September 16, 2005 Newsletter

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

• Lots of excitement going on in our first week using computers. Not only are we into four weeks of a word processing unit. Here is what we accomplished.
  1. Video taped students on Monday demonstrating their typing abilities with emphasis on home row, posture and lack of eye contact.
  2. Learned how to log-on, use ClarisWorks, Appleworks and Microsoft Word, save documents, and print out on the network plus downloaded daily assignments from the following web site at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/claris_syllabus.html. If ever your child is absent the next three weeks, be sure to go to this web site to download assignments to do at home so when they return to school, they are not behind the class.
  3. Students took two typing tests on Friday in which the computer grade students on accuracy and words typed per minute. For a look at the grading system, please go to: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/typing.html. Notice that it is certainly possible to obtain scores over 100%. Excellence is well rewarded in Dr. Data's classes. Go to the above web site and learn more about how to excel ones typing skills.
  4. Students are expected to maintain a notebook of all returned assignments for validations that assignments were completed.
  5. Students need to save their work on the school server in their own private folder. No saved file means a student may have to do the assignment again. Always save your work to ones Carmody folder. And every 5 minutes instead of waiting for the end of the class period.
  6. All students are do their own work and not have other students print out their assignments for them. Caught two students today doing this today. The cardinal rule is: "if one is caught not doing their own work, all students involved will lose all bonus points and have limited makeup privileges for missing work for the remainder of the semester. Honesty is the very best policy! Note: Dr. Data can certainly forgive and forget, but students need to come forward first before being caught.
  7. On Friday, students were taught how to make computer games with Klik & Play software application. This software can be downloaded for free from the Internet at: : http://www.clickteam.com/English/download_main.php3?PID=6 so your child can creatively practice at home beginning today!
  8. Students were told that next week's assignments can be found at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/claris_syllabus.html with assignments #4, 5, 6 and 7.

• On Monday, September 2005, individual student progress reports are being given to all students with the following expectations.
  1. Parents are to read and sign the progress reports and have their child return it to Dr. Data to school by Thursday, September 22, 2005. Note: missing assignments and tests can still be made up. Low class participation points can also be made up by having your child stay after school with Dr. Data or have your child type at home at a ratio for every 10 minutes typed, 1 class participation can be earned and added to their class participation grade.
  2. Students will earn 100 test points in the electronic grade book upon submitting their signed progress report to Dr. Data. Unassigned progress reports will be graded as a zero.
  3. All makeup work for this first grading period is due by Friday, September 30, 2005 or sooner. Sorry for not getting the individual student progress reports printed, but Dr. Data has ony recently had success in learning this electronic gradebook. In the future, this should not be a problem.

• 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. Unfortunately, some students will not practice beyond class time and consequently, their speeds do not change much. But I know it is possible to accomplish this double or triple speed improvement, 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 on Monday via your child concerning this special pricing, but I have also enclosed the introduction letter and form for you to complete. In order to participate, you need to fill 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, 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:
  • A hybrid CD-ROM that works on nearly every PC and Macintosh computer from all Macintosh’s from system 8.6 and higher to OS 10 and PC’s from Windows 95, 98, 2000 and XP.
  • A manual and a warranty card.
  • All shipping charges from Vancouver, Canada to Carmody.
  • All taxes.

  Important: the order will be cancelled unless a minimum of 10 orders are placed.

  If you would like to investigate more about this product, ask your child about this software application as there are using it class daily as well as visit the product's 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 year that we have offered this product to Carmody parents through our site license relationship and the results are amazing for students who practice daily at home. For example for one student who had a lot of difficulty in learning how to type, that child in one semester went from one word per minute to 18 words a minute. Usually, students who practice at home daily will easily double or triple their present typing speed by the end of the semester. And having the same program at home that we use in school is very helpful.

• The Korean Pen Pal is forthcoming that will be a final project for the word processing unit. It will be in CSAP standards and mailed to Seoul, Korea to Mr. Young-Hun SHIN, English Chairperson in Kwangju district in Seoul, Korea. Their Korean students have studied English since 1st grade and basically read and write as well as our Carmody students. Deadline for submitting the preliminary draft to me is Friday, September 30, 2005, and the final copy along with pictures and other memorabilia is Friday, October 7, 2005. For specific details about this final project, please go to: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/penpal_908.html. Please note that photos and memorabilia can be included in the letter when it is mailed to Seoul, Korea. Start collecting such items for "a picture is worth a thousand words." Dr. Data will mail and pay for the air mail postage to Korea. For every Korean pen pal letter your child receives from Korea, they will earn 40 bonus points.

Till next time,

Dr. Data
alias Mr. Kuzmich
Carmody Middle School 7th Grade Computer Teacher