Now Until Christmas

Welcome back! We have just completed the Hero Project and we are headed back to MS Office 2007 for a look some of the semi-advance features of Word and Excel. Once that is complete, we will focus on a unit about Internet Safety which should lead us right into the break. After break we will be working on creating Web Sites using Wix or Weebly.

Thanks for checking in!

Sick of PowerPoint? Try Prezi.

This is our last post of the school year (unless I get bored this summer) and we wanted to give you some homework over the summer. So, if you are bored this summer try out a Prezi.

Prezi is an online presentation tool that I learned about from Steve Dembo at the 2010 MACUL Conference . If you are sick of PowerPoint, this might be your ticket. Watch the obligatory video below:



That is the same video from the Prezi site. This is a very cool online tool for you or your students to use instead of PowerPoint. Once you sign up for a free account, your presentations are housed online to edit or view; you can keep them private or make them public and share them; you can also download final copies of the presentations if you want to store them on your computer.

Here is a prezi that I created about my Dad as an example for our Hero Project in my Intro to Computers class. Notice how you can easily embed YouTube video into your presentations.

By the time students reach 9th grade they have been using PPT since 4th grade. The thrill is gone. Prezi is a great change of pace.

Finally, if you are not going to have your students use this, maybe you can. Make your own prezi or search for prezis on a subject that you might use in your class. No sense in recreating the wheel! Here is a great prezi on Math.

Good luck and have a great summer!

Welcome back!

Thanks for visiting! Here is what is going on in my classroom this week:

In Computer Programming, students have begun the Faces Project where they create a program similar to a Mr. Potato Head game. They can add funny features such as hair, ears, eyes, facial hair, and more. This project is a review of the first four units covered in class. Students will be using variables, constants, decision making models, sound, multiple forms, menus, and more!

In Desktop Publishing, students are studying business stationery (business cards, letterhead, and envelopes). They have created stationery designs for themselves, for my business "Tpor Productions", and are now beginning the Teacher Stationery Project where they team up with a teacher of their choice to create a stationery design for the teacher based on their individual needs. Several teachers have actually used student design to have stationery professionally printed last year.

In Introduction to Computers, students are learning about the exciting world of databases. We are using Microsoft Access to create databases to store their friends addresses and phone numbers, a top ten movie list, and a top ten favorite song list complete with album artwork. Students are learning how to create tables, forms, and reports.

Thanks for visiting and be sure to ask your student about their classwork!

Dream Team

To end the year, students will be working on parts of a book I am writing. It is a computer applications simulation titled "The Dream Team". Students will create a sports franchise of their choice and need to create documents in Word, Excel, PPT, and Access. They will design a logo, business card, uniforms, create a roster, salary and stat sheets with charts, and much more.

Problems, Problems, Problems!

The world is full of problems. Pollution, global warming, terrorism, the list goes on and on. Students need to choose a world problem to research. They need to gather facts, figures, pictures, and one video clip. Using Movie Maker, which comes free with Windows, students need to put all of their research together to make a movie about the topic they are researching. The movie will be set to music and show the research they have collected. To add a personal touch, using the digital video camera, they will also need to record and introduction and conclusion for their movie starring themselves.

The finished products will be shown to the entire class. Not only are students learning more about Movie Maker and Internet research, but they learn how to save video clips off of sites such as YouTube and even convert those files to use in various Microsoft products that we use in class.

The students have a lot of fun with this project and the results are great!

Absolutely Excel!

It is our last time through Excel this semester. Students are learning all about absolute cell references and the IF function. These are really important concepts when creating advanced spreadsheets. We are also learning more about formatting the charts that are created, especially 3-D pie charts. We will be working on these concepts for the next week before saying "Goodbye!" to Excel for the year.

Resumes and Cover Letters

Now that the last Hero Presentation has been given, it is time to dive back into Word for one last time this semester. Students will be learning about resumes and cover letters in class this week. They are learning how to use templates for resumes and how to create personalized letterhead for the cover letters. Students will finish this unit by creating their own resume and personalized letterhead.