OLPH Technology 5
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11/16/09 - We began experimenting with the drawing tools in Microsoft Word in preparation for the Smoking Poster project for health class. Students worked with autoshapes, grouping, rotation, patterned fill, arranging, and duplicating. Next week there will be a graded sampler activity to demonstrate correct use of these tools.
11/9/09 - Additional time was given for making up work due to absences. Those students caught up had time to visit other student blogs from other schools and leave comments and link back to their own blogs. **Comment on first quarter grades: There was a definite curve to the grades which will be evident if you compare the % score to the letter grade. I am hoping we will improve in listening and following directions in the second quarter and also that more students will take advantage of information posted on Schoolnotes!
11/2/09 - I reviewed the 3 assignments that would count for the first quarter: 1. Blog Challenge 1 - 46 pts. 2. Blog Challenge 2 - Widget - 10 pts. 3. Blog Challenge 2 - Comments - 34 pts. Students were told that if they had received a zero for the first assignment because it was incomplete they had until Wednesday morning to complete it and submit the original score sheet with the words "please rescore". Any points for on-time completion cannot be earned. Without this sheet I will not re-grade any work whether it appears on the blog page or not. I also said I would make one more pass over the blogs before Friday to check for late widgets. Students had the class period to complete the commenting assignment or any old work. Students who are absent or leave class for instrumental music should be making use of schoolnotes to catch up with assignments.
10/26/09 - We are working on our last assignment for the first quarter. This involves searching for other student bloggers and writing comments to them. The assignment is to write a post showing exactly what you will write to the 3 student bloggers and providing a direct hyperlink to the specific post (and not the entire blog page). Read the directions followed by grades 6, 7, and 8 earlier this year in Blog Challenge 2 - Comments. You must include the following parts in your post: 1. Title (Blog Challenge 2 - Comments) 2. The name of the student blog page 3. The name of the specific post you will comment on 4. The name of the specific post turned into a hyperlink that goes directly to that post. 5. A minimum of 2 sentences in each comment. 6. Correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation 7. Published no later than Monday, Nov. 2. DO NOT LEAVE A COMMENT ON THE STUDENT SITE UNTIL I GIVE THE OK!
10/19/09 - Today score sheets were returned for the first blogging activity. Some students did not complete the assignment, or only did the avatar part of the assignment, and their grade is showing in Power School as U. They have an opportunity between now and Friday to complete the missing parts either at home or in the lab at recess. The score sheet must then be returned to me. If I do not have it by Friday the grade will stand as is. In class we completed the steps to adding a widget on the sidebar, either a flag counter or ClustrMap. For students who missed the explanation due to absence, you can find all the steps to follow here. The widget activity is worth 10 points. Only one needs to be added to the sidebar.
10/5/09 - THERE ARE 9 STUDENTS WHO DID NOT TURN IN A COMPLETED SIGNATURE FORM! Notations have been made in Powerschool as to whether the form was submitted or is missing. It may have been handed in but is missing one or more signatures. Anyone in the "missing" category will not use the Internet at school until the completed form is returned. In class we took a last day to complete the steps that have been listed below regarding the first blogging assignment. If students did not complete the avatar, About Me, and the post on blogging goals, that needs to be completed before next class period. We will not spend anymore time on that in class as we must move on to other things. Please read the entry below for Sept. 27 if you have something to be completed.
9/28/09 - Students are bringing home a signature page indicating their compliance with and parental awareness of Internet and network policies and other activities. Parents must indicate their preference regarding a student's ability to access the Internet at school and sign both sides of the form. Please return this to the homeroom teacher no later than Friday, Oct. 2. Students will use a wiki later in the year and podcasting may or may not be one of our activities this year. Without your permission for your child to access the Internet at school, they will not be able to complete the activities in class next Monday, so it is imperative that the sheets are signed and returned this week.
Classtime on 9/28 - Due to the mile run activity the entire class had technology in the classroom. It was also the first time this year students had used the laptops. I was dismayed to see the number of students who had no idea how to access the schoolnotes site, and that took precious time out of our class to work on that. Please have your child practice at home navigating to the site. We will create desktop shortcuts on the lab PCs but students in 5th grade should be able to access their teachers' pages without help. Listening skills, or lack of, also slowed us down.
Several students said their home computers had virus issues and they could not get online. Hopefully those issues are taken care of soon. Students need ready access to the Internet to check on assignments or to complete assignments. Students also should have entered the blog website, their username, and password into their homework assignment book. Those who forgot came up for a reminder. Please practice logging in to the student blog page and even create a shortcut to the page on your home computer if possible.
9/27/09 - We are participating in the Bloggers' Challenge this year, an activity that will run for several weeks. Hopefully this will get us established in a blogging routine and allow for blog posts to be used for various subjects as well as for student creativity. Grade 5 has gotten off to a slow start for a number of reasons but we hope to complete the challenge activities even though it may be behind the rest of the classes. I do expect that students will make an effort to access their blog pages from home and work on the activities whenever they have a few moments.
There are 5 easy components to the first challenge as seen on this sample blog page.
1. Create an avatar and download to the computer at which you are working. Once it is downloaded to your computer it needs to be uploaded to the blog site using the Control Panel in Edit Mode. Browse for the image on the computer and when the location is in the window, click Upload. The avatar appears on the right with the word "pending", meaning it needs to be approved before it will appear. If you do not see that, you have not done it correctly.
2. Add 5 sentences in the About You box on the control panel.
3. Add "Your Blog Title" in Control Panel. This title will represent your entire blog page and not just the current post. Choose carefully and capitalize key title words. You must click Submit Descriptions or your entries will not come to me for approval.
4. Complete the first post regarding the challenge and blogging goals, also 5 sentences. Refer back to the class blog for what these sentences should include. These sentences are entered into the Articles box (graphical not text editor)
1. Give your post a title "Blogging Challenge Week 1".
2. Enter your 5 sentences regarding the blogging challenge.
3. Choose the correct assignment to associate your post with in the drop down list.
4. Only when you are sure you have proofread for grammar and spelling, check the Request Publishing box.
5. Save your work. (Remember to save often but always save a final time after you request publishing. Once you save the first time your article will be listed under the window with any earlier posts. The PUB column indicates the status of your post. A blank means you have not requested publishing, a question mark means you have requested publishing and are awaiting teacher approval, and a star/asterisk means your post has been published. Target dates: Avatar and About the Blogger sentences and title for blog page by Monday, Oct. 5
First post on blogging challenge by Wednesday, Oct. 7 Students will still be able to work in class on October 5, but it would help greatly if they got a head start and did some of this on their own. After October 5 we will move on to another activity.
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