Week of Dec 13th–Dec 17th

Highlights for the week: 

  • Complete Project 2 and any missing assignments for the 3rd 6 Weeks.  Friday we release for the Holidays at noon.   

Monday 13th:

- Review

  1. Logon to your Aviary education account here. (use your first name and the first 3 letters of your last name as your username and your student ID as your password)
  2. List of assignments and links for the 3rd 6 Weeks (since Progress Reports).  The two marked in red are the fastest way to raise your grade if you need to!

- New

  1. Check your grades for the most recent information.  Use the list above to help you find and complete your assignments.
  2. Good luck with your midterm exams this week!

- Do 

  1. Remember to upload your Project2 Pivot creations to Google Docs and share them with me!
  2. If you’ve made a Prezi for Project2, please send me a link to view it!
  3. If you’ve created something with Aviary, I’ll be able to see it automatically once you save it.
  4. Continue working on Project2 (explore Pivot, Prezi, Aviary or other software).  Use this opportunity to explore something new and cool and create something with it! 
  5. Complete the P2 (Project2) Progress Check Form with your progress for today.

- Through?

  1. Watch this Winter Storm Slideshow on the weather from yesterday

Tuesday 14th:

- Review

  1. Logon to your Aviary education account here. (use your first name and the first 3 letters of your last name as your username and your student ID as your password)
  2. List of assignments and links for the 3rd 6 Weeks (since Progress Reports).  The two marked in red are the fastest way to raise your grade if you need to!

- New

  1. Try this Snowline Game (thanks Jacob!)
  2. Aviary Creations made by other students should now be visible to you when you login. Login here and check them out.
  3. My intent for you this week is to give you an opportunity to get caught up on any missing work for the end of the semester, but also to let you relax a little with all of the midterm testing which is going on.  If you find a cool website with games (like the one above) or photos related to the holidays, please share them with me through the Share Websites Form  so I can add them here for others to see and try!

- Do 

  1. Remember to upload your Project2 Pivot creations to Google Docs and share them with me!
  2. Your Project2 screencasts need to have P2 in the Title please!
  3. If you’ve made a Prezi for Project2, please send me a link to view it!  If you’ve created something with Aviary, I’ll be able to see it automatically once you save it.
  4. Continue working on Project2 (explore Pivot, Prezi, Aviary or other software).  Use this opportunity to explore something new and cool and create something with it! 
  5. Complete the P2 (Project2) Progress Check Form with your progress for today.

- Through?

  1. Watch this Christmas at the White House Slideshow
  2. Try this holiday trivia quiz (you have to do better than I did… 50%)
  3. Explore this Google Earth Gallery

Wednesday 15th:

- Review

  1. Check your grades for the latest updates!
  2. Logon to your Aviary education account here. (use your first name and the first 3 letters of your last name as your username and your student ID as your password)
  3. List of assignments and links for the 3rd 6 Weeks (since Progress Reports).  The two marked in red are the fastest way to raise your grade if you need to!

- New

  1. Here’s a link to send an e-postcard to support our troops!

- Do 

  1. Remember to upload your Project2 Pivot creations to Google Docs and share them with me!
  2. Your Project2 screencasts need to have P2 in the Title please!
  3. If you’ve made a Prezi for Project2, please send me a link to view it!  If you’ve created something with Aviary, I’ll be able to see it automatically once you save it.
  4. Continue working on Project2 (explore Pivot, Prezi, Aviary or other software).  Use this opportunity to explore something new and cool and create something with it! 
  5. Complete the P2 (Project2) Progress Check Form with your progress for today.

- Through?

  1. Check out this Animal Tracks Slideshow
  2. Check out this Gallery of The Most Amazing Science Images Of 2010

Thursday 16th:

- Review

  1. Logon to your Aviary education account here. (use your first name and the first 3 letters of your last name as your username and your student ID as your password)
  2. List of assignments and links for the 3rd 6 Weeks (since Progress Reports).  The two marked in red are the fastest way to raise your grade if you need to!

- New

  1. Please complete this 3 question survey
  2. Explore the Macy’s make a wish foundation site where you can create a letter to Santa and Macy’s will donate a dollar to the Make a Wish Foundation

- Do 

  1. Remember to upload your Project2 Pivot creations to Google Docs and share them with me!
  2. Your Project2 screencasts need to have P2 in the Title please!
  3. If you’ve made a Prezi for Project2, please send me a link to view it!  If you’ve created something with Aviary, I’ll be able to see it automatically once you save it.
  4. Continue working on Project2 (explore Pivot, Prezi, Aviary or other software).  Use this opportunity to explore something new and cool and create something with it! 
  5. Complete the P2 (Project2) Progress Check Form with your progress for today.

- Through?

  1. Check out this updated Holiday Lights Slideshow
  2. …or this NYC Holiday Windows Slideshow
  3. …or this World’s wildest Christmas gifts Slideshow

Friday 17th:

- Review

  1. 2010: Was it a good year for you?

- New

What person has had the biggest positive effect on your life and what have they done that has had such a positive effect on you? (if you have trouble narrowing it down to 1 person, just choose any one of your top picks)

There are 3 ways for anyone who sees this to respond...

  1. Use this 1 question form
  2. Reply to this email (or send an email or text to bmercer@bastrop.isd.tenet.edu)
  3. Call or text this Google Voice number with your response 512.703.0308

- Do 

  1. Have a Merry Christmas…

- Through?

  1. and a Happy New Year!

Additional Information:

  • Prezis

Week of Dec 6th–Dec 10th

Highlights for the week: 

  • Begin Project 2  

Monday 6th:

- Review

  1. Key vocabulary for Math and Science

- New

  1. Introduce Project 2 and a stickfigure animation program called Pivot
  2. Here’s a Study Stack for Algebra students

- Do 

  1. 7th Grade take this quiz on Graphing Terms.  If you don’t do well, you can take the quiz again once-per-day until you are satisfied with the score.
  2. 8th Grade take this quiz on Plate Tectonics.  If you don’t do well, you can take the quiz again once-per-day until you are satisfied with the score.
  3. View this Prezi on Project 2 (your final project for the semester)
  4. View the tutorial on the Pivot Stickfigure Animation Progam and the examples of  student-created animations using Pivot in the J-drive/TODAY/screencasts/P2 folder
  5. Explore the Pivot animation program (there should be a shortcut on your desktop, but if not, there’s one in the J-drive/TODAY folder which you can drag to your desktop).
  6. Complete this P2 (Project2) Progress Check Form.  Add any questions you have about the project and any applications you explore to the form.

- Through?

  1. View this Animal Tracks Slideshow

Tuesday 7th:

- Review

  1. Retake the vocabulary quiz if you would like to raise your grade.  Here are the links to the quizzes:

- New

  1. Explore the Prezi Presentation software website.  There are copies of the Introduction and Tutorial Video clips in the J-drive Project2 folder.
  2. Check out the new animation examples (6&7) in the J-drive Project2 folder.

- Do 

  1. Copy the Prezi Presentations folder from the J-drive/TODAY/Project2 folder to your desktop
  2. View the Prezi Introduction and Tutorial Video clips in that folder
  3. Create a Prezi Public Access account here.  Later on if you like this software, you may want to create an education account which will give you more storage space and other benefits.
  4. Continue working on Project2 (explore Pivot, Prezi or other software).  Use this opportunity to explore something new and cool and create something with it!   Remember to upload your creations to Google Docs and share them with me!
  5. Complete the P2 (Project2) Progress Check Form with your progress for today.

- Through?

  1. View this Unlikely Friends Slideshow about unusual animal families

Wednesday 8th:

- Review

  1. If you’ve created a cool Pivot Animation, please upload it to your Google Docs and share it with me so I can add it to our demo collection!

- New

  1. Explore the Aviary editing tools at their homepage

- Do 

  1. Watch the Aviary tools demo clip (there’s a copy in the J-drive P2 folder)
  2. Explore these Aviary photo-edit examples
  3. Try to logon to your Aviary education account here. (use your first name and the first 3 letters of your last name as your username and your student ID as your password)
  4. Continue working on Project2 (explore Pivot, Prezi or other software).  Use this opportunity to explore something new and cool and create something with it!   Remember to upload your creations to Google Docs and share them with me!
  5. Complete the P2 (Project2) Progress Check Form with your progress for today.

- Through?

  1. Check out this Prezi on Playing to Learn
  2. View this Animal Tracks Slideshow

Thursday 9th:

- Review

  1. View this Prezi on Project 2 (your final project for the semester)

- New

  1. The voice recorder in the Aviary Music Creator (Myna) should work for you now, but if it doesn’t, you can still import your voice by recording it with the Windows Sound Recorder (in programs/accessories/entertainment), saving it to your desktop, and importing it into Myna.  It’s cool… try it!

- Do 

  1. Try to logon to your Aviary education account here. (use your first name and the first 3 letters of your last name as your username and your student ID as your password)
  2. Explore these Hall-of-Fame Myna tracks.  Try this one called Birdsong which uses a voiceover from Nature videos and this one called Bells & Gizmos (link to edit mode) sounds Christmassy!  You can open them with the editor to see how they were made (and to experiment with changing them).
  3. Test the voice record function in the Edit Audio option (3rd item in the drop-down menu)
  4. Continue working on Project2 (explore Pivot, Prezi, Aviary or other software).  Use this opportunity to explore something new and cool and create something with it!   Remember to upload your creations to Google Docs and share them with me!
  5. Complete the P2 (Project2) Progress Check Form with your progress for today.

- Through?

  1. Check out this Christmas at the White House Slideshow

Friday 10th:

- Review

  1. Remember to upload your Project2 Pivot creations to Google Docs and share them with me!

- New

  1. Watch this animated talk on reforming education

- Do 

  1. Logon to your Aviary education account here. (use your first name and the first 3 letters of your last name as your username and your student ID as your password)
  2. Explore these Hall-of-Fame Myna tracks.  Try these: Marooned theme, Hall of Mirrors, and Together Forever. You can open them with the editor to see how they were made (and to experiment with changing them).
  3. Try the voice record function in the Edit Audio option and experiment with ways to alter your voice.
  4. Continue working on Project2 (explore Pivot, Prezi, Aviary or other software).  Use this opportunity to explore something new and cool and create something with it!  
  5. Complete the P2 (Project2) Progress Check Form with your progress for today.

- Through?

  1. Watch this Holiday Lights around the World slideshow

Additional Information:

  • Prezis