Intro to Pencast PDFs

Intro to Pencast PDFs (Tutorial 1)

This is a quick guide on how the Pencast PDFs work, and it also serves as a test to see if everything is installed correctly to properly run these pencasts. I apologize in advance for the audible breath in the microphone. I’m using a cheap pick-up because it’s all I had that would fit the jack. Hopefully I’ll be able to invest in a better mic before too long, so bear with me as I work out all the kinks! Thanks for watching, and let me know what you think.

Viewing Pencasts

The majority of tutorials I will post will most likely be in the form of Pencast PDFs.  A Pencast PDF is an interactive page where you can watch me write notes and jot down info while you also listen to the audio that goes along with it.  Think of it as watching a teacher write on the whiteboard as you listen.  Same concept, except this is on the computer, and you can go back and re-watch any part as much as you need to.  In order for you to be able to view these Pencast PDFs (PPDFs), you’ll need to install two different programs: Adobe Reader X (or above) and Adobe Flash Player.  The downloads can be found          here          for the Reader and          here          for the Flash Player.  If you follow the directions on the pages, it should be pretty simple to install.  If you do manage to get stuck, though, send me an email telling me what isn’t working and I’ll try to help you out.  Once you have those two installed correctly, the PPDFs should run correctly!  I’ll put up a short Pencast with some tips on how they work, so hopefully you’ll be a Pencast pro in no time!

*I put the links in bold and separated from the body of the text because, without purchasing an upgrade, I can’t edit the text color of links, so they blend in perfectly with the normal text. So anytime I link to something, I will do my best to remember and set it apart like I did above.

Hey guys (and girls, too)

Hey everyone, it’s Walker Powell.

I’m starting this blog on School Night’s Eve (I thought making it sound like a holiday would help; it didn’t) of my junior year of high school.  Why?  Well for starters, it’s one last act of free will before summer vacation is over, but more importantly, last year I was asked a couple times if I had some free time to help a friend with school work.  I tried to say yes as often as I could, but with both of us having busy schedules it didn’t always work out.  Having to say “no” to helping someone, especially as much as I had to, wasn’t fun.

Over the summer, I had an idea.  Why don’t I just make a place online where anyone who needs help can go any time he needs it?  Fast forward to today, and you have the birth of this blog.  If everything goes according to plan- which will require no small amount of luck-, I should be able to update this blog with helpful tutorials and resources pretty soon after learning it for myself.  I’m planning to start by making pencasts/some other types of audio-visual presentations (I’ll just call them videos) for material from last year (mainly Algebra II Honors and Chemistry Honors) since I still have my notes from them.  Then, as this year progresses, I’ll be able to update this with new material from the classes I’m taking at the time.

Although these videos can apply to classes anywhere, they will be pretty custom-tailored to students attending Science Hill since that’s where I took all my classes. So if you go there, and especially if you have the same teachers I did, you can go ahead and plan on catching up on sleep during that class as long as you stop by here (I am completely kidding.  Don’t do that.  If you do and you fail that class, I’ll just laugh.  Especially if you had Ms. Penley.  She’s way too funny to sleep and miss).  On a more serious note, I know school gets hard, schedules get busy, and private tutors get expensive.  Hopefully this blog will help lighten your load at least a little and help you get some more free time;  I just know you’ll use it to study more for other classes.  Right?..

Anyways, if this ever gains any popularity, I’ll set up a way to contact me if you have any specific questions or comments.  That way you can suggest new topics for me to cover, or if you need more help than an online video can provide, we can talk about setting up some study sessions and tutoring.  From time to time I might post videos or texts about other things, but for now I’ll just work on getting the core academic help up and running.

I hope you can make use of this site, and I hope even more that you’ll spread the word about it to your friends if it helped you out.  If you read through that huge wall of text, you’re already showing motivation to get better, and that’s something I can’t teach!  Good luck in life, and I’ll catch you soon.

-Walker