ACCESS Group Work

1. Fill out an index card with your group member's names, title of the database you are going to work on, the field names (must be 7-10 and one must be something other than text). After filling this out, see your teacher for permission to proceed with your database.
2. After receiving permission, create your database. While you create your database you are responsible for creating a Word document that gives the step-by-step directions of how you made your database. Somewhere in the steps, you must use the filter option and the sort option. Finally you must generate a report of some kind. While you are going through your directions, tell me WHY you are doing it.
3. You must have 10 records.
4. Your database can be anything that you and your partner agree on. You can use the internet to research information to fill the fields of information.
5. This is due no later than Monday.

SURVEY

Now it is time to use the spreadsheet for your own purposes.

You need to design a survey to ask/handout to at least 20 different people. Make sure if you are asking them something, you give them options to choose from as answers. If you don't, more than likely you will have too much of a variety in answer to be able to generate a nice spreadsheet and chart.

Here is an example of successful survey:

SPORTS:

1. What is your favorite sport to watch?

___ hockey ___football ____soccer ____ tennis ____baseball ___golf

2. What is your favorite sport to play?

___ hockey ___football ____soccer ____ tennis ____baseball ___golf

3. Do you prefer college or professional sports when you watch?

____college ___professional

4. Which do you prefer: contact sports or non-contact sports?

___ contact ____non-contact

5. If you could play one sport for a living, which would you choose? (you do not have to be good at it now)

___ hockey ___football ____soccer ____ tennis ____baseball ___golf

Your survey should include at least 5 questions, no more than 7. Edit your work. Make 20 copies of your survey. Bring in the copies to class on Thursday.

PTA 1 & 2

In order to finish PTA 1 and 2, please do Order of Operations first.

ORDER OF OPERATIONS:
Please complete this packet thru 4E. You do NOT need to do 5 & 6. If you would like to you may do so for extra credit. At the end please print out a sheet with the formulas ONLY.

PTA 1
When you complete this activity, please print out the answers AND the formulas. Also, you mus do questions at the end of the activity (#1 & 2). You may write the answers on the sheet.

PTA 2
In order to complete this activity, open your PTA 1 spreadsheet. You will be making some changes to it, so as soon as you reopen PTA, save it as PTA 2 (this means you have your old version, PTA 1...and are now ready to continue with the new PTA 2). Begin the activity with #2. Before you get to # 4 make sure the spreadsheet has the same info that is shown on the directions sheet. If it does not, change it. In part 6, they want you to think of REASONABLE #'s to put into each of the columns (C, D, E, F) so that you have some options. Each option should be near/around $1,000. Try to get exactly $1000 for one column! Read the possibly thinking/logical questions to ask as they have in #6 to get you thinking. Finally, when you are finished, please print the answers AND the FORMULAS. Also, please write a well-written, thoughtful answer to the Activity 13 question and turn it in.

EXCEL Assignments

We began our EXCEL unit on Friday.

• Planning a Birthday Party
• Fill Right
• Fill Down
• SUM
• Order of Operations
• PTA Meeting 1
• PTA Meeting 2

Print Screen Assignment

Your goal is to teach a student (your target audience is grades 3-6) how to play an online activity or game that will teach some math they are studying. Please write this so that the student will understand.

Your product will consist of these parts:

• Your name and date
• The reason you chose this activity
• The name of Game/Activity
• Its URL
• Its purpose: what math skill(s) are being taught or practiced?
• Directions - including both words and pictures from the activity (made with PrintScreen and Paint*) that will help someone to learn how to do it
• Some suggestions:
  -----To the student when doing the activity
  -----To the parent or teacher for using it with kids
• The names of at least two persons, including at least one student, who proofread your work.
  

Please restrict yourself to these websites to get your activity.
Math:
http://childparenting.about.com/od/mathgamesonline/
http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/ekowalcz/math/elementary_web_sites.htm
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/math.html
http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/allgames.html
http://www.funbrain.com/
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/

Hemingway Webquest

Hemingway Webquest

Today you are going to do a bit of background research on Ernest Hemingway. You will be reading Hemingway's work, The Old Man and the Sea in the spring with Ms. Evangelista. As you read the various information from the website, you are responsible for opening a Word document and answering the questions in COMPLETE sentences. Make sure you edit before you turn in your work at the end of the hour.

Hemingway Questions

1. How might one describe Ernest Hemingway? (The CNN article had some interesting things to say).


2. Describe Hemingway's childhood. (Where did he grow up? What were his parents like? How did they nurture him? What kind of household was he raised in?


3. I stress that most good writers "write what they know." Name an event in Hemingway's life that had a profound influence on him and tell how it weaved it's way into his writing. (There are many options, so chose one and elaborate on it).


4. Would you label Hemingway as an adventurous man? If so, what examples have you read about to lead you to believe this? If not, give some reasons why you do not believe so.


5. In reading these biographical articles, what does it specifically say in regards to The Old Man and The Sea? (Be sure to look at the last link of the CNN article).
   

Helpful Websites

• http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/books/1999/hemingway/stories/biography/index.html --an article from CNN about Hemingway's life--This site is extremely helpful in answering the first 4 questions.
  
  

• http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/hemingway/ess-index2.htm -- an old high school paper of Hemingway's.

MACUL Journal Article

Today you are going to write an article to submit to the MACUL Journal. This journal is read by educators and others in the field of technology and education. Please read the handout given in class. Make sure that you meet the Journal's requirements: 500 words, on one of the suggested topics (unless you clear something different with me), and it is completed with care (quality is a huge factor in being published).

Today you will write a rough draft. Tomorrow at 1:10 you should be finished with the draft and ready to have someone edit your work. Your article must be finished when you come into class on Wednesday.

Countries--PART Two of the Assignment

You now have to come up with the name of your travel agency. You are going to be responsible for designing a trip that someone could purchase to your country. In order to advertise this trip, you will need to create a flyer with the necessary information on it.

Information you MUST include:

• dates of the trip
• transportation: type of transportation, place of departure and place of arrival, cost of transportation
• number of days the trip includes
• the place(s) the traveler would stay at and the average cost per night
• the three places the traveler would go to (site seeing)
• does it include meals?
• the total cost for the trip

You may also include other interesting bits of information for the traveler. Think about it: if you were planning a trip as a traveler, what would you want to know?

Design of the flyer:

• Must include at least two graphics
• Must use autoshapes at least once
• Must be "eye-catching" and creative
• Must include all of the information above
• Must be balanced (make sure you print-preview the flyer before handing it in) (in other words, make good use of the room on the page)
• Must be edited for content/grammar
• Make sure to bold/enlarge most important info. Use good font choices
• Make sure that your language lures your customer! Use catchy phrases/slogans/words to make your trip sound GREAT!

Good Sources for travel information:

• http://travelocity.com/
• http://www.airgorilla.com/
• http://www.expedia.com/Default.asp
• http://www.hotwire.com/

HYPERLINKING--Countries

To continue on with Power Point and hyperlinking know-how, you are going to create a short (much shorter than your PowerPoint game!) informative power point on a country.

Your Powerpoint will first consist of a well-designed, eye-catching front page which will hyperlink the user to the menu of categories. The menu slide will include a list of subtopics on the country you are assigned. Your final slide will be a credits slide listing all of the websites you used to gather information.

You must choose 8 out of the 12 categories, gather information and a suitable graphic to put on each category page. You slide show will then be at the very least, a minimum of 11 well-designed, visaully pleasing slides. YOU MAY NOT COPY TEXT AND PLACE IT ON ANY CATEGORY SLIDE! You MUST read the information yourself and paraphrase it. And you must attribute your sources on your credits slide at the end of your show.

Each category will have a separate page. Each page should have the option to return to the menu slide to choose another category

Here are a list of topics you may choose to research about your country. If you have a topic that is not on here, please submit speak with me about it.

POSSIBLE CATEGORIES

• A clear map showing the capital city, other major cities and it's relationship to countries near it. If cities are not already highlighted on map, use the drawing tools like stars and circles to do so on your own. Don't forget to include a key.
• A clear map showing the country relative to the continent. If your country is not highlighted use drawing tools like arrows to help designate this.
• Climate - discuss various seasons, typical highs and lows, anything interesting about the weather. You may also wish to include a climate map
• Points of interest for tourists - choose three places of interest a tourist would want to visit if they were traveling to your country. Also include pictures of these places.
• Most common religions of your country- include information on worship, Gods/Goddesses, religious holidays, or any type of religious information you find interesting
• Civic holidays of interest - this can include the holidays that any common person living in your country (religious or not) would celebrate. Do not repeat the same information if it is too closely related to the religions category above.
• Most common exports - what types of items/goods is your country known for producing or shipping out to other countries
• Transportation - does your country have an interesting way of getting its people from one place to another? If so, discuss and give pictures of it!
• Currency - what is the value of the currency compared to the American dollar? What does their currency look like?
• Notable foods - are their any special foods/desserts particular to your country? If so, discuss and show a picture...or maybe even display the receipe!
• Notable apparel - are their any special types of clothing particular to your country? If so, discuss and show a picture.
• Hobbies and sports - if an American traveled to your country, would they learn a new and exciting sport or hobby from a local? If so, discuss that particular activity. Give the rules and a rundown of what it is. Also include a picture.

THIS IS DUE ON FRIDAY AT THE END OF THE HOUR! YOU MUST HAVE IT ALL COMPLETED! I EXPECT THAT YOU ARE WORKING HARD TO RESEARCH AND COMPLETE YOUR SLIDESHOW DAILY!

RUBRIC:

_____/25 Focused and working all 5 days of the project (up to 5 points per day)

_____/40 Each category slide gives good detailed information and is presented in a visually pleaseing way (5 points per category)

_____/15 Contains a title slide, a menu slide, and a credits slide (5 points per slide)

_____/50 All hyperlinks work properly

_____/130 TOTAL

INSPIRATIONs

As a request from Mrs. Sparks, you are going to, when you have "spare time," you are going to design a slideshow of inspirational quotes. Continue adding to your slideshow when you have extra time to do so....

Think of good design elements. Be creative! Use animation!

TEMPLATE help for POWERPOINT games

Today you are going to start to create your own game for the subject you have chosen. These games should be completed by next Monday. On Monday you will be switching computers with a friend so they can go through it to make sure all of your hyperlinks work properly. During these class days it will be very important to stay on task. I will be watching and awarding proper points to those who work diligently all hour.

If you would like to produce a Jeopardy style game, you may use this link. Click "Save" when given the option so the Powerpoint saves to your folder.

http://www.hardin.k12.ky.us/res_techn/countyjeopardygames.htm

If you are using this template, you must change it (colors, fonts) so that it is yours. You also need to add a title slide and a directions slide. This will cause all of the hyperlinks to be "off"...so you will still need to hyperlink it over again.

Interactive Game---Hyperlinking a Powerpoint

Before you make your own game for the teacher, you will take two days to construct a mini-game about mammals so you better understand how to hyperlink.

Here are the directions you need to follow:

Advanced PowerPoints

Introduction

Slide One: Create a Title Slide. Please call this "The All About Mammals Quiz"
Put a graphic of a mammal on the slide and underneath the graphic type, Click on the mammal.

Slide Two Directions Slide: In this slide you must give detailed directions and the object of playing your game. Tell your audience that they must click ON the pictures directly and no where else. If they do not, the will have to end the show and begin again. The object of the game is to guess the correct mammal on each page. Put a graphic of a happy face and underneath type click on picture.

Slide Three Question slide: Create a text box and insert into it "Click on the mammal". Now insert pictures of a bear, snake, and a fish.

Slide Four Question slide: Insert into text box: Click on the mammal. Insert pictures of a whale, bird, and a butterfly.

Slide Five Questions slide: Insert into text box: Click on the mammal. Insert a picture of a dinosaur, giraffe, and an ant.

Slide Six Answer slide: Insert into text box: Correct!
Add a graphic (your choice…ideas: smiley face, someone cheering, etc)

Slide Seven Answer slide: Insert into text box: Great job!
Add a graphic (your choice…ideas: smiley face, someone cheering, etc)

Slide Eight Answer slide: Insert into text box: Yes!
Add a graphic (your choice…ideas: smiley face, someone cheering, etc)

Slide Nine Answer slide: Insert into text box: Oops! Let’s Try Again!

Slide Ten Answer slide: Insert into text box: Sorry!

Slide Eleven Answer slide: Insert into text box: Try Again!

Slide Twelve Ending Slide: Insert into text box: Congratulations! You’re Done!

Creating Hyperlinks
This is where the project will become tricky. You now need to carefully add links that will correctly send your viewer through the "maze" of your slideshow. Remember, that every time your viewer chooses a wrong answer, they need to return to the question to try and get it right. If your viewer chooses correctly, then they need to advance on to the next question. It may be helpful to diagram each slide out to see the choices of slides that he/she would move to next.

To create a hyperlink

1. Highlight the graphic and right click on it. The option will show to "edit hyperlink".
   After selecting this, a box will appear. Make sure LINK TO: PLACE IN THIS DOCUMENT is selected.
2. Next, select the slide in your slideshow you want to connect that graphic/answer to and click OK.
3. After you have added links to all of your graphics, the only way you can check to see if everything connects correctly is to VIEW THE SHOW and check all of the graphics.

CREATING A POWERPOINT GAME!

You are going to start a new assignment that will require many steps to complete it.

This is the first step:

Business Letter to the Teacher

You must now type business letter to the teacher you will be working with. Go to the following site for the proper set up for a Business Letter: http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000152.htm.

• For the heading, use the teachers name and c/o Shrine Catholic Academy, 3500 W 13 Mile Road, Royal Oak, MI 48076.

• For the inside address, please use your home address. In the body of your letter, make sure your tone is appropriate.

Remember you are trying to "sell" this game to the teacher. In your first paragraph, give them a brief explanation of what you are working on and how it involves them. In the second paragraph, you need to ask them when an appropriate time would be (date and time) to meet with them to discuss your game. You can tell them you can meet anytime during our computer class (F Period), or before or after school or during lunch or homeroom. In the last paragraph, sum up by saying you are looking forward to talking with them soon.

SPELL/GRAMMAR CHECK THIS LETTER. EVERYTIME I GIVE THIS LETTER BACK TO YOU TO FIX, YOUR GRADE WILL LOWER BY A HALF GRADE.

Here is an example of a business letter to a teacher:

Mrs. Knudson
c/o Shrine Catholic Schools
3500 W. 13 Mile Road
Royal Oak, MI 48073

Creative Games INC
c/o Jennifer Haney
29999 Evergreen Road
Southfield, MI 48909

Dear Mrs. Knudson:
Creative Games INC and I have come up with a powerful game to use in your classroom. We understand that history of the Civil War is a very important part of your curriculum. We believe we have created an outstanding, entertaining tool for you to use with your students to help them review for the end of the chapter test.
I would like the opportunity to show you this game and explain to you how to use it in your classroom. I am available any day next week at lunch/homeroom or during F Period. Please let me know when the best day/time would be for us to meet.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to talking with you soon.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Haney
President, Creative Games INC

Finalize SPEECH and CURRENT Event

Today you will use the 1st 20 minutes of class to finalize your presentation and prepare for the speech portion. Make sure you rehearse! Read the rubric below and make sure you are doing well on all of the points I will grade you on! You must save your presentation on a USB today.

With the time remaining, I would like you to go to one of the following websites:

• http://news.nationalgeographic.com/kids/
• http://www.cnn.com/studentnews/
• http://www.headlinespot.com/for/kids/
• http://www.headlinespot.com/for/kids/
  
  TASK: to write a summary
  To begin your summary, use the MLA heading style with your name, date, class name, & teacher's name. Then center the title of the article in quotation marks. Underneath the title, copy and paste the URL address of the page the article is on. Finally, write a 7-10 sentence summary of the article you read. The summary must be in your own words. If for some reason you would like to quote a portion, you must do it properly (using quotation marks and parenthetical citations). When you are finished, spell check and edit your work!
  
  When you finish, print out your summary.

Career Search Presentation Rubric

When you are editing today, make sure you use this rubric to help you give the author advice!


Design and Layout _______/20
□ Contains at least one graphic per slide
□ Easy to read while on screen
□ Has a professional tone

Content _______/30
□ #1 Title
□ #2 Ave. Salary/Working Conditions/ “A Day In the Life of a ______”,
□ #3 Interview someone in the field,
□ #4 Pros/Cons,
□ #5 What Personally About This Career Enticed You?
□ #6 Type of education needed/How long in school?
□ #7 Your Slide Choice
□ #8 Credits—only include the websites you used to research your career and the person you interviewed to learn more about it

Speech _______/30
□ Evidence you rehearsed your presentation
□ Eye contact with the audience

Career Search Presentation

Career Search Presentation

This presentation will work with your Powerpoint, Internet Research skills, interviewing skills, and oral presentation. Please choose an occupation that you are interested and maybe considering on becoming in the future.

Your Powerpoint MUST include the following

(although the slides may be in any order you wish):

• Title Slide
• Average Salary/Working Conditions/ "A Day in the Life of a ____________"
• Interview someone in the field
• Pros/Cons
• What personally enticed you about this career? Or Why do you want to become a _______
• Type of education needed? How long before you earn a degree in your field? What schools would you consider?
• Your Slide Choice
• Credits—include all the website addresses where you obtained information. Also give the name/contact information for the person you’ve interviewed.
  

MUST HAVE:

• One graphic per slide
• NO MUSIC OR SOUND
• Very few/no animation bits. If you choose them, they MUST compliment your presentation.
• Extra bonus points will be awarded for those who dress the part/bring props that pertain to your chosen career.
  

This website may be helpful for information: www.careerkey.org

**************

Your interview portion of the assignment MUST be completed by this Friday. You may use a family member or family friend if you wish. If you do not know anyone in the field you are wanting to pursue, you MUST come and see me. Again, the interview is due this Friday.

Columns, Text Boxes, and Pictures....Oh My!

Follow the directions below to complete the assignment. You will have to use the lecture notes from the previous day to complete the assignment.

1. Open your 3rd person narrative document

2. Delete the MLA Heading with your name, the class, the teacher’s name, and the date

3. Set your page margins to: TOP: 1.5”, BOTTOM: 1.5”, LEFT: 2”, RIGHT: 2”

4. Format your document to be single spaced

5. Set the text size to 12 point, Tahoma font

6. Highlight the text and format it to fit three equal columns

7. Insert a picture from clip art that would best define you. Place the picture in the top left corner of the first column. Size it appropriately so that there are no weird line/word breaks

8. Insert a text box at the top of your document. Fill the text box black and change the text to white (It should look similar to the text box at the top of this direction sheet). In the text box type a clever title to your 3rd person narrative. Center it above your article (much like the text box above). Use Arial Bold, size 40 for the text.

9. Wherever you have typed your name in the article, highlight it and size it 16 and choose an interesting font (your choice!).

10. Insert a text box at the bottom of your article. Format the text box so that it has dashed lines and the style is 3pt. Set the text for Arial Bold, size 16, italics. Type a quote at the bottom of the page that you would consider a motto you live by. At the end of the quotation, in 11 size font, type a dash and then the author of the quote. (You may go to quotationspage.com to find a quote from a famous person or you may choose to author your own quote).

11. Save your document as Formatting in your C drive folder you created.

12. Make sure you EDIT your work. Have another student look at it to make sure everything is formatted correctly. Additionally, if you had errors still in your document that was handed back to you, FIX THOSE BEFORE HANDING IT IN!

13. When you are completely done, hand in your document along with the graded assignment I handed back today.

MONDAY--August 27th

First I will show you how to create your own folder on the C://drive.

************************************************************

Today you will finish your 3rd person narrative. After you are finished, you will print it out and have at least two other students edit for you. After you receive your paper back, please make all the necessary changes to your document.

When you have made a final draft that is perfect, please print it out and hand it in to Mrs. Ehle.

If you have time remaining, you may use Mavis Beacon games.

3rd Person Narrative Assignment

Your first assignment will have a couple of legs to finish it completely. The first leg of the assignment is to write a third person narrative of yourself. Please read with me the following third person narrative about Mrs. Ehle:

Mrs. Ehle is a twenty-something year old teacher at Shrine Catholic Academy and High School. This past summer she got married to a wonderful man named Aaron Ehle. They had a terrific wedding day. After their wedding they went on a breathtaking cruise to the Mediterranean. Their cruise took them to Spain, Sicily, Italy, and France. Mrs. Ehle says it was one of her favorite vacations ever.
Along with her vacation, Mrs. Ehle was able to take part in one of her favorite pasttimes: photography. She returned from the Mediterranean with 20 rolls of film. Some of her favorite shots were taken in the preserved city of Pompeii in Italy. She captured some neat pictures of people who were covered in ash by the eruption of Mount Vesvius!
Mrs. Ehle has other pasttimes as well. This fall you could catch her at a Tiger’s game or a University of Michigan Football game. (She has tickets to the U of M vs. Minnesota game for the Little Brown Jug). She is also going to play tennis with the Detroit Social Club on Wednesday nights. And sometimes after school, in order to unwind, she enjoys cooking and baking. One of her favorite shows to watch is Top Chef!

So third person narratives require you to talk about yourself as if you weren’t yourself. You need to refer to yourself by name and by third person pronouns.

Your third person narrative must be between 200-250 words in length with multiple paragraphs.

After you finish this leg of the assignment, we will investigate how to create columns and tables, and how to use text boxes with the third person narratives you write. We will also review changing fonts, sizes, colors and other various ways to manipulate text.

********
Remember, you will need to master these certain elements of Word if you wish to test out of computers. During the days I lecture over how to create columns, tables, text boxes, etc....it would be in your best interest to take notes so if you were given a test over it you will have something to study from.

Welcome 8th Grade Computer Students!

This year everyone will have computers again! I will be teaching F Period and Mr. Strausz, the high school math teacher, will be teaching 8th grade computers G Period. It is both of our goals to teach you enough information so that you will pass out of the high school entry level computer course. In doing so, this will free up an extra hour of time in your freshman year so that you may take another course that interests you instead of basic computers!
This sounds great to you, I'm sure. But unlike last year, this year's computer class will be more intense and the grading will be more strict. Hopefully last year you were listening and picked up the basics of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. This year we will move more quickly with the lessons and will assume that you know the basics of these three programs. We will also cover a 4th Microsoft program called Access. And if time allows, you may also learn how to blog and how to create a Podcast.

Good luck this year! Study hard!