December 3, 2008

Dear Carmody Computer Parents and Their Students:

Second Grading Period - Less Than Three Weeks Left:

"Now's The Time" for Both Excitement and Closure!

Severarl important points to emphasize in this, the 13th 2008 fall semester newsletter.

1. No better time to get ones' grade up-to-date and avoid the end of the semester Blues. Yes, there's still sufficient grades to assess your child's progress with expectations that grades can be improved significantlyl! All of Dr. Data's courseware are actually on-line for 24/7 for use in completing any and/or all missing class assignments and projects at home, public library, parent's work place, relative's neighbor's, friend's computers or even on vacation away from home.  But Dr. Data is also available for help every Monday through Friday between 2:15 p.m. and 3 p.m. Please encourage your child to take advantage of this "Golden" opportunity to "jump start" the second grading period with ample time to do the makeup work without pressure. Using Carmody's parent Portal is essential in staying up-to-date with the progress of your child's work. Go to: https://campus.jeffco.k12.co.us/campus/portal/jeffco_IC.jsp
   
   
2. Latest Curriculum Developments in 7th & 8th Grade Computer Classes
   
   
• 7th grade classes are are doing spreadsheets with emphasis on formulas being the primary ingredient. Spreadsheets control the entire world's finances and a must for every student to learn and master. Unfortunately, students almost always have difficulty with the use of formulas in spreadsheets when learning how to construct a spreadsheet. Dr. Data has posted numerous on-line tutorials for ease of learning. The curriculum, assignments and daily learning objectives can found at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/spreadsheet_syllabus.html#Required for 1.5 weeks,
  
  
  • Here are some on-line tutorials below:

    We will now concentrate on spreadsheets as the next instructional segment of the Elective 7th Grade Computer Class. Please be aware of the number of assignments and specific skills that need to be mastered and completed as part of your grade. You are responsible for all assignments. Individual handouts are available for each assignment. All completed assignments need to be kept in your class notebook after they are graded. Fridays will be set up for all typing tests with additional options of making up incomplete assignments, extra-credit work and computer games.

    Note: many of the following required spreadsheet and extra-credit assignments ca be done at home if you have a computer with a spreadsheet, such as Microsoft Excel, Corel Quarto Pro, Clarisworks, etc.

    There three types of data are necessary for a spreadsheet:

    • Text that define what numbers mean
    • Numbers (raw data)
    • Formulas that calculate numbers

    Spreadsheets are definitely number driven by formulas. The hardest part of understanding how spreadsheets work is to understand the power of formulas in which answers are derived within a split second via formula calculations whenever the data (numbers) change on the spreadsheet. Once students see and understand how formulas work in a spreadsheet, their adventures with spreadsheets will be very productive. And conversely, unproductive if they refuse to recognize the importance of formulas by substituting numbers for formulas. The power of spreadsheets is in their formulas and not in their numbers.

    Here's a short worksheet explaining spreadsheet concepts at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Introduction_ClarisWorks_Spreadsheet2.pdf and a great on-line tutorial at: http://www.pen.k12.va.us/Div/Winchester/tech/trt/clrswkss.html

    Need more assistance? Here are excellent on-line tutorials for learning spreadsheet concepts in Excel and ClarisWorks.

    1. Excel
       • http://www.usd.edu/trio/tut/excel/
       • http://www.fgcu.edu/support/office2000/excel/index.html
         
         
    2. ClarisWorks/AppleWorks
       • http://www.life.uiuc.edu/hughes/prairieflowers/tutorials/spreadsheet.html
       • http://www.apple.com/appleworks/tips/_nak.ssbasic/
       • http://www.pen.k12.va.us/Div/Winchester/tech/trt/trthome.html
         
         
• 8th grade URL is "How To Start A Teenage Business!" 8th grades are continuing to learn web development skills to construct web pages from scratch, how to edit them in a variety of software applications. The 8th grade class is currently on Week 14 at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/business/Week14.html as we are learning how to create HTML codes manually so students can both create and edit web pages. This week's daily assignments consist of
  
  
  1. Monday and Tuesday: A business web site with six pages linked together,
  2. Wednesday and Thursday: Four-page web of ones favorite sports team (high school/college/professional)
  3. Friday and into next week: a personal web site featuring photos of your child and their friends. Please make your digital camera and/or cell phone with pictures. Or e-mail photos as attached file by Friday so your child can really get into their web picture featuring themselves.
  4. If your child wants to post their web sites to the Internet to share with family and friends, here are some free Internet web hosting sites to create an account for such postings which makes for a nice remembrance of our web development instruction. Maybe you should have your child create a family web site for your family and Dr. Data will give your child extra-credit!! Double extra-credit if posted on the Internet. Below is a brief list of free web hosting services.
     
     
     • Yahoo Geocities: http://geocities.yahoo.com/
     • Angel Fire: http://angelfire.lycos.com/
     • Free Webspace.net: http://www.freewebspace.net/
     • Lycos Tripod: http://www.tripod.lycos.com/campaigns/landing/free/index.html?OVRAW=Free%20Web%20site&OVKEY=free%20web%20site&OVMTC=standard
     • AOL Hometown: http://hometown.aol.com/
       
       
• Last week we began learning HTML coding so that students can learn to edit their web pages more accurately. HTML coding is not easy to intially understand but essential in editing HTML pages regardless of what software application you use. Starting next week, we will learn GUI editing beginning with PageBreeze and now with Microsoft Publisher which is graphical and much more fun to use without HTML coding. Please encourage your child to hang in there with the 14 HTML lessons that I assigned them. To view the HTML coding that we are doing and the essential daily learning objectives, please go to:
  
  
• There is a 14 lesson step-by-step track. Each lesson is worth 100 points. Dr. Data has adapted them for individual lesson sheets with daily learning objectives at : http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/HTML.html. When finished with these 14 lessons, go to Dr. Data's curriculum below at

PageBreeze: A graphical interface that goes beyond HTML that is far more user-friendly: Week 13. PageBreeze can be downloaded at home for free: http://pagebreeze.com. I recommend using it at home or in school. Alternative web editing software is Microsoft Publisher. It is not free, but it is the best web editing we have at Carmody especially by offering many fancy templates with artwork already in place for more creative designs.

• For specific lessons and learning objectives, students will create a web page each day a web site with either PageBreeze or Microsoft Publisher that has a GUI interface with a predefined template. Students will insert there own text, artwork and photos where designated at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/business/Demo_Web_Template.html
  
  
• For students who don't like doing daily web training assignment, here's an alternative using PageBreeze or Microsoft Publisher with options to learn by doing it rather than by studying it. Here are different options each worth 300 points per web page.
  
  
• First Real Web Site: Construct a web site in PageBreeze or Microsoft Publisher with table(s), artwork, articles, title and pictures. Topic: Your Favorite Topic. Click on the following template at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/business/Demo_Web_Template.html and you will see what the web template looks like. You fill in the boxes with content and you have 300 points earned. Must print out. Artwork and photos can be downloaded from the Internet plus there is a wealth of artwork on Drive S: on the school server. Go there, you go to Students folder, then to Kuzmich Assignments and then to folder entitled "artwork" and you about twelve different folders loaded with free artwork. Note: these folders can only be accessed from school and not on the Internet.
  
  
• Second Real Web Site: Add a second page to the first web page by doing a link from the first page. Then design your own template using a 8 row table in much the same manner as: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/business/Demo_Web_Template.html Again, it worth 300 points if.... you follow the same rubric format as designed in the above template. But it has to be a different layout. It could be 2, 3, or 4 columns. Be sure all pages link back to the first page!!! So all pages are interactive and can be access from each other.
  
  
• Third, Fourth, Fifth and Six Real Web Sites: Add them following the instruction for the Second Real Web Site above. 300 points for each addition page. It could even have different tables on the same page.
  
  
• Extra-credit is available for at 100 points per web page beyond the sixth page. Unlimited extra-credit points are available!! And earn even more points!!!!!!
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3. Success Guaranteed in Dr. Data's 7th & 8th Grade Computer Classes if Students/Parents Follow These Guidelines! When parents are engaged with their child's school work, success is very attainable. The 16 points outlined on this web site make parent-student-teacher interaction seamless and easier for all student success to be achieved. Nobody should be failing Dr. Data's classes if these points are being followed! If you have any concerns, don't hesitate to contact Dr. Data ASAP, even this late in the semester!. Dr. Data's second nickname is "Dr. Fix It."

Hope this helps as we finish up an exciting semester in both the 7th and 8th grade computer classes.

Till next time,

Dr. Data