April 6, 2009

Dear Carmody Computer Parents and Their Students:

Excitement In The Air!

Curriculum Innovations for 8th Grade Computer Classes: Digital Recordings
for Collaborative Podcasts With A Middle School From New York and
Carmody Music Technology Class With Mr. Wiley Cruse!

Several important points to emphasize in this, the eleventh 2009 winter semester newsletter.

1. Welcome back from our extended spring break. Hope you and yours had a great vacation.
   
   
2. Latest Curriculum Developments in 7th & 8th Grade Computer Classes
   
   
   • 7th grade "Computer Literacy and Beyond!" URL is:  http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/Curriculum_Preview88.html and the class as of today, started the third unit of instruction, Database Management.this week and start on the sixth assignment, Colorado Rockies , which be done on-line at http://www.adlineagency.com/kuzmich. Use the following account information and you have access to all of the database assignments that can be done at home. You do not have to have Clarisworks or Appleworks on your home computer in order to do the assignments on your home computer. Just use the on-line software at http://www.adlineagency.com/kuzmich.

     Account Name: john (be sure lower case for "j" in John)
     Password: drdata (be sure it is lower case)

     Go to "Layout" to find specific database file to work on. This on-line database works just like Clarisworks or Appleworks on our PC lab computers. The assignments can be found at: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/database_syllabus.html#Management Today, we are working on "Colorado Rockies" and Tuesday, "Mountains of the World." We will be working on Database Management:for an;other 1.5 weeks, October to early November for first semester and March to April for second semester classes. More information about database management can be found at: | Introduction | Daily Assignments | On-Line Database Assignments | Clarisworks Instructions | Extra-Credit. Just click on any of the links and there's wealth of info.

   • 8th grade URL is "How To Start A Teenage Business!" We have landmark innovation this week: Radio Broadcasting with Script Writing and Audio Recordings including special effects for Podcasting Development. We have a guest lecturer, Mr. Steven Chetcuti, a middle school in Somers High School in Somers, New York, will be teaching our students over the Internet. Here's an overview for your poerusal. Please encourage your students to bring headphones so students can hear their audio recordings.
     • Carmody Middle School 8th grade computer (Dr. Data) and general music classes (Mr. Wiley Cruse) will participate in a collaborative radio broadcasting/podcasting project with 8th grade general music classes at Somers Middle School in Somers, New York.
     • Somers students created the basic scripts of who, what when and where for creation into a portfolio-based radio broadcast published on the Internet as a podcast for 24/7 listening by parents, students and administrators.
     • Carmody Middle School students will research these News, Social and Sports scripts received with Internet search engines.
     • Carmody students will develop and expand them into 20 to 40 second audio recordings to be done in Audacity software which can be downloaded for free at home for student use. URL for the free download is http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/. Thus, students recordings could also be made at home and brought to school on a flash drive (thumb drive). Note: audio recordings may be too large to e-mail to themselves as an attached file.
     • Carmody students will also add sound effects on a second audio track to their master audio recordings in Audacity.
     • Finished audio recording files will be sent to Somers Middle School in which their middle school students will produce a finished recording with special effects and they will be published and posted as a podcast on their web site at: http://www.theradiohour.net.
     • Note: students will need to borrow headphones from friends or bring their own headphones to class Tuesday through completion of their audio recordings since the school does not own any headsets.
     • Note: Dr. Data will bring in his own personal microphones to be used for the recordings.
     • For more details on this landmark instruction with learning objectives, go to: http://www.kuzmich.com/carmody/business/radio_lesson.html.
       
       
3. Success Guaranteed in Dr. Data's 7th & 8th Grade Computer Classes if Students/Parents Follow These Guidelines! When parents are engaged with their child's school work, success is very attainable. The 16 points outlined on this web site make parent-student-teacher interaction seamless and easier for all student success to be achieved. Nobody should be failing Dr. Data's classes if these points are being followed! If you have any concerns, don't hesitate to contact Dr. Data ASAP.

Hope this helps.

Till next time,

Dr. Data