Out of the Box

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Kill my blog

The county I work for has forced me to kill my blog. I understand their concerns about security and liability issues. It's unfortunate for the students. They were really turned on to using it as a tool. Oh well, life goes on...

Friday, May 26, 2006

Our Anasari X-Prize Podcast

Click this link to hear our podcast.

Hit the big pink button until it says play...

We tried "Teacher Center" but had no luck! We will try again next year.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Dear Students,

I wanted to say how much I have enjoyed being your teacher this year. I hope you have a great summer. Stay focused on your goals and make good choices along the way and stay open to learning new things as they world changes and you will never go wrong. Good luck in future and congratulations! M. Anderson

Friday, May 19, 2006

Girls Go Tech! - End of year fun

If you are finished with your work/check blackboard, then you may explore this website: GIRLS GO TECH

For my girls ( or guys) that are not sure whether technology is for them, here is a website to explore. There's career info about technology careers as well.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

You all asked me to post this on the blog

Here is the URL for the skeleton valentine

More interesting info on space tourism

More examples of fashion for space!

Space Fashion

Designed bya Tokyo Fashion designer for Zero Gravity and the new

Space Tourism Industry!

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Submitting your X Prize and other Portfolio items

We are now up and running on Blackboard. You will use your the same user name and password that you use to log into the LCMS computers to upload your work.

Go to Blackboard and click LOG IN

This is a secure website where only members of the class can read and see the content and assignmets. Your parents may also log in with your user name and ID to see your work.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Modules close today

Today is the last day for your modules! If you are not finished, please see me about coming in before school. Grades will be posted on Monday.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Majority Rules and this week's schedule

For those of you checking the blog, thank you.

Our deadline came and went. As we said in class regarding the deadline, if the majority of students were finished we would move on, if not I would modify the deadline. The deadline came and the majority of students still have a long way to go on modules and power point.

Your information for the X Prize Power Point SHOULD be finished. Now you will be working on the presentation of the informaton, adding audio, the fancy visual effects and design items that make the presentatation come alive.

You will also be working on your assessments, vocabulary words, and your portfolio this week.

More info will be posted on these assignments.

Count down, the end of school is approaching but we still have lots to do!

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Rotation Schedule

To help students manage their time better, I am posting our class schedule for the current rotation. All students have a copy of this schedule on their attendance sheet. I'm placing this on line to help you manage your time. If you are absent, you can see what we are doing in class. Please note deadlines!

Module Schedule

Wednesday___Session___1____04_12_06
Thursday____ Session___2____04_13_06
Friday_____ ( no school)_

Monday_____Session____3___04_17_06
Tuesday____Session_____3___04_18_06
Wednesday__Power Point____Part Band C
Thursday___Session_____4___04_20_06
Friday_____Session_____4 ___04_21_06

Monday____ Session_____5___04_24_06
Tuesday____Session_____6___04_25_06
Wednesday_ Power Point___Part Band C
Thursday___Session_____6___04_27_06
Friday_____ Session_____7___04_28_06

Monday___Make up________05_1__06
Tuesday___Video__________05_2__06
Wednesday___Power Point___(due)Part Band C
May 3 Power Point and Module assignments are due!

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Part B and Part C -X prize Power Point

Part 2: The X Prize Power Point

As you work on your module, you will find that you finish the Session early and have time left over. Other days you will be working the whole class period. Usually days there are assessments, it will take you the whole period. Days that do not have assessments, are good days to split the time between modules and your other activities in the lab.

You can work with your module partner to complete this assignment. Both people need to have a copy of the power point in their own: My Documents Folder To do this, you will need to save a copy in the shared folder. Here is the path:

K Drive /8thgrade /Anderson /X-Prize /Period

Delete this after you have created a back up copy. I will be emptying this folder daily.

Part B
Here is what you need to include in your Power Point:
(Minimum number of slides: 35 slides- 10 slides will be the questions)

1.What is the Ansari X Prize?

2.When did the Ansari X Prize begin?

3.Who won?

4.What was the name of the designer who designed the winning spacecraft? ( Include 3 facts about this person) .Provide a link to a website that has more information on this person’s background.

5.Who were the pilots?

6. How did the winning design work? ( show each step)

7.Who were the other contenders? (Show at lest 8 of the 26 designs that didn’t win?)

8. Include a photo gallery link for the X Prize

9. Include a video link about the X prize.

10. Include a picture of the space ports that are being built for Space Tourism

Part C

For students that did not do the first part of their assignment, you will have to do the third part to pull up your grade.

The list of investors who are putting financial resources into commercial space travel are: The Ansari’s, Paul Allen, Sir Richard Branson and Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of the United Arab Emirates. Your power point must include at least 10 slides and 5 facts about one of these people.

If you are doing Part C to erase your "0" that you got for not doing the first part, please post your links and research in the comment section of this post in this format:

------------------------------------------------------------------

Student #

Period:

Who are you researching? (write their name)

5 facts you found out about the person

5 links where you found your information. No duplicates

Deadline for Part C-- Sunday, April 30.

------------------------------------------------------------------

For Power Point assignment-- See Links below

Here are the list of links for your Power Point

Monday, April 10, 2006

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work

Thursday, April 27th is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. Many of my students have participated in this in the past and I encourage them to take advantage of this opportunity to learn about the work place. Find a job that you would like to know more about and ask your parents to arrange for you to spend some time observing what they do at their job. If you do go visit a work environment, this is an interview/assignment for you to do while you are there:

Find out the following information as a part of your career investigation:

1. What is the name of the company / business / organization?

2. Give a brief description of the company / business / organization.

3. How many employees?

4. Are there other branches? Are they in Florida? Other states? National? Transnational / Global?

5. Describe what this company / business / organization does.

6. Does the company have a website?

7. What is the URL for the website? (If permitted, look at the company website and describe the type of information found on the website.

8. Describe the job that you "job shadowed" Give examples of the daily responsibilities this person has.

9. Describe some decisions that the person you "job shadow" has to make?

10. What type of technology do you find in the workplace?

11. What are some of the software applications that are used in the workplace.

12. What are the education requirements for the position you "job shadowed?"

13. Describe three things that you leaned from this experience.

14. What are examples of related occupations?

15. Describe something you would like to know more about, based on your observations.

Technical Difficulty

Any student that experienced technical difficulty, please have a write up of your situation:

1. What technical difficulty did you experience when you tried to do your assignment?

2. Have a print out of the research you completed.

3. Answer the following questions: "What is the X Prize", “Who won?", "What was the name of the spaceship that won?” How was this different than what NASA does?", "How did the spaceship that won work?"

Friday, April 07, 2006

Internet Research Project--The X Prize

Template
Student Number:

Web Resource:
Post the search engine you used to find your website
Search engine I used:

What is the X Prize?
Describe in your own words what the X Prize was and find a supporting web link that verifies the information
Description: The X Prize is

Links:

Who won the X Prize?
What is the name of the person who won and provide supporting web links. Include a picture of the winner
Description: The pesrson who won the X Prize is

Links:

Who were some of the top contenders?
Name two other contenders and show their design. Describe how they were supposed to work.
Description:

Links: Other designers that competed for the X prize were

How was the winning rocket designed?
Provide three links that show this design and describe how the rocket worked
Description: The way the winning desin worked was

Links:

Posted on March 29, 2006
Due Date: April 7, 2006
Deadline extended to April 10
-- Comments are now closed: April 10, 2006
Post your assignment in the comment section. Include your student Number. You must include original information and links. Duplicates are not acceptable.

Assessments

Assessments for Orientation: Sessions 4, 5 and 7 are due on Friday April 7th.

Module Rotations begin on Monday.

When you finish-do this enrichment

So everything is due today but half of the students are not finished. So I will extend the deadline to Monday. That give you the weekend to wrap up your assessments and your X-Prize research project. If you are one of the students that is caught up, here is a link to a rocket modeler website. Click and give it a few minutes to download if that doesn't work, let me know.

Rocket Modeler

See how high you can make your rocket go

There is also a beta version. Try this one at home and see how it works too.

BETA Newer Version

( I haven't used this one yet so I don't know how it works!)

You do have to have JAVA downloaded on your machine.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

West Point Bridge Deisgn

The deadline for entering the West Point Bridge Design 2006 contest is March 22.
We have been working on learning how to use the software in class.

Here is the pricing for your bridges:
Bridge 1 $195,000-$200,000 = A

Bridge 2 $ 180,000-$185,000=A

Bridge 3 Top ten grades will be the A range

Extra Credit:
Submit your bridge to the West Point Bridge Design contest before closing date for round 1.

Remember you can download this software at any time to your home computer. Because this contest and software is sponsored by the The U. S. Military Academy at West Point, it should be safe for you to download.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Career Portfolio Entries

For the record, here is what students have been working on in class and what they need to have for their career portfolios:

1. Their family history genograms Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (interviews) and samples

2. Rough draft (very important piece in a process portfolio!! DO NOT LOSE THIS!!! )

3. Their three interviews ( typed )

4. Their career investigation -- one person they would like to job shadow
(sample)

5. Reflective Writing: Character Analysis
Part1/ Lexy, Ellie, Nick, Homer
( Fom characters in movies "October Sky", "Ice Castles" and "Contact" )

6. Reflective Writing:Personal Analysis
Part 2 / Influences in my life

7. Seminar Notes

Parents: Please see the following information: Click Here.

Reflective Writing: Character analysis
Choose one other of the three characters that we have been discussing in class. (Lexy, Nick, Home, Ellie) and write about the following:

What was this character like? What were their strengths and weaknesses? How did their environment and surroundings impact their aspirations, choices, decisions and goals for their live? What role did their family play? What were their goals and what challenges did they face? Do you think they learned lessons in the process of achieving their goals? What or who helped them succeed? Do you think they would have changed anything if could go back and do it over again? What compromises did they have to make in order to achieve their goals?

Reflective Writing: Influences in my life
Considering the character you chose to write about, compare the influences in their life to the influence in your life. Are they the same or different? In what way are they similar or different? What are some of your goals? How do society, your family, school and your environment impact your aspirations? What challenges do you face or will you face as you go about achieving your goals? If you could change one thing about your present circumstances that would make it easier to achieve your goals, what would that be? Where do you see you life going at this point in time? What decisions are you making that will impact your future?

In the movies, everyone achieves their goal and their dreams. In real-life do you think this is true for everyone? In real-life what do you think are some things that make will impact a person’s ability to achieve a goal or a life dream? What will impact your the most in achieving your goals?

Moving my blog

I haven't been posting a lot on the blog lately because we are getting ready to move this blog to another software application that the county has purchased for blogging. It will give us a little more control and mke it safer for students to use. It will take some time to get it moved over so I'm limiting what information I put up on the blog to make it a little less cumbersome to move the content. I will advise you of the new address/URL when the move is complete.

Friday, February 03, 2006

Career Investigation--Job Shadow

If you had to pick one person on your family work-history Genogram that you would like to "job shadow" for one day, who would you choose? It doesn't have to be a job that you want to do when you grow up, only a job that you would be interested in learning something about and would be willing to spend a day with that person and learning more about what they do at their jobs.

We are going to do more than one career investigation so you will have an opportunity to explore careers that interest you. As you work in the modules, you will be exposed to many different type of careers as well that relate to that module. But you need to learn how to do a career investigation first so this is a good place to start.

We have been learning how to use the book, the Occupational Outlook Handbook in class to investigate the following categories:

What is the nature of the work?
What does this person do each day when they go to work?

What are the working conditions?
What do they work outside, inside, on a ship, in an office or a hospital, week days or the weekend? Is the job stressful, boring or fast paced etc?

What training, qualifications and skills needed for this profession?
What type of schooling or experience is needed to get a job doing this?

What is the job outlook?
How hard is it to get a job in this field? Will there be jobs in this field when I finish my training or education?

What are the potential earnings?
What would a new person entering this job make? What is the average salary and what is the highest a person can make in this profession?

What are some related occupations?
What else can I do with my education if there is no job for me, if I get bored, and want to change professions?

What are some sources of information?
Look for Internet websites or names of organizations that you can Google that would provide you with more information about this line of work.

Once you have learned how to research a job, you will have an opportunity to research other jobs that you might be interested in exploring.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Finished Genogram examples

I'm in the process of posting some of the genograms that students made. Here is one for now so you can see what the finished product looks like

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Grading Rubric for Genogram Assignment

We will be looking at the following information in evaluating your project:

Organization: Is the flow of information well organized and easy to understand?

Job Information: Did you include job information for family your members?

Educational Background: Did you include the educational background on most family members?

Neatness, Creativity and Effort: Is your work neat, does it show creativity and show satisfactory effort?

Rough Draft and Graphics: Do you have a rough draft and did you include graphics on your genogram?

You will be rated on a scale from 0 to 5 for each item.

Part 3 of the Genogram Project

Pictures, pictures, pictures... Make sure you get some pictures of people in your family.
You might ask them to e-mail you a picture, or you can get a disposable camera, take some pictures, develop them and bring them for your genogram. You can also scan a picture, print it out and bring it in.

Also, you need to start on your interview:
Part 3: You will need to interview three of the people on your genogram and find out more about their career choices:
What were some of the reasons for choosing the career path they chose?
Find out "why” this family member chose their educational and career paths,

“what” factors influenced their decisions,

“who” influenced their decisions, and

“when” they made those decisions.

They should not be all from the same family:
You can do 1 parent, 1 aunt/uncle, cousin, 1 grandparent

Monday, January 09, 2006

Part 2 of your Genogram-- Educational Background

When you find out about the educational background of people in your family, here are some things you need to consider for your genogram:

1. What was their educational background?

2. What type of school did they go to: technical school, two year college, four year college?

3. What was their major in school?

4. What was their minor in school? ( if they had one?)

5. Were they in the military?

You need to try to find out this information for:
mom, dad, your sisters and brothers, their sisters and brothers, their parents.
You can include any cousins you are in contact with on a regular basis.

Friday, January 06, 2006

Student Example of Work History Genogram from class

Here is a good example of a rough draft for the genogram.

Career History Genograms

Parent link

Part 1 -- We are working on our Career/Work History Genograms in class. The Genogram is a family tree that explores the various careers that are in your family. Remember, you are going to need to include your extended family in your Genogram: Mom, Dad, Brothers, Sisters, Aunts, Uncles, Grandmother, Grandfathers, Step-parents, etc.

You need to include: the name of the person, their relationship to you, what type of work they did. It's not good enough to say, "my dad works at General Motors, or Lockheed Martin" You need to find out what they do for their job.

If there was more than one job, list the main ones in chronological order.

You may need to call up a family member to find out the information.

Here are some questions you might ask:

Ask them about their job; what kind of work did they do? (ask for a job title)

What were their hobbies? Did their hobby influence their career decision?

Part 2: You need to find out about the educational background of at least half of the people on your genogram. How much education did they complete?

Part 3: You will need to interview three of the people on your genogram and find out more about their career choices: What were some of the reasons for choosing the career path they chose? Find out” why” this family member chose their educational and career paths, “what” factors influenced their decisions, “who” influenced their decisions, and “when” they made those decisions.

Try to learn something about other factors that influenced their career decisions? Did the economy have an impact? Was there a war? Was there a parent expectation? etc.

As you put together your Genogram, think about what factors will influence your career decisions.

You decide how you how you want it to look, what shapes, patterns, colors etc

The only stipulation for Part 1 is that it has to include people in your family back to your grandparents. You have to include their name, their job/career (s) and their relationship to you. More info on Part 2 will be posted soon.

Here are sample genograms:

Secnond semester students

Welcome to my 8th grade technlogy class! I will be posting assignment information for you on this blog to help you complete your assignment, brag about your accomplishments, and help you learn more about the various topics that we discuss in class.
- M. Anderson

Friday, December 09, 2005

Part 2 of your Podcasting assignment

Deadline for Part 2 is December 14th.

This is the second part of your assignment, "Posting to the blog."

The comment section for this post will be open until December 14th.
You need to write up a post that describes the podcast or blog that you found, a summary of what is about, why you liked it. Here is the format:

1 Your initials and your student number
2 The name of the podcast
3 Brief summary of how to locate it )
4 Brief summary of what it's about
5 Rate it on a sale from 1 to 5
My rating for this blog/podcast is_________. Tell why you gave it that rating.
(1 = Not so great, 2 = so, so, 3= good 4 = very good 5= Terrific, check it out)

If you didn't do the first part, now is your chance to make up some of your points. If you do not have a computer, you need to come in before school and use one of the four Media Centers. You can not download a podcast at school. You can access a blog. If you post a blog, be sure it stays within the boundries of what is appropriate for school.

If you have any questions, please do not wait until the last minute.

This post will close on the morning of December 14th.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=KG13629423

Monday, December 05, 2005

Podcast Assignment Part 1

Your Podcast assignment is due Wednesday, December 7
This is a REAL WORLD TECHNOLOGY PROJECT, that requires you to locate information on the Web.

Technical Writing:

In class I showed you how to use iTunes to find and download a Podcast to your computer using the iTunes software. You can use any type of software that you want, but I know that iTunes is run by Apple Computer and they are not going to have any viruses in products they offer in the iTunes store.

I showed you how to update your operating system with Microsoft Windows Update and to check your firewall to make sure iTunes had Internet access. You need to make sure you are asking your parent's for permission to download and to update.

You task was to see if you can find a Podcast that you find interesting. The boundaries are that the Podcast you report on has to pertain to something relevant to school: science, math, social studies, art, drama, sports, and technology. In my class you learn about: energy, communication, transportation, construction, manufacturing etc. So you have to find a Podcast that a 13 or 14 year old would find interesting and share that with the class.

You need to summarize your experience. What happened? What technical difficulties did you encounter? How did you fix them?

In which category did you find your Podcast?
What is the title of your Podcast?
Does it have a URL? (Internet address)
To find the www... address, google the name of your podcast
For example: Google -- " NBA Show Podcast "
Summarize the Podcast

Two questions that you needed to answer by googling are:
Where did the word "Podcast" originate?
What is the significance of "podcasting?"
---------------------------------------------------------------
If you run into technical difficulty or you do not have the ability to Podcast, then you second option is to find a BLOG on podcasting, read about it and write it up.
You can use Blogspot search to find a podcasting blog or Bloglines.

If you do a blog assignment instead of a Podcast, you need to write 10 facts about podcasting that you learn from the blog.

Check out the History of Podcasting.

Remember these are recommendations for podcasts or blogs about podcasting so you had better have a good reason why you are recommeding it.

Limit: 2 pages (front and back)

Part 2 will be posted next week.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Internet Explorations

For your Internet Exploration you need to do the following:
Choose a website. Spend 5 or more minutes looking through the website to get an idea of the type of information or resources found at the website.
Write a paragraph describing what you located.

Next evaluate the website. Tell how it was helpful to you and what you might use it for. If you don't like something about it, what would you do to improve it?

List at least two links they give for additional or related information.

Here are some websites you can explore for your assignment:

FunWorks

KidsHealth

Career Investigation

For the Career Investigation, use the worsheet that I gave you in class. If you lost it, here are the steps:

Choose a career that you are interested in researching.

Answer the following questions:
1. What does this person do every day when they go to work?
2. What are the working conditions?
3. What training and qualifications required for this job?
4. What is the job outlook for this profession?
5. How much can this person expect to earn?(Beginning salaries, mid-range and higest paid)
6. What are related occupations a person could do with this training?
7. Name three places you could go for additional information.

The book we use in class is the Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Write in complete sentences, spelling and punctuation counts!

Sunday, October 23, 2005

First Place - $ 206,269.16 Pratt Through Truss

James and Jonathan in 6th period

had the least expensive Pratt Through Truss at 24 meters.
Their bridge prices was $206,269.16.

Congratulations!!

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Grading Scale for Pratt Through Truss Bridge and Specs

Your Pratt Through Truss needs to be 24 meters high and no modifications to the overall design.

Here is the (revised) grading scale:
under $214,999 = A
$215,000 to $239,999= B
$240,000 to $264,999= C
$265,000 to $289,999=D
$290,000 and up=F

Due date: Monday 10/17/05 -- last day for the Pratt Through Truss

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Building Big

Here is the website that goes along with the video we are watching: Building Big

The three questions that you are going to need to answer for class are:

1. What are the different type of bridges?

2. What are some of the forces acting on a bridge?

3. What are some materials that are used in building bridges?

West Point Bridge Design

Here is the link to the webiste where you can download the West Point Bridge Design software. Be sure to get your parent's permission before you download this. This software is freeware and published by the US Military Academy at West Point. Click download and then click on the link that corresponds to the operating system you have on your computer at home.

Foldables

Here is one of my student's finsihed project. This is a good example of what your foldable should look like and the catagories that were researched.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

More Careers in the Spotlight

--- Interior Design-------------------Nutritionist-----------------------

------Crime Scene Investigator--------- ART Designer----------------------

Monday, September 12, 2005

Spotlight on Careers

Here are some of the careers students wanted to spotlight:

Zoo Keeper ------------------------ Web Designer----------

-----Teacher----------------------- --- Real Estate Agent------------

----------- Make Up Artist--------------------Fire Fighter------------

------------Financial Analyst---------------Farmer-----------------

-----------Chef-----------------Industrial Designer----------------

------Chiropractor---------------------- Biologist------------------

-----------Architect---------------------Animal Caretaker----------

------Actor----------------------Oceanographer-----------------