Sudden Carmody Middle School Emergency: Computer Problems!

There is a problem with the school server that is forcing all computers on the first floor to shut down this coming Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday including the PC Lab. On Tuesday, February 19, 2005, I announced to my classes the Korean Pen Pal letter that your child will need to write as their final project in the word processing unit. Every unit of instruction has a special final project to demonstrate content mastery. For details pertaining to our word processing unit, please go to: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/claris_syllabus.html and then go to http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/penpal_908.html for the Pen Pal project that involves Korean students in Seoul, Korea. It is worth 300 points and is due on Friday, March 4, 2005 with a 100 point preliminary draft due on Friday, February 25th. Also suggest that students/parents start looking for photos and other light memorabilia to be included with the pen pal letters since a picture can be worth a thousand words. And for every letter your child receives from a Korean pen pal, they will earn two floating "A's". Dr. Data will even pay for postage to send the 120+ letters to the school in Seoul, Korea. The letters have to CSAP quality for your child will be representing our school in this international goodwill assignment.

Consequently, the 7th Grade Elective Computer Class will only be working with paper and pencil for three days, February 19, 20 and 21, 2005!!! Students will have three choices of earning their daily class participation credit if they:

1. Bring a reading book daily to read or school homework for another class without monitoring them.

2. Students can write their Korean Pen Pal letters by hand to be typed later in class into a word processing file. If your child lost their Korean Pen Pal instructions, they can print it out at: <http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/penpal_908.html>. Two hand-written pages need to be submitted on February, 25, 2005 for 100 points or one page double spaced typed. Note: all paragraphs must be CSAP compatible with a topic sentence, good spelling, and grammar.

3. Dr. Data will find a suitable computer education video to be viewed in class after the preliminary Korean Pen Pals drafts have been written.

Finale Grades for the First Grading Period!!!

Today is the last day of the first grading period for second semester. Grades posted today are the final grade!!! Grades are
available at: <http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Grades.html> This latest newsletter can be read/printed at: http://www.kuzmich.com/parent_newsletters.html

Word Processing Unit of Instruction!

Today's the end of the third week of using computers for typing skills and word processing instruction. And already, there are now ten daily assignments that have been assigned and due each day at 100 point per assignment and seven typing tests (test 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A , 2B, 2C and 2D).

For the second grading period, students can complete any of their daily class assignments in one of three different ways.

1. At home and print out a final copy at home. Just have a parent sign the completed assignment done at home with a short note on the printout for the assignment done at home and I'll give full credit for it.

2. At open lab on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school.

3. In class. Dr. Data tries to keep Fridays open for makeup work after the typing tests are done. However for classes that don't cooperate/work/correctly, they will be assignment an assignment.

Note: there are no makeups for anything pertaining to 1st grading period. February 17th was the last day for making up first grading period work. Anything after that date will not be accepted. Note: April 15th is the last day of the second grading period.

If you want to know what specific standards I'm teaching pertaining to the word processing unit, please go to:
<http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Scorecard.html>.

For an outline of the entire 7th Grade Elective Class Curriculum, please go to: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Curriculum_Preview.html. For those of you that can't access the grades on-line, I'll print out progress reports for parents to sign on Monday.

Important Breaking News!

The Ultimate Dr. Data Litmus Test!!! If your child has any difficulty in typing with the home row method typing position in a fixed manner without undue visual assistance in checking their work, then your child can handle the present work load in my class. If not, they are always going to be typing slower than they should be and most important, they will experience more fatigue because of the constant alternating eye concentration on the paper they are typing and the rapidly shifting eyes to the keyboard to check their work and vice versa. With fatigue comes an attitude situation in which the child doesn't enjoy typing long assignments. Again, if your child can't maintain the two hands in home row format, we need to address this issue ASAP.

Creative Solutions: February 25, 2005 Deadline!

1. Have your child practice typing after school under my supervision. I am available Monday through Friday till 3 p.m. Just make arrangements with me in advance because on some Wednesdays, I have faculty meetings usually twice a month. Note: Dr. Data is not responsible for transportation home of your child except on Tuesdays and Thursdays because there is a school open lab bus available.

2. Purchase the All The Right Typing program that I have offered through the manufacturer by filling out the Student Bulk Order Form and returning it to me accompanied by a check in the amount of $21.00 (per program) by Friday, February 25, 2005. Be sure to include your child’s name on the check. The check should be addressed to: Carmody Middle School. No cash please. If you can't get the form and check to me by Friday, February 25, 2005, please e-mail so I can anticipate your order and coordinate sending the order to the manufacturer in the near future so all students/parents will receive their product by the middle of October. If you would like to investigate more about this matter, ask your child about this software application as well as visit their web site for more details at: http://www.ingenuityworks.com/iworks/main/products/all_the_right_type_3/

3. Practice at home with parents observing the home row hand position. Even consider video taping your child to view after the fact for more constructive comments including the eyes which should not be used to check ones typing accuracy.

I believe it may be important for your child to have access to my 7th grade class’s keyboarding software application for home use. Why? I'd like my students to double and/or triple the speed of their present typing speed of words per minute by the end of the semester. If so, your child be a super typist forever. I know it is possible to accomplish this, especially if coordinate with typing practice at home between now and the end of school. It would also be possible for others in your family to benefit from this instructional CD-ROM. Especially if you have younger children who could also be exposed to it. Carmody Middle School has a site license for the software application, All the Right Type, for use in our school PC computer lab. This is a highly effective ‘learn to keyboard” program. Ingenuity Works, the publisher of All the Right Type, has a special arrangement that enables students and parents to purchase a home version of this program for a very reasonable reduced price. You will receive a flyer tomorrow concerning this special pricing. You may participate by filling out the attached Student Bulk Order Form and returning it to me accompanied by a check in the amount of $21.00 (per program) by Friday, February 25, 2005. Be sure to include your child’s name on the check. The check should be addressed to: Carmody Middle School. No cash please. These charges include:

1. A hybrid CD-ROM that works on nearly every PC and Macintosh computer from all Macintosh’s from system 8.5 and higher and PC’s from Windows 3.1 to 95, 98, 2000 and XP. For Windows 3.1 version, you will receive three floppy diskettes instead of a CD. If a Windows 3.1 version is needed, please also indicate that on the check.

2. A manual and a warranty card.

3. All shipping charges from Vancouver, Canada to Carmody.

4. All taxes.

5. Important: the order will be cancelled unless a minimum of 10 orders are placed. In the past, this issue has never been a problem. But today, we only have 3 orders thus far.

Again, if you would like to investigate more about this matter, ask your child about this software application as well as visit their web site for more details at:
http://www.ingenuityworks.com/iworks/main/products/all_the_right_type_3/

Deadline for ordering All The Right Type: Friday, February 25, 2005.

Price: $21.00 which includes shipping and taxes.

Student Name_________________________________

Team # ________________________________

Parent Authorization Signature____________________________

Hope this information is helpful since I can tell you that students who practice with All The Right Type improve significantly over the semester and those that don't are rather stationary in their progress. What's most important to me is that this might be the very last time for our 7th grade students to improve significantly on their keyboarding skills for the rest of their lives. It is not uncommon for All The Right Type students to improve two or three times their present keyboarding speeds of right now.

Hot Item for Free!

Dr. Data introduced Klik & Play today in class which is a great computer game making software application that will be used as a unit of instruction in this class at the end of the semester. But students are now allowed to create games in class whenever they finish all of their assignments on a daily basis as a positive reward to getting their work done! Normally, students have to have a "B" grade on Monday through Thursday to make games and on Fridays, a "C" grade is required before students can participate with Klik & Play. Klik & Play is a great way to learn to create things on a computer. Perhaps the best news is Carmody students are allowed by manufacturer to download the software for free by going to: http://www.clickteam.com/English/download_main.php3?PID=6 so your child can creatively practice at home beginning today! The Carmody Middle School Whiz Chips Club also sponsors a computer gaming contest in December and in May with a computer creating game contest. Some of your children might enjoy participating in the intensive competition while they learn and master the art of computer gaming. Believe me, the students are very competitive on how they make and play computer games. If your child can't access the Internet and
download the game application, have them bring a writeable CD and I'll burn them a copy to install on their computer.

Check out the web posted student Klik & Play, web pages and PowerPoint projects at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/power_point_projects.html. Of particular note, students can download these computer games and play them at home. Simply e-mail Dr. Data a request for the instructions to download, and he will send instructions to download 24/7. At the end of this semester, more computer games, PowerPoint slide shows and web pages will be added to his web site.

More Projects Recently Posted Including Many Klik & Play Computer Games!

• Parents and students alike can download student-made Klik & Play computer games for use at home. First, you must go to: http://www.kuzmich2.com/vdeck. You will need a password and user name to actually download or upload games for distribution. Simply e-mail Dr. Data at: jkuzmich@jeffco.k12.co.us with the request for instructions on the URL for this FTP web site and the specific user name and password needed will be e-mailed back to you. Then you should be able to download and/or upload the game files via this FTP web site. If you upload games to this web site, Dr. Data will post them for others to download.

• To play these games created in Dr. Data's class, it is required that you also download Klik & Play from the manufacfurer at: http://www.clickteam.com/English/download_main.php?PID=6. The manufacturer has given Carmody student permission to download Klik & Play with no charges. Once the game file(s) are download to a single folder on the you computer, you can load them in Klik & Play play them to your heart's content by running the *.gam file.

Short Cut In Bringing School Work Home and Back To School Regardless of What Word Processor Used!

I need some V.I.P. assistance for helping our students complete the daily assignments at home whenever they don't finish them in class (which means homework).

1. Please give your child a 3.5" floppy diskette to use in my classes because I showed the classes how to save in Rich Text File format so they can take any or all of their work home on a daily basis to complete there or bring back to class to print out in school. I gave a ton of floppies out today to help make it easier to complete their work at home. Knowing that students can easily misplace floppies, I need your assistance to make sure that they take good care of their diskettes so they can earn credit for doing all the work! Note: the assignment generally require the following ingredients to earn full credit.

2. Heading with their name, date and period on three single space lines at the top of the paper with right justification.

3. Then double space below with the enter key and put the title of the assignment in 24 to 36 point type size.

4. Then double space again with the enter key and type the entire assignment as given on the assignment paper (top to bottom) with nothing left out!! The instructions are noted so hopefully, the student will follow the instructions verbatim.

5. Select any easy to read type font. Avoid script looking fonts, old English or crazy wingding type of fonts.

An alternative to using a floppy diskette for taking work home is to print out their work at the class period and then take it home and continue typing at home on a new file where they left off at school. Then, printout the home file and staple with the school printout and bingo, the assignment is now complete if they follow the instructions as specified above!!!!

Hope this helps our students complete their assignments for submission to me. Note: any assignment not finished in full will not be graded. But, it can be completed later before the end of the grading period and resubmitted to me without penalty. Note: April 15th is now the end of the second grading period. I advise that all makeup work be complete a week before the April 15th second grading period deadline.

More After School Assistance!

If your child doesn't have access to a computer at home or typewriter, please consider a neighbor's computer, a friend's computer, your computer at work, the public library or maybe at school. If any parent wants their student to complete their assignments at school instead of home, I will make my classroom available from 2:15 to 3 p.m. daily: Monday through Friday. The only exception is I need appointments on Wednesdays since we sometimes have faculty meetings on Wednesday and may not be able to do anything on those faculty Wednesday meetings. Please note: you are responsible for seeing that transportation home on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays is not provided by Dr. Data. Generally, the school provides late buses home at 3 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays for Open Lab.

Hope this helps. Note: class grades will be only viewed on-line on the last day of the school week.

Till next time,

John Kuzmich, Jr.
7th Grade Elective Computer Teacher