Numbers; Edmodo post; Reflection from last week on blog

Vocab words - URL, Netiquette

You will have another post this week in Edmodo.  As we always will do when you post in Edmodo, you need to post your original response and then post 2 replies.  Remember, you need to create discussion when you reply in Edmodo!  Many of you posted replies that did not create discussion.  Here are some poor examples from our last assignment that people posted that did not create further discussion:

"The bells are annoying"
"Being able to chew gum is great!"
"Good point!  We do use use computers more often."
"I agree with you about having more homework."
"Yeah...math is hard."

None of those replies requires a further response from the person you are replying to, thus they stop the discussion.  Remember, you want to create more discussion.  Here are some examples of good posts that people posted to create further discussion:

"What class has more homework than 6th grade?"
"If they expect a lot from us now, what do you think it will be like in 8th grade?"
"Do you like the bells or would you prefer the teacher telling you when to leave to go to the next class?"
"What is your favorite class?"
"Who is your favorite teacher and why?"

Your Edmodo discussion board assignment will be due on Monday, Oct. 22nd, and your post for this week is as follows:
List one new vocab term you've learned and how, why, or in what way it will be important to you as you continue to live in a world dominated by computers.  

Reflection for week of Oct. 8th - enter your reflection on your blog for last week - I would assume many of you would include your thoughts on the Rainforest and Brookfield zoo activities we did.

Open Microsoft Word - we will warm up before we start learning the numbers on the keyboard (these are the numbers across the top of the keyboard).  Start with warming up on page 20 in the book (use all lines to warm up).

Edmodo post; Headers and Footers; FA3

After practicing with Edmodo yesterday, you are going to have your first assignment in Edmodo.  Again, this is homework and should not be worked on here in the classroom unless you are specifically directed to do so.  If you can't get this done at home then you are welcome to come in before school, during REAL, lunch recess, or after school to complete this assignment.  It should be done by Friday, Oct. 12th (that's next Friday, and it is the end of the 1st quarter).

This is the type of assignment that you may need to work on a couple of days.  You may go to Edmodo and find that you can not reply to anyone...if that's the case you will need to return at a later time or another day in order to get all of your work done.  Remember - you are to write an original response and reply to at least 2 of your classmates (each of those responsibilities is worth 5 pts - so the entire assignment is worth 10 points).

The writing prompt is as follows:

You now have spent almost 9 weeks in 7th grade.  What do you think has been the biggest difference between being a 7th grader versus last year as a 6th grader? (due Friday, Oct. 12th)

Today we are going to cover how to use your headers and footers.  The headers and footers are areas of your document that you can use to enter information without affecting how the document is formatted.  The header is the area at the top of the page; the footer is the area at the bottom of the page.  Since you have already inserted filename and path into the header you should have a pretty good idea of what the header is, but today's lesson will help you understand a little more about what type of information can be included in the header or footer.  


Activity 3 -


Once I explain how to use the headers and footers you will be able to get started with the Formatting Activity. 

Flash drives; Edmodo;

When I grade your Formatting activities that you email to me (like FA1, for example), I will send you an email to let you know what you have done wrong and what your score is.  If you do not receive an email you either did not turn in the assignment (check Skyward or the Missing Assignment wall in the room), or you did everything correct and I entered the maximum score in Skyward.

Flash drives - we need to name your flash drive.  This should be done so that if it gets "lost" we can tell whose flash drive it is.  Additionally, when you enter the filename and path (which you will be doing on all assignments) it will enter the name of your flash drive, and if it is labeled with your name it will be easy for me to tell whose paper it is that I am grading.

Along those same lines, the reason we use filename and path is so that I know you are handing in your own work.  Stamping your document with the filename and path tells me that this is coming from your flash drive (or your account on the server).  Additionally, it allows you to have your name printed on your document without you having to write it, or without you having to take up space or change the formatting of the document when you hand it in.

At this point we need to register on a new website called Edmodo.  Edmodo is a secure social networking site, and we will use it to learn how to properly use a discussion board.  Despite the fact that this is very similar to a social networking site, it is for educational purposes, and we will use it for that reason.  The only people who will be able to access the discussion board will be the people in your class.  We have already learned about Internet Safety and what not to do on a social network, so those rules will apply here.

Any time we have an assignment in Edmodo, you will have 2 responsibilities - 1) enter an original response to the writing prompt and post it for everyone to see (after creating your response, choose your class in the box next to "Send"; and 2) respond thoughtfully to at least 2 of your classmates.  Thoughtfully means that you should make a conversation out of the discussion - find a way to get them to respond to your response.  An easy way to do this is to ask them a question, although that may not be the only way to accomplish this part. 

Your Edmodo assignments will always be worth 10 points - 5 points will be for entering your original response to the writing prompt, and the other 5 points will be for thoughtfully responding to at least 2 of your classmates.  Your Edmodo assignments are generally to be finished outside of class; however there are times when you will be given permission by me to complete your Edmodo assignment in class.  If you are not given permission in class then you are not to be chatting/discussing/working in Edmodo.

Today we are going to practice in Edmodo.  Your job is to post an original response to the question, and then reply to 2 different classmates' posts.  Also, if there is anyone who asks you a question you should respond to their question (it is considered rude to not answer a question - just as if you were talking face-to-face).  Keep the discussion "on-topic" and educational.

The following websites will help you create an avatar that you can upload to your profile.  These are just for fun and are not required.

Planet Creation
Build Your Wild Self

After you create an avatar at the website you will need to save a screenshot of your avatar to your flash drive, then you will need to upload the avatar to Edmodo.  On the "How To" page of the class blog there are instructions for creating a screenshot, and then a video that shows you how to upload an image to a website (like Edmodo).  In Edmodo you are going to want to go to "Account" in the top right hand corner of your webpage, then select "Settings" - here you will be able to upload your screenshot image.

Image file types; Alice project

You've still got 3 class periods to work on and complete the Alice project - plan accordingly!

You may need to check the board for missing assignments - it was updated this morning.  I have not yet included FA12 or the podcast in Skyward - if you did not complete either of those assignments they will not be listed here, and they should be completed and submitted for grading.

Also, don't forget that today is the last day to post your discussion on Edmodo!

Today's video is on different types of image files that you will find while working with a computer.



Here is a jpeg picture:

Here is a gif file:

Alice project work

We are again using today to complete the Alice project that you started yesterday - it is due Friday.

Also, don't forget that the Edmodo discussion is due tomorrow.

Here are today's videos for vocab:



This video will show you how Flash works:



If you want to see how Flash can be used on a website, you can go to this Flash website and see how Flash has made the website interactive.

Last week of work!

This week (which is our final week of class) we have 3 assignments that need to get completed.  The first one has already been given to you...last week I told you about the Edmodo discussion - it will be due Wednesday.  In case you forgot, here is the discussion prompt:

The year is 2032 (that's 20 years from now)...think of some sort of technology that you frequently use - how has that current technology changed?  Or what new technology, that we don't have now, is a part of our everyday life?  Post your response with an original answer before responding to at least 2 of your classmates.

In addition to that, you also will be having a vocab quiz on Friday over list #10 (Multimedia & Graphics, part 2).  If you are responsible this week for defining words on the Wikispaces page that should be done by tonight.

If you did not complete FA12 from Friday, that needs to be handed in today in order for it to not be considered late!

You are going to start today with 2 short videos. The first video will help to explain what a pixel is, and the second video will explain a bitmap image (you'll also learn about a vector image, but a vector image is not part of the vocab list for this week).

This video will help to explain what pixels are


This first video will help you to understand bitmap images


After watching the 2 videos, you'll be starting on the last project of the year, which is in Alice.  Your assignment in Alice is embedded below - this is a graded assignment!!  This is due Friday, so must be emailed to me no later than the end of class on Friday.

Alice project grading rubric

Final Alice project

Edmodo; Excel & Formatting Activity 11

Logo Design by FlamingText.com

Our last Edmodo assignment is now on Edmodo!! I know it's been a few weeks since we used Edmodo, but we have this last discussion to complete. The discussion is as follows:

The year is 2032 (that's 20 years from now)...think of some sort of technology that you frequently use - how has that current technology changed?  Or what new technology, that we don't have now, is a part of our everyday life?  Post your response with an original answer before responding to at least 2 of your classmates.

Today, we're going to find out what you have learned in Excel. The next Formatting Activity (FA11), will challenge you to format an Excel worksheet. This should be fairly easy to complete - most of this is formatting that is similar to Word. The assignment is embedded below.



FA11 -






If you complete FA11 and you get your Edmodo post completed you can work on the following Alice tutorials that were posted on the blog last Friday (you may have already started these):


Dragon tutorial Part 1
Dragon Tutorial Part 2
Dragon Tutorial Part 3

Edmodo discussion; Finish FA7

The first 10 minutes of class will be spent working in Edmodo.  Once you get to Edmodo you will see what you are to do for class.  This will be an interactive discussion for today.

Once we complete the Edmodo interactive discussion, if you have not yet finished FA7 you will need to complete that today and submit it to me by email.  The instructions are still on yesterday's blogpost.

After completing FA7 if you have any missing work get it done.  I will read off who has missing work and who does not.

The next step is to work on the Alice tutorial.  If you have finished one of the tutorials then you can start working on the other tutorial.

Learning to use tabs; crossword puzzle; Edmodo

Due to the short week we will not be having a vocab list week.  HOWEVER, that doesn't mean that if you are responsible for vocab words for next week (which is Week #5 - Internet #1) that you can't go ahead and post your definitions.  This means that a group leader will have to contact his/her teammates this week in order for that to happen.  So...if you are a group leader you would be doing your teammates a big favor by letting them know this week who is responsible for which words.

The crossword puzzle will be a review of the first 4 vocab lists that we have covered and it will be due on Friday at the beginning of class.


You will have another post this week in Edmodo.  As we always will do when you post in Edmodo, you need to post your original response and then post 2 replies.  Your Edmodo discussion board assignment will be due on Sunday, Feb. 26th, and your post for this week is as follows:
List one new vocab term you've learned and how, why, or in what way it will be important to you as you continue to live in a world dominated by computers.  


In class today we are going to be learning how to set tabs and use them in a document.  Once you have learned how to set tabs and to use the different types of tabs you will be completing FA4.  It will be due tomorrow at the end of the day.


FA4

Last letter key!

Several things for today:

1. If you haven't posted your definition to Wikispaces, you should have that done by tonight.
2. Your Edmodo assignment is due next Monday, but since you don't have school next Monday I would highly recommend that you get this completed as soon as possible.  If you wait until the last minute you will likely forget to do it.
3. Vocab - what does FAQ stand for, and what is it?

We will begin our keying today with a little practice.  On page 15, type 7B all lines once, and if you get that done type all lines on 7C once.

The last letter that we need to learn is the Z.  You will use your left little finger (L4) to type it - make sure to anchor on the F with your index finger so you don't lose your spot on homerow.  In addition, today you will learn the colon; it looks like this   :   It is on the same key as the semicolon (;), but you use the left shift key along with the semicolon key to type a colon. Also, you need to space twice after a colon (you only space once after a semicolon).   

If we have time you can practice using the following websites.

Foggies

Rainy

Barracuda

Classmarker and Edmodo

Xtranormal videos - I will grade them as soon as I can.  I don't make any promises in terms of when I will get yours done, but as soon as I get them graded they will show up in Skyward.  I would expect sometime next week to have them all completed.  Realize that it takes time to watch ALL of them - I simply ask for your patience!

At this point, I'm sure you're tired of signing up for new websites, but we still have two more websites that we'll be using frequently and I'd like to just get them out of the way today so we have it all done and over with.  Those two websites are Classmarker and Edmodo.  We use Classmarker to take all of our quizzes on - it is an online quiz website that hosts all of the quizzes that we take for vocabulary, plus a couple of other things that we will be doing in class.  Edmodo is much like Facebook, only for educational purposes.  However, we will NOT be using it to update our friends with what we are doing; instead Edmodo will be used to discuss what we cover in class.  In other words, we will have online discussions about topics we cover in class.

For Classmarker, I'll give you the details of your username and password, but they are fairly easy to remember, and the process for signing up is relatively easy.  The sign-up process for Edmodo is a little more complicated, but is not difficult.

After completing these two things today we'll go over a technique sheet, how you will be graded, and the process that is used when we have technique grades.

Once we complete this information we will again be working on learning new keys.  Most of you did not get an opportunity yesterday to work on the Left Shift key and the period.  That information is below, and is what we will be working on in class today:

1. For the Left Shift Key, you will use your left little finger.  But...you only use the shift keys to type capital letters with the opposite hand.  So, the left shift key is used to type capital letters on the right side of the keyboard, like the J, K or N.  The process works like this - reach and hold down the shift key with your little finger, type the key you are capitalizing with the right hand, then continue keying.  There should not be any pausing after typing a capital letter.
2. The period is on the right side of the keyboard, and you are going to use your right ring finger (or right 3rd finger).  You should space twice after a period at the end of a sentence, space once after an abbreviation, and don't space after a period within an abbreviation (for example, there is no space after the first period in "J.D. Drew").

We

Alice Project #1 due today

I would encourage everyone to check their Gmail in case I have sent them a message.  Several people have sent me either the wrong link, the wrong assignment, etc. and you will need to resend something to me in order to get credit.  Don't confuse this type of email with an email that explains a grade you received on an assignment - these types of emails are just telling you what mistakes were made on each particular assignment so you know what you did to earn your score.

Your Alice Project #1 is due today by the end of the hour.  Once you complete that you can finish your crossword puzzle or you can complete your discussion entries into Edmodo (remember, you must create an original entry that answers the discussion prompt, then you must reply to at least 2 of your classmates' original entries).

Once you have completed all of this work you need to work on completing any assignment(s) that you have not yet completed.  Check the board in class to see an updated list of missing assignments.

If you are done with all the above, then I want you to begin work on creating a new Alice World.  With this Alice world, I want you to incorporate several things:

1. One character must be "glued" to one prop, and you must be able to use the arrow keys to move the prop.
2. You must use at least one "Do Together" command (located at the bottom of the Methods section). 
3. Add at least 3 characters and 3 props to your world.
4. You need to move body parts on each character at least 3 times (that will be a total of 9 movements, and one of those must be a character walking or running).  
5. At least one character must spin completely around twice, but it must be at different times in the world.
6. 2 characters must move to at least 2 new places within the world (that's a total of 4 moves).
7. Include at least 2 sounds.
8. You also must include 3 camera-angle changes.

This last Alice project will not be for a grade - but is given to you to enjoy as we complete the semester.  Be creative - I'd love to see what you can create by next Wednesday!

Finish work

Most of this week (and what little we will have next week) will be spent tying up any loose ends.

Today, work on finishing your Alice Project #1.  Let's say for now that this will be due tomorrow - I need to gauge in all of the classes how far everyone is in order to make a determination on when this should be due.

Once you are done with that Alice project you need to work on posting your discussion to Edmodo (remember you also need to reply to at least 2 of your classmates' postings), or finish your crossword puzzle (these are both due on Friday, but you are welcome to complete them/hand them in anytime before then).

If you complete these tasks then you need to work on any missing assignments.  The missing assignments on the board are updated through last week (I do not have FA11 or FA12 in Skyward yet) - please get done what you have missing!

Last full week!

Today you need to begin by finishing FA12.  We started this last week - the instructions can be found on the blog from last Thursday.

You have several other assignments that are due this week.  The Alice project #1 will be due this week, and you also will have another Alice project that you will be allowed to start tomorrow.  In addition, you have your last discussion on Edmodo (I'll explain that below), and you also have a crossword puzzle that you need to finish and hand in by Friday.

For Edmodo, you need to post a discussion on the following topic:
List at least one thing you have learned this semester from this class.  Additionally, explain why you think learning what you have learned is important (one way to explain its importance would be to explain it in terms of how it will help you in the future).  Post your original entry and your 2 responses to your classmates by this Friday, Dec. 16th.


The crossword puzzle takes the place of the vocab words.  The crossword puzzle you will be completing covers all of the vocab lists that we had this semester (in other words you'll need to look at all of the vocab lists to find the words for the crossword puzzle).

Lastly, remember that school ends a week from Wednesday.  If you have missing assignments you need to get them handed in to me as soon as you can so your grade reflects the work you have done.

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.

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.

Logo Practice 4

To begin with we will be doing our blank keyboard assignment.  I'll give you just a little bit of time to review the keyboard.  Remember, you need to know all of the letters, the numbers, the tab key, the Caps Lock key, the shift keys, the return key, the space bar, the semicolon, the comma, and the period.

After the assignment you will have the rest of the hour to work with your partner in completing the Practice 4 page that requires you to write a procedure, then create the design on the page.  We will go over these at the end of the hour today.  Here are some hints:  #1 - use a procedure called a rectangle; #2 & #3 - use a procedure called a triangle; #4 - draw the crooked line then trace back over the line; #5 - use a procedure called a hexagon; #6 - use a procedure called an octagon.

Once again I need to remind people to get their vocab definitions done for this week.  You will need to get that done during class today if you haven't done this yet.

Also, as another reminder, get your Edmodo discussions done before midnight tomorrow.  If you need to come in during lunch recess, before school, after school, or some other free time then please do so.  Just check with me before you come in.

Friday - finally!

It's been a busy week, and we have accomplished much!  Today we will start with taking our Vocab quiz over vocab list #2.

Once we have finished that we will be discussing and covering various formatting functions in Word.  Here's what we will cover today:  changing fonts, changing font sizes, changing the justification of information in Word, highlighting words in color, changing the font color, Bold, Italicize, Underline, bulleted lists, numbered lists, increase indent, decrease indent, undo, and redo.

In addition, since the first Formatting Activity (instructions are located below) will need to be emailed to my school email (dpardoe@dist228.org) from your Gmail account, you will also need to learn how to attach a document to your email.

I can't express enough how important it is for those people who are responsible for next week's vocab definitions to get with the other people in your group and figure out who is going to define what.  Everyone doing their small share makes the defining of words so much easier on everyone.

Also, if you have not posted your discussion to Edmodo, you will need to do that by midnight tonight.  If you need to refresh your memory on the discussion topic, you can go back to yesterday's post.


Formatting Activity 1