Must Have; Eating, Drinking, and Linking

I know now fer shure that it is summer, 'cause I thought today was Monday, not Tuesday! I get my days mixed up in the summer not having to keep a schedule. Never mind that I read a ton of Monday linky blog posts yesterday. Did that click? No siree bobcat tail!!!! Soooo, here goes with my Monday posts, a day late...

Once again, I'm linking up with Sabra over at Teaching with a Touch of Twang for Monday Must Have.

This week I'm sharing a website that I MUST HAVE. When working on my teaching products, I tend to work on one page at a time, not linking them together in one document. I usually have a cover page, the bulk of the activity, an answer key, and an explanation/background/credits page... generally four different sections. If I am going to offer an activity as an online product at Teachers Pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook then I have to meld them together in some fashion creating one file for purchase.

When I first began creating teaching products on the computer, I would have to copy and paste individual pages into a single document... what a pain! As time progressed I learned about zip folders, being able to pop all the documents into a folder and compressing it... still not what I envisioned, but a little better in a sense. This step saved me all the copying and pasting.

Then I discovered...

... an online tool that has made creating teaching products so much easier! I can work on individual pages as I was accustomed to, skip the copy and paste step, then save each individual file as a portable document file (.pdf). 

I visit PDFMerge, upload each file in order, click a button, and out downloads a single document with all of my pages melded together. PRESTO! FREE!

There are versions available at the site that require you to download software to your computer and charge a fee. They are not necessary, and please be careful that you don't get caught downloading them. Look for the above feature and use the MERGE button, not any download button. I have merged up to 25 individual pdf files containing 53 pages at one time and it worked perfectly! The one catch is that the total size of the files can not exceed 1Mb... remember, it's FREE.

There are other pdf freebie tools offered at the site as well. I've played a bit with them but haven't needed them so I can't say if they are worth your while or not. If you are using Google Chrome you can add an extension to your browser that makes it convenient to use PDF Merge. It's just a click away.

Speaking of just a click away... 

... is Christy over at Teaching Tales along the Yellow Brick Road and her Eating, Drinking, and Linking, Oh My! linky party! This week I'm going to share a simple, yet favorite summer dish of my family:

Gagoots and Eggs

or in English

Zucchini and Scrambled Eggs

Ingredients: (adjust amounts as you like for more or less)

olive oil... you can substitute other oil but it's just not as good

small chopped onion

small zucchini chopped into bite-sized pieces (no need to peel)

2-3 eggs

Romano or Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

To Prepare:

1. Heat olive oil in a 10" or larger frying pan.

2. Saute the chopped onion in the oil for a few minutes.

3. Add the chopped zucchini.

4. Salt and pepper to taste.

5. While the gagoots and onions are sauteing, break the eggs and beat them well by hand until they are frothy.

6. Grate some Romano or Parmesan (or both) into the eggs and mix well.

7. When the gagoots are tender, move them and the onions to one side of the pan and pour in the egg/cheese mixture.

8. Allow the eggs to cook a few minutes, then begin to scramble them as you would for regular scrambled eggs.

9. When the eggs are nearly finished cooking, mix the gagoots and onions together with them, constantly stirring until the eggs are completely cooked.

10. Enjoy eating them with freshly toasted Italian bread and fruit (our favorite way).

This is going to be my dinner tonight... YUM!

Happy Summer,

Happy Teaching,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6