Blog Post Thursday 4/30!

Recognize the buildings in the picture above?  If you drive from here north on 101 you can't miss them as you cross the redwood city - San Carlos border!  Oracle is valued at 193 billion dollars!!  Can you even comprehend that number?  I can't!  And believe it or not, tomorrow they are opening their doors to us and the rest of the Sequoia Union High School District.

For today's blog post, please respond to the following:

1. What is Oracle and what do they do?
2. Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle and CEO from 1977-2014 is a very interesting man.  Take a moment to look him up and describe one thing you find interesting about his "life story."
3. Tomorrow we will focus on the idea of entrepreneurship.  What is an entrepreneur and what are some important skills somebody interested in being an entrepreneur must have?
4. Lastly, tomorrow is a professional day.  We are visiting a high profile company.  Why is it of critical importance that you be here on time (8:15) and dressed to impress.  Think about ways tomorrow can affect you, your school, your district and even all students of your age, background and experience!

Thank you for a thorough, thoughtful response.  Once complete, please finish Unit 2, Lesson 11.1 in edutyping!  We will continue with Adobe Flash shortly!

Tuesday 4-28, The Power of Animation

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday!

This morning we are going to cover a few topics and still make a bit more progress on our Bouncing Objects project!  I have been asked to show you a brief video in preparation for our field trip Friday, Ms. Escobar is going to come by with permission slips to a pretty incredible college fair being held next week, Thursday, and we will have a quick blog post and lesson of edutyping.

For today's blog think of your favorite animated show or movie.  Certainly not all animated shows or movies are made using flash which, in general, represents 2-D animation BUT the ideas of what is involved in the making of a movie aren't much different.  For your blog respond to the following:

1. What is your favorite animated show or movie
2. What is it about the show or movie that you particularly like?  Name 3 things at least.  It could be the characters, the story line, the humor, the animated movements themselves, etc.
3. What skills that you see in a show like the one you discussed above would you like to learn?  For example, would you be interested in learning how to make a character walk? talk? fly?  Explain why this skill would be particularly interesting to you to learn and what you would want to do with it if creating an animation of your own!

After completing the blog, we are on to Unit 2, Lesson 10.2.  The short video clip we will be watching can also be found online at: https://vimeo.com/125276725 in case you are not in class for this.  You will probably recognize Sharon (the speaker) from one of our trips this year, she wasn't able to make it to all sites in the district and so this was the best way to dissemenate the information to all students :)  Thanks for your attention!

SPRING BREAK!!! Is over :(

Good Morning, Happy Monday and welcome (believe it or not) to the last week of April and the final stretch of the 2014-15 school year.  Next year you will be juniors and upper class-men!  I bet it seems pretty crazy how quickly your first two years went all of a sudden!!

Today we are going to kick off the morning with a quick reflection of the following:

1. How was your Spring Break?  What was the most fun thing you did and what is one reason you are excited to be back at school?
2. How are your grades?  I know it's never something you want to kick off your first morning back at school thinking about BUT you have to get back to reality at some point!  Are they good, bad, ugly?  Which classes are you doing well in?  Which classes do you need to get focused in and really work to improve?
3. Believe it or not, we are a mere 6 weeks until everything is said and done.  The school year will be over and you will be headed off to summer vacation!  What are your goals between now and then?  Be specific!  What grades do you need to get?  Are you still working on getting stuff lined up for this summer?  Have you registered for your classes for next year and do you know what they are?

That should be enough for today's post BUT keep in mind it should be just a starting point for you to start thinking about success and how you are going to ensure you get there!!  Thanks for your thorough, thoughtful response ;)  Before we get into our lesson for today, please be sure to complete Unit 2, Lesson 10.1 in edutyping!

A Mere 2 Hours of Classtime until Spring Break!

Good Morning, Happy Thursday and Happy (almost) Spring Break!!!

Here we go - here's what's on the line between the moment you login today and the time we check out tomorrow for Spring Break!!

1. Complete one of the two module options in CodeAcademy.  This can be either the "Make a Website" OR the "Make an Interactive Website."
1. One of these must be 100% complete - if you are stuck, try to bypass that step as you make your way to the finish - remember to double and triple check your code for any mistakes!
2. Complete through Unit 2, Lesson 9.2 in edutyping!  No less, no more!
3. Check School Loop and make sure you received credit for your Career PowerPoint (some people are missing that assignment)
1. email it to me at crubin@seq.org if you did not receive credit
4. Email me if you completed any blog posts during my 2 week absence.  I am offering extra credit for those posts but they must have been done between March 23 and April 3.  To receive the extra credit, simply email me at crubin@seq.org and tell me you completed blogs during my 2 week absence.

Thank you!!

Work, Work, Work!

Per our discussion yesterday:

• By Next Friday you must:
• Complete Unit 2, Lesson 9.2 in Edutyping
• Complete the Make a Website or Make an Interactive Website
• Remember you absolutely must complete the unit without any errors.  If you have errors you must go back and attempt to sort out what went wrong.  There is a "hints" button on the left side panel when you scroll down.  In addition, don't be shy to ask your neighbors.  I designed the seating chart so there would be "experts" nearby at all times.

This will be our agenda, nothing more - nothing less, between now and Spring Break.

Monday April 6th Update and Outlook

Good Morning, Happy Monday!

I apologize for my absence over the past two weeks, mainly the fact that there was not consistency with the sub in my place.  That is unacceptable.  There are certain things that may not have been clearly communicated and, while frustrating, it is clear that, at miniumum, it was made clear you were to be working with the website codeacademy.com.

With that said, you are responsible for completing the 5 Unit "Make a Website" program in CodeAcademy.  This will be due on the Friday before Spring Break meaning you will have 2 full weeks to work on this still (plenty of time).  While there were blog posts and edutyping requested of you during my absence, I do understand that this may not have been clearly communicated.  With that said, each of you who posted a blog during my absence will receive 5 extra credit points for each day you posted.  You may not go back and make these up.  They were either posted during the weeks of 3/23-27 and 3/30-4/3 or they were not.  As for Edutyping, although you were also responsible for a lesson of edutyping each day, again, I recognize this may not have been clearly communicated.  For that reason, I wish to make it clear that you will have until next Friday, April 24th, to be completed with Unit 2, Lesson 9.2.  That would be one lesson for the 8 days I was gone and 2 lessons over the next two weeks.

Finally, for today's blog post, please respond to the following:

1. How was your weekend?
2. How have you been doing in school, academically, over the past two weeks?
3. What struggles have you had? What areas have you been doing particularly well in?
4. What was your impression of codeacademy and making a website?  What challenges have you faced?  Successes?
5. How well did you use your time during my absence?  Be honest!!  Were you here everyday?  Focused? Working hard?  Could you have been more on task?

Thanks for a thorough, thoughtful response.  Glad to be back!