December 13

Year 9 - It's almost time for a well earned break, but before we go . . .

Let's open Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 and take a look around. There is some vocabulary associated with the new Office that you should know.

Plan B -

Period 3 - Let's look at Publisher 2007 and look at some of the differences between Publisher 2007 and Word 2007.

Next, let's open Publisher 2007 and select Newsletter from the sidebar. Let's now look around and see what kind of information we receive from the template.

Period 4 - let's work independently and create something with Publisher 2007 to see just how easy it is. You can create the product of your choice: Greeting card, Award, Gift Certificate, Calendar . . . Take you pick.

Remember, if you need help, all you have to do is raise your hand.

January 10 we will,

Now, let's go to the Microsoft site and complete a tutorial on Publisher 2007. The link is here:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/CR102322011033.aspx

Have a happy holiday and see you next year!

Dec 7

Year 9 - We have lots to do today!



First Period- let's continue with the blog experience. We will learn how to: a) Insert an image, b) Change settings, c) Utilize the template tab, d) Insert videos. Wow! That's a lot for the first class. Now you are experts!



You deserve a break:-)



Second Period:

1) Let's refresh our memory in regard to the Design Cycle. The Design Cycle is composed of 5 stages: Investigate, Design, Plan, Create, Evaluate. It must follow that cycle. We can't Evaluate before we Create - it's impossible.



As part of your project you must build an online Design Folder and there's no time like the present to start ;-)Open a Word 2007 document. Click on the Insert tab on the Ribbon. The extreme left icon says Cover Page - Click on that. Choose a cover page (choose the one you like best. You can change the colors if you wish.) Type your Name, Year 8 Unit of Work - Newsletter Project. Then create another page and type in very large letters at the top of the page the word "INVESTIGATE".



Now you are ready to proceed with the Investigation (Criterion A).



1) What is a "newsletter"? Explain completely in your own words.

2) What is the purpose of a newsletter? Explain completely in your own words.

3) Name 2 programs (separately) which are designed to create newsletters (include details about the features that each one offers).



Include any URL's (web addresses) that you visit.



Type each one of these questions on your INVESTIGATE page. Remember to number them;-)

And type in your complete answer. Remember this is RESEARCH. Research takes time.

December 6 - Welcome Year 9

Welcome Year 9. I am Ms. Dietrich and I will be your tech teacher for Term 2. This is going to be a great time and you are going to become proficient using Microsoft Publisher. That is a program that is used for creating Newsletters (among other things). Our Unit of Work will culminate in your class creating a Community and Service Newsletter which will be uploaded on the school's server.

The first thing that we will need to do is to create a blog using Blogger. Blogger is a free online service that let's you create and maintain a blog. A blog (which is short for web log) is an online journal and meets our requirements:-) As part of our coursework we need to keep a Process Journal which will house all the research, reflections, and references that we amass for documentation purposes. Since we are in a computer room, a cyber notebook will suit our needs.

Let's check out this video that shows just how easy it is . . .



Now it's your turn. Go to: http://www.blogger.com

That was easy, wasn't it.

Now for your first post please welcome your cyberaudience. Then reflect on the process of creating a blog. (Was it easy? Did you encounter any difficulties? Would you be able to show someone else (family, friends) how to create a blog?).

Welcome to the blogosphere! Remember while this is your personal journal, that it is still part of a school project. You may personalize it, but don't put too much personal information about yourself on the blog - let your work speak for you!

Evaluate

Evaluate the project (Did you meet your goal? Did you learn a lot about Publisher 2007? Did you learn a lot about newsletters and what makes an effective newsletter? Did you learn a lot about Community and Service projects/opportunities at SDIS? Did you enjoy this project?)
Evaluate product against design specification (Does it include all of the elements? If no, why not?)
Product testing (Produce an online questionnaire, with Survey Monkey, to solicit constructive criticism of final work. Ask 5 people (classmates, parents, friends, teachers) to evaluate your product.
Explain how the product could be improved upon (Be critical – If you had the opportunity to change something, what would you change? Why?)

November 16

Year 9

1) Remember that we are documenting all of our work. We began a Word document and so far have completed a section for INVESTIGATE and DESIGN.

2) Open your Plan and save it as a JPEG File Interchange Format (an image). Then insert this into your Word document under the title of PLAN.

3) Open your Newsletter and save it as a JPEG File Interchange Format (an image). Then A)insert this into your Word document under the title of CREATE; B) upload this image onto your blog.

4) Now it's time to EVALUATE. On your Word document under the title of EVALUATE, please address the following:

• Evaluate the project (Did you meet your goal? Did you learn a lot about Publisher 2007? Did you learn a lot about newsletters and what makes an effective newsletter? Did you learn a lot about Community and Service projects/opportuniites as SDIS? Did you enjoy this project?)
• Evaluate product against the design specification (Does it include all of the elements? If no, why not?)
• Product testing (Produce an online questionnaire, with Survey Monkey - www.surveymonkey.com to solicit constructive criticism of final work. Ask 5 people (classmates, parents, friends, teachers) to answer 5 questions about your product.)
• Explain how the product could be imporved upon (Be critical - If you had the opportunity to change something, what would you change? Why?)

Have a great weekend Year 9 - You were great this week!

November 15

Year 9 - You are really working hard!

Here is your DESIGN SPECIFICATION. The Design Specification is a list of all the details that must be included on your final product (your Publisher Newsletter). Each newsletter must: be 1 page; include a Newsletter Title; include Volume and Issue Numbers; Newsletter Date; Customized Color Scheme; 2 Different Fonts; 1 Drop Cap; the text in the "Lead Story" must be justified; include at least 1 image but no more than 3 images (picture/illustration/graphic); include a caption describing image; must be attractive, articles included should be error-free(!!!)

Also, you MUST insert a text box at the bottom of your Newsletter and include the name of the template which you are using.

1) Your newsletter should be created following the above Design Specification.

2) After you have finished creating your newsletter - Save it 2 ways. First, save it as a publisher file to your folder on the school's server. Second, save it as an image. It's easy to do that - Click on File. Next, click on Save As. Then a box will appear - you will Save this file to your folder on the School's Server. But at the botton of the box I want you to make 2 changes. Change the File Name to: "FinalProject Image" AND Change the Save as Type to "JPEG File Interchange Format". That was easy, wasn't it Year 9?

3) Justify any deviation (changes) from the original design (the design you chose in the Design part of your project).

4) Upload the JPEG image to your blog.

November 9

Wow! It's Friday already!

Year 9, please remember that next week you can come to the IT room (Room 12) on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday to work at lunchtime. I will be here at 1:30 and will be more than happy to help you! (Remember to eat your lunch first to give you lots of energy.)

Continue with your Plan (produced using Microsoft Office Visio 2007). When you finish that - continue to the CREATE portion of the Design Cycle and begin building/creating your 1-page Newsletter. *Remember the newsletter must have a name and a date. In addition to your main article written to highlight one of the projects/charities currently being focused on by Community and Service.

Please keep up your blog - that's your Process Journal;-)

November 8

Year 9 - Welcome Back!



The next part of our project is the PLAN. (To be successful (in class/in life) you always need a plan.) The plan is the part of the Design Cycle that



1) Open a document in Visio 2007 (click on start (green button in lower left-hand corner), click on All Programs, click on Microsoft Office, click on Microsoft Office Visio 2007)



2) Choose "Flowchart" from the template category in the left-hand sidebar.
You will produce a flowchart indicating the tasks necessary for completing the project.

A good way to proceed is by creating a separate box for 1) INVESTIGATION, 2) DESIGN,
3) PLAN, 4) CREATE, 5) EVALUATE.

Plan - include the tasks you need to fufill and the order in which you will work. For example, 1- Choose a topic or charity, 2-Research topic and gather other information to include on Newsletter, 3-Write articles for Newsletter, . . . List all the steps necessary.

Think about all the steps that you need to do to complete to create a Newsletter focusing on one of St. Dominic's Community and Service projects/charities.

October 26

Year 9 - Hang in there - it's almost time . . .

But first let's make lots of progress on our projects.

We are now ready to focus on the DESIGN portion of the project.

1. 
   Produce 3 possible 1-page newsletter layouts (using Publisher 2007 produce 3 different bulletin layouts). Save each layout as a JPEG image. (Click on Save As. When the Save As box opens, click on the Save As Type (directly under the File Name) - save as a JPEG image.) *Remember that the newsletter has to be functional as well as attractive.
2. 
   Choose one and justify your choice (Why did you choose this particular design for your final project? Was it a better layout? Was it more attractive? Was it easier to read?)

October 25 - Well done Year 9

Well done Year 9!

You deserve Whole Class Merit Points! You worked really hard today. I'm very proud of you and each of you should be proud of yourselves.

Also, thank you to Vera Dias and Megan for sharing information about changing the cursor.

Vera explained: 1) Click on Start, 2) Click on Control Panel, 3) Click on Mouse, 4) Click on Pointers (a tab at the top of the box), 5) Click on browse . . . There are so many to choose from

And if you STILL cannot find one that you love, Megan suggested that you go to the site: Cursor Mania (http://cursormania.smileycentral.com/download/index.jhtml).

Thanks girls. We are always learning

October 25

Year 9

I've just been reminded that you will continue on your carousel on December 1 - so we have lots to do!

Today we will begin building a Design Folder and complete the Investigation

1) Open a document in Word 2007. Click on the Insert tab (situated between Home and Page Layout). On the left of the ribbon click on Cover Page. (Word 2007 has this great feature built into it. You can create a professional looking document very easily:-) You can personalize your page.

Type your Name and Year 9 Unit of Work. You may also include the date (if you like).

2)Next, on page 2 type the word INVESTIGATION at the top of page

3) During class time today, please complete the following Investigation. Answer each of the questions completely and give examples.
1) What is a newsletter? Give an example of a newletter.
2) Name (at least) 2 programs that can be used to easily create a newsletter.
3) Why are we using Microsoft Publisher? Justify your answer.

October 19

Year 9

Have a good time on your field trip touring the ship!

See you next Thursday!

October 18

We had several people off last week due to the Eco Forum. So today to recap we will:

1. explain to them what we accomplished last week,
2. look at the link: http://www.online.tusc.k12.al.us/shortc/newsltrs/introduction.htm which we will be using to help us learn how to successfully create a newsletter

October 12

Year 9

Let's begin today where we left off yesterday - key word search. . .

1)Do a search using the keywords "newsletter design". Can you find a website that will help us produce a first-rate newsletter? We need an introduction to newsletters and information to become experts on: planning, writing, layouts, graphics, and production. What can you come up with? Let's try to find online information to help us be successful. (Look for material that is geared toward high school students).

2) Let's look at a couple of good sites, choose one, and get started!

Another sample newsletter, http://www.microsoft.com/education/PersuasionNewsletter.mspx

Oct 11 Reflection

Year 9

Today we took a "quiz" differentiating between fact and opinion. You all did quite well. It's great to see that you can recognize opinions.

We also took a small detour from our planned route today by going to St. Dominic's website and looking at the Signadou online. We learned a lot from that experience. We also learned that our Newsletter will be housed under the category of "Publications" as well.

We started our keyword search - but the bell rang so we will continue that tomorrow.

October 11

Good morning Year 9

We have lots to do today after that long weekend.

1) Fact or Opinion? The first thing we are going to do today is take a quiz!!! We are going to do an exercise designed to help us distinguish between fact and opinion. As newsletter writers it will be important for us to have this skill so let's go.
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/classroom_exercises/broadcast_news/wolves_facts_or_opinion.cfm

Now, let's continue. We need to investigate (explore) newsletter design and language.
2) Let's open Publisher and look at predefined newsletter templates.

3) Then, do a search using the keywords "newsletter design". Can you find a website that will help us produce a first-rate newsletter? We need an introduction to newsletters and information to become experts on: planning, writing, layouts, graphics, and production.

4) Next, let's view a sample newsletter
http://www.microsoft.com/education/PersuasionNewsletter.mspx

5) Finally, summarize all that we did and talked about today in your process journal (your blog)

October 4

Year 9

Creating a Community and Service newsletter helps you organize text and graphics. You can use a newsletter to communicate information and ideas to members of St Dominic's Community. You will develop skills in acquiring information, organizing it, and communicating it to others.

Investigation: Define the different features of a newsletter: feature story, news story, advertisement, comic strip, letter to the editor, and editorial

Discussion: What kind of newsletter will we produce? What is it's purpose? Who is our audience?

September 28

Year 9 - today we are going to do an Investigation that is useful for students!

Online Searching

1. List six (6) different search engines below

2. What are the three main differences between google.com and google.pt?

3. State ten (10) services that Google offers

4. The words entered for a google search are sometimes called keywords or search terms. Go to www.google.com, press the I'm Feeling Lucky button and enter the search term Portugal Schools. What do you notice about your search results?

5. List the URL's of three (3) online Dictionaries

6. What is a thesaurus? List the url of one (1) online thesaurus

7. Go to Fact Monster and ask a question. Was it easy to navigate the site? Is this a useful site for students?

FYI (for your information)

Sept 21 - Just to recap

Year 9, Let's finish our Menus.

This is good practice and Publisher has quite a selection of Menu templates to choose from. Let's get creative

__________________________________________________________________

It's easy to save a Publisher file as an image.

1) In the upper left hand corner click on the Icon
2) Click on Save As
3) In the box that opens click on "Save as type" and select JPEG

You have just saved your file as an image.
It was that easy!

Now upload your menu to your blog for all of cyberworld (and especially your parents) to see!

You did it!

September 20

Good Morning Year 9!

We have lots to do today!

1) Investigation - What other programs can be used to create a newsletter? Why are we using Publisher? Justify your answer.
Search online to find out the answer. Write the answer on your blog IN A COMPLETE PARAGRAPH (please).

2) Project for assessment
Design a custom menu using Microsoft Office Publisher 2007. Here's how:
a. Plan and research the items that will be in your menu.
b. Start Publisher.
c. From the Popular Publications list, click Menus.
d. Select one of the menus in the window.
e. Enter your own text in the menu, making sure to add text to all pages. The page numbers are located at the bottom of the window.
f. Add your own pictures to enhance the menu.
g. Delete any text areas or pictures that you don't need by right-clicking the object and then selecting Delete Object.
h. Move and resize any text area or picture to make the menu appealing to the eye. Format the text so your menu is not only attractive, but also easy to read.
i. Save your menu.

September 14

Year 9 - It's Friday! Before we start the weekend, we have some IT tasks to accomplish.

1. Make sure that you have made reflections on your blog and charted your learning for this week. Remember that we want all of our hard work to be readily available.

2. Please finish the tutorials.

3. After you finish the tutorials, it's time to test the waters and explore Publisher 2007 on your own (or in pairs). Create a 1-page newsletter on the topic of your choice. Don't forget to save it in your (design) folder in the school's server.

4. Don't forget your reflection!

September 13

Good afternoon Year 9.

We are going to work on an important project this term;-)

We are going to be working on a newsletter that will be uploaded on the school's website. Pretty cool, huh?

Today, we are going to begin an investigation.

1. Research what a Newsletter is. What is it's purpose? What are the alternatives?

2. Research and find 3 examples of newsletters that you LIKE - and explain WHY you like each. (What elements made you choose it?)

Also we will begin learning how to create a newsletter with Publisher 2007-
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/CH100743501033.aspx

There are 5 small tutorials - Let's get started!

If you have any problems or need any assistance, please raise your hand!

September 7

Today we learned how to insert different things on our blogs: images, videos, links.

Images: To insert an image: 1) Click on the image icon on the toolbar 2) A pop-up box will appear asking you if you would like to insert a photo from your computer or from the web. Choose from your computer. 3) Click on "browse" and select the image that you wish to upload to your blog. 4) Choose a layout - this tells the computer where the picture should be placed (left, center, right). 5) Choose an image size (small, medium, large). 6) Click on the Orange "Upload Image" button. 7) Wait a few minutes until Blogger.com uploads your photo. You will then receive a message saying that the upload has been completed. Click on the "Done"button.

Videos: To insert a video from YouTube. 1) Go to YouTube and find a video you wish to incorporate into your blog, 2) Copy the "Embed" code 3) Paste the code into the blog post (make sure that it is in the "Edit Html" tab) 4) Click on the "Publish Post" button

Links: We learned 2 easy ways. 1) Just type: http:// and then the site URL (address) and it will automatically link. For example: http://afterclass.tripod.com
2) Type a word or words. Highlight the word or words using your cursor. Then click on the "link" icon on the toolbar. A box will appear and you type in the web address. For example: After Class. If you click on the words After Class you will go the my website.

Pretty easy!

Sept 6 - Welcome to the Technology Department

Today is the first day of IT classes for Year 9 - Welcome All.

Our lesson today will consist of:

1. Introduction to the Technology Department - you can revisit the PowerPoint Presentation that we viewed in class here: Welcome to Technology

2. Since we are striving to become the 1st paperless classroom, you will visit the website which will become the "hub" (center) of our work - http://afterclass.tripod.com. You and your parents can find important information regarding our classwork there.

3. A blog is an online web journal/diary. As part of our coursework, each of you will create a blog to serve as a tool during this term. The MAIN purpose of the blog is to reflect on what we did in class that day AND to record any important information.

You will make an entry at the end of each class! Don't forget! I will visit your blog to leave comments and encouragement!

The blog provider that we will be using is: Blogger.com

When we are investigating online, it is important to save the URL (A URL, Uniform Resource Locator, is the unique address for a file that is accessible on the Internet) of any important site that you might want to use when you begin the written part of the project.

Next week I will show you how to activate links for these addresses that will make visiting them again very easy ;-).

4. You will create the blog and reflect on that process. (Was it easy? Was it fun? Will a blog help you later in the year when you are evaluating your own work?).

Remember, we are also trying to become a "homeworkless" classroom so we must work hard each class and manage time carefully.

This is going to be a great class and a great term!

Let's go Year 9!

Teacher Blog

Year 9, you made it look so easy that I had to join you! I've created a "teacher" blog.

Since we are becoming a paperclass classroom, I've created a spot in cyber-space where I reliably post assignments.

Let's work together to create the "best newsletter" ever!