March 11, 2015 91 minutes   FIRST AID PROJECT DIRECTIONS: Office Yoga Break: During long classes like this one students are always reminded to take breaks and get exercise. Students shouldn't spend more than 30-40 minutes in front of a computer without taking a break. For our break today we practiced a simple office yoga stretch.  Technology Current Event Video:  To finish class today we watched a short video from Zoomin.TV news in the U.K. about the use of 3D printers to create human body parts.  March 9, 2015 104 minutes Internet Moment:  Today our students were introduced to the "joy of statistics" by viewing GapMinder.org which is a free online resource where statistics from all around the world are presented in an easy to understand visual format. We looked at the "Wealth & Health of Nations" chart. As a demonstration of how the website works we tracked the life expectancy and income changes in the USA and Japan over the last 200 years.  We also  Finish Full Page Ad Project:  All students had time to finish their full page ad project in class today.  All students also had an opportunity to print a rough draft and review it with the teacher before printing their final draft in full color.  Click here to enlarge the project description.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.3.8.A, 15.3.8.B, 15.3.8.E, 15.4.8.D, 15.4.8.G, 15.9.8.A) Office Yoga Break:  Students are always reminded to not spend too much time sitting in front of computers.  Breaks should be taken at least every 30-40 minutes.  For our break today we practiced a simple yoga stretch for your neck and then everyone had a chance to get up and move around the room some. Business Classes at the High School, WebQuest Project:  All students researched the computer class opportunities at our high school by completing an online webquest activity.  Follow this link to view the questions.  (PA BCIT Standards:  15.2.8.E) Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a video from the BBC in which Hans Rosling describes how Gapminder.org can be used to identify trends and misconceptions by looking at the data.  (PA BCIT Standards:  15.2.8.Q, 15.2.5.O, 15.5.8.F) March 5, 2015 0 minutes* *No class today due to a Snow Day March 3, 2015 91 minutes Google Earth Tour Quiz:  As a follow-up to our previous tour on Google Earth students were challenged to list everywhere they had gone and what they had seen on their tour of the 3 dimensional visual imagery in Google Earth last class. This activity helped to demonstrate the effectiveness of using 3D spatial references, such as the virtual environment of Google Earth, to augment memory.    QUIZ:  Where I went on Google Earth  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.4.8.A, 15.6.8.M)  Office Yoga Break: During long classes like this one students are always reminded to take breaks and get exercise. Students shouldn't spend more than 30-40 minutes in front of a computer without taking a break. As part of our break today we practiced a simple office yoga stretch for your back. Microsoft Office 365: In the coming year we hope to introduce Microsoft Office 365 to all our students. In today's video some of the collaboration features in Office 365 were explained and demonstrated. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.E, 15.3.8.M, 15.3.8.S, 15.3.8.U, 15.3.12.W, 15.3.8.X, 15.4.8.D) Technology Current Event Video:  To finish class today we watch an example of how a logo is designed using Abobe Photoshop.  In the video about 3 1/2 hours of work are compressed into 7 minutes.  This video was posted by Daniel Snows in Brazil. February 27, 2015 104 minutes Internet Moment: Today we explored Google Earth and discussed how a 3 dimensional virtual environment can be used to augment human memory. We started by discussing what spatial memory is and how it is used to make modern video games so engaging. Students were then introduced to the memory palace or method of loci as an effective way to use 3 dimensional visual imagery to help a person remember large amounts of information. We then went to Google Earth and began a tour of   the earth, the sky, Mars and the moon. The whole class followed a specific list of locations.  Next class all students will take a quiz to see how much of the Google Earth tour they can recall.  (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.4.8.A, 15.6.8.M) Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video about using Google Docs as a collaboration tool. February 25, 2015 44 minutes  Finish Basic HTML: Today students finished creating a simple webpage using HTML code. We finished the webpage by adding images, hyperlinks and JavaScript from DynamicDrive. Students had some time to experiment with the Javascript. Click here to enlarge the project description. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.S, 15.4.8.H) Log on and Check Grades:  All students were asked to log into the Home Access Center and check their grades.  Since January 1st, 2015 all HAC accounts have been updated so that students can accessed their grades using their regular district log in and password.  All students should be able to log in and check their grades routinely. Technology Current Event Video: As a followup to the Think Before You Post slide show we watched this story from Fox 47 News in Madison, Wisconsin about employers who use social media searches to investigate job applicants. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.2.5.M, 15.2.8.K, 15.8.8.M, 15.5.8.J, 15.4.5.A, 15.4.5.B) February 23, 2015 91 minutes  Scratch: As a follow-up to our Hour of Code activity last class (Blockly Maze Tutorial) students were shown Scratch which is a free coding tutorial activity that is available from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab.   Office Yoga Break:  During long classes like this one students are always reminded to take breaks and get exercise. Students shouldn't spend more than 30-40 minutes in front of a computer without taking a break. For our break today we practiced a simple office yoga stretch for your arms. Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video from How Stuff Works about Tim Berners-Lee and the invention of the World Wide Web. February 19, 2015 104 minutes  Newtown Junior High Graduate:  We started class today by watching the performance of the band Grizfolk on the David Letterman show.  The drummer, Bill Delia, went to our school and graduated from CRHS-North.  We always like to highlight the great things that our students do after they leave us.   Office Yoga Break:  During long classes like this one students are always reminded to take breaks and get exercise. Students shouldn't spend more than 30-40 minutes in front of a computer without taking a break.  As part of our break today we practiced a simple office yoga stretch for your thigh. Technology Use Survey: All students in this class participated in the annual NMS Student Technology Use Survey. After the survey students had time to review the results from previous years. All results going back to 2006 can be viewed here. Hour of Code:  Today our class participated in the Hour of Code. We started by viewing the source code for this webpage.  Students were told that this code, a mixture of HTML and JavaScript, was the list of specific instructions that tell your web browser how to display the webpage.  We then watched the tutorial video below to introduce the online coding activity.  Students then went to the online Blockly Maze Tutorial to write JavaScript.  Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video from DNews about how the internet actually works. February 17, 2015 0 minutes* *No class today due to a Snow Day February 11, 2015 91 minutes   Basic Computer Vocabulary Quiz: As a follow-up to the experiment we did last class using Kahoot for an online trivia quiz, all students participated in a brief computer vocabulary quiz.  Technology Current Event Video: Unfortunately we ran out of time to watch a video today. February 9, 2015 104 minutes Internet Moment: Today we looked at two online resources for fonts. DaFont.com offers over 27 ,000 fonts that are either freeware, shareware, demo versions or in the public domain. These fonts can be downloaded and installed but students were also shown how they can use the Snipping Tool to get images of the fonts they might like. Students were also shown how they could make their own font using a website like YourFonts.com. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.E, 15.6.5.M, 15.4.5.A)  Font Presentation:  In this presentation the development of the two basic font families (serif & sans serif) as well as the best uses for each was discussed. Students were also shown how they read primarily through identifying sight words and why it's so hard to spell check and grammar check your own work.  (serif & san serif) and the best uses for each category students proceeded to make a Font Guide in MS Publisher. The final student project should look just like the original. We also discussed the concept of WYSIWYG in graphic design on computers. Click here to enlarge the project description. Everyone finished this project in class.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.3.8.E, 15.4.8.G, 15.4.2.K, 15.3.8.X) Office Yoga Break:  During long classes like this one students are always reminded to take breaks and get exercise. Students shouldn't spend more than 30-40 minutes in front of a computer without taking a break. For our break today we practiced a simple office yoga stretch.  Online Trivia Quiz:  Near the end of class we tested an online quiz service that was created using a free service called Kahoot.  The winners of the trivia contest are listed to the right. Font Conference Video:  As a follow-up to the Font Presentation we watched a short video from College Humor about a fictitious "Font Conference": February 5, 2015 44 minutes Internet Moment: We looked at a Microsoft Web Application for creating zoomable high resolution photos.   Students were also shown two other examples of zoomable photos that were created using the web application:  the NMS Mosaic Project and the Deep Zoom image of Yosemite National Park. Students had time to explore these websites.  CRSD Acceptable Use Policy: All students demonstrated that they could search for and access the CRSD Acceptable Use Policy online.  They were reminded that they are in a network environment where their actions on the computer can be easily tracked. Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a video from Boston Dynamics that shows their most recent creation.  As part of a government funded DARPA project they created a robot called Wildcat that runs like a cat.  (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.4.8.A, 15.5.8.J) February 3, 2015 91 minutes Class Blog: Students were shown TodayInComputerClass.com and told that they can check here anytime to review what work was done in class. We also discussed what a web log or blog was, how blogs developed into microblogs like Twitter and now mobile phone based apps like Instagram. This website is the blog or web log for our class. Students were also told that their parents will be sent an email with a link to this website so they can also review what we are doing in computer class each day.   Typing Test: All students took a typing test using TypingTest.com.  Each student had 10 minutes to take the 1 minute test multiple times. Their best adjusted speed was recorded and graphed in an Excel spreadsheet. The average typing speed for this class was: 41.5 WPM Click here for more information about typing speeds at Newtown Middle School. We also reviewed the graph below:   Online Typing Activities: As a follow up to the typing test we looked at the typing speeds for the whole 8th grade in Excel and looked at graphs of past speeds for NMS students. Students were then given some time to find at least 3 online typing activities (tutorials or games) that they enjoyed. They were to then add these typing activities to their favorites or bookmarks list so they could go back and practice their typing skills in class when they finished their projects.Student Passwords: All students were given some suggestions to help them develop good passwords.  Some suggested good password practices were:  Come 
January 30, 2015 104 minutes Internet Moment: Students were asked to compare three popular news aggregator websites: Google News, Bing News and Yahoo. We looked at their home pages, their features and their overall appearance. Students said they preferred Google News & Bing News when looking for current events online. (PA BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.E, 15.6.5.L)  Computer Class Survey: All students take a computer class survey. The results of this survey are used to guide the instruction for the class. You can view the survey to the right.  Click to enlarge. We then used the survey as the outline for a presentation about basic computer knowledge.  Introduction to Computer Class Presentation: This presentation was a follow up to the survey and covered basic computer concepts everyone should be familiar with such as:
Break: Students are always reminded to not spend too much time working on computers and to take breaks every 30-40 minutes.  For our break today we will be conducting a probability experiment about matching birthdays that you can read about here.  Everyone will be asked to get up and find the other person in the room who shares their birthday. Letters to School Board Members: All students practiced formal communication skills today by preparing a block formatted business letter to a Council Rock School Board member of their choice using MS Word 2013. January is School Board Appreciation month so we asked students to wrote a letter in which they would list at least three ways that they think their Council Rock Education will help them in the future. Since many students had never studied cursive hand writing we also reviewed the purpose of a legal signature and students had the opportunity to use websites to develop a signature of their own. The letters will be shared at a future school board event. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.2.8.E, 15.3.8.A, 15.3.8.B, 15.3.8.E) Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a short video from the BBC about historical signatures in future of signatures in the digital age. January 28, 2015 44 minutes Introduction to Basic Computer Skills Class: Basic rules and classroom procedures were explained. Students were specifically reminded that because technology is constantly changing they should get into the habit of helping each other out and demonstrating the ability to learn new computer skills through experimentation.  All students reported that they had helped an adult with computer skills but they were reminded that it's important to also get used to helping each other.  Pixlr.com Project: Students were shown how to use the online photo editor pixlr.com to edit a photograph.  Students then shared their modified photos using various district network resources and demonstrated basic skills such as drag & drop. The best use of the H:, S: & X: drives was also explained.  We also discussed professional digital photo editing with Adobe PhotoShop. (PA BCIT Standards: 15.4.8.F, 15.4.5.G)  Technology Current Event Video:  At the end of most computer classes we watch a current event video about emerging trends in technology.  Today's video was inspired by a presentation that was created by a high school teacher in Colorado, Mr. Karl Fisch. This 2014 revision of the presentation was created by Jose Esteves, a professor of Information Systems at the IE Business School in Spain.   |
