February 15

Happy Wednesday class! Today you will be getting progress reports to show you what grades you’ve gotten on your assignments so far. If you don’t get the full credit for a week’s worth of Warm Ups, it’s because you are missing at least one for that week. Go back to see which Warm Up you didn’t answer, or see me to write down a list. Today, we will also be working on our own on our Computer Apps Semester 2 moodle site. You will click on Eastern High School, and click on Horner’s Technology Apps Sems 2 to go to our site. This is the link that you will follow to your daily assignments after you finish your Warm Ups. Your Student ID will be your login and your password will be changeme when you first access Moodle.

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 know any languages besides English? If so, have you ever visited a non-English website? Which one? What was the website for? If not, visit http://www.wikipedia.com/ and find an article in English, then click on a different language and look at the article in that language. What article did you look at ? What did you think?

Assignment:

On our Computer Apps Semester 2 moodle site, you should be going through modules 1.2.0 and 1.2.2. Follow the instructions and do the activities indicated. 1.2.0 and the mind map from 1.2.2 are due today. I’m looking into how to submit 1.2.2. When you finish with your mind map, continue on to the next modules.

February 13

Happy Monday class! I hope everyone had a great weekend. Congrats to Adele for cleaning up at the Emmy’s. Today, we will be working on our own on our Computer Apps Semester 2 moodle site. You will click on Eastern High School, and click on Horner’s Technology Apps Sems 2 to go to our site. This is the link that you will follow to your daily assignments after you finish your Warm Ups. Your Student ID will be your login and your password will be changeme when you first access Moodle.

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:

We have a short week. Do you have any special plans? What are you going to do with your days off this Friday and next Monday?

Assignment:

On our Computer Apps Semester 2 moodle site, you should be going through modules 1.2.0 and 1.2.2. Follow the instructions and do the activities indicated. 1.2.0 and the mind map from 1.2.2 are due on Wednesday. When you finish, continue on to the next modules.

February 10

Happy Friday class! Today, we will begin working on our own on our Computer Apps Semester 2 moodle site. You will click on Eastern High School, and click on Horner’s Technology Apps Sems 2 to go to our site. This is the link that you will follow to your daily assignments after you finish your Warm Ups. Your Student ID will be your login and your password will be changeme when you first access Moodle.

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:

Go to www.weather.com and type in your zip code to check your weather forecast for this weekend. What will the temperature be? Will it rain or snow? If so, how much? Explore some of the animations and other features on weather.com.

Assignment:

On our Computer Apps Semester 2 moodle site, you should be going through modules 1.2.0 and 1.2.2. Follow the instructions and do the activities indicated.

February 9

Good morning everyone, I hope your day is going well. Today, we will be visiting our Computer Apps Semester 2 moodle site. You will click on Eastern High School, and click on Horner’s Technology Apps Sems 2 to go to our site. This is the link that you will follow to your daily assignments after you finish your Warm Ups, once we are ready to begin working in Moodle. We will do a brief overview of Moodle today. On Moodle, your Student ID will be your login and your password will be changeme.

Be reminded that you lose participation points when you are found 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:

Have you ever been to Michigan’s upper peninsula? Where did you go and what did you do? If you haven’t been there, do you know what things there are to do in the U.P? If not, do an internet search on vacations to the Upper Peninsula and tell me a couple of things you can do!

February 8

Good morning class! I’ve been very pleased with everyone working on Mavis Beacon and diligently completing warm ups! I was told today from my contact person at Ingham ISD that Moodle should be up and running soon…

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:

Visit www.cnn.com and look at the results of the Republican Primary races. What 3 states had primaries yesterday? Who won in each race? Do you have any predictions as to who will be the Republican Nominee for President?

Assignment:

After you complete today’s warm up, you should finish your Microsoft Excel assignment and    e-mail it to me at charles.horner@lansingschools.net. The document should have the title       First Name, Last Name and then “List”. Example: CharlesHornerList. The spreadsheet should have a title, your name on it, a heading for your list, and the list of items you are making. You should have at least 5 items on the list. To organize a list, you may “sort” it in alphabetical order, so you can search the list more easily. Later in the hour, we will be visiting our Computer Apps Semester 2 moodle site. You will click on Eastern, and click on Horner’s Technology Apps Sems 2 to go to our site. This is the link that you will follow to your daily assignments, once we are ready to begin working in Moodle. We will do a brief overview of Moodle today.

February 7

Good morning class! I’ve been very pleased with everyone working on Mavis Beacon and diligently completing warm ups! I was told today from my contact person at Ingham ISD that Moodle should be up and running tomorrow. Yay! Today we will look at Microsoft Excel a little bit to explore it’s features and do a beginning level activity. Afterward, I will check in with students regarding any missing work they might have.

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:

Since we’ve been working on typing as we wait for Moodle to be up and running, I’d like you to go to www.typingtest.com and take the 2 minute test on Aesop’s Fables. Take the test 2 time and then report your best typing time, accuracy, and adjusted score for your warm-up.

February 6

Welcome back everyone! I hope you had a great weekend! Today we’ll continue to explore some of the various uses and features of Microsoft Word. After the warm ups and the instruction, we will spend time also working on Mavis Beacon.

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 was the score of the Super Bowl yesterday? Who won? What does XLVI stand for and how can you find out what the different Roman Numerals mean? Answer all of these questions in your comment.

February 3

Happy Friday! Today we’ll continue to explore some of the various uses and features of Microsoft Word. After the warm ups and the instruction, we will spend time also working on Mavis Beacon.

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 are your plans for the weekend? Any Super Bowl plans? Do you have a prediction as to who will win? Are there any Super Bowl traditions in your family? Discuss one or more of the above questions.

February 2

Good morning class and Happy Thursday! Today we’ll be exploring various uses and features of Microsoft Word. After the warm ups and the instruction, we will spend time also working on Mavis Beacon.

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:

Today is Groundhog Day. Search the internet for a news story about whether or not the Groundhog saw his shadow this morning. Report what website you read the article from and what the groundhog saw or didn’t see. Will we have a long winter or a short one?

February 1

Good morning class! I hope your week is going well for you! Today we will be doing some guided instruction after the warm ups are done, so as always, get started right away working on your warm up so we can begin our lesson for today.

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 applications have you used in Microsoft Office? The applications in MS Office are Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Access. Do you use any of these on a regular basis? What for?

Assignment:

Today, we will briefly look at some of the features of Microsoft Word and then you will create  a short biography about yourself and e-mail it to me at charles.horner@lansingschools.net. You will name your document First Name, Last Name and then “bio”. Example: CharlesHornerBio. The document should not exceed 1 page and should include at least a paragraph about you, such as how old you, what grade you’re in, what your hobbies are, etc. You may include clipart, if you choose!

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.