Thank you www.chatroulette.com

www.chatroulette.com  continues to be one of my main sources of traffic to my blog.  Currently www.chatroulette.com  accounts for 78% of new traffic.  Email issues such as gmail not loading  or AOL Mail hacked also drives hits to my site.  Visitors with Email issues typically spend atleast 5 minuets on my blog & visit 2 or more pages.  So how do I know this?  I use Google anylitics.  A free tool provided by Google to track traffic to your site.  The data is fantastic and easy to read.  Fully exportable and tracks more visitor data than I could ever digest.  You can get started here  https://www.google.com/analytics

Day 7

All students begin with keyboarding practice with Mavis Beacon.  Grade 7 & 8 students continue working on yesterdays assignment.  When they are done they will print on a selected printer and save to a selected drive.  Grade 6 students will complete the portrait assignment.  Where they will:

• Insert and format a banner
• Insert and format Word art
• Insert and format a footer
• Add a text box
• Add and format text
• Change font size and color
• Save a file
• Use print preview
• Print to a selected printer

 

Day 6

Day 6 begins with keyboarding practice for all students. Grade 7 & 8 students begin working on a 2 day assignment that is meant to be individual practice of what we reviewed over the last few days. Students will log onto my school website to see the exact guidelines they will need to meet to complete these 2 documents. Then using the skills learned in class they will need to create and properly save these documents. I am trying to show students how to apply the tools learned in class and by structuring the lesson this way I have personally seen better retention and better application.
Grade 7

You will create a Word document that contains 2 tables.

You should have a banner with word art across the top that reads "Tables"Table 1

- will be 3 columns wide and 6 rows long.

• You will compare and contrast the year you were born & any other year you choose
• You may compare things such as Presidents, Popular culture, etc.
• Font size should be 12, font style Comic Sans
• The first row should be a Title row.
• All borders should be blue
• Table 2
- Will be 3 columns wide and 6 rows long
• You will compare and contrast 2 devices - example PC & Mac
• The first row will be a title row
• You font size should be 12
• you may choose your font style and color
• There should be no borders

Grade 8
You will create a document that has a banner with word artWord art should say "NY NY"Create 5 rows of tabs, the settings should be;1" left, 3" center, 6" rightYou may include a leaderYou should include the street addresses of 5 NYC landmarksLines should be single spacedYou will need 5 bullet points and the bullets should be custom formatted to be a picture of a NYC landmarkYou should include information about your landmarkYou will include a table 3 rows by 4 columnsThe table should have no borders
It should include travel information

Grade 6

Students will be introduced to Word. They will watch a presentation on Word 2007 then begin creating the Portrait assignemt.

• Portrait

We will begin to work on the portrait assignment

Today we will learn the basics of Word 2007

Insert & format a picture from file

Add a page border

Add footer

Day 5

Today all grades registered for Mavis Beacon Typing tutorial.  I use Mavis to teach basic keyboarding skills.  Students enjoy the time spent practicing and can watch the "ghost hands" on the screen show exactly where hand and finger placement should be.  Students practiced for approximately 10 min. 

7th grade students continued to work on the colors assignment.  We reviewed how to format table borders and shading, how to move a table, add and delete rows and columns.  We inserted word art and a banner, we formatted and grouped both.  We also formatted a picture.  Instead of printing the document out we reviewed how to save to a USB drive.

8th grade students continued working on the tables, tabs and bullets assignment.  We reviewed creating and formatting tables.  We watched 2 videos on how to format bullets to be a picture and how to format tab settings.  We entered a footer and also saved to a USB drive.

Grade 6 students continued to work on their paint portrait.  If the finished early they worked on the script for the IP.

Excel 2011 ????

As I teach adult classes I am often asked what version of Excel should I get?  I will say that most companies i run in contact with are still using Excel 2003.  However many schools, colleges and universities have made the switch to Excel 2007.  So what version do you get?  My answer is ... The version you or your kids use most often.  Sorry to be a little wishy washy but that is the best answer.  It can be difficult to go back and forth between user interfaces like the 2 different version of office provide.  I have read that many companies will not switch until they upgrade from Windows XP and at that time will upgrade to a newer version of Office.  PC World put out a great article today on Excel 2011 and its differences between other versions.  You can read the article here.

Counting Responses in Excel =COUNTIF(C2:C150,"yes")

Today I learned how to use the count if function.  To me this is awesome!  Here's how it works, I created a form on Google Docs and asked a series of Yes / No questions.  I now have a column of Yes and No responses.  How do I make a chart or graph?  I create a formula in an empty cell to count the yes and no responses.  for example: in cell E1 I write the word Yes in cell F1 I put in my formula =COUNTIF(C2:C150,"yes")  =CountIf (this will count all responses IF they match) then enter the cell range to count for example C2:C150 then place a coma and your response in quotes.  This will work for any response, it could be pizza in quotes if that was a response to your questions.  In cell E2 i write No or my next response in F2 I put the formula =COUNTIF(C2:C150,"no") and now I can count the NO responses.  Now I can highlight and create my chart. 

Hope this helps

Day 4

Today all grades will begin creating thier vocabulary lists (see below) Each class will begin with 5 vocabulary words and each student will be responsible for keeping and maintaining thier own list. There will be a test at the end of the cycle on all vocabulary learned. I will put the words up using the LCD projector, some words will have a piture to illustrate them or a video. Next we will begin working in Word
We will watch a brief PowerPoint on Word 2007. All Grade 7 & 8 students watch the video just to make sure we are all using the same termilogy. Next Grade 7 & 8 students will work with me on a group project. This project generally takes 2 days to complete.
Grade 7 students will work on creating and formatting tables using The Colors assignment. Grade 8 students will work on creating and formatting tables, bullets & tabs using The Tabs & Bullets assignment
Grade 6 Students will begin working with Paint to create a drawing of themselves & try to be as detailed as possible. Thet will save it to thier H drive in the computers 6 folder.

Grade 8 Vocabulary

A website is a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed relative to a common Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
A web page or webpage is a document or resource accessed through a web browser. When webpages are stored in a common directory they become a website.
A web search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are presented in a list and are commonly called hits. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files.
Hosting company a service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web.
A web feed (or news feed) is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content.

Grade 7 Vocabulary

Byte- computer memory, 8 bits make up one of these
Nibble - half of a byte or four bit
Queue – a list of jobs waiting to be processed
Ram – a collection of small memory chips inside the computer that make a program run faster
Twitter – a social networking & micro blogging service that enables users to send and read updates known as tweets

Grade 6 Vocabulary

Cpu – the internal operating unit or brain of the computer
Close – removing a document or window from the screen
Cursor – the short blinking vertical line that marks your place in text
Disk drive – floppy disk drive reads & writes data to a small circular piece of metal-coated plastic similar to audio cassette tape
Escape – most often means to stop.

New Cycle Day 1, Day 2, Day 3

The new cycle has begun! We are now on Day 3  where we begin the class by watching a video on Cloud Computing in Plain English on The Common Craft Channel.  This is followed by a class discussion on how individual students would use cloud computing to help their daily lives.  In a nutshell....Itunes needs this =) Next all student have begun working on the script for the Independent Project. On Day 2 all students watched a PowerPoint on Internet search strategies and participated in a group discussion.  Day 1 was spent making sure logins work and reviewing classroom policies. 

Grade 6 Script Guidelines 

Grade 7 Script

Grade 8 PowerPoint Script PhotoStory Script

I have begun to use a mail merge to take student names from our online grade book and merge them with the student logins.  This has helped me by making it easier for students to read my messy handwriting :/ and allows me to create login cards much quicker and easier.  After you "export" your list which is usually an option in any database under file then create your merge. 

This year is really going fast.  Last cycles students asked me to make a video on using Publisher so look for that soon.

Day 27, 28, 29, 30

Students complete the finishing touches on the independent project.  We complete a vocabulary test and a basic Internet survey.

day 24 & 25

All grades continue on the Publisher assignment.  Grade 8 students receive a topic on Internet safety and in groups create a newsletter based on their topic. 

day 23

All grades begin the unit on Publisher.  Grade 6 creates a travel brochure & 7 creates a newsletter.  Grade 8 watches a PowerPoint and classroom discussion on Internet safety. 

day 22

All grades are tested on Excel.

Day 21

All students work on the independent Project.  Each grade level has certain progress points they should have reached. 

Day 20

All grades review thier individual practice.  Grade 6 is introduced to using formulas differently.  Grade 7 & 8 review entering comments and printing formulas.

Day 18

With only 12 days left it is time to remind students to check thier grades online.  Today all grades will practice individually on an Excel assignment I posted on my website.  Grade 6 & 7 have different versions of Good Luck, Grade 8 begins the Weather.

Day 15,16, 17

Day 15 begins our unit on Excel.  All students will watch a PowerPoint on Excel then begin their assignments.  The assignment is posted on my website.  This assignment will take 3 days to complete.

grade 6 - the grades

grade 7 - fund raising

grade 8 - jumpball

Day 14

Day 14 starts off with more keyboarding practice.  Grade 6 students use the 20 vocab words to create a word cloud on Wordle.  Then use the print screen function to paste, crop, resize an image.  Grade 7 & 8 students continue working on the Independent Project.

Day 13

Day 13 finds all students taking a Word Test.  I have posted a key on my school webpage and students had to recreate using Word. 

Day 12

Today all students began with keyboarding practice.  All students had time to work on thier Independent Project.  Grade 6 & 7 Students were introduced to PowerPoint.  They created a new presentation, added slides and changed slide layout, added a table and formated it, saved as to a specific location, and then used "copy & paste" to move the script to the PowerPoint.  Grade 8 students also worked in the layout for thier Independent Projects. As the students who worked on the PowerPoint began the layout for the slide show students working on the PhotoStory imported pictures and then added motion.

Day 11

All students began with keyboarding practice.  Grade 6 students had time to continue researching for the Independent Project.  Grade 7 Students reformated a Word document called Solar Eclipse.  This was meant to be individual practice to see what was retained from previous day.  Grade 8 Students began working on the Timeline Template where they researched the Revolutionary War.

Day 10

Today all students began with Keyboarding Practice

Grade 6

Students began the Schedule assignment ere they were introduced to

Today we will format our table

We will add and remove borders

Add shading

Add a banner and word art

Grade 7

Today we will complete the Reformat Me assignment

You will apply the formatting changes to the Solar Eclipse assignment on your own

Save the attachment to Your H drive

Grade 8

Day 10

Today we will begin formatting a word document

We will complete this project as a group

You will save the attached document to your H drive

 

Great Word Blog

Do you have questions about using Microsoft Word?  Well I have found a fantastic resource that has found its way into my favorites tab.  http://www.shaunakelly.com is a great blog and resource and I can only hope to achieve this level someday.  Thanks Shaun!

Photoshop CS4 to PhotoShop CS3

I was asked a question about how to save a photoshop CS4 file and open it in CS3.  This is a summary of what I found and I would like to thank Yahoo answers for the responses.  If you need more info check out the original responses here, Yahoo 1 - Yahoo 2 - Yahoo 3 - Yahoo 4 - Yahoo 5

From CS 4 click Edit menu > Preferences > File Handling > in "Maximize PSD file Compatibility" drop down menu choose always.

If you did things to the file that are unique in CS4 sometimes there is "invisible" information in a file that can cause a problem

Save another copy as a .tif, which is a format any version of Photoshop can open (as well as other image editors) and it will preserve layers too. That way, if the native .psd file can't be opened in CS3, you will still have the .tif layered copy that can be opened.

or in cs4

Choose File > Export.

From the File Type (Windows) or Format (Mac OS) menu, choose InDesign Markup (IDML).

Click Save.

You can open the saved IDML file in InDesign CS4 but not in any previous version of InDesign. To save a file for use in InDesign CS3, choose the InDesign CS3 Interchange (INX) option.

Protect your Gmail

I read a posting from TG daily on protecting your Gmail account.  This is awesomely helpful.  Just walk through the checklist to see how procted your account is.

Gmail Checklist

Whether you just regained access to Gmail, or you want to make sure your account is secure, take a minute to complete our Gmail Security checklist to make sure your mail security measures are up to date.

Creating QR with goo.gl

TG Daily posted an article about Google's new URL shortening site goo.gl  I love Google products so I read the article but what really got me was how to create your own QR code by adding .qr to the end of your shortened url.  Awesome! Thank you TG Daily

I tried this out in class and used my android incredible to show the class how QR codes work.  They think Google Goggles is pretty cool.