RIDDLE

http://www.teamsters.co.uk/Riddle.htm

Feb 14-18

This was a bit of challenging week, outside of the classroom that is.  Several things broke and many people had complicated issues.  I think I worked through most of them pretty well...And on the bright side, I wasn’t bored at any time this week.  Though I rarely am.  I realized again this week what draws me most to doing this job: working with kids.  I like to get to know them on a personal level and speak to what interests them.  The kids really make this a great job to have.

Kindergarten: We wrote numbers one through ten in Chinese on Kid Pix.  The kids then identified the numbers by putting their English equivalent next to it using the number stamps.  The biggest challenge to kids was using the pencil tool to write the Chinese characters.

1st Grade: We created a 100’s day project in Kid Pix.  First, the students drew 100 in Chinese in the middle of the page.  Then we made 10 groups of 10 stamps.  The challenge came in finding the stamps.  I gave them the type of stamp and they had to find it.  They saved their work...on their own.

2nd Grade:   2A –As a reward for their good work and due to the fact that they were 2 weeks ahead,  I gave them free time on the computer.  Most students chose to visit www.cartoonnetwork.com...
2B – We took the slides from the previous week and put them into the slide show function of Kid Pix. The students made sure to put their slides in order, then previewed their slide show.  After that, we talked about individual sounds for each slide and a background for the entire show.  Then the students chose a background sound.  After they were satisfied with their slide show, we saved it first as a KP slide show, then as a Quicktime movie.  Next week, we will show them all in the Ulam Gadol on the big screen.
NOTE: IF YOU WOULD LIKE A COPY OF ALL THE SLIDE SHOWS FROM 2A, SEND A BLANK CD WITH YOUR STUDENT AND I WILL BURN A COPY FOR YOU.

3rd Grade: We had a quick intro to the Internet then began searching for information.  I led the students to google.com and discussed effective ways for searching for information.  We also talked about searching for images.  The students were given free time to search for whatever they chose.

4th Grade: We discussed the pros and cons of using the spell checker.  We talked about how the spell checker will check the spelling of a word against words in the dictionary.  It doesn’t check for grammar or appropriateness.  So, the students spell checked their documents, then read through their paragraphs three times to check for grammar mistakes and to make sure what they wrote made sense.

5th Grade: We talked about FTP and publishing a site.  The students set up their netscape to publish their site on the main server.  We published their sites on the Internet...if you would like to see their work up to now visit wornickjds.org with their grade and first name (lowercase)...for example: http://www.wornickjds.org/grade5A/matt   We continued to add content and text.  Each week, students will save their work and publish it to the Internet.  Stay tuned.
Homework:

6th Grade: No Class
Homework:

7th Grade: No Class
Homework:

8th Grade: No class
Homework:

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at matt@wornickjds.org

Have a great weekend!!!

===================================
Matt Harris
Director of Technology
Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School

Feb 7-11

   This was a good week at school.  We accomplished a lot.  On Tuesday, we had our second session of the teacher training with another nice turnout.  I think the teachers are going to do well in their class.  Also, that evening we held a Internet Safety Seminar where I presented some ideas about safety on the Internet.  We had a very lively and productive discussion among the attendees.  I have also been working to reduce paper consumption by turning our copier into a document scanner.  

Kindergarten: We talked about the typing tool and using it to write letters on the screen.  The students then wrote and completed the following sentence: My favorite animal is.  They then drew a picture of that animal.

1st Grade: We created an interesting Kid Pix project this week where the students typed Gong Hey Fat Choy using the typing tool, the copied the Chinese characters from 1-10 using the pencil tool.  They then drew a rooster, wrote their name, then wrote 4073 in Chinese.  The students then saved their work without help.  They are getting good at finding their way through the file menu.

2nd Grade:   2A – I gave the students a tour of the Ulam Gadol’s projector and projection system.  I showed them how to turn on the projector, lower and raise the screen, and how I connect my computer to the projector.  We then showed each of the finished movies on the projector and gave the students a chance to explain what they did.
2B – We finished with the slide.  Next week, we should have the slide show finished and inserted into Kid Pix slide show.

3rd Grade: We finished off the typing instruction this week by talking about the pinky finger and all the extra buttons like the shift keys, number keys, and punctuation. The students practiced typing various letters, numbers and punctuation from a practice sheet.  We also talked about using the left shift key with the right side of the keyboard, that way you can make capital letters using both hands.  Next week we will be starting the Internet.

4th Grade: We continued work on the brochure.  Student kept working on getting writing into the computer without thought for formatting or spelling.  We reiterated the idea of just typing for the first draft, then edit afterwards.  We will begin formatting and spell checking next week.

5th Grade: We began to input text into the web page.  The students just entered raw text with no formatting.  In the coming weeks we will format the text and insert pictures and links.
Homework:

6th Grade: No Class
Homework:

7th Grade: No Class
Homework:

8th Grade: No class
Homework:

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at matt@wornickjds.org

Have a great weekend!!!

===================================
Matt Harris
Director of Technology
Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School

Jan 31-Feb 4

Another blur of a week.  But a good one all the same.  Students are doing well in class, plans are moving forward, and I am having fun.  I think one of the best parts of my week this week was getting to play football at recess with some of the sixth graders.  It has been a while, too long really, since I have gotten a chance to play.  I am glad we have the students around to remind of these things.

Kindergarten: We began talking about the keyboard.  The students did an activity where they were given a paper keyboard and pile of index cards with letters and symbols that you find on the keyboard.  They organized the cards on the floor in teams of 4.  Once they finished, we talked about the function of the Shift key, delete key, and return key.

1st Grade: The students worked on using the keyboard to type.  They used Kid Pix and the text tool to write a sentence about Groundhog’s Day.  We concentrated on capital letters, spaces,  and punctuation.  The students then drew a picture of a groundhog and typed their name.  Once they were done, we discussed fonts,  font sizes, and B/I/U.  Some students printed, some saved...all without help.

2nd Grade:   2A – We took the slides from the previous week and put them into the slide show function of Kid Pix. The students made sure to put their slides in order, then previewed their slide show.  After that, we talked about individual sounds for each slide and a background for the entire show.  Then the students chose a background sound.  After they were satisfied with their slide show, we saved it first as a KP slide show, then as a Quicktime movie.  Next week, we will show them all in the Ulam Gadol on the big screen.
NOTE: IF YOU WOULD LIKE A COPY OF ALL THE SLIDE SHOWS FROM 2A, SEND A BLANK CD WITH YOUR STUDENT AND I WILL BURN A COPY FOR YOU.
2B – We continued to work on our slides.  Some students finished.  Next week, we should have the slide show finished and inserted into Kid Pix slide show.

3rd Grade: We learned the letters associated with the ring finger.  We practiced them on the paper keyboard then on the computer.  With some extra time, we went onto www.wornickjds.org/tech and tried some of the typing games I have listed.  I also had them practice the ever famous typing sentence: “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs.” which contains every letter in the alphabet at least once.

4th Grade: We continued work on the brochure.  Student kept working on getting writing into the computer without thought for formatting or spelling.  We reiterated the idea of just typing for the first draft, then edit afterwards.  Students will probably have one more week of typing.

5th Grade: The students began creating the foundations for their web page.  We worked with Netscape Composer to create a title, set background, and text and link colors.  Once those were set, we talked about the reasoning for saving a file called index.html.  Then the students saved their worked to a folder with their name on it in the Sites folder of the computer.  We checked to see what the web page looked like Safari by opening it up in the Finder.  The students bookmarked their local files in Safari, so they can come back and check to see what their pages look like as they move forward.
Homework: Draw a proposal for the layout of your webpage.

6th Grade: The students began creating the foundations for their web page.  We worked with Netscape Composer to create a title, set background, and text and link colors.  Once those were set, we talked about the reasoning for saving a file called index.html.  Then the students saved their worked to a folder with their name on it in the Sites folder of the computer.  We checked to see what the web page looked like Safari by opening it up in the Finder.  The students bookmarked their local files in Safari, so they can come back and check to see what their pages look like as they move forward.
Homework: Start working on the web page by adding links, images, and content.

7th Grade: We finished our iPhoto project.  The students added music to the slide shows they created last week, then exported them to Quicktime.  We watched some the slideshows on the projector.
Homework:  Write out the process for creating a digital photo album (the steps we completed this week) and email it to me AND yourself.

8th Grade: We continued to work on our iMovie projects.  We talked about multi-track editing vs. sequential editing.  We talked about adding audio from a music file.  First, the students ripped music from CDs into iTunes.  Since iTunes and iMovie are linked, all audio files available in iTunes are accessible in iMovie.  We added music to one of the audio tracks, then manipulated it by cutting it off, change the volume, then playing with fade in and fade out.  We talked about putting multiple audio tracks on the same editing track and how that might get cumbersome.  The students then recorded and manipulated voice over by using the microphone on their computer.
Homework: Finish your iMovie by adding title and end credits.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at matt@wornickjds.org

Have a great weekend!!!

===================================
Matt Harris
Director of Technology
Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School