The Prairie Hill definition of Publishing is:  Combining text and Graphics in a Layout.

 After a fashion students have been publishing since very early in their elementary school careers.  To cut a picture from a magazine, paste it on a poster board and write a caption for it IS publishing according to our PHSD definition.  

In the computer lab our publishing efforts will of course be significantly more sophisticated.  To "combine test with graphics in a layout" students will need to use three type of programs:  graphics(paint and drawing programs), text (word processors) and layout (html editors, PowerPoint or OOPresentation).  

The programs we will use in the computer lab are THE G.I.M.P. (GNU Image Manipulation Program) for bitmaps,  OpenOffice (OO) Draw for vectored graphics,  OOWrite (or MSWord) for text,  NVU for layout and OOPresentation (or PowerPoint) for screen presentations.  These (with the exception of MSWord and PowerPoint) are programs originally written for Unix/Linux based computers and were given to the public by such companys as SunMicroSystems (Open Office), Linspire (NVU) and The Open Source Institute.

II have chosen to use Open Office, NVU and GIMP for a number of reasons:
1) Everything a student learns in these programs is directly transferable to the commercial programs like MSOffice, Photoshop and Illustrator.
2) These programs are in the public domain or are Open Source. (www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html) therefore you are able to acquire them with little or no expense and  our students will be able to have the same great programs they use at school loaded on their home computers.
3) I am able to legally give copies of these three programs to students.
4) Last but not least - they are GREAT PROGRAMS!!!!

Links:  NVU, The G.I.M.P.  and Open Office  

If you've received a CD burned with the programs from Prairie Hill School you may read these INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS or email Mr. Zdeb for  assistance

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7th Grade 02/15/2007 - 

"The Meal" - 7th

Using the internet and MSExcel students will plan and budget a full banquet for 25 people.

No prepared food will be allowed.
All entres are to be made from scratch  with recipes found on the interent.
An Excell spread sheet will be created to help document  and price all meals etc.

URL's for all sites used will be included in the Excel document as well as images of the various dishes.

More will be discuseed on this project as it simmers!!!!
5) Final Project - Images and text combined in NVU (html editor) and published to Web

6th Grade - 02/20/2007

Touch Typing - The next five weeks of the semester were spent working on students typing skills using the Mavis Beacon  Teaches Touch Typing.  While Mavis Beacon is an exceptionally fine program and maybe purchased for your student to use at home. there are numerous typing/keyboarding programs on the market.
Grades for Keyboarding will be based on four criteria:  1) Accuracy as determined by the MB program.  98% or above is our goal.  2) WPM (words per minute) of 25 wpm for an A.  3) Amount of keyboard mastered as determined by program.  All student should be in the Upper Case area.  4) Observation of basic home row use.

3rd and 4th: Introduction to Open Office Draw:  01/10/2007
Basic Tools and hierarchy for program:
Rectanlgle Menu
Oval Menu
Shapes functions   
Save and Open files        
Addition of Slides
Grouping
and then..............
DESIGN THE ALPHABET!!!!!


Research Project #1.  Student  Teams to Research (Web Based) selected animal following this outline :
"The Meal" - 7th

Using the internet and MSExcel students will plan and budget a full banquet for 25 people.

No prepared food will be allowed.
All entres are to be made from scratch  with recipes found on the interent.
An Excell spread sheet will be created to help document  and price all meals etc.

URL's for all sites used will be included in the Excel document as well as images of the various dishes.

More will be discuseed on this project as it simmers!!!!



Touch Typing - The next five weeks of the semester were spent working on students typing skills using the Mavis Beacon  Teaches Touch Typing.  While Mavis Beacon is an exceptionally fine program and maybe purchased for your student to use at home. there are numerous typing/keyboarding programs on the market.

Grades for Keyboarding will be based on four criteria:  1) Accuracy as determined by the MB program.  98% or above is our goal.  2) WPM (words per minute) of 25 wpm for an A.  3) Amount of keyboard mastered as determined by program.  All student should be in the Upper Case area.  4) Observation of basic home row use.

Internet
1) Google searching and  "Safe Search" preferences.
2) General Search characteristics
3) Picture File Capture (download)

Graded:  Student must demonstrate the ability to search for, select and  save an image from the Internet.   The image must be within an assigned size and saved successfully to the students home folder on the network.

Previous lesson plan pages saved here for archival and reference. page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5, page 6, page7,

2) Vectored "Drawing" using OpenOffice Draw and OpenOffice Presentation -  Explore interface.
a)  Difference between bitmaps (GIMP type image) and vectored (OODraw)
b)   Create move, resize, delete (use of 'handles') object (rectangle, oval and line)
c)   Use of 'filled' polygon tool
d)  Object attributes and the  hierarchy  - change various attributes
d)  Object type (meta file, 3d, bitmap) converting
f)  Using 'shape' to reform shape attribute
g)   Grouping objects  (use of "go into group")
h)  Arrangement on the 'Z" axis  -  move to front, back etc.
2a) Presentation Specific

Graded: Student should be able to create a  'new' workspace in OODraw.  Demonstrate the ability to save and retrieve graphic images . Student will create an image that clearly shows the use of 'copy and paste', layers and the basic tool set. - Students should be able to create a new presentation with multiple pages.  They should be able to navigate the various pages. - Bitmap / Vector Final Question

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Multimedia Presentation Rubric
Biography Rubric












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