October 15, 2015 - LAST CLASS 94 minutes
Make-up Time & Checking Grades: Since this is our last full class all students had time to make up any work they may have missed. All projects were handed back and students could submit anything they missed or re-submit a project that they hadn't finished for full credit. All students were asked to log into the HAC and check their grades for this class. The few students who could not log in to check their grades were reminded, one more time, that they have to talk to their parents about getting their email address registered in the system. Office Yoga Break:  Today we practiced a simple yoga stretch for your wrist.  Students are always reminded to not spend too much time sitting in front of computers and that they should take breaks every 30-40 minutes.  After the stretch everyone had a chance to get up and move around the room.  Closure to Computer Class: Students were reminded that computers are constantly changing and that they have to learn to adjust to new programs, new hardware and new ways of using technology all the time. We are all constantly learning to adapt to new technology.  Students were also reminded that this was their only required computer class here at Council Rock and that should they wish to learn more about computer technology they should look carefully at the High School Program Planning Guide for the many elective classes that incorporate computer skills.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.6.8.M, 15.2.8.E) Technology Current Event Video:  For our last current event this year we watched a TED Presentation by Gary Kovacs, the CEO of Mozilla, about how internet users are tracked.  He demonstrated how many companies were following him and his daughter when they were online during a typical day.  During the presentation he demonstrated how a free download for Firefox called Collusion (now called Lightbeam) can be used to find out who is tracking you online.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.4.8.A, 15.5.8.J, 15.9.8.L, 15.9.8.M) October 13, 2015 91 minutes     Finish First Aid Posters: All students had time today to finish this project and print a rough draft in black and white. Each student had a chance to review their rough draft with the teacher before printing their final draft in full color. Click here to enlarge the project description. Everyone finished today. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.A, 15.3.8.B, 15.3.8.E, 15.3.8.H, 15.3.8.S, 15.3.8.X, 15.4.8.B) 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 ankles and then everyone had a chance to get up and move around the room some. Editing our Homepage with MS Expression:  Students were introduced to the Microsoft HTML editing software Expression 3 today.  Everyone opened their own index page in Expression and began making the following changes:  A table was added, the names of projects we created in class were put on the table, each project name was turned into a link to that project. Students then turned in their finished website using our network drive.  Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a short video from Safe InternetBanking.be about an amazing mind reader and how he knows so much about his clients. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.6.8.M) October 9, 2015 104 minutes Internet Moment:  Everyone went to http://geoguessr.com/ and had some time to try this online geography game that uses Google Street View pictures.  The highest score in our class was 9,530. Full Page Ad Project:  All students had a chance to work on and print their full page ad project today.  Students could also review their rough draft with the teacher.  Next class everyone will finish this project.  Click here to enlarge the project description. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.A, 15.3.8.B, 15.3.8.E, 15.3.8.H, 15.3.8.S, 15.3.8.X, 15.4.8.B)  First Aid Posters: All students had time today to finish this project and print a rough draft in black and white. Creating a correctly formatted work cited using Noodletools and Citefast was demonstrated.  Each student had a chance to review their rough draft with the teacher before printing their final draft in full color.  Everyone will have some time to finish this project next class.  Click here to enlarge the project description.  (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.A, 15.3.8.B, 15.3.8.E, 15.3.8.H, 15.3.8.S, 15.3.8.X, 15.4.8.B) 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 calve muscles. Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a video from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation about some of the most recent developments in medical technology including the 3D printing of human organs and body parts. October 7, 2015 44 minutes Mr. McNulty was absent.  The class did the following activities: Internet Moment:  All students went to Earthcam.com and checked out the wide variety of online streaming webcams that are available all day, every day.  Students were asked to consider what the increased use of webcams in public places means for their  Full Page Ads:  All students had time to finish this project today. Completed projects were printed in full color using the color printer in the back of the room. Students wrote their names on the back of their projects before turning them in.  Unfortunately there were some technical problems with the color printer. 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) FIRST AID PROJECT DIRECTIONS: Please watch the whole slide show for more information Technology Current Event Video:  At the end of class students watched a 2013 TED presentation by Raffaello D'Andrea about quadcopters. October 5, 2015 91 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 looked at how 8th grade math scores had changing in Japan, Canada and the United States.  Students then had time to explore the website on their own. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.4.8.A, 15.7.8.A, 15.7.8.F, 15.7.8.H, 15.7.8.L, 15.8.8.A, 15.9.8.J) World Teacher Day Emails:  Students were told that today was World Teacher Day and that as they finished their projects they could open their email and send a greeting to a favorite elementary school teacher.  Students were reminded to only use license free images in their emails. Full Page Ad Project:  All students had a chance to work on and print their full page ad project today.  Students could also review their rough draft with the teacher.  Everyone will have some time to finish this project next class.  Click here to enlarge the project description. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.A, 15.3.8.B, 15.3.8.E, 15.3.8.H, 15.3.8.S, 15.3.8.X, 15.4.8.B) 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 stretch for you neck. 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:  15.7.8.A, 15.7.8.F, 15.7.8.H, 15.7.8.L) October 1, 2015 104 minutes Technology Current Event Video: We started class today with a short video from Google about using their free services for online group collaboration. (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) (ISTE Standards: 1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, 2d, 3b, 3c, 3d, 4b, 4c, 5d) Online Collaboration Demonstration: students were shown an example of an international online collaboration project which was organized by Stefan Nielsen, a teacher in Denmark, and involved 30 teachers around the world. The 121212-1212 Project can be viewed to the right. Students were reminded that tools like Google Docs and Microsoft 356 will be an important part of their future.  Finished Projects:  Group #1   Group #2   Group #3   Group #4   Group #5 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. Technology Current Event Video: 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: 15.6.8.M, 15.3.8.S, 15.3.8.U, 15.3.12.V) (ISTE Standards: 1d, 2a, 3c) September 29, 2015 44 minutes  Finish Basic HTML: Today students finished creating a simple webpage using HTML code. We finished the webpage by adding hyperlinks and JavaScript from Dynamic Drive.com. 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) Technology Current Event Video: We finished class today with a short video about tourism in Kerala, India. September 25, 2015 91 minutes Internet Moment: Today we explored NewsMap.jp which is a graphical interpretation of the top news stories on Google News that was created by Marcos Weskamp, a self described software architect. He was also part of the team that founded Flipboard which seeks to bring the design experience of magazines to web and tablet technology. (PA BCIT Standards: 15.2.8.B, 15.2.8.C, 15.2.8.D, 15.2.8.E) Introduction to Scratch:  As a follow-up to the Blockly Maze Tutorial the class was shown Scratch which is a free online code editor that was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Students who enjoyed using Blockly, were told that Scratch would be the next step for them to try.  All students had about 10 minutes to experiment with Scratch and to view some featured student projects.  Introduction to Webinars: Today students were introduced to what a webinar or web conference is and what online education could look like for them in the future.  Join.me was used to project presentations from the teacher's desktop to the student's screen and the use of webcams in a webinar was explained and demonstrated. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.5.J, 15.3.5.K, 15.6.8.M, 15.3.8.X, 15.4.8.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 ankles and then everyone had a chance to get up and move around the room some.  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. September 22, 2015 104 minutes   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 sides. Check Your Grades: All students were asked to log into the Home Access Center and check their grades. Students can accessed their own grades using their regular district login and password. All students should be able to login and check their grades routinely. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.4.5.A, 15.4.8.F) (ISTE Standards: 5a, 5c, 4c, 6a) 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 that explores some possible innovations in technology in the coming years.  (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.4.8.A) September 18, 2015 44 minutes  Brochure Project:  All students had time to work on this project today.  Students were also shown how to use Google Images and Bing Images to find free images that they could even use for commercial purposes.  Students will be shown how to print on both sides of a sheet of paper and how to trifold a brochure next class.  Click here to enlarge the project description. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.1.5.B, 15.3.5.A, 15.3.8.B, 15.3.5.D, 15.3.8.D, 15.3.8.E, 15.4.8.G, 15.3.8.U, 15.6.8.L) New Computers: We started class today by talking about the new computers that were just installed in the lab and we discussed what happens to old computers.  We watched a short video from the Recycling Equipment Corporation in Lansdale, PA.  In the video they demonstrate the first step in the computer recycling process, the computer shredding machine. September 16, 2015 91 minutes Internet Moment: Today we looked at two online resources for fonts. DaFont.comoffers 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)  Finish Font Guide: Students had time to finish the project we started last class. Everyone printed the completed project.(PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.E, 15.4.8.G, 15.4.2.K, 15.3.8.X) 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.  Technology Current Event Video: We watched part of a TED Presentation by John Maeda, the President of the Rhode Island School of Design. In the video he talked about how he became a graphic designer and how he used technology. He also did a presentation about content & form that demonstrated the use different of different fonts to convey meaning. Students were encouraged to watched the rest of the video on their own. (PA BCIT Standard: 15.4.8.A, 15.8.8.K, 15.9.8.A) September 10, 2015 91 minutes Internet Moment: Students explored PhotoSynth.net today which is an online service from Microsoft that used their Silverlight technology. It allows you to "knit" digital photos together to make large 360 degree images that you can pan and zoom into. We also looked at the NMS Mosaic Project as an example of this technology from (PA BCIT Standards: 15.6.8.M)  Finish Favorite Links Project: All students had time to finish this project today. Students were then shown how to turn any Word document into a single file webpage. We also talked about the importance of saving Word documents in sharable formats.  Everyone shared their work during a gallery walk activity. Click here to enlarge the project description. (PA-BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.E, 15.4.5.G)   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 will have time to finish this project next class.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.3.8.E, 15.4.8.G, 15.4.2.K, 15.3.8.X) Font Conference Video:  As a follow-up to the Font Presentation we watched a short video from College Humor about a fictitious "Font Conference": September 8, 2015 94 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.  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. 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:  36.2 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.Technology Current Event Video:  We finished class today with a short video about what life might be like in the year 2020. September 4, 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. Though the results were split, a plurality of our students said they preferred Google News when looking for current events online. (PA BCIT Standards: 15.3.8.E, 15.6.5.L)  Introduction to Computer Class Presentation: This presentation was a follow up to the survey we reviewed some basic computer concepts everyone should be familiar with such as:
After the presentation students were asked to use various online search engines to search for themselves to see what their "digital footprint" looks like. 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. Technology Current Event Videos:  We finished class today with a video from WPRI Channel 12 in Rhode Island about how some colleges and universities are researching applicants online. (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)  September 1, 2015 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)   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. Next class we will use the survey as an outline for a presentation about basic computer knowledge. Student Technology Use Surveys:  Students were given some time to explore the results from previous Technology Use Surveys at Newtown Middle School. Technology Current Event Video:  At then 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.   * Class time was shorter today due to the first day of school schedule and a fire drill. |
