September 23, 2005

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

Many, many important things to be aware of.

1. Students were well instructed today that their assignments are not necessarily being graded because...
   
   
   • They print sometimes to the wrong printer.
   • They forget to pick up their printed assignments and eventually, they get lost in that Dr. Data never sees it to be graded
   • Sometimes, students forget to put their names of their submitted assignments.
   
   
2. Solutions for assignbments not being credited/graded?

• Save ones assignments many times during a class period so one can always show it to Dr. Data again.
• Always save before porinting just in the case the computer should crash
• Save all returned completed assignments so the student has proof that it was done.
• If assignments are completed at home, simple reprint them and show to Dr. Data the next day in class.
  
  
3. Please e-mail Dr. Data at: jkuzmich@earthlink.net since he has much difficulty reading all his e-mail in two different accounts.
   
   
4. If you and/or your child needs to see the latest assignments, please go to: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/claris_syllabus.html and you can read and even print out the daily assignments as they are already listed by day. Note: Fridays usually do not have new assignments since we do typing tests and makeup workout. For example, day 7 was done on Thursday of this week and day 8 will be on this coming Monday.
   
   
5. Last call of All The Right Type software. Today was the deadline for parent orders, but next Friday will be the absolute last call because we have to order them ASAP. Would you believe some of my students are already typing over 50 words per minute while others are barely getting 10 words a minute. The difference in test scores is wide spread. For a score of 56 words a minute with no errors was 202 points on a 100 point test. That's really going at warp speed.
   
   
6. Good News - Bad News! Students do not always follow my instructions for daily assignment in that they tend to not be concerned on how the documents look in terms of layout, formatting, etc. Below are some common problems that I see on a daily basis.
   
   
• Titles need to 24 point type instead of smaller sizes.
• All text generally is in 12 point type.
• Always double space between headings. You wouldn't believe how crunched up the documents can be typed and printed out when it is single spaced format.
• Be careful of justification: left, right and center. I am specific on where the sentences, paragraphs are to be placed.
• When I indent, the student needs to indent.
• Please don't forget to use the spelling checker. Words in titles even sometimes are frequently mispelled.
• Students earn 1 bonus point for every word mispelled found in my on-line assignment sheets.
• Best news of alll, the Carmody Middle School Parent Portal will be up and running sometime next week. You will soon be able to check your child's assignments/tests and grades 24/7. More information to come soon.
  
  
• 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. We now have over a dozen orders thus far!


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.


7. Preliminary drafts of the Korean Pen Pals are due this coming Friday, September 30th. Length needs to be one page type, in several paragraph with double spaced type or hand-wirtten on two pages.. And the final copy on Friday, October 7, 2005 with two pages, double spaced type. Important that students follow CSAP procedures with good grammar, spelling and syntax. For your information the Korean Pen Pal is the final project for the word processing unit. It will be 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. Therefore, the letters need to be well written and include some memorabilia. And best of all, students will earn a total of 400 test points for CSAP compliant Korean Pen Pal letters.


8. 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). Namely, it is recommended that students saved their word processing documents in Rich Text File format which is the "O+" blood in the word processing industry. Thus, you child can read, print and save their assignments at home and/or a school and have complete readability. To save in Rich Text file format, simply go to "Save As" in your word processor at home or school and select the file format as .RTF or Rich Text File. Usually, there's an icon for file type, and one can select save different file formats bases the default file type of the word processor.
   
   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.
   
   
• Heading with their name, date and period on three single space lines at the top of the paper with right justification
• Then double space below with the enter key and put the title of the assignment in 24 to 36 point type size.
• 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.
• Select any easy to read type font. Avoid script looking fonts, old English or crazy Wing Ding type of fonts.
9. 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 typed correctly in full will be graded with a lower grade. But, it can be completed later before the end of the grading period and resubmitted to me without penalty. Note: Friday, September 30th is the end of the first grading period. I advise that all makeup work be complete a week before Friday, September 30th.

10. Hope this information is helpful as this is the very last week of the first grading period. Dr. Data will send you another e-mail as soon as he has information about the Carmody Parent Portal system. Note: you will find annotated comments in all daily assignment grades lower than 100% indicating why students are losing points in the assignments.

Hope this information is helpful.

Till next time,

Dr. Data