May 3, 2008

Dear Carmody 7th and 8th Grade Dr. Data Parents and Students:

Here's the latest information about Dr. Data's classes.

1. Upcoming 10th Annual Carmody 9h Whiz Chips Computer Gaming Contest on May 19, 20 and 22, 2008.

   Carmody's 8th Annual Whiz Chips Computer Gamming Contest with over $600.00 in prizes. Go to http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/whiz_chips_intro.html for contest rules and prizes thus far donated. Contest will be a "live" gamming competition on Monday, May 19th, Tuesday, May 20th and Thursday, May 22nd in which all games have to be constructed from scratch. Encourage your child to participate as we will be using Klik & Play in which most of the students already know how to construct games. And best of all, there 's no entry fee. If your child would like a free copy Klik & Play, have the student give me a clean CD-R and I will burn them a legal copy in which they can even practice making games at home. Here are some of the prizes donated thus far.

• One copy of Multimedia Fusion 2 Developer at:  http://www.clickteam.com/eng/mmf2dev.php has a list price of $370.00
• One copy of Multimedia Fusion 2 at:  http://www.clickteam.com/eng/mmf2.php has a list price of $120.00
• One copy of Game Factory 2 at:  http://www.clickteam.com/eng/tgf2.php has a list price of $59.00
• One copy of the book Make Amazing Games in Minutes. at:  http://www.clickteam.com/book/ has a list price of $40.00
  
  
2. Here's what is taking place in your child's computer class the week of May 5, 2008.
   
   7th Grade students are working on learning how to better use Internet search engines beginning this Monday, May 5, 2008 for a week. Here are some handy tips for both parents and students alike of where to start learning about the Internet..
   
   • To learn Internet fundamentals, please go to the following "hot" link and read/study the contents.
   • What is the Internet?: http://www.pen.k12.va.us/Div/Winchester/tech/trt/whatisinternet/wwwintro.html
   • Guides to using and searching the Web, browsers, and Internet software: http://library.albany.edu/internet/
   • Internet Tips and Secrets: http://www.internet-tips.net/
   • Internet Fundamentals: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Internet_Fundamentals.html Internet Topics: http://www.phdsystems.com/tutorials/internet/
     

   (Click on one of these Internet Search Engines and Surf the Internet as you do the required Internet assignments below!)

   AltaVista - AskJeeves - Education -World - Excite - Google - HotBot - InfoSeek - LookSmart - Lycos - MetaCrawler - Northern Ligh t - Yahoo - WebCrawler -

   Web Safe Engines: - Yahooligans

   Required Internet Assignments for the Week of May 5, 2008

   • Assignment #2: Internet Treasure Map: Print out: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Internet_Treasure.pdf
     
     
   • Assignment #3: Second Internet Assignment (URL's): Print out http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Locating Internet Musical URL.html
     
     
   • Assignment #4: Cyberspace Internet Musical URL's: Print out http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Cyberspace_Internet_Musical_URL.html
     
     
   • Final Internet Project: Assignment #5: Multimedia Internet Research Project: Print out: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Multimedia_Internet.pdf
     
     
   • Final Assessment for for Internet instruction . Assignment #6. Click at http://www.kuzmich.com/Quiz/Internet/Final Internet Unit.html to take the 500, 400, 300, 200 or 100 point test. You literally can earn the grade of your choice!
     
     

     For more information on the web-based Internet instructions, go to: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/internet_syllabus.html

   • 8th Grade Curriculum for this week can be followed at Week 15 with the students designing and constructing their own personal web site with four linked web pages. They can create the web pages either in Netscape Composer or Microsoft Publisher. The latest concepts for web construction will focus around students using digital cameras and using a flatbed scanner to input photos and traditional photos digitally into their web pages.

   Impoprtant reminder: 8th grade students are to bring in their digital cameras if possible for their personal web site. Don't forget the USB cables to connect to the computers. And photos can taken from home, pets, friend and hobbies all outside of class as well.

   Photos can also be brought in to scan in traditional photos so students become proficient in scanning techniques.

   Here's an outline of possible topics for each web page in Week 15: Start Personal web site in Microsoft Publisher or Netscape Composer with 4 web pages about:

• About You
• Your friends
• Your hobbies
• Your interests
• Your business interests
• Your favorite's
  
  
The rubric to be use for evaluating student web pages for this four page web sit is located at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Web_Rubric.pdf for a total of 100 points earned per page. Main technical ingredients for each web page as follows in addition to good layout appearance.


• Each web page must have 1 photo (either digital or scanned photo or downloaded from the Internet).
• Each web page needs at least one article about either you, your friends, your hobbies/interests, your business interests and your favorite things.
• Each web page needs at least two fancy titles by using WordArt.
• Each web page needs a fancy, colored background color
• All web pages must be linked to each other.
• Each web page needs to have two links to other web pages outside of your web site.
  
  
3. Upcoming final exams for both 7th and 8th grade classes. will be posted as soon as the administration verifies the examination dates. Presently, Dr. Data would like to have two days of finals: one day dealing with theoretical knowledge taught and one day covering practical know. It probably will be during the week of May 19th. But information will be shared with you as we get closer to the designated testing date(s).
   
   
4. The PC lab has been totally re imaged this past Friday and weekend and will be ready for all instruction with both software and hardware working better than ever!