Wednesday, August 29, 2012
More Brochures From the BGBS Students!
The 9th Grade Computer Literacy Class has created brochures and they are currently working on new ones for the school. It's not easy to teach students that already know so much! This class seems to already know how to make beautiful designs using Microsoft's Word, which means that I will have to ramp up my projects to a higher skill level. Just to make a case, here is a beautiful brochure by Danielle Johnson:
Stay tuned to see what the new school brochures will look like. Next week, we will start working on Blogging with Google's Blogger. I will really be challenging their skill level. I just hope they don't know too much already! Ha ha !!
Adopt a Bug is a Big Hit!
Yesterday, the Second Grade class did a Microsoft Word project called "Adopt a Bug". They had to use Google's images browser to find images of insects and then paste them into a Word document, give them a name and then tell me about their bugs. The kids got rather creative with the project. Some of the students found bugs that were "steam - punk" versions, like the one in the picture above, and other's found zombie bugs, ghost bugs, clown bugs, etc...They were far more creative than I would have imagined and as usual they were very enthusiastic about the project. I am amazed at how fast they have learned how to:
- Turn on a monitor and actually find the button, because all of the monitors are different and the buttons are sometimes hidden.
- Log in
- Open a Word document
- Look for images on Google
- Copy Images from the Net
- Paste into Word
- Type and use Word Art functions
So far, we are really having a blast!!! More cool things and fun to come (as well as some learnin')!
Monday, August 27, 2012
Students, Try GIMP 2.8
GIMP 2.8 is very similar to Photoshop and you can do all sorts of amazing things with it. To check it out click on the link above or click on the picture in the top left corner!
Sunday, August 26, 2012
The Third Week
It isn't easy designing an entire curricula for 6 different class levels from scratch. Some of the courses, like business communications, didn't really have a viable text book. So, this year, I'm trying to ramp up everything and get classes in order. I'm actually building 6 new manuals so that successive years will have an easy blueprint to follow.
As you can see above, I tried to design a 9 week sketch of what I wanted to introduce my students to. In this case, here is my 9th Grade Computer Literacy Class's overview for the 1st 9 weeks. I had to do this for almost all of my classes, but it gave me reference point of what we could accomplish this 9 weeks. As Im create my weekly plans, I look at this overview to see where we are going. Anyway, these timelines made it a lot simpler for me to plan.
Blogs!!!
If you haven't noticed, my 10th Grade Yearbook Class started blogging. Two of my students claim to be addicted already. At least one of them is already trying to make money by using Google Adsense in his blog. If you would like to see some of these blogs, please look at the links on the right. Already, my students have learned how to do the following:
- Design a Blog
- Post
- Create Pages
- Add Pictures
- Add Videos
- Comment
- Promote their blogs on social media sites
Here's a view of Chandler Dawson's Blog:
The idea behind all of this Blogging is that the students will be presenting their perspectives on the school this year. Keep checking back to this blog, and reading the students blogs as well as making comments on them, so that they are encouraged to keep on trucking....
Brochures !!!
My 9th Grade Class is fast at work, creating a brochure for the school. I am very impressed with their knowledge of Microsoft's Word and their ability to use the different graphic capabilities therein.
Here's an image of Ellie Turner's brochure.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Drop Box and Sumo Paint
I am encouraging all of my students to use the onsite application DropBox. This application is simple to use and it acts like an online jump drive that you can access anywhere there is an Internet connection.
All you have to do to get started is go to this website: www.dropbox.com
Here is a link to the instructions of how DropBox works: DropBox Directions
Also, one of my students just showed me a really cool online paint program called Sumo Paint and you can see that online application here: www.sumopaint.com
All you have to do to get started is go to this website: www.dropbox.com
Here is a link to the instructions of how DropBox works: DropBox Directions
Also, one of my students just showed me a really cool online paint program called Sumo Paint and you can see that online application here: www.sumopaint.com
Monday, August 20, 2012
Onto the Second Week
Today, I had the opportunity to teach two elementary classes together, Mr. Searcy's class and Mrs. Parish's class. It was a challenge because the older students were moving ahead much faster than the younger students. So, I rearranged the class so that the older kids could help the younger ones. Nothing will help you to learn something faster than being able to teach someone else what you have just been taught. That's what we call REINFORCEMENT!!! It works great, but man, did the time go by fast!!!
Today we started to actually do keyboarding because it took us at least a week to get all of our passwords set in our classes. Now we are entering a regiment of keyboarding and learning different applications in classes that require it. I told the students the reason we are learning applications and how to properly keyboard is so that we can avoid this:
Blogging with Mr. Ellis
The reason I am teaching students about blogging this year is because it is becoming extremely applicable to people in business to use them. Blogs are very popular both with people and search engines and they are very easy to set up, as a matter of fact, they are easier to set up than a website.
Since I am teaching the subject, I thought that I would post a video series that I made for a New Zealand based company in my links page that shows you step by step how to make a blog in Google's Blogger and you can find the links under my links section.
Here is the first video in the series that I did as an Intern for Cooper-Taylor Training
The 11th Grade Yearbook class is now writing blogs about things that are happening during the school year. Their blogs will have pictures of the school and their own personal insights as to what is going on at BGBS!
Today we started to actually do keyboarding because it took us at least a week to get all of our passwords set in our classes. Now we are entering a regiment of keyboarding and learning different applications in classes that require it. I told the students the reason we are learning applications and how to properly keyboard is so that we can avoid this:
Blogging with Mr. Ellis
The reason I am teaching students about blogging this year is because it is becoming extremely applicable to people in business to use them. Blogs are very popular both with people and search engines and they are very easy to set up, as a matter of fact, they are easier to set up than a website.
Since I am teaching the subject, I thought that I would post a video series that I made for a New Zealand based company in my links page that shows you step by step how to make a blog in Google's Blogger and you can find the links under my links section.
Here is the first video in the series that I did as an Intern for Cooper-Taylor Training
The 11th Grade Yearbook class is now writing blogs about things that are happening during the school year. Their blogs will have pictures of the school and their own personal insights as to what is going on at BGBS!
Friday, August 17, 2012
The First Week is Already Over!
Wow, sometimes I feel like I fell head over heels down a rabbit hole! This week went by so fast I can hardly believe it. The Elementary and Jr. High Classes class quickly got immersed in word processors and learned the difference between Microsoft WordPad and Microsoft Office's Word. They really seemed to enjoy using the different graphic functions and how to put pictures and different types of fonts and graphics on a page as well as importing images from the Internet.
The High School students finally got their passwords settled, and now in some of the classes we started developing brochures using Microsoft Word.
Coming Next Week !
Hopefully, this weekend, I will get a chance to download Corel's PaintShop Pro X4 (latest version) into 25 of our computers. I bought the license and if I get the download instructions from Corel, I will try to get the computers loaded for our illustrious students. We are going to have an absolute blast with this program, because it is very similar to Adobe's Photoshop program. Check out the video below:
Please Start Bringing flash drives(also known as"jump" drives) to class. They aren't that expensive, and you will need one to store the files that you create on.
Looking forward to another week!!
God Bless and Peace Out!!!
Mark Ellis
Technology Teacher Blue Grass Baptist School
The High School students finally got their passwords settled, and now in some of the classes we started developing brochures using Microsoft Word.
Coming Next Week !
Hopefully, this weekend, I will get a chance to download Corel's PaintShop Pro X4 (latest version) into 25 of our computers. I bought the license and if I get the download instructions from Corel, I will try to get the computers loaded for our illustrious students. We are going to have an absolute blast with this program, because it is very similar to Adobe's Photoshop program. Check out the video below:
Please Start Bringing flash drives(also known as"jump" drives) to class. They aren't that expensive, and you will need one to store the files that you create on.
Looking forward to another week!!
God Bless and Peace Out!!!
Mark Ellis
Technology Teacher Blue Grass Baptist School
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Welcome to the 2012 / 2013 School Year !
For those of you not familiar with me, I was the history teacher at BGBS for the last ten years. This year I have been laterally transferred to the Technology Department and Mr. Michael Frick is now my replacement as the history teacher. He was an excellent replacement for me since he has a Master's Degree in History Education. I wish him well and look forward to seeing him "go where no other history teacher has gone before."
As for myself, I have a Master's Degree from Boise State University in Education Technology where I took coursework in every type of offline and online technology education you can imagine, from Instructional Design to teaching in virtual worlds.
This year at BGBS I hope to have a blast with kids all the way from the elementary level through high school. Since we are winding up our first week of school, we have already been hard at work getting passwords and accounts for your students as well as getting our "fingers dirty" in technology. My younger students are already learning all of the components of the computer as well as how to use word processors and all of the little buttons, sliders, and doo-dads that are on them.
All of this will be coming hard and fast as the year gets rolling along, so stay tuned to this blog for more great Ed-Tech news!
God Bless & Peace Out!
Mark Ellis
Education Technology Teacher
BGBS
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