Right-click on the slide right before you the place that you want to insert your new slide, and choose the middle paste button that says "Keep Source Formatting".

* I know it is more precise to say 6+1 Traits, but I am used to the old school wording.  Also, writing out numbers feels right.

Recently I was teaching a Microsoft Publisher 2013 class, and we talked about adding and editing images.  The tricky thing about working with pictures in Publisher is that even though you can insert images with a transparent background, you can't remove the background yourself. 

To do this, head over to Microsoft Word.

Use the same techniques to insert an image that you use in Publisher:

After you click on the Insert tab, choose either Pictures or Online Pictures to add your picture into your publication (Publisher) or document (Word).

Once you have inserted your image, watch for the contextual toolbar to appear that allows you to edit your pictures.

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The contextual toolbar will say Pictures Tools above the Format tab.

When you click on that new toolbar, you will have a lot of additional tools to edit, adjust, and polish your pictures.

We want to look on the far left side of the screen in the Adjust toolbox where we can remove the background.

 When you click on Remove Background, you will notice part of your picture turns violet.  This is the section of your image that will be erased.  If you do not want that part included, or if you want to include other areas, use the "Mark Areas to Keep" and "Mark Areas to Remove" tools to adjust the purple shading.

When you are done, press Keep Changes.  If it did not turn out the way you expected, remember that CRTL + Z will undo your changes and you can start again.   Also, you may need to do some clean-up through cropping or in Microsoft Paint.

Once you are done with the background removal, right click and choose copy, then paste the image into your publication in Publisher.

You can copy and paste between Microsoft Office products, so making changes in Word and pasting them into Publisher is a good solution to removing the background until Microsoft adds this features into a future version of the software.

It seems like it would be easy to highlight in PowerPoint, but it isn't.  There isn't the standard highlighter tool that is in Microsoft Word.

3.  Go to the Insert table and choose shapes. 

When you press the dropdown menu, you will see the rectangle shape.  You are going to draw this over the words you want to highlight in the duplicated slide.

After you draw the rectangle over the word, the contextual toolbar for drawing will appear.  We will use this to make the highlighting translucent.

4. In the Drawing Tools contextual toolbar, choose Shape Fill and pick the color for your highlighting.  At first it will cover the word, but don't worry.  We will change that in a moment.

​5.  Choose More Fill Colors.  At the bottom of the Colors dialogue box, there is a slider to choose the Transparency option to 60% (or type in the box).  This may need to be adjusted depending on your screen and how dark your classroom is; 90% is the lightest I think people can see.  You won't see the changes until you press OK.

Once you left-click on OK, you will see the word highlighted on your screen, and when you move from the previous slide to the highlighted slide, it will have the effect of "highlighting" on the screen.

Reading the reviews of Wolf Hall, I thought Thomas More would be presented as a villain, but I don't think that was the case. Mantel presents More as her Thomas Cromwell would have seen him. She said in an interview that,
"I gradually realized that the confrontation with Thomas More wasn’t just a political crisis for Cromwell, it must have been an emotional crisis as well."

Mantel has two More motifs running through the book:

• She shows the Mores as foxes, with Margaret having a "fox-like" head, More closely associated with the fox he claims to have tamed but keeps caged, just as Cromwell wants to keep More from interfering with Tyndale and Friends, but even in the Tower, More continues to have spies that Cromwell can't find and get information Cromwell can't trace. 
• The scene with the carpet is a lovely view of how More's story has been patched together by historians. The carpet under inspection is not quite what it appears to be; Cromwell thinks it might be two carpets, stitched together, or an inferior carpet that only discriminating eyes can see. 

​This is, surely, how history has patched More together. His story is too often patched from the reverential stories from his family with exaggerated evils created to quiet the shock of his execution. Cromwell would surely have felt he could see flaws in More that others could not see. Mantel says it nicely, "In real life, there is something fraying about their host, a suspicion of unraveling weave."

More is characterized nicely in some parts. He is, "a star in another firmament" and Cromwell "can hardly bear it, to think of More sitting in the dark."  Even Cromwell admits:
One thing about More, he's never idled for an hour, he's passed his life reading, writing, talking toward what he believes is the good of the Christian commonwealth.

I first read Wolf Hall on my Kindle in November, 2009, and I have read it multiple times since then.

Google's second answer to Facetime has arrived in the form of Google Duo.  I love Facetime, like Google Hangouts and hate Skype, so Google Duo is interesting to me.  Google detailed the new video chat tool on the Google Blog.

One nice option that caught my attention is the Knock Knock feature. "Knock Knock which lets you see live video of your caller before you answer, giving you a sense of what they’re up to and why they want to chat. Knock Knock makes video calling more spontaneous and welcoming, helping you connect with the person before you even pick up."

I haven't used it yet, and although I appreciate Google's dig at Apple ("You shouldn’t have to worry about whether your call will connect, or if your friend is using the same type of device as you are. "), I traded in my Android for an iPhone because feature-rich and unreliable isn't useful as feature-moderate and reliable.  I am excited to try Google Duo, though, and I will report back when I use it.