2019-20 8-A.6


June 10-16, 2020 - Make-up Time

Today starts the final phase of our Computer Class time. From June 10th to the 16th you have an opportunity to turn in anything that you missed.


LOG INTO THE HAC:  Starting in 7th grade you have your own account in the Home Access Center (HAC).  If you have never accessed your grades before you can find the directions for doing so in your Council Rock Gmail. Search for an email called "HAC Support". Follow those directions to log in. Once you are in the HAC you should find that 10 participation points were posted for each activity that you completed.


MAKE-UP ANY ACTIVITIES THAT YOU MISSED:   Everything we did in class is posted below and in Canvas.  The 10 ACTIVITIES are identified with RED ARROWS.  You have also been sent an email with all the specific activities listed in it.  Take note that some activities are turned in using Google Classroom, some require you to use Canvas, some ask you to complete a Google Form or Quiz, and some activities ask you to share your document.   Over the next several days I will be looking through all my files to find all your projects. Email me directly if you have any questions.


CONCLUSION:  After you have completed these activities please restart your device (always a good thing to do for your computer) and restart yourself by going outside and taking a break.




June 9, 2020


Online game to end hunger 
INTERNET MOMENT: Take about 10 minutes to explore FreeRice.com today. This website was created by John Breen who also created Poverty.com. If you're wondering, according to snopes.com, it is a legitimate website. It gives students and others a chance to practice their vocabulary skills while helping to support the United Nations World Food Program. You can also practice with questions from other categories including recently added questions about the Coronavirus.


DISTANCE LEARNING SURVEY QUESTIONS: Please take a few moments to answer these Survey Questions about your experience with Distance Learning.



CLASS MEETING:  We will share and review the Distance Learning Survey Results at an upcoming class meeting using Google Meet on Thursday, June 11th at 1:30 PM.  This meeting will also be an opportunity to ask questions about any activities that you might have missed or had any problems with.


Activity 10:  Finish Full Page Ad

Full Page Ad Tutorial
You still have time to finish and turn in our final project.  You are creating a full page advertisement about one of the classes, teams or extra curricular activities at Holland Middle School.  The best advertisements will be printed out and posted around our school next year.  The specific directions for this project are posted below but you will need to access Google Classroom to see the poster samples and to actually make your poster in Google Slides.  You can also view a 9 minute tutorial video if you need help.



TECHNOLOGY CURRENT EVENT VIDEO:  Finish today with this short video from FreeRice.com about their app.






June 4, 2020

Activity 10:  Full Page Ad

Full Page Ad Tutorial
For our final project you will be creating a full color, full page advertisement about one of the classes, teams or extra curricular activities at Holland Middle School.  The best advertisements will be printed out and posted around our school next year.  The specific directions for this project are posted below but you will need to access Google Classroom to see the poster samples and to actually make your poster in Google Slides.  You can also view a 9 minute tutorial video if you need help.


DIRECTIONS:  Look for "June 4:  Making a Full Page Ad" in Google Classroom to find the "8th DL Full Page Ad Project" slide show.
  1. Pick one of the “Full Page Advertisement Topics” to make a full page, full color advertisement about. The audience for these posters will be the new 7th graders who will be coming to our school next year. The best ads will be printed in color and posted around our building. 
  2. Pick one of the sample posters to copy. Your advertisement should use a similar layout, similar colors and similar fonts as the one you pick. Side by side they should look very similar.
  3. Use the Blank Slide (slide #2) to make your advertisement.
  4. When you are done delete all the slides except the advertisement you created and the sample advertisement you selected.
  5. Turn in your finished poster using Google Classroom.

TECHNOLOGY CURRENT EVENT VIDEO:  You can finish today's activity with this video about how Florida's Orange County Public Schools and local police are using a service called SnapTrends to monitor student's social media accounts.









June 2, 2020


Kahoot Logo
ONLINE GAME:  We will start today's activity with an online game.  Follow this link to try a 15 question Kahoot game to see how many common app icons you can identify.


LOGO DESIGN VIDEO:  We live in a world that is rich in graphic images.  We use graphics to communicate all kinds of ideas.  It is estimated that every day you come into contact with thousands of graphical images, and as was demonstrated in the App Icons Quiz, you have memorized quite a few of them.  The seven minute video below will introduce you to the world of logo designers.



Activity 9:  Logo Design Activity

Logo Design Tutorial
In today's activity you will be practicing your graphic arts skills by creating your own company logo.  Normally we would be using a much more powerful program from Microsoft for this project called Publisher but since that program isn't available in our current distance learning format we will be using Google Slides instead.  To access this activity you will need to log into Google Classroom and look for the assignment labeled:  "June 2:  Introduction to Graphic Arts and Making a Logo"  Make sure you "Turn In" your work when you are finished.  There is a sample logo there and you can watch the tutorial video to see how it was made (you will have to be logged into your school google account to watch the video).



TECHNOLOGY CURRENT EVENT VIDEO:  We will finish class today with another 7 minute video from PBS Off Book about graphic design.



CONCLUSION:  After you have completed these activities please restart your device (always a good thing to do for your computer) and restart yourself by going outside and taking a break







May 28, 2020

Online Typing Games:  Improving your typing speed and accuracy will make you more efficient.  The quicker you complete the typing you have to do for school the more free time you will have.  Unfortunately, typing practice isn't always fun.  Today we're going to experiment with some online typing games.  Please spend at least 20 minutes experimenting with the following online typing activities.  Use this time to practice your typing.  We will finish with a typing test today.

*You can compete with other students using the last two options




Activity 8:  Typing Test




TECHNOLOGY CURRENT EVENT VIDEO:  Enjoy this video from the Corning Corporation about some of the potential uses for their glass products in the future. (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.4.8.A)




CONCLUSION:  After you have completed these activities please restart your device (always a good thing to do for your computer) and restart yourself by going outside and taking a break





May 26, 2020


IMPROVING YOUR TYPING SPEED & ACCURACY:  One of the goals of this class is to help you learn how to use technology to be more efficient.  The simple fact is that there are are hundreds of assignments that you will need to type between now and graduation from high school.  This week we will be practicing typing so you can improve your speed and accuracy.


TYPING VIDEO:  Start by watching this short video from Tech Insider about specific ways to type faster.




TYPING PRACTICE:  Today we will be using a specific typing website to practice typing.

  1. Go to https://www.typingclub.com/ and click on “Get Started”

  2. For the best results you should be seated with your laptop or keyboard on a table.

  3. Click on the first lesson under Home Row: 

    1. Try Lessons 1 to 6 as a warm-up activity.  

    2. Click on the “Placement Test” on the right to see how you are doing

    3. Continue practicing for at least 15 minutes.



Activity 7:  Typing Survey

When you have finished practicing typing today follow this link and complete the 5 question survey:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeIFGNWcPcerlXgvpuI718SkPsYkgep37osiWxrLCAh-WoHeA/viewform?usp=sf_link 



TECHNOLOGY CURRENT EVENT VIDEO:  We will finish with this 5 minute video from the Wall Street Journal about the history of keyboards and computers and some possible future keyboards.






May 21, 2020



Activity 6:  Basic Computer Knowledge

Watch the PowerPoint presentation below and answer these 5 Review Questions.    If you are unable to hear the audio in the presentation you can view the text and all the slides by opening this PDF version of the Basic Computer Knowledge Presentation. 


Make sure you complete the 5 Review Questions after you watch the presentation.


Slide Show Link

Basic Computer Knowledge PowerPoint Presentation



CLASS MEETING:  We have a Google Meet planned for Thursday, May 21st at 1:30 PM.  You should log into your school Google Calendar to find the link to the meeting.


Meeting Topics:
  • Review of the first 6 projects
  • Introduction to typing and upcoming typing practice activities
  • Question & Answer time
  • Kahoot Game



TECHNOLOGY CURRENT EVENT VIDEO:  You can finish today with a video from Microsoft about possible uses for technology in the future.  (PA-BCIT Standard: 15.4.8.A)



CONCLUSION: After you have completed these activities please restart your device (always a good thing to do for your computer) and restart yourself by going outside and taking a break.






May 19, 2020


Downloading Office at Home
ACCESSING OFFICE 365 & INSTALLING WORD, POWER-POINT & EXCEL: Did you know that as a Council Rock student you have access to your own Microsoft Office 365 account? Just like you have a school Google account you also have an Office 365 account. As a student you are also entitled to install free copies of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel on your iMac, MacBook or PC at home (sorry, but you unfortunately can’t install these programs on a Chromebook). This four minute video will explain how to access your school Office 365 Account and how to install the free programs on your computer at home. You could also follow the directions below.
  1. On the Microsoft Edge browser Go to: https://www.Office.com and click the orange “Sign in” button.
  2. Type in your Council Rock email address (just like when you log into your school Gmail)
  3. Type in your regular school password (just like when you log into your school Gmail)
  4. Office 365 has a home screen that shows you all the online programs that are available to you. On the Office 365 home screen you can also find the “Install Office” button (see below).
    Install office button

  5. Click the “Install Office” button and follow the directions to install full versions of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel on your Mac or PC.  Unfortunately you can’t install these apps on a Chromebook.



Activity 5:  The MLA Format in Word Online

For this project you will be using Microsoft Word Online to type a one paragraph essay in the MLA Format that is used for all academic work at our high school.  Please follow the directions below.

  1. Go to your Microsoft Office 365 account and log in using your school email address and password (see directions above)

  2. On the Office 365 home screen look for “Word” and double click on it to start a new Word Online document:

  3. Look for “MLA style paper” and double click on it.  If you don’t see it click on “More templates” until you find it.  

  4. Once you open the “MLA style paper” template replace the content in the brackets with your information.  Our course number is “Computers 8-A.6” by the way.

  5. The title for this project is: “Technology During the 2020 Pandemic”

  6. Write a one paragraph response (at least 5 sentences) to this question:  How has your use of technology changed since schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic?

  7. TURNING IN YOUR MLA FORMAT PROJECT:  You will turn in this project by sharing a link to your finished Word Online document in Canvas.

    1. In Word Online go to the “Share” button in the upper right hand corner of the screen and click on it.

    2. In the window that appears click “Copy Link” in the lower left corner.

    3. Log into CANVAS and look for your computer class.

    4. Find the “May 19:  Using the MLA Format in Word Online” assignment

    5. Click on the Blue “Submit Assignment” button

    6. You can select the “Website URL” tab and paste in the link to your project


CLASS MEETING ON THURSDAY, MAY 21th AT 1:30:  We will use Google Meet and the link will be sent to your Council Rock Gmail address.


Meeting Topics:

  • Review of the first 6 projects

  • Question & Answer time

  • Kahoot Game



TECHNOLOGY CURRENT EVENT VIDEO:  We will finish class today with a short video about a “micro drone” that was at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.


TAKE A BREAK:  After you have completed these activities please restart your device (always a good thing to do for your computer) and restart yourself by going outside and taking a break.








May 14, 2020



Activity 4:  Basic Email Etiquette

Email Project Directions
All students should be able to appropriately use email to communicate with their teachers.  In today’s activity we will practice some basic email etiquette by communicating formally with a teacher.  You will be sending a formal thank you email to any Council Rock faculty member.  The specific directions for this project can be viewed here (or click the image to the right).  Make sure you add Mr. McNulty to the cc: line in your email so you will be marked off in the HAC for having completed this activity. (PA-BCIT Standards 15.3.8.E, 15.3.8.M, 15.3.8.O, 15.3.8.Q, 15.3.8.R, 15.3.8.S, 15.3.8.U, 15.3.8.X, 15.4.8.D, 15.4.8.G)



EMAIL ETIQUETTE VIDEO:  We will finished this activity with email etiquette tips for college students from Dr. Tracy Brown at California State University in San Marcos. (PA-BCIT Standards 15.3.8.E, 15.3.8.M, 15.3.8.O, 15.3.8.Q, 15.3.8.R, 15.3.8.S, 15.3.8.U, 15.3.8.X, 15.4.8.D, 15.3.8.M, 15.4.8.F)



VIDEO INTERVIEW TIPS:  In the past several weeks you may have participated in several video conferences for school.  Before we start our Computer Class Meeting using Google Meet today you should watch this short video about how to participate in an online job interview using skype.  (PA-BCIT Standards:  15.2.8.H, 15.3.8.M, 15.6.8.M, 15.4.8.A, 15.8.8.M)



CLASS MEETING TODAY AT 1:45:  We will have a class meeting using Google Meet today.  We will be reviewing the Technology Use Survey results and the four activities that you should have completed at this point.  Please take note of the following:


  • You must be logged into your School Google Account to participate

  • The link to the Google Meet should be available to you in your School Google Calendar, in Google Classroom, Canvas, and in your school Gmail.

  • Watch the video above to help you prepare before the meeting today

  • 1:45  8-A.6 Computer Class Meeting:  https://meet.google.com/ksz-gkkt-xxo




CONCLUSION:  After you have completed these activities please restart your device (always a good thing to do for your computer) and restart yourself by going outside and taking a break. 





May 12, 2020


INTERNET MOMENT:   Students should take some time to explore the CR-South Student Handbook and the Program Planning Booklet today.  Did you know that once you have accessed the program planning booklet you can use CTRL+F on your keyboard to open up a search box.  Regardless of the current circumstances, you are heading to the high school next September.  To start computer class today you will be spending a few minutes using computer technology to prepare yourself for high school by searching the CR-South Program Planning Booklet for classes that might be of interest to you.



Activity 3:  Making a Weekly Schedule 

Using table sin Google Docs
Tutorial Video (6 minutes)  For this project you will be making a weekly schedule for yourself using Google Docs.  As you might have noticed, Distance Learning has many advantages and disadvantages.  It gives you an immense amount of freedom to but with that freedom comes a lot of responsibility to manage your time to make sure you don’t fall behind your peers.  For today’s activity we will be helping you organize your time by making a simple weekly schedule using tables in Google Docs. 

  1. Log into your Council Rock Gmail Account (click here for directions) 

  2. Go to the Apps symbol in the top right corner (also known as the “waffle”) and look for “Drive”.  This should take you to your CR Google Drive.

  3. In the top left hand corner look for the plus sign and “NEW”, open that menu, look for and select: “Google Docs”

  4. Name the Doc by clicking on “Untitled document” in the top left.  Give it a name like: “Week of May 18th Schedule”

  5. Go to the “File” menu and select “Page setup”

    1. Set the page to “Landscape”

    2. You can also change the margins around the edge of the page here

  6. Go to the “Insert” menu and select “Table”

    1. Draw a table with 5 columns and 12 rows

    2. Label the columns with the days of the week

    3. Fill in the cells with your daily schedule

  7. Customize your schedule by adding colors, formatting text, changing fonts and adding hyperlinks.

  8. Submit your finished schedule by sharing it with Mr. McNulty

    1. Click the blue “Share” button in the top right corner 

    2. Add jmcnulty@crsd.org to share the Google Doc



TECHNOLOGY CURRENT EVENT VIDEO:  Your school Google Account includes access to Google Calendar which you might find to be a useful tool for organizing your days during distance learning.  The video below was prepared by a teacher at the Busan Foreign School in South Korea and it is a great tutorial about how to use your Google Calendar for school.



CLASS MEETING:  After watching the video please go to your School Google Calendar and look for our Computer Class under “other calendars” on the left and look for the Class Meeting (video conference) that we have scheduled for Thursday.


TECHNOLOGY CURRENT EVENT VIDEO: Take a few minutes to watch this video about the Busan International School in South Korea. American International Schools like this exist in many parts of the world. If you visit their school website you can also see that they have also been closed for several weeks due to the CIVID-19 virus but they are scheduled to start reopening on May 20th.



CONCLUSION:  After you have completed these activities please restart your device (always a good thing to do for your computer) and restart yourself by going outside and taking a break




May 7, 2020


INTERNET MOMENT:    You live in a world that is full of information and you can’t possibly absorb all of it. It is important to develop a sense of judgement about what information resources you will use and which ones you will ignore. As a warm-up activity today you will be visiting three different news aggregator websites. You should give yourself a few minutes to explore each of them. Set a timer if you need to. Then follow the link below to complete the survey about which news resource you preferred. The results will be shared with everyone.

Yahoo.com - Once the number one search engine in the world, it is still very popular and as you scroll down the homepage you will be able to see several top news stories from various resources.

Google News - Powered by a search algorithm that finds and displays the top news stories all on one page.

Bing News - The newest of these three news aggregators, Bing News has a different interface but also attempts to display top news stories from various resources on one page.

After you have looked at all three resources follow this link to take the News Websites Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-pWVEqcyWIxcAdE-nXcacwk3Q-RJpZTiwS78CKiLNrFPQfw/viewform?usp=sf_link



Organize Your Google Drive
ORGANIZING YOUR SCHOOL GOOGLE DRIVE:  Organizing your Google Drive Video (6 minutes).

  1. Log into your Council Rock Gmail Account (click here for directions) 

  2. Go to the Apps symbol in the top right corner (also known as the “waffle”) and look for “Drive”.  This should take you to your CR Google Drive.

  3. Time to organize your Google Drive…

    1. Watch this 4 minute video about managing files in your Google Drive

    2. Make a new folder and name it “Elementary School”

    3. Move all your files from elementary school into the new “Elementary School” folder

    4. Make folders for each of your 7th grade classes (Math, Science, English, Computers . . . etc.)

    5. Move files from these classes into the appropriate subject folders.

    6. Finally, you can right click on your new folders and change their colors if you would like.



Activity 2:  Technology Use Survey

Log into Google Classroom (click here for directions) and look for the May 7 Assignment.  You will find the link to the 2020 Technology Use Survey.  Follow the link and answer the 65 questions.  All computer class students are taking the survey and in a later class we will review the results from the survey.




TECHNOLOGY CURRENT EVENT VIDEO:  We will finish class today with a short video from Google about one of their data centers in South Carolina.  Your Google Drive is located in a Google data center just like this someplace in the world.



CONCLUSION:  After you have completed these activities please restart your device (always a good thing to do for your computer) and restart yourself by going outside and taking a break.







May 5, 2020


WELCOME TO YOUR 8TH GRADE COMPUTER CLASS:  The overall goal of this class is to make sure every student is familiar with the technology resources that are available to them at Council Rock before they go to the high school.  Today we will start with a few easy activities to make sure you can access the directions for all our Computer Class Activities.



Activity 1:   All students should be able to access their school Gmail Account, our class website   (www.TodayInComputerClass.com), Google Classroom and Canvas.  Practice accessing all four of these resources by following the directions below.  After you have accessed all four of these resources follow this link to answer 5 questions.


Using your school email
USING YOUR SCHOOL GMAIL ACCOUNT:  Using your School Gmail Account Video (4 minutes): Computer class directions will be sent to you via email on Mondays and Wednesdays.  All students in the Council Rock School District have a school Gmail account and you should be able to log in and check your email.  Please do the following activity:

  1. Log into your Council Rock Gmail Account (click here for directions).  This will work best in the Google Chrome browser  Here is a link to download the Google Chrome browser if you don’t have it on your computer.

  2. Look for the email with the subject line “May 5:  Computer Class Directions”.  It will contain these same directions.  

  3. Reply to that email with a message like this:

    Hi Mr. McNulty,
    I’m working at home on my first computer class projects today.  At home I have a _______ computer.  My school gmail account is working fine.
    Sincerely,
    Your Name

  4. Don’t forget to send the email by clicking on the blue “Send” button



OUR CLASS WEBSITE:  All Computer Class activities are also posted on the internet at our class website, TodayInComputerClass.com  This is website is an example of a blog.   Blogs have been around since the 1990’s and the origin of the word is ”web log” which was shortened to blog. You can always check to see what we do each day as a class by visiting: TodayInComputerClass.com.  Students should also know 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.




ACCESSING GOOGLE CLASSROOM:  All Computer Class activities are also posted on Google Classroom (click here for directions).  Please follow the directions below to find this class in Google Classroom.

  1. Log into your Council Rock Gmail Account (click here for directions) 

  2. Go to the Apps symbol in the top right corner (also known as the “waffle”) and look for “Classroom”.  This should take you to your Council Rock Google Classroom.

  3. You should find a Google Class there for this computer class, open it up.  If you don’t see it there  email Mr. McNulty and ask to be added to the class.



ACCESSING CANVAS:  All Computer Class activities are also posted on Canvas which is a new learning management system that is being adopted by the Council Rock School District over the next two years.  Please follow the directions below to find this class in Canvas:

  1. Go to the Holland Middle School website and look for the link to CANVAS on the left

  2. Log in using the same username and password that you use for your Council Rock Gmail Account.

  3. Once logged in you should find Computer Class, open it up.  If you don’t see it there  email Mr. McNulty and ask to be added to the class.



ACTIVITY 1: Distance Learning Questions   
After you have accessed all four of these resources follow this link to answer 5 questions.



TECHNOLOGY CURRENT EVENT VIDEO:  For our final activity today watch the following video about the most recent demographic and technological changes that have taken place in our world: 







May 1, 2020 - Welcome to Computer Class


Welcome to your 6 week rotation in Computer Class. The goal of this class is to make sure you are...

Familiar with Council Rock technology
Able to use our technology for school projects
Familiar with how the technology all around us works



Follow this link to the Welcome Video for the course
You will have to log into your Council Rock Google Account to view the video

Computer Class for 8th Graders will start on May 5th.  All course content will be posted in CANVAS, Google Classroom and on the website: www.TodayInComputerClass.com. Course content will also be sent to your school Gmail account. You can check any of these resources to see what we’re doing each day in Computer Class.