Dear Carmody 7th Grade Elective Computer Class Students and Parents.

April 7, 2006

• Progress reports were given to all of my classes today. Presently fixing all grades with extended makeup without penalty still available for this present grading periods! Take advantage of it.

• Last day of this present grading period is Friday, April 14, 2006. Suggest students make up any missing work before that day in order to earn full credit for those assignments/tests. Any with an “M” or a zero at the right side of any assignment or test means one of four things.
  1. Did not complete the assignment and could still finish it and submit to Dr. Data without penalty.
  2. Never did it, but still could do it without penalty
  3. Completed the assigned and probably printed it out but never pick up the assignment and therefore did not submitted it to Dr. Data.
  4. Submitted it to Dr. Data and somehow it got lost in the new Infinite Campus grading program with all of its many changes this semester. But, there's still hope because your child could easily check their computer server folder where they must save all school work to provide proof that she did it and if completed successfully, I'll grade it for him/her without penalty.

• Hope this helps. Have your child return the progress report signed by next Wednesday, April 12, 2006 for 100 test points. Parent Portal is still available to all parents 24/7 which should help parents and students considerably on what's been graded and missing on a “daily” basis since Dr. Data doesn’t usually leave school without updating the grades!

• If you are not receiving the ten class newsletters thus far this semester, please go to: http://www.kuzmich.com/parent_newsletters.html and print them out. In addition, please send me your e-mail address to be put on the class e-mail list for future newsletters at: jkuzmich@earthlink.net.

• 7th Annual Whiz Chips Annual Klik & Play Gaming Contest With Multimedia Fusion Added is coming in May, 2006. A great education experience of how computers can be used creatively in designing and implementing computer games. It is not an easy progress but a very rewarding experience for most students who like computer gaming environment where students have to use their talents and knowledge in a "real-time" situation over three days of intensive concentration after schiool as outlined below.
  1. Students interested in entering the annual Whiz Chips Computer Gaming Contest taking place on May 8, 9 and 11, 2006
  2. "Live" real-time gaming will take place in the PC lab in room 110 on those three days from 2:15 to 3 p.m. with the Whiz Chips Club judging the competition in two different categories/levels: 1) entry-level with Klik & Play and 2) advanced level with Multimedia Fusion. 7th and 8th grades are all eligible to enter.
  3. For more details and where to obtain the contest application, go to Microsoft Explorer as the only web browser that opens up http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Contest1.html. But any other Internet browser will work well with all other competition URL's listed on this web site.
  4. For viewing more contest flyers, go to: Poster 1 (click here), Poster 2 (click here) and Poster 3 (click here)
  5. View and print the Klik & Play Contest Rules at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Klik_Rules.html
  6. View and print the Klik & Play Contest Application at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Klik_Application.html
  7. View and print Multimedia Fusion Rules: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Multimedia_Rules.html (forthcoming soon)
  8. View and print Muiltimedia Fusion Application: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Multimedia_Application.html (forthcoming soon).
  9. It is possible that the three-day competition will be video streamed on Dr. Data's school site. More details to follow. Parents must sign a permission slip to be photographed as part of the contest appllication or they can't be video taped for possible video streaming on the Internet! With a three-day competition, we will have lots of video footage to put a professional presentation on-line for parents/students/relatives/friends to peruse! But, we first need parental permission before photographying your child.
  10. Presently working on "prizes" for the winners of the competition. More details to be forthcoming soon..
  11. The difficulty in making up missing assignments is that the database assignments can only be done in the PC lab at Carmody because that's where the database files are stored. Please be aware that Friday's are normally a makeup day in class after the typing tests are taken. If more makeup time is required because of extensive absences, Dr. Data by appointment only, will allow students to makeup assignments after school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in addition to the open labs on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Strongly suggest that parents check the Carmody Parent Portal daily after 4 p.m. if they are concerned about their child's classwork habits. Daily classroom grades are posted daily for your perusal before he leaves school. That should make a huge difference in being well informed about what assignments/tests need to be updated for better grades. We have just completed the entire word processing unit and now have completed the first two assignments in the database unit at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/database_syllabus.html. Ten more assignments to go! This should help you track your child's progress on a daily or weekly basis in the database unit.

• In order to help students know what daily assignments and tests are missing, class progress reports are being posted every Monday morning on the bulletin board listing all assignment by student numbers in a random order for confidentiality. So students can now easily check the bulletin board to review what they have and have not earned grades for. And best of all, they can make up the work until April 13th for the 5th grading period without any penalty.

• Soon we will be completing the database unit by Monday, April 10th which you can peruse at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/database_syllabus.html. Please be aware that the database unit can't be made up at home because one needs access to the Carmody databases in room #110. However, you can make arrangements with Dr. Data to make up missing assignment Monday through Friday by appointment. Sometimes there are faculty meetings on Monday or Wednesday and Dr. Data has to attend those meetings. So, please make the appointment in advance of the day your child wants to stay after school. Good news! For the remainder of the semester, it is possible to make up assignments at home if you have Microsoft Office and the Internet on home computers after the database management unit. If interested, go to: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Curriculum_Preview.html for the entire semester's curriculum.

• Spreadsheets will be the next unit iof instruction has its challenges with the use of mathematical formulas. This will happen on Thursday, April 13, 2006 for a week and a half. More info can be learned about our spreadsheet instruction at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/spreadsheet_syllabus.html. If parents are familiar with spreadsheets, please don't hesitate to jump in and help your child get into understanding formulas because they can be done at home since most home computers probably have Excel, Quattro Pro, Lotus or other popular applications installed and ready for your tutoring!. Once the concept of formulas is understood, spreadsheets become fun. Note: all spreadsheet assignments have to be printed out with the formulas displayed and not with the answers. Without formulas being displayed/printed, the assignments are not accepted for credit!

Hope this information is helpful.

Till next time,

Dr. Data