Welcome to 2014-15 school year!

Today we are going to start with learning the keyboard and how to key correctly.  You should know that you will be learning the touch typing method - that means that you will be learning to key without looking at the keyboard.  That is why we use the speed skins - they are to be on your keyboard at all times throughout the entire semester.

The biggest factor in learning to key successfully is learning, and using, the correct technique (we will cover what you need to do correctly in terms of technique today in class).  Most people want to type fast right away - I think that's human nature, but it just doesn't work that way.  Being able to type efficiently and at a fast pace takes a bunch of practice, but you have to use the correct technique.

Our concentration as we begin to learn the keyboard will be on technique - speed will come later.  It is important that you concentrate on doing things right first, and usually that means at a slow pace as you begin, rather than worry about your speed.

That being said, as we move through the semester those who concentrate hard on using the correct techniques (and don't worry about speed) now and will have a much easier time later in the semester.  Those whose technique is poor, or those who do not use the correct techniques now will struggle later in the semester when we are moving at a much faster.

Week 3 vocab; learn P and V

This is another week with vocabulary, so those people who are responsible for posting definitions on the Wiki spaces website should have that done by Tuesday night.  Again, it is completely realistic to post definitions for all of your words for the rest of the semester, and if you want to get all of yours done tonight that would be perfectly ok.  You don't have to wait until the week your definitions are due to post the definitions - you can post them early.

We will have another week of technique grades this week as well - continue to concentrate on the little things as this will have a lasting impact on how well you key and how fast you improve.  I have been very pleased with Congo's work on technique - an overwhelming majority of you do a fantastic job of listening and doing what is asked (in terms of technique) and it is paying off!

Today we are going to learn the P (R4) and the V (L1).  After these two letters we are left with only the Z and the Q (in terms of letters) to learn.

Reminders/suggestions; N and G

A couple of things to keep in mind as you are keying:

1. Your forearms should not be resting on your thighs.  If they are you have to be slumped over to do that, and therefore you are not sitting up straight.
2. Keeping your keyboard at the edge of the countertop helps to keep your forearms, wrists, and palms off of the countertop - which you should not be doing.
3. The speedskins slide around slightly - sorry, but there's nothing that can be done about it.  Do your best even though the speed skin may move slightly.
4. When you are keying you want to stay in a "rhythm".  You have probably noticed that when I read through a line it's very rhythmical - this is to help you learn the keys in a way that will help you stay in that rhythm once you key on your own.  The best way to key is to keep a steady pace for long periods of time rather than type 4 or 5 letters, then pause, then type 4 or 5 letters, pause again, and continually repeat this process.

The new keys for today include the N (R1) and the G (L1).  These should be fairly easy as you will be using the index fingers on each hand to type these keys.

2 new keys; technique sheet

I will be passing out a technique sheet at the beginning of the hour.  This was embedded on the blog on Friday's blogpost and we discussed this during our short class period on Friday.  When you get yours make sure to put your first and last name at the top.

We also will be learning 2 new keys today - the I (R2) and the R (L1).  

The theme for this week is "Perfect practice makes perfect".  

Review

With shortened hours today we are only going to review what we have learned so far.  Again, today's focus is on using the correct fingers on the correct keys.  However, you also need to continue to work on using the other proper techniques that we have discussed in class.  All of those techniques are listed on the following technique sheet, which is what I will use to grade you when it comes time to be graded on technique.  This can also be found on the Website Resources page of the blog.

techniquesheet

Work to improve

As I mentioned yesterday, the harder you work today at doing things correctly the easier it will be tomorrow.  You are going to be frustrated...it's not going to be easy...but if you work the techniques correctly now you will be much better later.

As you work on our exercises today concentrate hard on using the correct fingers.  Forget about making mistakes (oops...I just made one while typing this!), don't worry about keying fast - just concentrate on making sure you are using the correct fingers on the correct keys.

The other techniques will help you to make small differences.  But, small differences now will add up to be large differences later.

Page 4 - all lines once
Page 5 - learn the H (R1) and the E (L2)

First full week of school

This will be a busy week in Computer Applications.  We will accomplish several things, so if you are gone you may need to see me before or after school to get caught up.  Here are some of the things we are going to achieve by the end of the week:

1. You will have learned over 1/3 of the letters on the keyboard, and may be closer to 1/2 of all of the letters.  We will continue to practice what we have already learned and we will be adding several new keys to what we already know.
2. You will continue to practice your keying technique.  Several things to keep in mind while keying:
1. Keep your palms and wrists off the counter top; your fingers are the only thing that should be touching the keyboard/countertop area
2. Your forearms should NOT! be resting on your thighs.  Relax your shoulders, sit back in your chair, and sit up straight.
3. To help you stay comfortable, your elbows should be at your side (or maybe slightly in front of your ribs); elbows are bent at almost a 90 degree angle; the distance from your elbows to your hands should be the distance you sit away from the keyboard.
3. You will be graded on technique
4. You will create a Gmail account.  If you are gone on the day we set up your class you will definitely need to see me (not all classes will get set up on the same day).  If you can bring your cell phone to school this week (and keep it in your locker and on vibrate) it will be very helpful - if you don't have one you can borrow from a friend. When signing up for a Google account you will be asked to verify information - this will be done by text messaging.  
5. You will receive a list of all of the vocab words for this semester (116 vocab words).  We will discuss how the vocab works later this week and at the beginning of next week.  Next week you will have your first vocab quiz over List #1.

Today we are going to review the home row from last week, and then we will add the H (R1) and the E (L2) to what we have already learned.  

Keyboarding beginning

1. Begin learning the keyboard. 
1. We will begin discussing proper technique from the book; what you will be graded on is embedded below.  This is called a Technique sheet - you will become very familiar with these.
2. Home Row consists of the following keys:  A S D F       J K L ;
2. Proper practice is essential to improvement.  Think long-term...don't worry about typing fast today...learn how to do the skills correct today so you can build the proper foundation for keying fast later.  I GUARANTEE THAT IF YOU FOLLOW MY INSTRUCTION, YOU WILL BE BETTER AT KEYING WHEN YOU LEAVE THIS CLASS THAN YOU ARE TODAY!!
3. THE MORE WILLING YOU ARE ABLE TO LEARN AND DO THE SKILLS CORRECT TODAY, EVEN THOUGH IT WILL BE DIFFICULT TO BEGIN WITH, THE EASIER IT WILL BE TO KEY TOMORROW.

Technique Sheet

Day 2...making progress!

1. Student handbook - we will cover the School District's Electronic Network Access Policy today. This is something you have already agreed to; my guess is that you have not read through the policy to know what you are agreeing to follow.  Therefore, we will quickly cover the major points of the policy so that you know what is and is not acceptable.  To get to the policy click on this link:  Network policy
2. Speedskins - students love these!! (nothing like sarcasm)  These orange, plastic "skins" cover the keys so that you can't look at the keyboard while you are typing.  When you are keying you should keep your eyes on what you are typing rather than on the keyboard - these help you to do that.  These will stay on your keyboard the entire time while you are learning to key.  On the back on each Speedskin is a number in black...it corresponds to the number of computer you are using so please keep the correct Speedskin at the correct station
3. Remember, learning to key is a skill.  Practice is essential to improving when performing a skill, but you must practice correctly!  

Formatting Activity 1

I will be handing out technique sheets for the next week today - you will again be graded over the next week on how well you follow the technique skills that are required in the class.

Vocabulary -
It's important that several things are happening for the vocab lists on Wikispaces:

1. You must have the definitions to your words posted by Wednesday night.
2. Make sure to put your name in parentheses after your definition
3. Your definition needs to be understandable - if it is too difficult for you to understand your classmates aren't going to understand it either.
4. If you are a weekly leader, please have your words divided up so that you can hand them out no later than on Monday of the week you are scheduled to define words.  This way your "teammates" can have their words defined by Wednesday.
5. If you are having trouble - see me.  That's what I'm here for.  I can't help you if you don't say something about what is wrong.  Come see me before school, or during homeroom, or during lunch recess if you need me to help.  Some of you had problems logging in - I can't possibly know that without you telling me, so you have to speak up.  

Today we are going to start on our first Formatting Activity.  I will go over with you some of the information you will need to know for the activity before we start, so there should be no one working on this assignment until I am done explaining what you need to know in Word.

Formatting Activity 1

Make up quiz; busy week

For 3rd, 4th and 6th hours, you will be given a little bit of time at the beginning of the hour to review for the quiz.  After several minutes you will be taking the quiz.

Everyone else (and those hours as soon as they are done with the quiz) will be working on the keyboard.  We will begin with a review from last week - turn to page 10 in the book.  Type all lines on 4E once as a review.  Your technique grade runs through Wednesday - remember that as you are keying this week.

Then we will be doing a practice "Blind assignment".  This is always interesting as most students really don't like this.  From a learning point of view, though, this shows whether or not you are learning to use the correct fingers on the correct keys.  The students who don't do well on this are the ones who don't use the correct fingers.

Here's the process:  you will move your document "off" of your screen so that you can't see it (Command/F3).  Then, I will have words that you will need to spell - I will spell them out loud and you will need to spell them.  Once we are done with the list of words you can then move your document back on your screen and see how you did.

This will not be for a grade....today.  However, we will do this in the near future for a grade, so this will be good practice.

Tomorrow we will be completing a "Correct fingers" assignment.  This assignment requires you to choose the correct finger for the correct key.  In other words, you may be asked which finger do you use to type the U key - your response should be the right index finger.

If it is your week to complete the vocab list this needs to be done by Wednesday.  Remember, this is a homework assignment and not something we complete in class.  This also means that we will have a vocab quiz on Friday again this week.

To summarize, you have the following grades this week:

1. Correct fingers assignment
2. Technique
3. Formatting assignment (discussed later this week)
4. Vocab Quiz
5. Blind assignment (? - possibility)

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

Week of September 19

1.  After finishing our Internet Safety unit last week, I hope all of you have gained a better perspective and appreciation for all the negative things that can happen if you are not careful and smart about what you do online!  The Internet is a great tool, but you must also be wary of those who use it to harm others.  Living in Geneseo affords us a certain amount of shelter (the feeling that nothing "bad" can happen to us) - but I would recommend you keep in mind that those who abuse the Internet don't care who they attack, they just want to attack someone.  Stay safe online!

For this week, you have a discussion post to Edmodo that you need to make that is directly related to your Internet Safety project.  Please post an original response to the following writing prompt (notice how this is in yellow - all discussion prompts will be seen in yellow on the blog from now on):

What do you feel is the most important aspect of Internet safety?  Why?  Explain your answer in detail.  


Remember that you are to post an original response to this discussion question, and then you must also post at least 1 reply to 2 different classmates (that's a total of at least 2 replies - but replying more than twice is perfectly ok!).  When you reply, challenge the person you are replying to to defend what they have written.  Does their reasoning for stating what is the most important aspect of Internet Safety make sense?  If not, reply by giving examples of why your experience is different and ask them if your experience changes their mind.  Ultimately - challenge them to defend what they have written!

Your original response and 2 replies are due by Friday, Sept. 23.


(notice how that due date is in red - that will continue on the blog so you can tell when the due date of a specific assignment is)

2.  Vocabulary - If you are on the list for defining this week's vocabulary words make sure that you get your definitions done before class on Wednesday.  If you need to meet with your group, do that today and decide who is doing what.  That should take your group all of about 2 minutes (at most) to figure out.  Remember to post your definitions to the wikispaces vocabulary page for your specific hour.  We will have a Vocab quiz over Vocab list #2 (Hardware #2) on Friday, Sept. 23rd.

3.  We will be learning several new keys this week.  They will include the B (left index/1st finger), the Y (right index/1st finger), the M (right index/1st finger), the X (left ring/3rd finger), the P (right little/4th finger), and the V (left index/1st finger).  

4.  Blind Assignment - we talked about doing this two weeks ago and just ran out of room to include it in what we were doing.  We will do this for practice on Tuesday of this week, then next week we will do this for a grade.  This is the type of assignment that tells me who is using the correct fingers and who is not - those who don't use the correct fingers usually do poorly on this assignment.  Therefore, if that describes you then you may want to start using the correct fingers!

5.  Correct fingers assignment #2 - We did the first one of these a couple of weeks ago.  This is an assignment that you will do and be asked which finger is used on which key.  We will probably do this on Wednesday of this week - and it will be graded.

6.  We will also have a technique grade this week.

7.  Formatting activity #1 - towards the end of the week we will be doing our first formatting activity.  We will have quite a few of these throughout the semester.  These are activities that will help you learn more about how to use Microsoft Word and Excel (most of them are for Word - only 1 or 2 are for Excel).  These will be in-class activities that will guide you through a series of steps to learn a particular skill, or set of skills, in Word or Excel. This will be due on Friday, Sept. 23.

8.  Have you posted to the What I learned.... page on your class wiki?  Remember, the class with the most posts wins a reward at the end of the quarter!

9.  Have you posted to the FAQ page if you have a question?