Mrs. PJ’s Technology Blog

I’m really enjoying my classes so far this quarter and I’m looking forward to some of the projects we have coming up!  I’ll be gone Wednesday – Friday this week as I will be attending the Georgia Educational Technology Conference in Atlanta.  I hope to come back with ideas that we can use in class!!  Here’s what to expect this week:

6th Grade: We will start using Open Mind mind-mapping software to help you with the “Wonders of the World” webquest and PowerPoint that you will create.  B Day students will also start the “20th Century Inventions” PowerPoint on Friday (if you finish the Wonders of the World PowerPoint).

7th & 8th Grade:  These classes will continue working with Excel this week.  The 8th grade will conclude the unit with the “School Supplies” spreadsheet and the 7th grade will conclude the unit by making interactive crosswords and interactive maps with Excel.

I have made plenty of tutorials to help you with your work on Wednesday – Friday since I will not be there to help you.  Do your best and if you have questions, save them for next week and I will try to answer them for you!

7th and 8th graders will finish up the MS Word unit Monday – Wednesday and start on MS Excel.  On Thursday and Friday, we will perform a “Halloween Internet Scavenger” hunt.

6th graders will finish their “You are Unique” webquests and PowerPoints.  We will then learn how to use hyperlinks in PowerPoint.

I’m excited about a new quarter and getting to know a new group of students!

This week, all classes/grades will work through a Microsoft Word unit.  Here are the links to our activities for the week:

Dalton’s Five Day Forecast

20Questions

Creating Tables

Riddle Mix-Up (6th Grade Only)

School Pride Poster

Symbol Scavenger Hunt

PowerPoint

Well, we’re winding down this quarter.  Can you believe we’ve already been in school almost 9 weeks???  Here’s what to expect this week:

8th grade – Monday -  GA Technology Literacy Assessment
                     Tuesday/Wednesday – Whitfield County High School Computer Applications Exam – if you make a high enough grade on this test, you will be exempt from the first semester of Computer Applications class at any Whitfield County high school!!
After testing each day, we will be finishing up our websites on the Regions of Georgia.

7th Grade – Monday/Tuesday – Finish brochures on Biomes.
                     Wednesday/Thursday – E-Cards and finishing up any incomplete work

6th Grade – Monday/Tuesday – Finish Disneyland in Space brochures
                      Wednesday/Thursday – E-Cards and finishing up any incomplete work.

I’m sorry that it has been a couple of weeks since I’ve posted here but Edublogs has had issues that were beyond my control!  In fact, most of our faculty has had the same problem but hopefully everything will work a little more smoothly from now on!

We’re getting close to the end of the 1st quarter.  Can you believe we’ve already been in school almost 9 weeks????  So get ready for our final push to get everything completed before the end of the quarter!

6th Grade – Both classes will finish up their “Natural Wonders of World” Webquests and PowerPoints during  the beginning of this week.  In this project, the students are reviewing the drawing tools in Office as well as learning the importance of and how to “group” objects.  After we finish these projects, we will begin learning how to make brochures in MS Publisher.  The students will use Open Mind to perform a webquest on the Solar System (which they are studying in Science right now) and create a brochure called “Disneyland in Space.”  These will be due before Fall Break.

7th Grade – These classes will finish up their interactive maps of the Middle East in Excel at the beginning of the week.  We will then move on to creating brochures in MS Publisher.  The students will use Open Mind to perform a webquest on biomes (which they will be studying in science soon) and create a brochure about several biomes.  These will be due before Fall Break.

8th Grade – We will continue creating our websites about the Regions in Georgia.  At this point, they students have completed their research using Open Mind and have created their interactive puzzle in Excel that they will include in their website.  This week, we will work on getting our basic website created.  We will then learn how to make games in Hot Potatoes that we will use in their website.  These will due by Fall Break.

6th Grade:  This week, we will start working with MS Excel.  You will learn how to use the data in Excel to make graphs and you will learn math formulas that can used in Excel.  Click here to see exactly what we’re doing!

7th Grade: We will continue working with Excel.  We will finish our Interactive Crossword puzzles highlighting Middle Eastern countries and their capitals.

8th Grade: We will start a brief unit on Microsoft Access.  You will learn about databases, queries, reports, fields, and records.

6th Grade: (A Day) You will finish your “You are Unique” webquest and PowerPoint Tuesday.  On Wednesday, all classes will begin working on the “20th Century Inventions” PowerPoint where you will learn how to hyperlink slides to one another and how to hyperlink to a website.

7th Grade:  We will continue working in Excel.  The unit will conclude this week with your creation of an interactive crossword puzzle using the Middle Eastern countries and their capitals which you are studying in Social Studies right now!

8th Grade:  This week, we will finish up Excel and begin a short unit on Microsoft Access (a database program)  We will make a database that includes information as well as pictures.

Here are links to help you create your travel brochures:

CIA Factbook

Fact Monster

Yahoo Kids

Nation’s Online

 World Atlas

And for fun:

Test your knowledge of European country locations here!!

6th Grade – Use this link to get started on your webquest:  http://www.whitfield.k12.ga.us/nhm/6th_grade.html

7th Grade: – Use this link to get started in Excel:  http://www.whitfield.k12.ga.us/nhm/7th_grade.html

8th Grade: – Use this link to get started in Excel:  http://www.whitfield.k12.ga.us/nhm/8th_grade.html