Moving on

Journaling is also turning out to be a great resource to this blog. It is going to be great next year to look back and see what we did for the freshman project. The first phase is mostly wrapped up. The students are done with research and citations and will now have work to do in the classroom.

We took the 9th grade, some of the 10th grade and the drama students to Twelfth Night today. It was great. I really enjoyed it despite a few students that were noisy. Next time I think I would only pick one grade to go.

Freshman Projects - Getting Started

We have an adventure planned for you. The geography teachers, language arts teachers and the Library Media teacher (that's me) have worked on this project for years. We make changes every year so that it is a little bit better each year. If you work hard on this project, you will learn things that will help you do well on class projects the rest of your high school career and even in college. Good luck and lets get started.

Each teacher has a little bit different expectations. Be sure to follow their instructions. While your are in the UHS LMC Media Center this first round you will be required to keep research notes including citations for each source you use.

The first step is to open one of these file by clicking on one of the following links: Research Notes or Research Notes RTF

Start finding sources for your project and complete your research notes. Then return here to learn how to do a citation. This will provide you as well as me a backup copy of your notes.

1. Go to the UHS Library Media Center home page and open “Citation Machine” in a new browser tab (right click on some machines or control click on others. Select open link in a new tab).
   
2. Click on the link that says MLA in the left corner of the Citation Machine webpage.
3. Decide what kind of source you have. If it is a book, a magazine, a simple webpage or a something you have accessed through a subscription database (Pioneer Library).
4. Choose that source type from the list. You may have to select “more” to find the right source type.
5. Enter the source information in the form. Follow the red hints under each entry.
6. Click submit.
7. Copy and paste the citation found in the gray box into your notes.
8. Correct any formatting that was lost. Usually this is just highlighting.
9. Save your notes.
10. Repeat this process for each source that you use in your project.

When you have finished your notes you need to email your notes to me as an attachment. Follow the instructions below.

If you use an outside email (Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) skip to step 5.

1. Go to http://media.dcsd.org
2. Click on Union Senior High School (The UHS LMC home page of your browser)
3. Find the section of links called “Student Information”
4. Click on Student Email.
5. Log on to your email account. If it is school email, use the login information I have provided. Never save your password on a public computer.
6. Find the link such as “new message” or “compose” that lets you write a new email message.
7. Address your email to bgoodrich@dcsd.org .
8. In the subject heading, type your class name and the words “Task Definition”. (i.e. Hansen A3 – Task Definition)
9. In the body of the email write your task definition.
10. Attach your research notes. This will be done differently depending on what type of email you are using, but should look something like this:
1. Find the link to add an attachment.
2. Click “Browse”
3. Locate the file on the computer.
4. Click “add” or “attach”
   
5. Make sure that the file shows as being added.

11. Send the email.
12. Log out of your email.

Power of the Keyboard

We (mostly me) learned tons this week through our blogging excursion . We had a lot of fun (see video clip), and we found some glitches. But by the end of the trip I'd say we got our monies worth.

Some of the posts were funny, some very serious. Some surprised me and some were just what I expected. Most students put their dreams to the screen without hesitation, knowing that their peers were just waiting to challenge those dreams. Others, possibly more wisely, were more cautious. Fortunately most of the comments showed a high level of acceptance and were helpful.

I tried to push the students to make comments that really had an impact on the student's writing. Some got it. Some didn't. Next time I will prep them better to focus on the writing and not the person's career choice. When we did have a derogatory comment it was focused on the person's choice and not their writing. That said we will have to take the same excursion again and see if we can get more on the right path. You can definitely get reactions by writing you opinion. The power of the pen, or should I say keyboard, is stronger than ever.

Trying Something New

On Wednesday, I will be working with Mrs. Embleton's junior classes to create blogs. I have had students work with blogs before but never create their own. I hope that it proves to be a very worth while project. Each student will be required to make a post as assigned my Mrs. Embleton and then comment on 5 other blogs of class members. Their comments will be peer evaluations pointing out how the student can improve on his or her writing.