FA9; streaming video

Today we are going to start by watching another video - this one explains streaming video.





After watching the video I want to quickly cover a couple of other items on inserting objects and formatting them.  After that you will have the rest of class to work on FA9, which is embedded below.


Activity 9 -
When I grade this formatting activity you will be graded based on 2 factors - inserting the correct shape, and then following the formatting instructions for each shape.  For each correct shape you include you'll earn .5 pts (10 shapes X .5 = 5 pts); you'll earn 8 points for the correct formatting of the shapes (each shape has 4 formatting instructions for you to follow, if you get all them correct you'll earn 1 pt - I'll give you .5 points for every 2 instructions you follow); you'll also earn 1 point for including the filename and path in the header, and the filename should be Activity 9 (that will also count as another point).  Total amount of points possible for this formatting activity = 15 points.

When you get done with this in class (it is due today), then you can work on one of the tutorials in Alice.

Also, please remember that if you are scheduled to do vocab words this week that you need to have your words posted by today. If you do this tonight at home that is fine.

Multimedia/graphics

The theme for most of the rest of the semester will involve multimedia and graphics.  In many ways, we've already incorporated much of multimedia and graphics into the class in a variety of ways.  However, over the course of the last couple of weeks we are going to dig even deeper and look at various other ways that we can use and incorporate multimedia and graphics.

To begin on that front we are going to watch a video today covering podcasting.  Here it is:


Podcasting in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo

Today we are going to learn how to insert autoshapes, text boxes, and WordArt into Word, and then learn how to format those objects.  We are going to cover in class today the following aspects of formatting objects:

1. Changing the size of objects
1. using the mouse
2. using the format menu and popup window
2. Changing the color of objects
3. Adding border to objects
4. Inserting WordArt into Word
5. Formatting WordArt
6. Moving objects freely within Word

If you are responsible for completing the vocab list on Wikispaces this week this must be done by tomorrow - please get this done quickly!

Welcome Back!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

It may seem hard to believe, but we only have 18 days of school left before we leave for Christmas break (that's assuming we don't have any snow days).  It will go by fast!  My hope for each one of you is that you end the semester on a good note - work hard to improve your grade in the last 3 and a half weeks!

We are jumping right back into our routine - this week we have vocab list #9 (Multimedia/Graphics) - the quiz over these words will be this Friday (Dec. 2nd).  Remember, you created your account on Wikispaces and should have your username and password saved in Google Docs.  If not, I can find out what your username is, but I don't have any clue on what your password is.  Here is this week's list of students who are responsible for defining the 11 vocab words on Wikispaces:

3rd hour:  KatieB, AustinG, TristanJ, AlexaM, ElizabethP
4th hour:  BenettE, AllyssaF, LillyH, AndrewL, TateN, PiageO
6th hour:  DaltonC, SethC, BenC, DevonM, MarshallR, ReneeT
7th hour:  ScottF, FrejaH, AJM, AutumnS, AlexW
8th hour:  SydneyH, LukeJ, DavyenM, KeeganM, ReneeR


For today, if you did not complete FA8 (check back to Thursday's blogpost for the directions on completing this assignment), you need to get it done first.  It should be emailed to me.  Once you have completed this, check the board to see if you have any missing assignments.  If so, get them done in the remaining time.

If you are all caught up on your work, then I have several things I want you to work on.  I will give you a handout that you can type.  You'll need to type the entire handout in Word - this will give you some review practice in keying.  Then, I want you to grab the green, keypad practice sheet and key it in Excel (there is no need to save either one of these - you are doing this for practice).

Once you complete these I will allow you to work in Alice.  What I would like for you to do in Alice is try to include the "Do in order" or "Do together" or one of the other methods that are located at the bottom of the Editor area.  These allow you to make some very interesting actions for your characters.

Vocab Quiz #8 (Technical); FA8

At the beginning of the class you will have opportunity to review for just a couple of minutes before we take the vocab quiz.  

Once you are done with the vocab quiz you will need to finish FA8 (the instructions are on yesterday's blog post).  

When you complete FA8, if you haven't made your entry on Edmodo you can do that today during class.  Please remember that you should post your original response to the questions, then you also need to reply to at least 2 of your classmates.  Here is the writing prompt:

What does FREEDOM mean to you? In what way do you thank a veteran to let them know that you appreciate their willingness to make the supreme sacrifice for you? If you don't do anything, explain why.

If you have completed all of the above work, you should work on any missing assignments that you have.  You can look at the board to find out what you are missing - it is up to date.

If you are done with everything, you can finish the Alice tutorial we started earlier this week (click here to get to the website), or if you have finished that tutorial you are free to experiment in Alice.  If you are experimenting in Alice try some of the things that we have not yet worked on to see if you can figure out how they help you create a world - then incorporate them into your world.

Finish keypad; FA8

At the beginning of class today you will need to complete the last keypad sheet (this is not the last time we will do this - it is just the last sheet in terms of using sheets to learn the keypad).  Do this sheet just as we have done the other sheets - Drill 1 in Column A, Drill 2 in Column B, and so on.

Have you posted your discussion entry to Edmodo?  If not, it needs to be completed by tomorrow at midnight.

Remember - tomorrow there is a vocab quiz!

This video below explains the differences between a byte, a kilobyte, a megabyte and a gigabyte.  The only ones you need to worry about for the quiz tomorrow are byte and gigabyte, but understanding all of them would be beneficial.



After completing the handout, you have Formatting Activity 8 that you need to complete.  It is embedded here:

FA8

Continue in Alice; Keypad work

For today, there are several things you need to accomplish. They are as follows:

1. You need to type the keypad handout that I have left with substitute first. You will be learning 3 new keys today, and you need to type the handout just like we typed the other handout on Monday (Drill #1 in Column A, Drill #2 in Column B, and so on).
2. Complete the Alice tutorial that we have been walking through in class the last 2 days. You will do the rest of this on your own. In order to do that you will need to go to this website. Once there you will want to scroll down to slide #52, open up the spaceworld file that we have been using the last 2 days, and complete the work. Make sure to save often, and save at the end of the hour.
3. REMINDERS!!!
1. If you are on the list this week for vocab words this needs to get done today! Make sure that you are getting your words defined and posted to the wikispaces page!
2. Despite the fact that I have not said anything in class, I have posted the last 2 days on the blog a discussion requirement for you in Edmodo. This needs to get done by Friday (midnight)! The discussion prompt is as follows:

What does FREEDOM mean to you? In what way do you thank a veteran to let them know that you appreciate their willingness to make the supreme sacrifice for you? If you don't do anything, explain why.

3. The video below is for you to watch concerning one of the vocab words for this week.  Hopefully it will help you with understanding a little more of what cache is.  The narrator gets a little off-track, but does explain what cache means.

Firewall video; Intro to Alice

Yesterday I forgot to mention in class that you have a discussion assignment on Edmodo.  I did post this on the blog, but in the midst of completing our work yesterday I forgot to remind you in class.

This week's discussion prompt is as follows:

What does freedom mean to you? In what way do you thank a vet to let them know that you appreciate their willingness to sacrifice their life for you? If you don't do anything, explain why.  If you'd also like to include any Veterans that you have in your family and when they served that would also be interesting.

This is homework (do not plan on class time to work on it), and it is due by Friday, Nov. 18th.  You are welcome to post up until midnight of Friday, but I would highly recommend that you get it done before Friday because it is highly unlikely that you will go home after school on Friday and complete this assignment.  If you need to come in before school, during lunch recess, homeroom, REAL, etc. then please make arrangements with me to do so.

Today, we are going to watch a short video on what a firewall is.  The guy presenting uses a little bit of techno-babble, but I think you'll be able to understand what he is saying.

After watching the video, we will continue with working in Alice.  Today we will discuss how to change camera views, create new methods, and play a world.  It should be fun!

Start learning the keypad

In our normal tradition, this week will include a vocab list and a vocab quiz on Friday.  Below are the culprits (ok - that was a joke!) for this week's vocab list.  This week is list #8 - all of our words have to do with the TECHNICAL side of using a computer.

Please make sure that you have your words defined by Wednesday night - if not you will not receive credit for defining your words.  Remember, if you include a link or a video or a picture you will earn extra credit.

3rd hour:  ChaseB, LoganC, BrookeL, IsaacR, AndrewR, DakodaV
4th hour:  MorganH, MorganM, KelseyO, HannahS, AlexS, ShelbyW
6th hour:  MayaE, MackenzieK, KelseyM, KimberM, KendraS, SamT
7th hour:  EmmaA, JordanA, KaylaJ, BrittanyL, LoganW
8th hour:  ColeC, DylanD, JacobH, CalebP, McKenzieW

Today we are going to start with the learning of the keypad.  I will have handouts for you to work on while we learn to use the keypad.

After learning the first part of the keypad we are going to start working in Alice.  Alice is a great tool to help you learn about programming.  This is an "Object-Oriented" programming module designed to help you understand programming through a drag and drop process.  It is easier than Logo, and probably will be a little funner as well.  Today we are going to start working on this astronaut tutorial as a class.

You also have an assignment to post on Edmodo.  This week's discussion prompt is as follows:

What does freedom mean to you? In what way do you thank a vet to let them know that you appreciate their willingness to sacrifice their life for you? If you don't do anything, explain why.

This is homework (do not plan on class time to work on it), and it is due by Friday, Nov. 18th.  Since you can work on this at home it would be possible for you to do it after school on Friday, but as we've talked about before you're probably not going to want to go home on Friday and do homework.  Therefore, it is in your best interests to get this completed as soon as possible.

Get caught up today

Today you will be allowed to get any missing work completed and handed in.  Therefore, if your name is on the board with a missing assignment you will need to be working on whatever you are missing in an attempt to get it done and handed in.  Realize that not all of what we have done has been entered in Skyward.  Today's crossword puzzle, for example, is obviously not listed on Skyward because it hasn't been graded.  Same goes for Activity 6 and 7 - neither of those Formatting activities have been graded and won't show up on the list on the wall.  Therefore, if you haven't completed them, get them done today!

If you are done with everything the first thing I'd like you to do is add a widget to your blog.  The steps to do so are listed below.  After adding the widget, you have several choices:  you can work in Logo (I'll give you a handout), you can work in Alice using this tutorial , or you can work on the practice websites (your speedskin must be on your keyboard!).

Here are the steps to adding a widget to your blog:

1. Click on the "Design" button in the top right hand corner of your blog.
2. You should have several areas where you can click on "Add a Gadget" (see picture below).  You'll want to click on the "Add a Gadget" link where you want your Gadget to be added on your blog :




3. After clicking on the Gadget (many people usually call these Widgets, but we'll stick with Blogger's name), you'll get a window that pops up that looks like the following picture:


4. Choose the Gadget you want to include on your blog by doing a simple search.  Click on one of the four choices on the left - Basics, Featured, Most Popular, or More Gadgets - then click on the blue plus sign to add it.  Or, in the top right-hand corner of the window there is a search box - search for something that you want to add.  REMEMBER!!!! - everything added to your blog must be school appropriate!

Finish FA7; start Alice

You will be given the entire hour today to finish FA7 - it is due at the end of the period!  When you are done you will have 2 pages to print out and hand in.  Make sure you are following the directions on yesterday's blogpost - you need to have filename and path included in your documents.

Once you have completed FA7 you are going to start working with Alice.  This program shows you how you can manipulate objects in a program - something that computer programmers do while working on software with characters that move within the software program, or something that movie makers do while working on a movie project like Cars or Toy Story.

In order to learn how to use Alice you'll need to go to the following website to learn how the Alice interface is organized and what the 5 different areas on the interface are for.  To access this Alice tutorial click here.

Also, don't forget that your crossword puzzle is due tomorrow at the beginning of class!  If you have it completed you may hand it in now.

At this point I'd also like to remind you to check the board in the room for missing assignments.  If you are missing assignments it is your responsibility to come in and get them made up.  Remember, earning 50% on an assignment (what you get if you turn an assignment in late) is much better than getting a zero.  Let me know when you plan on coming in (before school, homeroom, REAL, lunch recess, or after school).