Dear Carmody Middle School Elective 7th Grade Parents and Students:

  1. There's now only one more week before the first grading period at Carmody Middle School officially comes to closure. Please utilize the Carmody Parent Portal at https://campus.jeffco.k12.co.us/campus/portal/jeffco_IC.jsp to know how your child is keeping up with Dr. Data's assignments and tests. Especially since there have been seven word processing assignments given since last week!

  2. Just completed a rather challenging week in the PC lab because the school's networking system has been down for the past four days. So students have not been able to save their work to their folders nor open up their previously saved work. And worst yet, nobody can access the Internet and/or print, including Dr. Data. However, Dr. Data has been inputing daily grades into his notebook computer via a "wireless" Internet connection which is both slow and unstable. But at least, you still are able to check your child's grades on a daily basis. With only one week left in the grading period, the timing for the network problem couldn't be worse because many Carmody teachers are having difficulty in inputting their grades into Carmody Parent Portal. But Dr. Data's wireless notebook system is doing the job! Please continue to check your child's grades on a daily basis and whenever concerns occur, do e-mail him at jkuzmich@eathlink.net and your questions will be answered.

  3. Word processing instruction will be taking place since last week, September 12, 2006. For specific references to this curriculum and daily assignments, please go to: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/claris_syllabus.html for the schedule and descriptions. We will be mainily using Microsoft Word and/or ClarisWorks and Appleworks in class, but at home, you can use any word processor that you already have to makeup assignments such as: Microsoft Word, Microsoft Works, or WordPerfect. Note: students can complete most word processing assignments at home when not finished in class. Just have the parent write a short note with a signature and date of completion and submit it to Dr. Data. Or students can finish the assignments on another day in class or after school Monday through Friday between 2:15 to 3 p.m. Note: Monday, Wednesday and Friday after school sessions will need advanced notice from Dr. Data since there are faculty meeting periodically, especially on Wednesdays once a month.

  4. The four-week unit of word processing instruction will conclude with a two-page Korean Pen Pal letter that 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, October 13, 2006 and the final copy along with pictures and other memorabilia is Friday, October 20, 2006. For specific details about this final project, please go to: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/penpal_908.html for more details.

    Students all received a Korean Pen Pal letter today so everybody is to begin their CSAP quality two page letter between and October 13th when the first page is due for 100 points. Each paragraph must have a topic sentence plus grammar, spelling and sentence syntax needs to be CSAP quality. For every letter received from Korea, your child will earn 40 bonus points or two floating "A's." The final copy of the Korean pen pal letter is worth an additional 300 points.

  5. If there are any grading mistakes on the progress report, the Carmody Parent Portal should also have alerted that to it. If not, this mid-term progress report is a good safety valve to help alert you. And when missing assignments/tests are presented to Dr. Data, they will be updated in the electronic gradebook. So, please have your child visit with me during class.

  6. For any missing Class Participation grades, your child can make them up for full credit by typing at home for 50 minutest to make up for all days absent.  Note:  your child should earn 5 class participation points a day when fully participating and whenever absent, they earn zero points.  But when they work at home and when the parent writes me a short note that the student typed for a specific amount of time, I will issue one class participation point for every 10 minutes typed and 50 minutes maximum for each day day absent from school. Therefore, all students are able to make up missing daily class participation points. The goal is to have every student working daily even if they are not in class. And beginning tomorrow at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/claris_syllabus.html#Required, there will be daily assignments to do which can also be done for full credit at home if the parent signs the assignment as done by the child and dated.

  7. Reminder: extra-credit assignments are not required and a zero grade only means that the student didn't do any extra-credit.

  8. An "M" grade means the student has not submitted it to Dr. Data, but it can be resubmitted for full credit.

  9. Important Special Offer: I believe it may be important for your child to have access to my 7th grade classes 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 Friday, September 22, 2006.. 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:

    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 third 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. An order form was given to your child last week. Deadline for ordering the software has been extended to Friday, September 29, 2006. You can also download the forms yourself, please go to: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/ATRT_Letter.html and return to Dr. Data ASAP.

Hope this information is helpful.

Thank you.

Till next time,

Dr. Data