Preparing for the Future!

Good Morning and Happy Friday!  As part of your every day life, I am sure that you are taking steps to make sure you are being successful and with that comes making some adjustments.  The same is true with the Academy program.  We want to continue to evolve to make sure that this program is as beneficial for you as possible.  With that in mind, for today's blog I am going to ask you to do the following:

1.  Please discuss all of the things that you love about the Academy.  What makes it unique, special, comfortable for you and how has it helped you be successful as a student?
2.  We will call this the constructive criticism piece which is important for anyone or anything to ever improve.  What would you like to see change about the program, how could it support you better and/or if you could make a single change in the courses, activities, structure, etc what would that be.
3.  Respond to the following set of questions, honestly, located at http://goo.gl/hVMWkc

Thank you very much!!

Following Up on Our Academy Check-In

Good Morning!!  I hope you woke up on the right side of the bed and have a bunch of energy today because some of you have your work cut out for you :)  While some of you may have already noticed, I left a number of assignments with no grade in the grade book before the progress reports were due - I'll explain why live in person today, however, those blank spots have now been filled in with a "0" indicating that the assignment has not been completed.  Today is your one and only day (90 minutes) to complete and submit those assignments.  Some have been on Schoology since the first day of the semester (I don't just post these assignments for fun) and they are still incomplete.  I have a feeling that some of you have completed these assignments but perhaps you have not successfully uploaded them to youtube and posted to your blog.  In addition, for each post, you must at minimum respond to the following questions:

1. what did you enjoy about this project?
2. what new tools did you learn from completing this project?
3. what challenges did you face as you worked on the project?

For today, here is the protocol -

1.  Find an assignment in Infinite Campus with a "0".  If the assignment is marked with an "M" for missing you may not make it up!
2.  Complete the assignment.  You can complete it using the link provided, type your responses into an email or even hand write your responses and turn it in - whatever is easiest for you!
3.  Any assignments submitted electronically, you must also complete a post it note with your name and each assignment completed.  You will hand that post it note to me at the end of the class period so that I can then check what assignments you have successfully completed.
4.  Once you have completed all of your assignments for my class, this time can/should be used to:

• Complete any/all work for your other classes

This time is dedicated to you and should be taken full advantage of!  Today is a study hall - you should be sitting in your assigned seats and should be working quietly and on your own.  I will not accept assignments from the first few weeks of school after today so assignments not completed in class that are marked with a "0" should be completed by midnight tonight.  Yesterday, some students were having trouble exporting their Flash assignments using quicktime.  If this is a problem for you, you can also export the assignment using windows (.avi) and then upload that file to youtube.  Each assignment, however, should be posted on your blog and then it needs to be noted on a yellow sticky note and handed to the substitute teacher.  Worst case scenario, if you cannot get the file on youtube, export it from Flash as a .swf file and email it to me at crubin@seq.org.

If you have any questions, concerns, etc. please be sure to email me during class so that you can move forward with your assignments and be successful!

Thank you in advance for an outstanding work period.  I will have your new, updated grades by Tuesday of next week!!  I also want to highlight that you and your 4th period classmates have work to do!  As of today I have the following grades in my grade book:

• 8 students currently have an F
• 2 students currently have a D
• 6 students currently have an C
• 5 students currently have an B
• 3 students currently have an A

With that said ... lets get to work - and please, as much as you want to help your classmates, focus on YOUR OWN work first!!!!

The Future Awaits!

Good Morning - 

Today we are going to complete our first Academy Check-in of 2014.  Please click on the following link and complete the form thoroughly and thoughtfully.  I removed some of the less pertinent questions so you could really focus on grades, attendance and planning on moving forward successfully!  The link to the questionnaire is: http://goo.gl/aU7d8d

You may want to write down some of your responses (ie. missing assignments) on a piece of paper so they are easily accessible to you.

After completing the form, please write a paragraph response on your blog that addresses the following:

• How satisfied are you with your performance this Semester?
• Are you doing your very best in school and/or where do you have room for improvement?
• What surprised you most about your grades, progress, etc as you went through Infinite Campus?
• Explain the importance of education in your opinion?  Is it very important, not important at all or somewhere in the middle?  Explain your response.
• Feel free to address anything else related to your academic progress

Thank you ... remember - your response should be a paragraph!  Not just 2 sentences.  We will discuss more upon my return!

Thanks!

Monday 2/24

Good Morning -

Today you need to complete your Flash slideshow using the 5 pictures you collected Friday...  Here are the simple steps you need to follow:

1.  Save pictures to your computer
2.  Resize the pictures to 300 pixels (height) using "Paint."  You can find it in the Start Menu
3.  Import the pictures onto 5 different layers in Flash.  Each picture must be on its own layer and must be converted to a symbol.  To import the pictures go to "file" --> "import" --> "import to stage"
4.  Once converted to a symbol, click on the picture 1 time.  A menu will appear on the side of the screen where you will need to select Alpha.  Where the picture starts, you should set the Alpha at 0 ... at the second key frame you insert (I would recommend 100 frames later, you will need to change the Alpha to 100.

This will result in each picture fading in.  The animations can be used in PowerPoint, on Websites, etc, however, you will need to upload your final animation to youtube and post it on your blog.

Thanks!!  Remember, if you finish early, complete through lesson 20.2 on Edutyping ... some of you appear to be pretty far behind!

Friday Flash Vocabulary

Good Morning -

Before moving forward with our next Flash assignment, I want to make sure we have a chance to make sure we are on the same page with terminology in flash.  I wouldn't call this a test, but I do feel it is important for us to be on the same page.  With that said, please explain each of the following Flash vocabulary terms, when you would use them and how they are helpful (or why they are important) when it comes to creating your animations - examples are appreciated where applicable:

What is a Keyframe and what is a Frame and when would you use each of these tools.
Symbol - What is it and when is it important to convert your drawings to a symbol?
Free Transform Tool - What can this tool help you do in Flash?
Line Tool - What are some special features of this tool besides being able to simply draw a line
Rectangle Tool - What can this tool be used to do.  What other tools are similar to this.
Classic Tween - Describe this tool and what it can do.  Please explain how you use it as well
Shape Tween - Describe this tool and what it can do.  Please explain how you use it as well
Classic Motion Guide - what does this tool enable you to do?
Layers - What are they and why are they important to include in your animations?
Selection Tool - What are some powerful features of this tool?
What is the Stroke and what is the Fill for every object drawn?

In addition to describing the above Vocabulary, please make sure that you have also posted both your airplane and ball bouncing down the stairs by the end of the class period today!

Our First Motion Guide and a Flying Airplane

Good Morning!!!

Today we are going to kick off the day by posting our most recent animation to our blog.  This animation will be your first created using a motion guide and should include a beuatifully drawn airplane that takes off, does a flip in the air and then lands.  Between take off and landing your plane could fly over a body of water, a city, a grassy plain, whatever your heart desires!!

After posting your animation to the blog, please respond to the regular questions which include:

1. The new tools you learned during this project (including any new tools you discovered on your own)
2. What you enjoyed most about this project
3. What challenges you faced as you created your final product!!

Thanks for posting a great animation AND for your thorough, thoughtful responses to these 3 questions!  After posting your airplane to the blog, please complete edutyping lessons 20.1 & 20.2 (oops ... it's been a couple days but we are getting close to the end of Unit 1 of Edutyping!!!)