August 2008 Archives

Class Intro

• Class Expectations:  P/F every day for class behavior & participation.

• Ask students how things are going with laptops and if there is anything they want to know.

• Exercise: First, have students list all the things they have done or would like to do with their computer.  NEXT, have students list all the things that the teachers want them to do with their computer.  Compare the two lists.  Ideally they will not be the same and in fact might be mutually exclusive.
  
  
• Based on the exercise, tell students that there are several adults (teachers, admin, parents) who do not want them to have the computer.  Explain the implications of this.

• Physical Care of Laptop...How to carry, etc.

• Tech Center & Tech Center Hours, repair & warranty issues
  

• BE HONEST!

• Ask students how things are going with laptops and if there is anything they want to know.  Answer the questions they have AND have them look at their dock & desktop preferences--go through dock, desktop
  

• DockHave them check PowerSchool again to make sure that they know password.

• Have them check webmail.

Printing

• Ask students how it is going and if they have any questions.
• Mention that if they are having trouble with email on their home network, that they should log onto the web and use the webmail option.
  

• Go through the Home Directory and general organization.  Show them how to access the files on the Home Directory and explain the significance of saving to the Home Directory.

• Printing issues & Printer Management
• Send students a practice email to download, save and print.
  
• Show how to figure out which printer & choosing a printer
  
• Show how to add a printer
  
• Creating PDF's & discuss the different extensions...especially .docx
  

• Talk about organization--use sorting blocks to focus attention on the fact that there are different ways to do it.
  

1. Organize Class Folders on computers
2. Desktop vs. document folder

At the start of class....
Ask students how it is going and if they have any questions.

Have everyone log into Powerschool to see if they remember their passwords.

Mention that if they are having trouble with email on their home network, they should log onto the web and use the webmail option.

iCal
a.   Subscribing to a teacher's calendar
b.   Creating and maintaining your own calendar
c.   Shared calendars and where to find them
d.   The iCal part of Powerschool
e.   Alarms

Blogs
Where to find info....