INFORMATION FOR ALL CLASSES
We are about a month into the new year and my head is finally above water enough to push out my first (of hopefully many) newsletters to the parents of students in the Arts AV program at HHS. Below you will some current event information both for all classes and for each individual class. I will try and publish these newsletters as often as I can (shooting for bi-monthly) to help you all stay more informed about your students happenings.
THE NUMBERS GAME - A BIT ABOUT GRADING
We are about to hit the stage where the gradebook starts to fill up with assignments and the point values really start to matter. Therefore, I wanted to start this newsletter by letting you know how to make sense of some of the codes in our Arts AV gradebook.
M?A? - Nearly all the assignments in Arts AV begin with a Mcode followed by an A, Q, or D. These codes help you easily understand what, and from where, your student has work. The "M" stands for Module and the space after the M tell which module. Sometimes it is a number like "M1" equals "Module 1"; in other classes it may be something like MPP which stands for "Module Package Production" either way any assignments coded that way are accessible, and many of them completable in our online Canvas classroom. The second part of the code tells you if the activity as an "A" (Assignment) "Q" (Quiz) or "D" (Discussion). Again all assignments coded in this fashion can be found on Canvas.
WHAT'S ABOUT ZEROS, AND WHAT IN THE WORLD IS .05: In our class if you have a zero on an assignment that is generally an indication that you did not complete the assignment but can still make it up. There are some exceptions to this rule but the general idea is if it is a zero get it fixed! After two weeks most zeros in the gradebook will be adjusted to .05. If you have a .05 on an assignment your makeup window for that assignment has passed and Mr. Johnson will no longer adjust that grade.
We are about to hit the stage where the gradebook starts to fill up with assignments and the point values really start to matter. Therefore, I wanted to start this newsletter by letting you know how to make sense of some of the codes in our Arts AV gradebook.
M?A? - Nearly all the assignments in Arts AV begin with a Mcode followed by an A, Q, or D. These codes help you easily understand what, and from where, your student has work. The "M" stands for Module and the space after the M tell which module. Sometimes it is a number like "M1" equals "Module 1"; in other classes it may be something like MPP which stands for "Module Package Production" either way any assignments coded that way are accessible, and many of them completable in our online Canvas classroom. The second part of the code tells you if the activity as an "A" (Assignment) "Q" (Quiz) or "D" (Discussion). Again all assignments coded in this fashion can be found on Canvas.
WHAT'S ABOUT ZEROS, AND WHAT IN THE WORLD IS .05: In our class if you have a zero on an assignment that is generally an indication that you did not complete the assignment but can still make it up. There are some exceptions to this rule but the general idea is if it is a zero get it fixed! After two weeks most zeros in the gradebook will be adjusted to .05. If you have a .05 on an assignment your makeup window for that assignment has passed and Mr. Johnson will no longer adjust that grade.
CLASS SPECIFIC INFORMATION
VIDEO PRODUCTION: We spend the first few weeks on creative thinking and brainstorming techniques. Your students full time homework assignment is to constantly be thinking about and refining video ideas for the year and hopefully these assignments helped them to do this more meaningfully. Take a moment to ask your students what ideas they have for upcoming video projects including PSA's, How-To Videos, and their Free Create. We are shifting gears now to the tech side of things as we have covered all the gear and will now begin shooting some video in our hallways before editing it all together in a project called "The City Symphony". You can see samples from previous years by checking out the video at the right. We will shoot clips this week for this project and edit it together next week. | |
FOUNDATIONS: It takes quite a while to get everyone up and running in our program so we have spent the better part of the frist few weeks getting comfortable with the computers, equipment procedures, and just general culture of our AV program. We are now knee deep in our photography unit. In particular we just wrapped up a creative photo project where students had to find letters of the alphabet hidden in everyday objects in the hall. They then had to use photoshop to create thier name out of the letters. You can see a sample at the right. We will continue photography activities for the next or so. One thing you should be checking in with your student on is the weekly shortcut keys (think weekly spelling list but for computer literacy) and the weekly career homework. Both these activities can sneak up on kids who aren't regularly used to doing homework tasks for their elective classes. You will see these assignments coded "SK" and "CHW" in the gradebook so if your student has poor grades in those just know those are weekly activities that should be completed at home. |
BROADCAST:
We are focusing now on "Package" production which is basically the news features you see reportes putting together in the nightly news. We are currently working on a class wide one for practice but shortly your students will go in groups of 3-4 and produce their own package(s). Ask your student what their plan is for their particular package. In a few weeks we will be finished with packages and will move into the studio where we will begin producing the daily Hawk HIT News.
We are focusing now on "Package" production which is basically the news features you see reportes putting together in the nightly news. We are currently working on a class wide one for practice but shortly your students will go in groups of 3-4 and produce their own package(s). Ask your student what their plan is for their particular package. In a few weeks we will be finished with packages and will move into the studio where we will begin producing the daily Hawk HIT News.
PHOTOGRAPHY:
After a few weeks of setup and equipment orientation we are now ready to start taking some pictures. We had a really fun "free walk" Friday last week and the students show some good raw talent. We will now get into a series of lectures on basic photography principals each of which has it's own shooting excersize. One long run project that you should be aware of is your students requirment to contribute 15 yearbook quality photographs every 15 days to the yearbook team. To make it as simple as possible we have made these deadlines every 15th and 30th of each month. So, the first yearbook deadline is coming up this Sunday. Students can turn the pcitures in via google drive and the pcitures can be of anything as long as it is something potentiall useful to the HHS yearbook staff (sorry no pictures of cute dogs needed).
After a few weeks of setup and equipment orientation we are now ready to start taking some pictures. We had a really fun "free walk" Friday last week and the students show some good raw talent. We will now get into a series of lectures on basic photography principals each of which has it's own shooting excersize. One long run project that you should be aware of is your students requirment to contribute 15 yearbook quality photographs every 15 days to the yearbook team. To make it as simple as possible we have made these deadlines every 15th and 30th of each month. So, the first yearbook deadline is coming up this Sunday. Students can turn the pcitures in via google drive and the pcitures can be of anything as long as it is something potentiall useful to the HHS yearbook staff (sorry no pictures of cute dogs needed).