Finish FA9; start work on Alice tutorial

*Don't forget about the vocab quiz tomorrow!*

**Your podcast is due in two weeks.  If you have not yet completed the podcast make sure you get that done soon and submitted to me.  You should be sending me a link to your blog when you have completed your podcast because you will be embedding your podcast on your blog.  Sending me a link to your blog so I can listen to your podcast is the only acceptable way for you to submit this assignment.**

Today you need to finish FA9.  If you would like to print out a set of instructions so you can cross off what you have done that is perfectly ok - just make sure to print out the printer here in this room.  The instructions ask you to submit the assignment through email.  Please make sure to include a subject line when you submit your assignment.

After completing FA9 your next objective is to work on Alice.  If you don't remember how to open Alice, go to "Applications" in the finder menu and look for "Alice" - double click on the icon to open the program.

If you did not complete the Alice tutorial last week you should do that now (in order to do that you need to just open Alice, and then click at the top where is says "Start the Tutorial" - see below).  

After completing this tutorial (or if you did this last week), then you need to work on the Space World tutorial at the following website:

Space World

Screenshots; Draw tools in Word

Screenshots -  this is the taking of a picture of what you have on your screen.  With the Mac computers we have here in the room, you can either take a screenshot (or what is sometimes also called a screen capture) of the entire screen (Command/Shift/3) or of what you select (Command/Shift/4).  After taking the screenshot, the image is saved to your desktop as "Screen shot 12-4-12 3.44.25 PM" (where the date and time are the actual time that it is taken), usually with a .jpg extension (one of the vocab words for next week).

On a PC it is a little different.  Most PC computers have a program that you have to open first before you can take a screen shot.  For example, on my laptop PC I have a program called "Snipping Tool" that I need to open first before I can take a screen shot.

After taking the screen shot you can then add annotations to your image.  This is a nice way to be able to edit so that if you are using your image as an instructional piece you can add arrows, text boxes, and so on to help you get your point across.

FA9 -

MP3 files; WAV files; keypad

*Remember to post your definitions to the wikispaces page by tonight if it is your week to do so!

**I have already had a two students complete and turn in their podcast - as I said yesterday it doesn't take much time to complete if you just sit down and do it.  One student completed it here at school; another one completed it at home and sent it to me.  This is your reminder to get yours done as soon as you can!

After watching the videos we will be working again in Excel.  Today we will be reviewing the 1, 4, and 7 from yesterday, and then also we will be learning the other keys.

Multimedia vocab list; streaming video; podcast; keypad

The new list of vocab words has been posted on the wikispaces page.  This is week #9 - MULTIMEDIA/GRAPHICS #1.  All of these words are related to either multimedia and/or graphics.  Please have your definitions posted by Tuesday night.

Here is our first look at one of the vocab words for this week (Streaming Video):

One of the vocab words for this week is PODCAST.  You will be creating a podcast using the website  called VOCAROO.  I will be showing you today how you can create a very simple podcast; you will be doing this on your own OUTSIDE OF CLASS TIME!!! You will have the rest of the semester to complete this project.  However, I highly recommend that you get this done as soon as you can...if you wait until later you will forget and/or not get it done.

The instructions for completing the podcast are as follows:

1. You will use the Vocaroo website to create your podcast, and you will need to make sure that the computer you use has a functioning microphone (all of the computers here at school in the labs and the library have functioning microphones).  
2. The podcast will be you reciting a famous historical speech.  You can choose any speech you want from one of the 3 following websites:
1. Famous quotes
2. American Rhetoric
3. History Place Speeches
3. The podcast ONLY needs to be 1 minute in length; therefore, depending on the speech you choose, you may not have to read the entire speech.
4. After creating the podcast you will embed your podcast on your blog.  
5. Once your podcast has been embedded on your blog you will need to send me an email with a link to your blog so I can listen and grade your podcast.

The last thing we are going to do today is start learning the keypad.  We will use Excel when we are learning the keypad.

Vocab quiz 8; reflection with image; ALICE

Take a few minutes at the beginning of class to review for the vocab quiz (list #8).  We will take the quiz in a few minutes.

After completing the vocab quiz you need to create another reflection on your journal page on your blog.  However, we need to make sure that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing when writing a reflection.  Here are some guidelines:

1. What you write should be in complete sentences with correct grammar and spelling.  
2. The reflection should explain what you learned in Computer Applications this week, what you liked about what you learned, and/or what you didn't like about what you learned, and then why you either did or did not like it.  
3. You should only discuss Computer Applications - you are not reflecting on Geography, Math, or any other class.  
4. You need to insert an image that is related to something we did in class - this also should be discussed in your reflection (for example you may want to include the same image you used for your movie summary, and then explain in your reflection that you learned to insert an image to a blog and that this is an image of your favorite movie). 
5. Write your reflection in the following manner; 

WEEK OF NOV. 26

A;SLDKFJ;LJ

AS'DLKJAS;DLFKJASDF

AS;DLFKJASDFL

ASD;FLKJASDF;LJ

QWERPU

QWEPROIU

IMAGE

If you get done with all of this, you will start working with ALICE.  In order to open ALICE, go to your Finder, click on Applications, and then look for the ALICE program.  When you find it, open it and complete the 2 tutorials below in order

BEGINNING ALICE TUTORIAL

ALICE TUTORIAL 2

Bytes vs. GB; Finish FA8; new symbol keys

To begin with we are going to discuss the difference between a byte and a gigabyte (abbreviated GB).  Let's go to this website to understand the differences between the amounts of computer memory and to help ourselves understand a little more about the power of computer memory as well.

If you still have not finished FA8 you need to get it done today!  Remember that once you complete it you are to email it to me as an attached document; also remember to include a link to your blog so that I can see that you have posted your summary to your blog with an inserted image.

After completing FA8 you are to turn to page 43 and type lines 1-7 on 18D.  After completing these 7 lines, turn to page 44 and learn to type the = (left shift + R4) by typing lines 1-3 on 19C once.  Then learn the * (left shift + R2) by typing lines 1-3 in 19D once.

If you complete all of the above you may use whatever time you have left to complete any missing work.  If you are done with everything you can go to the practice websites on the blog.

KEEP YOUR SPEED SKIN ON YOUR KEYBOARD THE ENTIRE HOUR!

Finish FA8; Cache

Using the formatting instructions that are embedded on yesterday's blogpost, you need to finish FA8.  There are several things you need to make sure you have accomplished in order to do this assignment correctly.  First, you need to make sure your summary is between 175 and 300 words; second, you need to copy your summary and paste it into a new blog post; third, you need to add an image that is related to your movie in that same blogpost; and last, you need to send me an email that has your document attached to it and that also has a link to your blog.

Before you get started, I want to show you the Word count summary feature in Word.

When you complete FA8, check the missing assignments list - do you have any missing assignments?  If so you should be working on them now (the lists on the wall were printed out this morning so this is an up-to-date list).

If you are responsible for defining words for this week's vocabulary list have you posted your definition(s)?  If not, now is the time to get that done.

If you are in 6th, 7th, or 8th hour many of you will need to complete FA7 - if you remember the Friday before Thanksgiving break we were working on FA7 and then the Internet wouldn't work so many of you were unable to finish.  You can use this time to complete FA7 - here are the instructions:

Activity 7 -

New Keys; Firewall video; Formatting Activity 8

**REMINDER!!**  If you haven't defined your words on the wikispaces page you need to get that done today.  Remember - this is an out-of-class activity that you need to complete.  If you need to come in during lunch recess or after school that will be fine.

1.  We will begin today by watching the above video.  The guy in the video talks pretty fast so you will want to pay close attention.  As always, if you need to review you can watch the video at home.

2.  Warmup - p. 42 18B all lines once.

The new symbols we will be learning today are the @ symbol (right shift + L3); left parentheses (left shift + R3); and right parentheses (left shift + R4).

3.  After completing the warmup, turn to page 43.  We will be typing lines 1-9 on 18D to practice these keys.  Remember to keep your speed skin on your keyboard.

4.  The following formatting activity will have you working with Microsoft Word's word count feature.  Additionally, as I showed you yesterday in class, you will be uploading an image onto your blog.  This image will need to be related to the movie that you are going to write about for your formatting activity.  

FA 8 -

Welcome back!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving break, ate lots of food, and are re-energized for 4 weeks of school!

With that in mind, we only have 4 weeks of school to accomplish quite a bit.  We will be learning a new program (called Alice) that will help you to understand what a computer programmer goes through (this program is more modern than Logo and I think you will find it more interesting to use), we have 3 vocab quizzes in the next 4 weeks (Vocab quiz #8 is this Friday), we will learn to key using the keypad, you are going to create a podcast and embed it on your blog, and we still have several formatting activities to complete.

The first thing I want to get done this week is the learning of the symbol keys, so we will start today in Microsoft Word.  Turn to page 41 and type the paragraph on 17E once to get warmed up.  

Then we will be moving over to page 42 to learn the # (right shift + L2), the & (left shift + R1), and the + (left shift + R4).

After learning these keys we are going to watch the video below that will help you understand one of the vocab words for this week - embed.

After learning these keys I am going to show you how you can embed an image into your blog.   This will be important for 2 reasons - 1) because you are going to have to include an image with your journal reflections from now on; and 2) because you are going to complete a formatting activity that will require you to embed an image on your blog.

Before you can embed an image you first must have an image on your computer that you are going to use.  So, the first step will be to correctly save an image to your computer so we can then embed it on your blog.

FA7 and Crossword #3 due

Please hand in your crossword puzzle with your name on it as soon as you arrive.

You will have the entire hour today to complete FA7 and get it emailed to me (the instructions are on still on yesterday's blogpost).  You will be given class time today to get that done.

Once you complete FA7, if you have any missing assignments then you need to work on those and get those turned in for credit.

If you have no missing assignments then you have 2 choices - you can either:

1) work on the last handout from Logo in which you write logo procedures to create designs; or

2) go to the practice websites (you can choose which ones you want to work on) and practice.

If you are working on a practice website or on a formatting activity you will have your speed skin on your keyboard!