Welcome back!

Welcome back!  I hope your Christmas break was refreshing and enjoyable!

Welcome to Computer Applications!  Today we are going to talk about a variety of introductory items that are important for this class.  There are going to be many applications of computers and computer knowledge that you are going to learn this semester.  Some are going to be very challenging, others are going to be fun, but most importantly all of you are going to walk out of this class at the end of May with a trunkful of knowledge.

To give you an idea of what you will be learning and doing this semester, here is a list of some of the things that we will be doing this semester:

1. Learn to key using the correct fingers on the correct keys
2. Learn to format documents in Microsoft Word
3. Create a blog
4. Create an email account in Google (if you already have one, you're one step ahead of the game!)
5. Learn how to correctly send emails
6. Learn Internet Safety
7. Create a podcast
8. Learn over 100 words associated with computers
9. Learn how computer programmers think
10. Use a wiki page

There will undoubtedly be other things that we will accomplish, but this list should give you an idea of the variety of things that we do in here.

You should have a thumb/flash/USB drive that you will be using in this class (those in Design & Tech will also be using it in that class...don't lose it!).  This will be something that you will not need right away, but eventually it will be an important part of the class.

For today, we are going to start with learning about the room and the computer.  

I also want to let you know that you will be having regular vocabulary quizzes in here.  There are 10 lists of words that will be covered.  Those lists include topics like The Internet, Software, Hardware, Multimedia/Graphics, and others.  More on this later (there will not be a vocab list this week or next week).  You may also have regular pop quizzes - if you are paying attention in class these should not be difficult to complete.

For this class, I grade on a point basis which means each assignment is given a point value.  For example, an assignment may be worth 10 points.  If you get 8 points on the assignment in Skyward I'm going to enter 8.  For those of you who prefer percentages - sorry, I just have never entered my grades that way.  If you want to figure out your percentage you can take the number of points you get on an assignment and divide by the number of points possible (8/10 = 80%, a C).  Here is the breakdown for the First Quarter:

Technique = 15% of your overall grade

Assignments = 50%

Quizzes = 30%

Timed writing (some call this a speed test) = 5% 

These are "guesstimates" - they may change slightly by the time the end of the quarter rolls around, but you should be able to use these as a guideline.

Ok, let's get started with Computer Applications!

To begin with we are going to look at the Computer Lab use agreement that you have agreed to (probably without your knowledge).  It can be located here (go to page 17).

This is an important document as it explains what your responsibilities are as a student and it also protects the school.  More than likely your parents agreed to all of these policies on your behalf - what that means is that you are required to follow these rules in order to be able to use the computer you are going to be sitting in front of in this class.   

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.