Starting to do Some Real Work

It is Tuesday, the first real day of work in the modified block schedule here at CLPJH. The different classes are all working on different projects. I am being the assistant, for the most part, but I am getting a chance to work with students and am making a couple of connections and learning names as I go.

Our Computer I and Computer Skills classes were all working on their Scavenger Hunts today, where they look for the answers to particular questions on the internet. Some kids are sailing right through it and others are having a hard time. I have found a couple of kids that just get stuck and sit and do nothing really quietly. If you don't check in on them, the whole 1 1/2 hour period could go by without them accomplishing a single thing. I noticed this with one student in Comp. I, M., 15 minutes into the class period, he did not have a single question answered on his Scavenger Hunt and didn't have any websites open on his computer. I came over and asked him how he was doing. He kind of mumbled, keeping his head down. I kind of took over and showed him how to open up the google.com website and what google.com did. I helped him find the answer to the first question on his Hunt and how to put the answer and the website link into his paper. I then let him go. About 15 minutes later, he was on the last question. Yeah!

In our Graphics class, we went over some Fireworks graphics, drawing lines and making them look weird, importing pictures and inverting the colors, etc. Then we worked on two projects from the playingwithfire.com website. This website shows step by step tons of really cool graphic effects that can be done with Fireworks. We worked on two of them. Some kids got stuck and wouldn't try without alot of encouragement. Others flew right through and completed some great stuff.

In our Computer Applications class (not really the name of the class, but I can't think of the name at the moment) we worked on our PowerPoint commercial. Students need to come up with an idea for a commercial for a product or service, real or imaginary. They then have to put together a PowerPoint presentation lasting 30 seconds, with at least 10 slides, automated movement, graphics and sound. Some of the kids came up with great ideas, such as a product that lets you change your pet into any animal you wish, a computer chip that get implanted in your head to make you really smart and attractive, a meditation video to calm your stress levels, etc. A number of kids are working on real products, such as Tide, Listerine, Yamaha Motorcycles, a China Tourism commercial (those aren't gangs, they're social clubs!), etc. In just a few minutes, the kids were putting together some great stuff, with flying graphics, sounds, the whole deal.

I helped a few kids figure out how to delete the backgrounds of images so that they are transparent on their presentations, blending in more easily to the background. They all were very happy with the effect and seemed excited that I showed them. Neat.

One problem that I have run into is that I am not very familiar with all of the programs with which we are working. A number of times, kids asked questions that I didn't not know the answer to and I looked silly. I need to brush up on my skills, which I will be doing right after this for the rest of my planning period.