January 29, 2007

Dear Carmody Middle School Elective 7th and 8th Grade Parents and Students:

1. Today, mid-term progress reports have been given to your child as of today in class.  Please have a parent sign it and have it returned to Dr. Data for 100 points in the school's electronic grade book. Your child still has three weeks to make up all missing work plus keep up with new assignments. We are starting word processing unit tomorrow with a daily assignment for four weeks. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Reminder: extra-credit assignments are not required and a zero grade only means that the student didn't do any extra-credit.
5. An "M" grade means the student has not submitted it to Dr. Data, but it can be resubmitted for full credit.
6. Please return the progress report by Thursday, February 15, 2007 for 100 test points. Zero points if not returned!

7. 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 Thursday, February 15, 2007.. 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 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 will be given to your child tomorrow. Deadline for ordering the software will Thursday, February 15, 2007. You can also download the forms yourself, please go to: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/ATRT_Letter.html and return to Dr. Data ASAP.