Wednesday, August 31

Wednesday, August 30

Here are 3 websites that you can use to create an avatar, and they are free.  I'm positive there are plenty of others, but I am highlighting these because they are free and school appropriate.


Planet Creation

Illustration Maker

Build Your Wild Self


You'll need to watch the video on the following page in order to get your avatar uploaded to Edmodo.

How to page

This is not a requirement - having an avatar is just for fun.  However, I do highly recommend that you do this because it's a good habit to get into for safety reasons.  When you are online you want to limit the chances that someone else has to find out who you are - in other words you do not want to be harassed or bullied.  Limiting the number of pictures that you post online of yourself is always a great way to stay safe, and using avatars is a way to express yourself without compromising your safety.

Band/Choir assessment students - if you need to leave for an assessment that is fine.  However, you are responsible for everything that you miss in the 15 minutes that you are gone from class, and you do not get extra time to make it up.  I appreciate it when you let me know at the beginning of the hour that you have to leave for an assessment.

REMINDERS! Your email "10 things about me" is due tonight at midnight.  Also, Friday we will be doing our correct fingers assignment.  Continue to work hard on your technique - you are getting graded this week on it!

Tuesday, August 30

Tuesday, August 30

In class today we are going to set up your Edmodo account.  You will need a special code in order to set this up - I'll give this to you in class.  In addition, you will have the following discussion that you will need to post to Edmodo by Friday:

What has been the most difficult part so far about learning to key correctly?  Why has it been difficult?
When you have a discussion post to enter on Edmodo you have several things that you need to accomplish:

  1. Enter an original response to the discussion question(s).
  2. Respond to at least 2 classmates.  When you respond, KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING!  An easy way to keep the conversation going is to ask questions, although that isn't the only way to keep the conversation moving.  What you don't want to say is "I agree", "You think like I do",  "I like the way you think", or something else along those lines.  These are called discussion stoppers because they stop the discussion - nothing else needs to be said from the person you are responding to.
  3. You should always respond when someone asks you a question.  When you don't respond it's the same as ignoring someone.  If you're talking in a group conversation with 5 people and someone asks you a question, what would that person think if you didn't respond?  How would you feel if you asked someone a question and they didn't respond to you?  You'd probably think it was rude that they didn't answer your question.
We also are going to be learning 2 new keys today - the N and the G.  To type the N you use your right index, or first, finger and reach down to the bottom row.  The G key is typed with the left index finger, and the key is to the right of the F.  You will need to really make sure that your fingers are curved and upright when keying the keys on the bottom row (the N) - people who rest their palms and forearms on the keyboard struggle with the bottom row because their fingers are not in position to reach down.

REMINDER!  Your "10 things about me" email is due tomorrow at midnight.  Make sure you are formatting this correctly - each of your 10 facts has to be about the number that represents it.  For example, next to 8 you need to say something about you that has to do with the number 8.  So, you might say "I have been to Lake of the Ozarks 8 times in my life".  

Monday, August 29

Monday, August 29

We have many things that we will be accomplishing this week.  They are as follows:
  1. Accessibility rules.  Now that you have access to gmail, and have accessed the Internet (and will be doing so frequently), we need to have rules in place for when it is ok to check gmail, access the Internet, and so on.  Otherwise it becomes complete chaos in the room.  Therefore the accessibility rules are in place to keep order in the room.  If you need to refresh yourself on the Computer Lab Policy, here is the link:  Computer Lab Policy.  
    1. No one is to be on the Internet unless granted specific permission to do so.
    2. You may not check gmail at will - Mr. Pardoe will let you know when it is appropriate to do so.
    3. You should only be accessing the programs that Mr. Pardoe has instructed you to access.  In other words, if we are working in Microsoft Word you should not be in Excel.
    4. After we create blogs, games will not be allowed to be on your blog.  Once you are done with this class you can do what you want, but in here there will no games.
    5. Be school appropriate at all times!!
    6. Chatting is not allowed during class.
  2. We will continue to learn the keyboard - we will review all letters learned and learn the n, g, left shift key, and period (.).  
  3. You will have a technique grade this week.  Last week we did this for practice, and to be quite honest I didn't get as much done on this front as I wanted with all the gmail problems we had.  Nonetheless, this week you will be receiving your first technique grade.
  4. Your first submitted assignment via email will also be this week.  You will be submitting to me, at my school email address (dpardoe@dist228.org) an email that will contain "10 things about me".  But, it won't be just any "ordinary" list - instead, you must submit 10 things about you that relate to the numbers 1 through 10.  For example, if I were sending this I would start like this:  1.  I have one sister;  2.  I traveled 2 places this summer (Mattoon, IL and Schererville, IN); 3.  I have 3 kids;  and so on.  This will be due on Wednesday and is homework - we will not work on this in class.
  5. We also will introduce Edmodo.  This is a social network that we will use in class for class purposes - it will not be a place for chatting.  We will sign up - I'll help you do that in class.  We will have a discussion item that you will be required to answer and post on Edmodo - this will be for a grade.
  6. Our last assignment for this week is what I call a Correct Fingers assignment.  What I do with this is simply quiz you on which fingers are used on which keys.  If you are using the correct fingers then this should not be a problem :-)
  7. We normally take all of our quizzes online.  In order to do that you will have to register at a website (www.classmarker.com) - we will do this in class.  Taking the quizzes online saves on paper - plus it's pretty cool to take a quiz online rather than use a pen or pencil.
As you can tell we will be busy this week with quite a bit of work - let's get to it!

Reminder for next week - we only have 4 days of school!  Monday is Labor Day so there will be no school.

Today will be a review day - we'll review all the keys we've learned so far.  Practice is an important part of developing a skill, and we will frequently practice so we can improve.  We will practice on page 7.

Friday, August 26

Friday, August 26

We are going to use the following websites today during class for practice. We will use these throughout the semester for practice, so if you want to use something at home for practice then these are perfect for you.


Free Typing Game - use lessons 1, 2, 3, 4, or 10
Power Typing - use only lesson 1
Typing Web - use only lesson 1