8th Grade :: Technology Applications

RESOURCE LINKS

SCHEDULE

4th period
10:51a - 11:41a
fwafaTech4@gmail.com

6th period
1:09p - 1:59p
fwafatech6@gmail.com

7th period
2:02p - 2:52p
fwafaTech7@gmail.com

sherill.maddox@fwafa.org
sherill.maddox@gmail.com
FaceBook: (my name)
Skype: (my name)

Fun Stuff

JigsawPlanet
Tween Tribune
MultiTask
The Eyeballing Game
befuddlr!
Guess the Google
Guess the Wordle
Wordle
The Odd Question Blog
timtim
Typing Web
TypeRacer
stop-motion video
how they made it...

ASSIGNMENTS


Monday, 3/8: Real or Fake?

Practice asking yourself questions in order to determine if these photos are real or fake. We'll do this together in class.

Real or Fake?

DUE: In class today, 3/8, participation grade


Thursday, 3/4: Reading Aloud

Your Dr. Seuss blogs are awesome! We'll share them in class today - be ready to read yours!


Tuesday, 3/2: Blog Topic

March 2nd is Read Across America Day in honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday. Write a story about learning to read in the style of Dr. Seuss.

DUE: end of class today, 3/2


Monday, 2/21: Search Practice

Search Practice Assignment

Simply find the answers to the questions in the assignment. Be sure to include the URL for each answer that you find. You may not use any wiki sites as sources (wikipedia.com, etc.). This is not a group project!

Save as: 8th_searchPractice_name.rtf, (8th_searchPractice_sherill.rtf) in your maddox folder.

  • Email this assignment as an attachment to the appropriate email address for your class.
    • 4th period: fwafatech4@gmail.com
    • 6th period: fwafatech6@gmail.com
    • 7th period: fwafatech7@gmail.com
  • Your name and class period must be in the subject line of your email.

DUE: Wednesday, in class


Tuesday, 2/9 and Thursday, 2/11: Viewing Haiti PowerPoints

You will need to open your haiti_name.xlsx file to be prepared for grading these powerPoint presentations.

This is what you will be grading for each powerPoint presentation: Haiti Grading Rubric.

GRADING: You will receive a grade based on your spreadsheet:

  • Is it formatted correctly?
  • Did you enter all information correctly?
  • Did you take this grading assignment seriously?

Your own powerPoint presentation grade will be that of your peers and finalized by me according to the criteria of the rubric.


Friday, 2/5: Blog Topic

Go to our ClassPress blogging site and write 200 words on the following topic:
What could or should you give advice on? Write a list of advice to someone who comes after you. This topic will be posted there as well.

DUE: at the end of class today

ONLY AFTER YOU FINISH, I challenge you to find your best score on the new MultiTask game listed under Fun Links.


Wednesday, 2/3: Grading the PowerPoints

Before we look at our powerPoints, we need to set up our grading system. Please open this rubric:

Haiti Grading Rubric

You will also need to create a spreadsheet in Excel where you will record your grades. We will do this together in class. Please pay attention to:

  • changing column widths
  • selecting columns
  • formatting cells
  • anything else I might say would be a good test question...

Once we are sure of all of this, we will begin watching your powerpoints!


Monday, 2/1: Technology in the Relief and Rescue Efforts in Haiti PowerPoint slideshow

DUE: TODAY

If you need to come by during lunch or after school, I will still accept it as not late. Again, if you need to be reminded, please read the assignment posted on Tuesday, 1/26.


Thursday, 1/28: Continue working on your PowerPoint

Remind yourself of your assignment by reading the assignment posted on Tuesday, 1/26. Please consider the time that you have left in which to complete this assignment!

DUE: PowerPoint due in class on Monday, 2/1


Tuesday, 1/26: Technology in the Haiti Relief/Rescue Efforts

I will not be in class today, so you will need to print out your finished assignment and turn it in to my subsitute before the end of class.

ASSIGNMENT: I want you to create a PowerPoint presentation of your ideas and observations based on what you wrote about how technology is being used or could be used in the rescue and relief efforts in Haiti. I'm not going to assign a set number of slides for your presentation - use however many slides you need to communicate your information.

Please remember the basics of a good presentation slide show:

  • CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT.....
  • Make sure that your content is not interuppted by the cools things that you do to that slide.
  • Use bullet points rather than great lengths of text that you must read to us. <groan>
  • Post all of your sources on the last slide - a simple URL will be enough for this assignment.

DUE: Monday, Feb 1 in class


Friday, 1/22: Haiti

Island Nation of Haiti Reels After Earthquake Causes 'Enormous' Damage

We will take some time at the beginning of class to read this article, then we will talk about it as a class. This is all in preperation of a project we will be doing based on the Haitian Earthquake, which will be explained on Friday in class.

Today is a participation/completion grade. Each student needs to contribute something to this conversation. This will be a "raise your hand" conversation - I will ask you to sit in the hall if you cannot work that way or if you are distracting your classmates or myself from our group time.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT: DUE Tuesday, 1/26 in class:
Think about how technology is being used in the rescue/relief efforts in Haiti. What types of technology are being used and how does they contribute to the rescue/relief effort? Write at least 200 words summarizing this subject. IF you use any outside sources, copy and past the URL into your summary.

Save this as haiti_name.rtf in your maddox folder.

If you need to email this to yourself, that is ok.

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Wednesday, 1/20: Cool CES Products!

I want to hear from you about some of the cool inventions that you learned about in your CES assignment! This will be an orderly process - I will call on you and you will not badger me to call on you next, agreed?

ASSIGNMENT: Friday, 1/22
We will be looking up information and discussing the earthquakes in Haiti and the relief/rescue efforts. Please come to class prepared by knowing the basics of this world event. If you would like to bring in some sources, that would be great!

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Friday, 1/15: finishing Consumer Electronics Show assignment

Your CTE is due today at the end of class. When you are finished, I would like for you to email it as an attachment to your class's email address:

  • period 4: fwafaTech4@gmail.com
  • period 6: fwafatech6@gmail.com
  • period 7: fwafatech7@gmail.com
  • the email's Subject: should say Name's CES assignment (Sherill's CES assignment)

DUE: assignment, today, 1/15 by midnight

Part of your grade will be based upon:

  • your name must be on/in your assignnment - not just in the file name (worth 10 points)
  • correctly naming the file: CES_name.rtf (worth 10 points)
  • using the correct email address for your class (worth 10 points)
  • using the correct subject for the email: Name's CES assignment (worth 10 points)

IF YOU FINISH, go to one of the "Fun Links" listed in the right column.

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Wednesday, 1/13: Current Tech Event - the Consumer Electronics Show (CES)

Last week was the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. I want you to Google some sources and write a summary about the CES. Please copy and paste your sources at the end of your paper.

Your first paragraph will be a summary of the CES. Your summary needs to be at least 200 words, written in complete sentences to form [a] paragraph[s]. This summary needs to be written so that anyone can read it and not have to wonder what the questions are.

  • What is it?
  • Why do they have it?
  • Who puts it together?
  • When is it/how often is it?
  • Where is it?
  • Who goes to it?
  • Also include any personal comments about the CES.

Choose 3 new products that interest you and answer these questions. You will write one paragraph for each product. Word count here is not important. Just make sure that you cover the following information: (You might not find some of this specific information - just do the best you can with what you find!)

  • What is the name of your product?
  • Why did you choose this one?
  • What is the purpose of this product?
  • How will it change or improve things?
  • Are there already other products like it on the market? If so, what product(s)?
  • Can you think of any possible problems it might create? If so, what kind of a problem?
  • When will it be available for purchase?
  • How much will it be?
  • Would it be smart to get one of these right now, or would it be best to wait to see what else comes out?

Your final paper will consist of at least 4 paragraphs (more if you need), the first paragraph being a minimum of 200 words, and each paragraph after that will cover a specific product that was presented. This is a writing assignment so please write as if Mrs. Emmonds will be grading it too.

SAVE this file in your maddox folder as: CES_name.rtf (CES_sherill.rtf)

DUE: Friday, 1/15 at the end of class

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Monday, 1/11: Finishing the Cryptogram

If you finished the cryptogram that we started during our last time together, please work on Cryptogram #2 for the rest of the period. If you finish that one, create your own cryptogram!

DUE: Cryptogram Assignment, today at the end of class.

Cryptogram Assignment.
Cryptogram #2.
If you finish the second one, create your own cryptogram.


Thursday, 1/7:: Cryptograms

This file is your assignment: Cryptogram Assignment.
This file is for if you'd like to do another one:Cryptogram #2.

A cryptogram is a message in a substitution code. This is an example:

M R X   D G Y U M   L Y M
T H E   S M A R T   C A T

In this example then,

M = T
R = H
X = E

Here are some tips:

  • Be patient! Solving cryptograms is something you can teach your brain to do
  • If a sentance starts with a 3 letter word, what word could it be?
  • Try to identify as many vowels as you can first.
  • Look for 2 letter words - one of those letters will most likely be a vowel.
  • Look for words that are contractions. What could that word be?
  • When you find a letter, use it for every instance of that letter before you continue looking for letters.
  • Be patient with yourself! Stop and take a breath if you need to clear your mind!
  • Don't beat yourself up! Be patient!
  • Did I mention yet to be patient with yourself?

DUE: Monday, 1/11 at the end of class

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Tuesday, 1/5:: Blog Topic

1. Write about the favorite gift that you gave. (If you didn't give one, that's ok! I do understand the financial status of an 8th grader!)

2. Write about the favorite gift that you received. (If you don't have a favorite, choose one...)

3. (optional) Write about what you did during the Holiday break! Did you travel? Did you have company? Did you have a birthday? Were you bored?.....

Tuesday, 1/5

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First Semester 2009

Friday, 12/11: Today...

Since I am unable to be there today and since the TBC is gone, use today to work on any other school work you have for other classes. Teachers will greatly appreciate late work being turned in as soon as possible so they can get it graded before school is out.....

I will be gathering your Newlsetter files over the weekend to grade them.

If you have nothing else to do, you may go to any of the links listed in the right side column under "Fun Stuff."


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Newsletter Assignment


Wednesday, 12/9: Mail Merge

I will demonstrate a mail merge ib Publisher for you today and you will work along with me. This process works the same in Word as well, but we will look at it in Publisher.

You will need to know this process because there will be a test over it!


Monday, 12/7: Newsletter Progress

You should be working on any one of these three tasks:

  • Finish composing your letter
  • Finish your address list in Excel
  • Finish up your newsletter layout

You will be graded upon these criteria:

  • The thoughtfulness of your letter
  • Holiday creativity in your newsletter
  • Creativity in the choices you've made for your template
  • Following instructions for your address list in Excel
  • Your final product after the mail merge
    • Your file should include a copy of each letter with the correct variables in place.
  • Transfering your completed project to portable memory

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DUE: Wednesday, 12/9 end of class

On Friday, 12/11 we will transfer them to portable memory for you to take home. If you are ready to do this before Friday, just let me know so I can mark your grade accordingly!

IF YOU FINISH EARLY, please be available to help a classmate of explore one of the "fun stuff" links in the right side column.

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Tuesday, 12/1: Newsletters

I want you to write the letter that will go in your family's Holiday Newsletter in your blog today. That way, you can work on it with your family at home if you wish (or if Mom wishes...). This link has a good outline of how your letter should flow, so please look at it:

Sample Holiday Letter

IF YOU FINISH WRITING YOUR LETTER, use the resources listed to look at so that you can get some ideas about what your newletter might look like:

You may begin to work on it if you wish. You can use either Word or Publisher.

DUE: Today, progress check on the work done in class today. This will be a participation/completion grade.

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Tuesday, 11/24: Finish Word 2007 tutorial

Word 2007 Tutorial

We'll finish this up today and answer any questions. If you did not get this finished in class, you really do need to finish it on your own time. I will refer you to the tutorial to help you remember how to accomplish certain tasks.

When/If you are finished with the Word Tutorial, I have posted a blog topic for you on my blog page on the blog website: ClassPress.com. Your topic is about Thanksgiving, with some questions to help you think about what you are thankful for. Please read the topic post. Also, when you are finished with your entry for today, please delete any blog posts that are not related to a blog topic that I've assigned.

  • Remember that your login does not have any punctuation in it!
  • If you need a reminder, let me know

DUE: at the end of class today

ASSIGNMENT for after Thanksgiving break: When I see you next Tuesday after Thanksgiving, you will need to have a list of addresses that your family will use for your Holiday mailings. If you don't do a holiday mailing, you need to bring a list of at least 10 addresses, real or otherwise. This list can be in a Word document, an Access database or in an Excel spreadsheet.

We will also be creating a Holiday letter, similar to last year, but this time it must be completed so that your family can use it if they wish. You should also bring a picture or two that you can use for a family newsletter. If you'd like to go ahead and write it with your family, go ahead and bring that.

Bring to class on Tuesday, 12/1:

  • an address list - minimum 10 addresses
  • a few pictures to use in your holiday letter
  • ** optional - a rough draft of your letter written by your family

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Friday, 11/20: Word 2007 tutorial

We'll spend time today and on Tuesday next week finishing this up. You will need to be able to use the skills in the "Special Features" and "Advanced Word" sections of this tutorial, so it is imperative that you get through those lessons!

If you have finished this tutorial, please be available to help someone else who might need some help!

Word 2007 Tutorial

You may work on this at home if you want to - I'll show you an easy way to access your work at home without emailing it.

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Wednesday, 11/18: Typing and Word

We are doing 2 things today:

  • 1. Log in to the TypingAce login page
    • Statistics - clear them all
    • Take the typing test (on the tab that says "test."
    • I need to see the last statistics screen myself - this is part of your grade today.
  • 2. Work towards finishing the Word Tutorial
    • Be sure that you complete all 4 tabs at the top of the
    • Word 2007 Tutorial
    • I need to know which section you start with and which one you ended with.
    • This must be finished before Thanksgiving - only 2 more class days together!

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Monday, 11/16: Word Tutorial

It's been a while since we worked on the Word tutorial. We need to get back at that and finish it up. For those of you that are finished, please make yourself available to help your classmates. If you are not helping, please start the Publisher 2007 Tutorial and work on that.

For the rest of us, find where you left off and pick it back up there.
Word 2007 Tutorial
Remember that you have some of your work saved on your computer - that might help you remember where you were.

Be sure that you complete each section:

Please pay attention to what you are doing. We will be using a lot of these features in our next assignment. There might also be a quiz over how to employ a feature or what you might use it for in real life....

DUE: Friday, 11/20

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Tuesday, 11/10: Keyboarding

Use this link to login to TypingAce: TypingAce login page

(You may need to delete any username/password that is already showing.) I will assign you your username - it will be the word "student" with a two-digit number between 01 and 20. Please listen closely to the username I give you! The password for all usernames is "fwafa" (without the quotation marks).

This is a trial version, so we'll be figuring it out together!


Wednesday, 11/04: Formatting the Group Story

Open the group story on your computer and apply these formatting rules. When you are finished, put your name at the top, print it out and turn it in. These are very basic formatting instructions and you are expected to know how to use them.

  • for the entire page:
    • margins: 1" on each side
    • font: calibri, 12pt
    • paragraphs: aligned left, use a double space between, no indents
    • line height: 1.15pts
  • Title only:
    • calibri, 22pt, bold, red, aligned-center
  • Special formatting:
    • make each author's name to be in parenthesis, italic and after the last punctuation mark for that paragraph.

DUE: in class today

ASSIGNMENT:When you have turned in your formatted story, please find a current event article from a link on this web page: CTE Resources that deals with technology. You will need to write 1 paragraph of at least 5 sentences summarizing it and then a paragraph about what you think about it. Include the URL of the article, you name, your class period. Save it in your maddox folder as cte1104_name.rtf (cte1104_sherill.rtf).

Your summary will be graded by the criteria posted on the CTE Resource web page.

DUE: in class on Friday, printed out, turned in

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Friday, 10/9: Starting Something.....

This is a very cool web site:
In Pictures: Computer tutorials based on pictures, not words.
I will award up to 10 extra credit points if you share this web site with someone - they will need to write a sentence or two stating that you showed them this web site and if they think that this would be a useful web site to brush up on or learn some basic Office skills. Be sure to show them all of the different tutorials that are available besides Word 2007.

ASSIGNMENT: Begin with this tutorial called Word Basics. Some of this may be familiar to you - count that as a review. We will work through all of the exercises in this tutorial, so it will be new soon enough!

The purpose of this tutorial is to remind yourselves how to do basic tasks in Word and/or learn how to work with Word 2007. These will be tasks that you will need to know how to do for the rest of your high school career, so please pay attention while you are working on them!

There will be a test at the end of these exercises!

extra credit points DUE: Friday, 10/9

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Wednesday, 10/7: Clean Your Room, Child!

Please be patient as we revisit the very basics of setting up our computers. When we upgraded browsers and MS Office, previous settings were lost. We will get everything back to order.

ASSIGNMENT: You need to clean out your MyDocuments folder and delete everything from last year!


Monday, 10/5: (blog topic Free Blog

Begin today's class by blogging on any subject that you choose for the first 20 minutes of class. Some of your computers may need some attention to get them connected. Please let me know in an appropriate way that you need help with this!


Tuesday, 9/29: (blog topic) I used to think that...

Begin a blog post with the words "I used to think that..." and continue writing on that topic. You need to write at least 150 word!

http://play.typeracer.com/?rt=trmrsmaddox
Click here to enter a TypeRacer race with your classmates when you are finished with your blog. Remember to log on using a guest:

Type Racer log in screen

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Monday, 9/21: All About ME!

Over the weekend, I updated our M$ Office apps to the new version 2007. So, in an exercise to re-familiarize ourselves with the new version of Word07, Your assignment is to create an "All About ME" document. Here are the details:

  • save this as redX_aboutName.rtf (red4_aboutSherill.rtf) into your maddox folder. (Remember, details are part of your grade!)
  • Use only 4 personal images.
    • on this ONE OCCASSION ONLY you may get pictures from FaceBook.
    • you may only keep those 4 pictures in your account. All others must be deleted.
  • you may use clip art graphics
  • demonstrate these formatting elements:
    • font names, style (bold, italic, underline), size, color
    • an individual paragraph alignment - not just the whole document
    • insert images
    • wrapping text around an image
    • create a list using whatever bullet style you choose
    • I will watch you to see that you are using keyboard shortcuts:
      • CTRL + A = select all
      • CTRL + C = copy
      • CTRL + X = cut
      • CTRL + V = paste
      • CTRL + Z = undo
      • CTRL + S = SAVE

Wednesday 9/23 in class

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Tuesday, 9/15: Yearbook Assignment

Yes, I need your input to help get the yearbook going! I want you to download these questions and answer them as directed on the assignment:

yearbookAssignment

DUE: today, Tuesday (9/15) at midnight
Save this document as: yearbookAssignment_yourName.rtf and upload it to the Drop Box on your blog page. Don't forget to include your name and class period ON your assignment and save it with the proper name!


DROPBOX INSTRUCTIONS

On your blog page, click the tab that says Drop Box. This will open a dialogue page where you will need to click the browse button where you will then locate the file that you are turning in. Click on that file. Before you click "submit file", add your name in the box that says enter a description as well as anything else you might want me to know about this file.

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Friday, 9/11: Blog Topic

(4th period only): Your assignment for today is to participate in our class discussion about blogging guidelines. If, for some wacky reason, you check this page, and read this, you may have a free blog topic as well.

(6th period only) Today you can blog on a topic of your choice. Use your best judgement (says the teacher while squinting through her fingers...)

(7th period only) Finish your bloggingGuidelines and then check out my blog to see what your blog assignment is. ClassPress.com

DUE: Sunday at midnight

People, let's be sensible with your blogs! Please don't make me delete something!

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Wednesday, 9/9: Blogging Guidelines **4th period, Friday 9/11**

We need to come up with some guidelines (rules) that you think we should be using in our blog posts. I've seen some pretty inflammatory posts and some harsh statements stated as fact, as well as some inappropriate comments. We need to consider things like:

  • respect
  • diversity
  • language
  • videos
  • pictures
  • polls
  • the purpose of this blog

Do any of these things need to be defined? How would you define them? Are any of them non-issues? What should the issues be? We'll talk about some of this in class. I'm just looking for your thoughts and ideas about this - I'm not looking for anything formal. Your ideas will be put into a contract that you will sign and return to me so that we all understand what the "rules" are on our blog site.

6th and 7th periods - you'll need to write out your ideas and upload them to your Drop Box on your blog page.

4th period - we shall discuss amongst ourselves.

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Friday, 9/4: Blogging

This is the link to our blog pages: Class Press. Only the students in your class will be able to see your posts. Your posts will not appear in a Google search. This is all between us!

Your login name is your first initial followed by your last name with no dots or spaces:
       smaddox
UNLESS I've spoken with you and you'll use your full name:
      sherillmaddox
Your password is now whatever you set it to be. If you forget it, please use the email and have it sent to yourself. If you want to change your password, go to the options tab and there is a button at the bottom of that page where you can reset your password.

Your first assignment is posted there already. Please login and check it out.

DUE: Wednesday, 9/9 at the end of class.

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Thursday, 8/27 :: Great Moments in Communication

Hello 8th graders!

Today I am giving you a questionnaire to fill out about communication and technology. We will discuss some of these questions together as a class and you will be graded today on your participation in this discussion.

You will then need to complete this assignment as homework. You can access these questions by clicking on this link and choosing to download or save this document to your computer:

Communication Questions

You'll need to then open it from your computer to work on it. If you simply open it, any work you do on it cannot be saved and your work will disappear! Make sure that you save or download this link and then open it!

You will need to do this assignment in a word processing program (Word, WordPerfect, etc.) It is due at the beginning of class when we see each other again on Monday, August 31.

DUE: in class, Monday, 8/31. To turn in this assignment:

  • Email it to fwafaTech*@gmail.com
    • replace the * with your class period - example: 6th period, use fwafatech6@gmail.com
  • Bring it on a USB thumb drive or a CD
  • If you cannot turn it in either of the first to methods, please print it out and turn in a hard copy (paper).

We will spend more time next week with the actual process of turning in homework as well as other class procedures.

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