September 17, 2004 Newsletter

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Dear Carmody Middle School 7th Grade Computer Class Parents and Their Children:

Latest grades are up on the Internet at: <http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Grades.html>. Note: we are now in hyper-mode with daily word processing assignments. Strongly suggest you check the grades of your child because with the increased number of daily assignments being added to your child's gradebook on a daily basis. Grades can go up and down very easily between now and the end of this grading period in only two weeks! If you child is missing some grades and didn't take the assignments home this weekend, you need to question them about it or you may find an attitude change taking place that may result in an unsatisfactory grade. Since there will be daily assignments till the end of school, students can finish their daily assignments at home. Just have a parent sign the completed assignment done at home with a short note on the printout for the assignment (includes name, date and period plus title in 24 point bold type along with all instructions and the entire assignment) done at home and I'll give full credit for it. If the child finds typos in the assignment, they can earn a bonus point for every correction! Since there will be daily assignments beginning on Tuesday, student's grades can change rather abruptly. So pay particular attention to your child's grades via the on-line progress report available at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Grades.html beginning this afternoon, September 17th to see if their grade dropped or stayed the same or went higher than last week's grades. Note: if you are having any difficulty with accessing your child's grades and progress report, please e-mail me at: jkuzmich@jeffco.k12.co.us. Hope this helps.

Here are the mean grades for my four classes.

1st Period: 86.5%

3rd Period: 90.4%

5th Period: 84.4%

6th Period: 83.1%

That means that 50% of my students have grades lower than their class's mean grade and 50% are higher. Hopefully the grade posting this weekend will be a good wake up call since there are only two weeks left in the grading period to fix the grades if parents and students desire higher grades. Remember: there is unlimited makeup available without penalty before Friday, October 1st which is the end of the first grading period. Now that students know how to save on diskettes in Rich Text File format, it should be easy to continue working at home. Note: students need to be careful that they don't lost their diskettes or damage them between school and home and vice versa. Suggest you provide a backup 3.5" diskette for your child.

Breaking News!

Students started work on their Korean Pen pal letters today as part of 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, October 8th and a 100 point preliminary draft due on Friday, October 1st. If you want to know what specific standards I'm teaching pertaining to word processing, please go to: <http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Scorecard.html>. 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.

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.

Repeated Information!

(Deadline for ordering All The Right Type is next week: Thursday, September 23, 2004, 2004)

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 September 23, 2004. Be sure to include your child’s name on the check. The check should be addressed to: Carmody Middle School. No cash please. Please complete the Student Bulk Order Form as well. These charges include:

1. A hybrid CD-ROM that works on nearly every PC and Macintosh computer from all Macintosh’s from system 8.6 and higher and PC’s from Windows 95 to 98, 2000 and XP.

2. A manual and a warranty card.

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

4. All taxes.

Important: we already have made the minimum number of 10 for the All The Right Type software order. If you have any children coming to Carmody in future years, we will be using this same software because it is so appropriate for our curriculum.

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/

Hope this information is helpful. This is the only the second time we have offered this product to Carmody parents through our site license relationship.

Have a great weekend and keep typing assignments/research papers for all your child's classes and Dr. Data will award 2 extra-credit points per page typed with no limitation of points awarded.

Till next time,

John Kuzmich, Jr.
7th Grade Elective Computer Teacher