Strange Carmody Middle School Emergency: Computer Server Problems!
There has been a problem with the school server that eventually forced all computers on the first floor to shut down this past Tuesday and Wednesday. 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 be CSAP quality for your child who will be representing our school in this international goodwill assignment.
Consequently, the 7th Grade Elective Computer Class worked with only paper and pencil for three days this week. Students wrote their pen pals by hand and we watched a computer movie in background to help brighten up a dull week of lesson plans with computers. Students were required to print out or hand-write their pen pals todays for a grade. Next week, they need to submit on March 4th a two page letter, double space in a finished format along with photographs and other memorabilia that Dr. Data will directly air mail to the school in Seoul, Korea over spring break. And for every letter that your child receives from the assigned pen pal student in Korean, Dr. Data will award two floating A's. So the letters really do need some creative efforts. Suggest parents proof the letters this week as they need to be of CSAP quality with topic sentences in every paragraph plus good spelling and grammar and sentence syntax.
Second Period Grades Now Available for the Second Grading Period!!!
Today is the very first week of the second grading period for second semester. Grades posted today!!! 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. Don't panic on grades there are only five grades posted for this week. Here are the average grades which means half of the students have higher grades and half lower grades.
First Period: 81.25%
3rd Period: 80%
5th Period: 70%
6th Period: 85%
With unlimited makeup available to April 15th, let's start making up missing work before it becomes difficult to makeup huge amounts of assignments and tests.
Parent-Teacher-Student Conference: Thursday, March 3, 2005!
Thursday evening, March 3, 2005, come with your child to Carmody Middle School's Parent-Student-Teacher Conference from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the PC lab, room 110. Dr. Data will give every student who brings a parent to parent teacher conference a FLOATING "A." Apparently, you have only five minutes via advanced sign-up times available. But Dr. Data will allow parents in the room to see their child's electronic portfolio before or after their appointment with him. This opportunity to view their child's electronic portfolio will provide valuable insight about how well they use computers in his class.
Word Processing Unit of Instruction!
Today's the end of the fourth 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 , 2E and 2F).
For the second grading period, students can complete any of their daily class assignments in one of three different ways.
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 Pan
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.
Unfortunately, most of my students are necessary practicing typing for most of their typing scores are at about the 20 to 30 words a minute rate. Usually students who practice keyboarding skills at home will usually improve 100% to 200% over the normal 1- to 15 words a minute which means by the end of the semester, students could realistically typing 60 to 80 words a minute. At the present time, I'm not seeing the expected improvement as I normally do at this time of the semester.
Creative Solution: February 25, 2005 Deadline Equals Only Two Students Have Ordered All The Right Type Software! This Order Is In Jeopardy of Being Cancelled since it Requires Ten Orders!
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 18, 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:
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: March 3, 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.
Therefore, I need an e-mail from parents expressing interests in the All The Right Type keyboarding software ASAP as I may have to cancel the order since only two parents have ordered the software to date. My e-mail is: jkuzmich@jeffco.k12.co.us. Dr. Data will make a decision on Friday, March 4th after the parent-student-teacher conferences.
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.
Till next time,
John Kuzmich, Jr.
7th Grade Elective Computer Teacher