The Direct Marketing Association has up a helpful list of links on how to remove your name from various mailing, calling and email lists. It does seem a little like tobacco companies helping people to stop smoking, but if you are getting a lot of junk mail or other unsolicited communications, these suggestions might save a little time and a few trees.

READ

People who have trouble crawling out of bed probably have an inner clock set to late wake-up and sleep times, a condition known as phase delay. It is possible to adjust your phase-delayed body clock, Matheson says, but at a price: No sleeping in on the weekends. “When people sleep late on weekends, they revert to their natural phase-delayed rhythm,” she explains. This makes it harder to wake up early on weekdays.

The next time you’re feeling unrested during the school week, try maintaining the same wake-up time, even over the weekends. And while you still have a little time left before the school year starts, it might be a good idea to get that school wake-up time going pretty soon! Hit the read link for the full article.

READ

One simple and fast way to try and save a little on your next purchase is to search the net for an online coupon code.

The process is simple:

1. Search for the product you are looking for using an online shopping search, such as Google Product Search or PriceGrabber.
2. Find the site that offers the best deal, while also having good ratings, good shipping and return policies, and appears reputable.
3. Add the items in your cart and begin to check out as you would normally do.
4. Before you complete your order, look for a box that will allow you to enter a promotional or coupon code.
5. Now go hunt for a code. One of the easiest ways to do this is to try a coupon code aggregator site, such as RetailMeNot.com. Enter in the name or address of the site you are shopping on, and they will list coupon codes, as well as how often the codes have worked for shoppers.
6. Scroll through the listings to see if they offer a coupon code that will apply to your order.
7. Once you find a coupon code, copy and paste it into the promotional code box back at your shopping cart. Be careful to type the code exactly (some codes are case sensitive).
8. If your code doesn’t work, try to find another one. Odds are, there is more than one coupon code floating around for your site.
9. If you don’t find anything using RetailMeNot or a similar site, try searching Google with the name of the website and the phrase “coupon code.” For example, type “Amazon.com coupon code” or “Amazon coupon code.” Try your search without quotation marks so that it’s the most inclusive. You might have to search a few sites in order to find something that applies.

This is a relatively painless way to shave a few bucks off of a purchase you were likely to make anyways. In my case, I’ve been able to find codes that allowed me to receive free shipping, or to discount the cost to cover shipping, if not more. And in most cases, this whole process takes less than five minutes.

It won’t work every time, and it’s especially hard to find codes for some of the larger shopping sites. But even if it works just a few times, you’ve saved some money. So while you still might spend out of pocket, here’s a quick way to spend a little bit less.

Allergies virtually always cause itchiness, in the eyes, the nose, the throat, while a cold generally does not. Telltale signs of a cold are a fever, aches and colored mucus.

Click the read link for the full article.

[Via LifeHacker]

READ

TeachClever is not about tech hacks, per se; it’s a blog about making teachers more productive and efficient. But it includes a healthy selection of tech tips for the classroom that make it a great stop for a project pick-me-up.

Click the read link to view the entire article, which includes links to DIY sites such as Instructables, and a demo of a pretty cool “Minority Report” type grab-in-the-air interface using a Wiimote and some Radio Shack skillz.

READ

Here’s where Foxmarks comes in. It will not only allow you to synchronize bookmarks to all your computers, but will now let you synchronize just the bookmarks you want, to the computers you want.

Foxmarks is an extension for the Firefox web browser, so if you are using Internet Explorer, you won’t be able to do this. Using Foxmarks, you can create sync profiles, like one for home, one for school, etc. If you’ve got Firefox and Foxmarks on all your computers, you’ll be able to use your sync profiles to sync home books marks with your home desktop and laptop, for example, and just keep school bookmarks on your school computer and the laptop you use at home for school stuff. You’ll also be able to keep all your personal or kids’ bookmarks off of your school computer. Hit the read link for directions on setting up sync profiles.

[Via LifeHacker]

READ

One simple way to keep students, and teacher, on track is to use a timer. The problem with conventional timers is that, while they do keep track of time, they don’t easily allow a class to monitor the countdown as it progresses. Some companies have realized this and have created timers that can be displayed on overhead projectors. For a cool $35, you can snag one of these. Or, you can do the same thing for free.

Just use an online timer. The appropriately named Online-stopwatch.com site provides a very simple online stopwatch and timer that you can use to monitor lesson times or student work. The timer can be activated on your computer monitor, and, depending on placement, the entire class will be able to see how much time is left, without having to buy a timer or set up your projector. There is even a full-screen version. When time is up, the screen will flash and a bell will ring, notifying all that it’s time to move on to the next activity.

Beyond the online, Flash-based timer, you can also download a local version of the software, or add a widget to your iGoogle page.

If you ever find yourself, or your students, losing track of time, give this simple, easy-to-use online timer a try. It might help you cut down on all that time slipping into the future. And if you have any other tips for managing time in a classroom, feel free to share in the comments.

Online Stopwatch [Online-stopwatch.com]

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What is it?

In a nutshell, a mission statement tells who you are, what you are doing, and why.

How long should it be?

Mission statements have a tendency to either get wordy and confusing or general and meaningless. This has prompted some to debate the value of mission statements. Or make fun of them. But when done right, they are useful. And most gurus in this area seem to say that “done right” means people should be able to remember what the mission statement says:

The mission statement is one thing that should be known by every person in the organization. You should be able to go up to any individual in the organization and he or she should be able to recite the mission to you.

It should always be brief, so that it can be remembered.

How to make a mission statement in five simple steps

1. Work with your class. This is a class mission, so it needs to be created as a group.
2. Make a class name. Decide if you will be identified by your grade level, teacher’s name, room number, or something unique. Ask students what they want to be called.
3. Decide on important actions. The class might need some guidance here to select some actions that you are happy with as well. Keep this list to around three of the most important actions needed to be successful. You might want to consider actions related to academics, work habits, and behavior.
4. Brainstorm the whys. Discuss why you do what you do. Connect the actions to student success in the current school year (honor roll, good grades, pride), but also out into the future (college, career, money).
5. Keep it short. Keep the mission statement to a sentence, something that can be memorized and remembered. If it’s too long, no one will use or remember it when they need it.

When you are done, type it up, snap a class photo and let your students sign the mission statement. Post it somewhere in the room. If you have room, create an area to display the mission statement and any charts, graphs or data that shows you are moving toward your mission.

When done right, your mission statement will be a motivational slogan that everyone likes and can remember.

Topic of the Week: Mission Statements [EduHound Weekly]

Resources:

MissionsStatements.com: Check out sample mission statements from many different types of organizations. Get ideas on length, wording and what might work for you.

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Remember who your primary audience is: Ima Parent. She’ll visit your site frequently and sing your praises when it meets her needs. Update often!

A month into school and Jimmy casually mentions to mom that his teacher just sprung a project on him that’s due this Friday. It’s Wednesday. Jimmy also does not know much about the project as he has misplaced the sheet outlining the particulars. Thanks Jimmy. Ima surfs to her son’s classroom website hoping to shed some light on this predicament. Jimmy, beside her and noticeably uncomfortable, is shocked when mom easily finds the calendar of class events and a printable document describing the project. Apparently, it was assigned last week and it is in fact due on Thursday with a penalty for turning it in Friday. Damage control. Thankfully, the site also has pictures of previously turned in projects for ideas. Jimmy is wishing he knew how to block this particular site from viewing in the same way his mother blocked his favorite online gaming site.

A survey on Suzie’s social studies teacher’s site asks the students if they felt a recent field trip was worthwhile. Wow, a teacher who solicits the opinions of their students? She asks Suzie about it and she replies that this happens often and it’s no big deal. Suzie goes on to say that she has the same survey on her MySpace account and everyone thought it was the lamest field trip. After a thorough grilling regarding the MySpace account Ima decides she’s on information overload.

With the exception of a few stagnant webs, the sites that her children’s teachers maintain have become a valuable tool for Ima. She now has a level of knowledge that was once difficult to attain, often feeling more the FBI interrogator than the interested and involved mother.

Thoughts to Ponder

• The level of implementation varies wildly and teachers may easily be applauded or vilified. “Well, Mrs. Hastoomuchtimeonherhands had a website last year that kept me in the loop on everything!” Most schools have a teacher that has reached the status of “Resident Guru of Technology.” Two simple pieces of advice to help you cross those technology hurdles much easier:

• Reach out to the guru.
• Take copious notes.
  
• Stale websites abound among teachers and all it takes is one trip to a website with last year’s information and it may never be visited again. The web is too dynamic today to not update as often as possible.
• The ability to create and maintain a website depends heavily on the tools and support provided by a district. The playing field is not even among school districts where you’ll find older web editors and ftp protocol in some places and high-end content management systems in others. Find a way to make it happen. Speak with your technology department to see what it is they can do for you.
• Remember who your primary audience is: Ima Parent. She’ll visit your site frequently and sing your praises when it meets her need. Update often!
• Your secondary audience? Suzie and Jimmy. Train them to visit the site as a classroom feature of instruction. Start out small with a tease that gets them there then, as you get better, begin to involve them more as your guide to a better web. You’ll be surprised at how much this improves not only your website but the relationship you have with your students. To be sure, this is a comfortable medium for kids serving as their playground, channel of communication and occasional wall of graffiti.

This is certainly not the last word on this as I’ll explore in greater detail how to accomplish much of what I’ve described here in later posts. Please comment and tell us of your experiences good and not so good.

Picture Credit

Additional Resources: The Fourth Story , Page Creator by Google

Grab a random item and let that be your idea placeholder.

Here’s how it works:

1. Grab a random item. Pick something that sticks out and is nearby, like a napkin, remote control, piece of scrap paper, spork, whatever.
2. Put it somewhere that you can see it. Set it on your lap, in the middle of the floor, in the middle of your desk, on your keyboard, even in your pocket.
3. Tell yourself what to remember. When you grab the item, tell yourself what the item represents: “This spork means to call Jeff about the Tigers game.” Tell it to yourself a couple of times.
4. Capture the idea as soon as you can. When you are freed up to write a note, jot down the important information you are remembering using your random placeholder.

This variation of the “ribbon around your finger” method probably isn’t going to help you remember something for longer than an hour, but when you need to remember something and can’t write it down immediately, this trick can keep you from that annoying there was something I was supposed to remember and I can’t remember what feeling.

What tricks do you use to remember important things when you can’t write them down immediately? Share in the comments.

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Okay, we’re back. Collecting information and research sure is different than it used to be. In fact, it’s a lot different, according to a recent survey:

Seventy-one percent of teens say the Internet is their primary source for information for completing their most recent school project or report. Research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that teens are increasingly using the Web as an essential study aid outside the classroom. For instance, 78 percent say the Internet regularly helps them with classroom assignments…

While this doesn’t mean completely eliminating the old methods of research and organization, it does mean that students should be taught how to effectively use the web for research. They are already doing it, so let’s help them do it better. But that’s not the only reason. Accessing information online will only grow in the future, and it will be imperative for their future careers to be able to effectively collect and organize information online.

If you are planning on your students doing any type of research in your class(es), then why not also introduce them to a way to organize that information online? You will not only be targeting language arts standards, but technology standards for information literacy as well. Here are 12 resources for information collection and organization:

Organizing bookmarks and websites. These sites replace Internet Explorer Favorites by allowing users to not only save a favorite site, but to also assign tags to sites and write a small description, all searchable later and accessible from any internet connection.

• Del.icio.us
• Yahoo! MyWeb

Organizing information. These sites allow users to copy and paste information and save online, eliminating the need to write down long internet addresses, print out pages, or copy down information onto paper.

• Google Notebook
• Clipmarks
• ThinkFree
• Zoho Office Suite
• Google Docs
• Ajax13

Wikis. These sites can adapt to multiple purposes, but can serve as a way to collect information from around the web. These sites are also ideal for collaboration among project partners, as a wiki is easily edited by others.

• PBwiki
• Wikispaces

Mind mapping. These sites allow users to create a visual map of related ideas. Once the information has been collected, a mind mapping site can help tie the information together.

• Bubbl.us
• MindMeister

All of these sites are free to use, and should be accessible behind a school firewall and filter. In most cases, your students will need email addresses to complete the free registration.

Which methods do you use to organize and collect information online? Are there any good web apps we left off the list? Let us know in the comments.

Home Pages Help Homework [Edutopia]

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You could go to eBay. But you have to pay listing fees and deal with the hassle of shipping your items to their purchasers. For a quick, easy and free way to sell your stuff online, try a location-based classified ad site instead.

These sites allow users to post classified ads to a specific geographic location. While the pool of potential purchasers is smaller than with eBay, the advantage is that the listings are free and the inconvience of shipping is usually eliminated as your purchaser can just swing by to pick up their item.

If you want to give this a shot, try these two free online classified ad sites:

Craigslist was the original free online classified ad site, starting in 1995 in San Francisco, California. Today the site boasts over 20 million users each month in 450 cities worldwide. The site is a minimalist’s dream, with no fancy logos, ads or graphics.

Kijiji is the new kid on the block, launching overseas in 2005 (Kijiji is Swahili for village, if you were wondering). Kijiji claims users in 300 cities worldwide. The site looks much more polished than Craigslist, but having just expanded to the US in 2007, don’t expect to find too many American Kijiji users yet.

The process for selling stuff with either of these two sites is relatively similar:

1. Select a city. After visiting either site, your first mission is to select the closest city to you. Craigslist will default to San Francisco, while Kijiji will come right out and ask you to find a nearby city.
2. Post an ad. Both sites have links to post a classified ad at the top left of their site. Click this to, well, post an ad.
3. Select a category. Both sites will ask you to categorize the stuff you are selling.
4. Type your ad. Enter a title, price and description of your item. Be as descriptive as possible.
5. Add images. Both sites allow you to upload up to four images of your item. Adding at least one image is a good idea. (Note that, at the time of this post, I had trouble uploading images to Kijiji.)
6. Provide an email address. This is required. Both sites allow the posting of classified ads without registering for the site, but you will need to activite the post via email. This is also how potential purchasers will contact you. Don’t worry, both sites mask your email address, with Craigslist providing a sale@craigslist.org email address, and Kijiji providing a contact form. But if you reply to an inquiry, you will be using your email address, unless you use a temporary email address.
7. Submit and activate your post. When you are finished with your post, submit it, jump through all the preview, terms and condtions hoops, and check your email. You will need to click a link in the email to activate the post. Watch out to make sure your spam folder doesn’t eat the classified ad activation email.

Classifieds on Craigslist stay posted for 45 days in most cities, except for some big cities, in which ads expire after only 7 days. Kijiji ads remain posted for 60 days, with no distiction for city size.

Reasons to consider Craigslist or Kijiji as a way to declutter your classroom:

• Listings are free. No fees typical of eBay or newspaper ads.
• Post an ad in five minutes or less. By copying and pasting, you can use the same text for both sites. You can also upload the same images to both sites.
• No shipping hassle. Puchasers come to you to pick up the item.
• Deal in cash. Forget about waiting for checks to clear. Just have the purchaser bring cash.
• Get cash for your trash. Before you pitch something or donate it, try selling it first. If you don’t get any takers, go with the original trash or donation plan.

With minimal time invested, you may be able to get a little cash out of your decluttering efforts. Just don’t use the windfall to purchase more clutter for your classroom!

What tips do you have for selling unwanted items? Share in the comments.

Further reading:

• How to Craigslist Better: 37 Tips and Tutorials [Frugalist]

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In the back rooms of many school districts sit servers that have worked uninterrupted for years. They’re veritable workhorses that rarely need maintenance or have suffered infiltration by some vicious hacker. It’s a good chance that some form of Linux resides on those machines.

With pressure to upgrade, Linux is beginning to venture out of the back room and onto the desktop. Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 could very well be the answer to the school system at an operating system crossroad. It labels itself as 90% the functionality of Windows Vista for 10% the cost.

With pressure to upgrade desktop stations, Linux is beginning to look good to many schools.

If that’s too steep try the completely free Ubuntu and its variety of sub-distributions such as Edubuntu (the educationally pre-packaged version). This system customarily installs in about twenty minutes and is fast becoming the wunderkind of the Linux world. They’ll even send you a fully bootable CD of the system at their cost if you don’t have the time or the connection to download a copy. Don’t want to install it over your current OS? Run the complete version from the CD!

To be sure, the choice is one for the future as districts begin to look at ways to save the almighty buck.

Here are six compelling reasons to consider Linux as an operating system in your school district:

1. Cost or Lack Thereof. Most versions of Linux are free… in the sense of “free speech” not a “free lunch.” By this I mean that the community that improves on this operating system does it collectively and with passion. “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume…” (Excerpted from the Declaration of Independence). Yikes! A bit heavy for this article.
2. It’ll Surf. Students primarily use the web. Installed desktop applications are becoming passé with all of the innovations from Google and other completely online services such as Zoho and Desktoptwo. They need a reliable machine and they need the internet!
3. Comparable Software. The majority of the software available holds to the same philosophy as the OS: open and free. It is astonishingly easy to find a freely downloadable replacement for a higher-priced commercial product. For the few desktop apps I’d use it would be wonderful to be able to say to my students that this is where you’ll go to download it rather than to this store to buy it.
4. Reliability. Linux has already established a stronghold with many notable companies such as Google, Novell, HP and Oracle to support their website presences on the server side. These companies understand that Linux runs and runs without security breaches and downtime which they can’t afford. Anyone who has ever worked in an IT department knows the sheer panic that ensues when the server is down.
5. Use of Existing Hardware. Linux allows you to use aged hardware thus extending the life of the computer and holding at bay Moore’s Law. I’m currently running SUSE on a three-year old machine and its stunning built-in features designed to increase productivity such as window-tiling and multiple desktops do not miss a beat. I didn’t even have to replace my graphics card as was suggested by the Microsoft Vista Upgrade Advisor!
6. Appeal. Students need other experiences and in most cases they are the flexible group when it comes to technology. As Linux becomes more and more friendly to use it will begin to wear down the folks who may still be bitter over the fiscally responsible choice.

Further reading:

• Linux definitely has a place in education [Education IT]
• All of our Elementary School workstations run Linux… [Kamloops, BC SD 73]
• San Diego schools pick SUSE Linux desktop [DesktopLinux.com]

Use a staple free stapler.

Remember that paper-bending and ripping trick that kept papers together for about 50 seconds? That’s the idea behind the Staple Free Stapler (SFS), except, this time, it works. The SFS punches a tab into the paper, which it neatly bends over and tucks into a slot that it also punches. The SFS works for up to 5 sheets of paper.

Pros:
Holds up to five sheets of paper together, staple-free
Pages can be easily separated
No staples to prick fingers
No staples to purchase or locate
Safe for all ages
No jams to fix
Better for the environment

Cons:
Can only hold up to five pages. For more, one will need…a stapler

This might be a good option for student use, allowing them to staple their work before they turn it in. Placing a SFS with student teams, tables or groups would also save a line at the stapler and get work turned in faster, without having to worry about staple jams or reloads.

See a review at the Gadgeteer. Cheapedia also has several photos and a video review. If you are ready to plunk down the cash, you can snag your own staple free stapler here.

Wrapables Staple Free Stapler [The Gadgeteer]

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Spelling. Sure spell check is a wonderful tool for editing, but it’s easy to become dependent on it. Rather than learn to spell words correctly, we just wait for the spell check to tell us we’re wrong. So we never learn to spell those challenging words, like dependent, which I spelled wrong typing this article and let spell check fix it. And I’ll probably spell it wrong again next time.

Teaching students spelling and word study are still valuable skills. Most students will create content digitally in their futures, but there will still be a place for writing by hand. And pausing to think about the correct spelling of a word is a waste of time.

Thoughtful writing. With email and any digital form of writing, we can crank out our ideas with little thought, and then revise later if we don’t like what we see. But sometimes we don’t get to the revising, and send off an email that we later regret. Before computers, people had to think carefully about their word choices, because severe editing was just too hard.

Giving students a chance to write on paper as well as with word processors serves the need for thoughtful writing while still providing opportunities to use the revising and editing advantages of the digital form. It’s OK that students don’t type everything.

Math. Calculators are wonderful for difficult calculations, but no one should have difficulty with basic math facts. Relying on calculators for every math problem keeps students from learning the skills they need to function when electronic aids may not be available. Sure you can crank out the tip on your cell phone tip calculator, but should you need to?

Teachers can help students by having them put away the calculators for all but the most challenging problems. This is probably more appropriate for younger grades that are still learning math facts. And why not leverage the power of technology towards learning math facts, by using a website that provides practice.

Building a knowledge base. Google and Wikipedia are perfect for delivering pinpoint knowledge about a specific question. They are indispensable tools when you know what you are looking for. But there is something to be said for browsing and perusing books. It helps to build up a knowledge base. If you don’t know something exists, it’s hard to search for it online. This doesn’t mean that you can’t do effective general research online. Just that the web is perfect for learning about things you want to learn about, while print materials are great for learning about things you didn’t necessarily seek out in the first place. Put another way, a web search starts with you, you type in the topic. But browsing print materials can lead to unexpected learning that happens when you stumble upon a title that you weren’t actively seeking out. Incidentally, some websites are trying to bring this idea to the web.

Teachers can build up their students’ knowledge base by providing time to read, having a collection of good information books on hand for students to browse, and having students supplement online research with print-based materials.

I’ll be the first to admit that I usually go to technology first when I have a problem to solve or a task to complete. But it’s overkill to go to the computer to check the spelling of a word I should know, jot down a grocery list or write a birthday card, calculate a tip at Cracker Barrel, or browse for undiscovered topics of interest and usefulness. In these cases, using technology makes us less productive. Helping students to know when to use technology and when not to is an important skill that might be getting overlooked.

What other areas can you think of where technology hinders productivity? Share in the comments.

Don’t let technology rob you of the fruits of doing things the hard way [USA Today]

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Just because you have space to store an object doesn’t mean that you should.

So if you are looking for places to starting decluttering your classroom, here are a few ideas:

1. Desk drawers. Pokemon cards, crazy pencils, aspirin from 1994…who knows what is residing in your desk? If you are like me, you have accumulated confiscated student contraband, a random assortment of office supplies, and a collection of forms, as well as files and other important or not-so-important papers. Toss old student materials, obsolete forms and old papers. Sort your office supplies to make them accessible and usable.
2. Under your desk. That’s where that missing bag went! Teachers plunk down their heavy load by the desk, and it’s only a matter of time before something gets shoved under there. Take a peek and see what valuable (or not) materials are down there.
3. Classroom book shelves. Classroom books shelves aren’t exclusively reserved for books. Are your students using all the materials you set out there? Can some of those materials that aren’t used frequently be moved to a better storage area?
4. Curriculum book shelves. Do you really need 50 copies of the science standards? What about that folder of professional development materials from 2001? Start hacking away at this area and get it down to what you reference most and find useful.
5. Closets. Cover me, I’m going in! Besides the overzealous dust bunnies, closets are the classic location for old folders, notebooks, binders, curriculum materials, obsolete text books, classroom decorations. Be realistic with what you need and use, and eliminate the rest.
6. Tables and counter tops. Classroom tables and counter tops with their large, flat surfaces are the perfect storm for clutter. Most materials shouldn’t reside here, unless you are stocking the table with materials students need to access. Storage here should be temporary. Resist the urge to just set things down because you see the surface, and find better locations for the things that are already on your surfaces.
7. Filing cabinets. It’s nice to walk down memory lane by looking through your masters from 1987. And if you are like most teachers, you have accumulated multiple copies of everything! You might just have a few favorite materials you access, with the others being for “just in case.” Get drastic with this area, keeping only things you have used within the last year or have specific plans to use in the future. If you haven’t used it lately, chances are you won’t use it in the future.
8. Computer desk. Whether your computer is by your desk or located out so students can access it, this is an ideal place to collect scattered writing utensils, paper and other trinkets. Keep a clean surface here to place paper-based materials you may reference while on the computer.
9. Computer files. While this clutter isn’t physical, having a disorganized “My Documents” can still create mental anguish when you just know you saved that file somewhere. Organize your files into folders and start saving into the proper folder. You will locate what you need faster.

10 Places to Find Hidden Clutter [Unclutterer]

Studies show that computer keyboards have more bacteria than toilet seats.

Yuck! That’s from an NPR report and they have a pretty extreme solution to the problem: just toss your keyboard in the dishwasher! While you may not want to do that with school equipment, having 30 pairs (or more) of grimy-fingered hands all over your classroom or lab computer keyboards might make you wonder what’s growing in there.

Some places offer dishwasher-safe keyboards, and that might be an option for your classroom keyboard if it sees a lot of traffic, but if you’re not willing to shell out $50, try these ideas to make your keyboard a little more presentable. And here’s another idea: keyboards are so cheap, why not consider buying a new one yearly for your classroom? What are your tricks for dealing with keyboard cleanliness? Let us know in the comments.

Are Computer Keyboards Dishwasher Safe? [NPR via Lifehacker]