Useful links:

Our Lady of Perpetual Help School Website
Grade 7 Wikispace
Tech class blog
 PowerSchool Login

March 26, 2012

New information posted on the olph-technology wiki.

November 5, 2011

First Quarter Wrap up posted at the olph technology wiki.

June 10, 2011

Wishing you all a safe and happy summer! Be sure to check out your Excel charts in the VoiceThread posted on the class blog. If you parents or relatives wish to leave a comment for you they need to create a free VoiceThread account, very easy to do, but comments are welcome. Blogs will be monitored all summer should you wish to share any thoughts or special experiences, but please remember to SPELL CHECK!

See you in August!

February 3 - Comments regarding second quarter grades:

There were 3 graded assignments for the quarter - The "assignment 2" post in which the wordle was embedded (50 pts); creating a table in Word to practice advanced Google searching (27 pts.); and creating a second table with screenshots to explore special features of Google searching. This last assignment was only graded for completion because of being so close to the end of the quarter and some people actually completing it after the quarter closed. This means that if you had the assignment completed and saved in your network folder you received 15 out of 15 points. This does not mean that everything was necessarily done correctly but you earned points for the effort in completing it. (The specific grade will appear in third quarter.) If your table was only partially completed you earned 10 out of the 15 and if there were no table at all, then you earned no points. This should not have been the case because on the last 2 class periods everyone was reminded about missing work. But some students turned in their checklist assuring me it was completed, only for me to discover the document did not exist.

Please note: If you are looking at Power School grades and see that the year average displayed does not seem correct based on the first and second quarter letter grades, please look closely at the percentages for each letter grade. (Remember that everything in blue is clickable and will provide further information.) The end of year average reflects the correct numerical calculation of all points earned to date. There may have been an override of a low score to a higher score, and you can see this by comparing the letter grade with the actual percentage earned. When the final report card is issued the final grade will be an average of the letter grades given. I leave this year average unchanged to purposely remind you of what you have actually earned to date.

One final reminder: If you are absent on a day we are in the computer lab, please assume there is something that you need to catch up on and do not wait for me to send for you. If you wait until the next class period to ask about it, you will be behind in the work and will be struggling to catch up. Please take responsibility for this. One student appeared in the lab during a lunch recess after being out and asked, "So Mrs. Ruffing, did we do anything important while I was gone?" The answer is always YES!

Oct. 13 - Discussion of multimedia survey forms; group work on media project. Students using drawings that need to be scanned should remember to use bold colors, straight lines, and very neat lettering or the image will appear dull and faded in your presentation.

Oct. 6 - Whole class presentation on multimedia techniques - We are taking part in the Diocesan 2061 Multimedia Contest. Contest guidelines and sample formats for media presentations were demonstrated in class. This will be worked on in technology class as well as in lit class.

Sept. 29- Reviewed project steps for Assignment 1 and 2 and independent work time. Lab is open for extra help at recess Thursday, Sept. 30. (Some people spent a little too much time fussing with their Wordle and are now behind in the steps of the assignment!)

Sept. 22 - We reviewed the Wordle assignment and also how to insert images and hyperlinks into a blog post. Most visual editors will have such tools. Students used the previously created starter post (if done) as the basis for sharing their Wordle creation and to get started in the Bloggers Challenge, which runs for several weeks and allows students around the world to share their ideas and their creativity. We also discussed the importance of being careful not to share personal information online.

Assignment 2: embedding, aligning, linking, jpegs, publishing

• Update the About Me section on your blog side bar with at least five complete sentences about yourself.
• Edit as necessary (MS Word spell check) for correct spelling and punctuation.
• Insert the widget code for the Better Blogger badge (from the Shared Work folder or here) into the About Me box.
• Submit for approval (updating blog title as necessary).
• Using your start up post or a new one, include at least six sentences on your topic (7th grade goals, summer vacation, etc.) One sentence should refer to the Student Blogging Challenge.
• Check for correct spelling and punctuation.
• Create a hyperlink to the Student Blogging Challenge by making the words clickable (Do not show the link code!)
• Use the image location of your uploaded Wordle (see file at bottom of page) to find the appropriate size to embed the image into your post.
• Set your image to either right or left alignment with vspace and hspace at least 5 px.
• Submit for publication by Sept. 30.

• Create a Wordle using at least 20 different words.
• Check for misspellings using MS Word.
• Take a screenshot of the word cloud and paste it to a PPT slide.
• Save the slide as a jpeg in the network "collaboration" folder.
• Rename the file as wordle your initials.