January 31

Good morning class! Today is the last day of the month and so I will be calculating participation grades based on your attendance and if you have been on task during all of our class periods. Participation is graded on a monthly basis and is worth the equivalent of a couple of assignments. It is easy points. All you have to do is be in class every day, working on assignments, and avoiding website that aren’t allowed. I haven’t been able to update Ed-line yet because the district is still working on semester grades, but I will let you know what grades are up on Ed-line.

Be reminded that you lose participation points when you are caught on YouTube, Facebook, and similar sites. You may listen to music on a site like www.grooveshark.com that does NOT have videos. If music starts to interfere with your ability to complete your work or stay on task, you will lose that privilege.

Warm Up:

What is a website that you use to get information from (besides Facebook). Tell me what website you or family members have used to look up information or news. Why do you like the website that you use?

Assignment:

Go to www.space.com and read one article about astronomy, manned or unmanned spaceflight that sounds interesting to you. Then, go to www.wilx.com and find a news article about the Lansing area. Search for websites about your interests or hobbies, then e-mail me at charles.horner@lansingschools.net as to what your favorite hobby is and what website you can go to in order to learn more about that hobby.

January 30

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a good weekend! I’ve submitted the class list to be added to Moodle, the website we’ll be using. Until I get the confirmation that we’re all set, we’ll continue to work on warm ups and typing exercises. When you have finished the warm up today, you may explore other news articles or news sites, or you may begin working on Mavis Beacon, focusing on the lessons, not just the games.

Be reminded that you lose participation points when you are caught on YouTube, Facebook, and similar sites. You may listen to music on a site like www.grooveshark.com that does NOT have videos. If music starts to interfere with your ability to complete your work or stay on task, you will lose that privilege.

Warm Up:

Click on this link for www.cnn.com and read or scan one article from each of the following categories: U.S., Business, Tech, and Sports. When you have finished, tell me a brief summary of whichever article you found most interesting and why. The ability to scan different news websites for interesting articles will be very useful as we complete different activities throughout the semester.

January 27

Happy Friday class! Today we will be looking at the IB Learner Profile, which describes what students at Eastern strive to become. These are characteristics that will help us be successful learners and develop the skills we need to succeed as adults. After you do your warm up, look at the assignment below to find the link to the IB Learner Profile activities.

If you have any problems with your computer working properly, please let me know immediately. If your computer has issues and you don’t report it, it can impact your ability to get your work done for class. After you have completed the IB Learner Profile activities, you may work on Mavis Beacon. If you have any questions, please see me.

Warm Up:

What has been your favorite class so far this year at Eastern? Is that your favorite subject or was your favorite class this year surprisingly fun? What did you enjoy about the class? If you don’t think you have a favorite, choose a class and tell me something you liked about it and why! J


Assignment:

a. Go to http://quia.com/jg/2009251.html and click on Flashcards and then click on Play this Game. As you look both sides of the flashcards, click on Remove this Card. After you have gone through the IB Learner Profile terms and their definitions, try the Matching, Concentration, and Word Search games. These activities are to help you remember the characteristics that we should strive to develop as learners here at Eastern!

January 26

Welcome to Warm Up #2! I’ve adjusted the settings on the blog so that now you can choose anonymous for your comments when you post, instead of having to choose Google ID. Also, when you click on to leave a comment, it will now appear as a popup box, so you don’t have to scroll back up to see the questions you are answering. Finally, be sure to include your name after your comment so you are sure to get credit for completing each Warm Up. I’ve submitted the class list to be added to Moodle, the website we’ll be using. It is a self-paced instructional website and we’ll be learning to use Moodle very soon. We will be looking over this website together to get you set up and going. We will be using multiple online resources and websites in this class to explore the different uses of the internet for conducting research and completing tasks. Finally, we will use Mavis Beacon to practice and improve our typing skills, which is an essential skill for computer use.

Be reminded that you lose participation points when you are caught on YouTube, Facebook, and similar sites. You may listen to music on a site like www.grooveshark.com that does NOT have videos. If music starts to interfere with your ability to complete your work or stay on task, you will lose that privilege.

Warm Up:

Click on this link for www.typingtest.com and take the 1-minute typing test about astronauts. Take the test 2 times and then report your best score. After you have done the typing test, practice typing using the program Mavis Beacon, which is installed on each computer. We will periodically work on our typing skills and report our typing speed and accuracy. Good luck!

January 25

Welcome to Intro to Computers! I wish you the best with your classes this semester!  Each day we will use this blog to do warm-ups for class, which is part of your grade.  We will also be using a self-paced instructional website called Moodle. We will be looking over this website together to get you set up and going. We will be using multiple online resources and websites in this class to explore the different uses of the internet for conducting research and completing tasks. Finally, we will use Mavis Beacon to practice and improve our typing skills, which is an essential skill for computer use.

Be reminded that you lose participation points when you are caught on YouTube, Facebook, and similar sites. You may listen to music on a site like www.grooveshark.com that does NOT have videos. If music starts to interfere with your ability to complete your work or stay on task, you will lose that privilege.

Warm Up:

Do you have much experience using computers? What are some of the things you have used a computer for and what is your favorite thing to do on a computer? Click on Comment to complete your response. When you are done typing your response, be sure to include your first and last name. Only I will be able to see your responses and you will get a grade for your warm ups.