Jmcshea1's Blog

1/16 Final review

jmcshea1 — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:31:41 +0000

You will have a final on Tuesday, 1/19 during the Summit. The test will have 50 questions taken from the material presented in Modules 2-5. I will send out a review sheet shortly and you may make a 3″ x 5″ note card to use on the test. You must turn in the card, with your name on it, at the end of the test. You may not share note cards. I will close Modules 2-5 at noon on Tuesday. The test is taken directly from the material presented. Good luck.

McShea

1/10/10-make up dailies

jmcshea1 — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:35:19 +0000

OK, here is your chance to make up for missing daily assignments! This is it-for one week, you need to go to www.weather.com , halfway down the page in the middle is the “west” forcast. Click on it and send me an email summary-no cut and paste, use complete sentences and summarize the forcast. Each summary will be 4 times the amount of the previous. These will replace any missing dailies from before and won’t count for extra credit. Check your grade; if you do not have a password contact me at my email.

McShea

1/02/10 semester ends soon

jmcshea1 — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 03:18:46 +0000

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I hope you all had a wonderful break and are ready to finish out the semester. Modules 4 and 5 have quiz links and you should complete all assignments by 1/15/10. The final schedule for a comprehensive final will be determined soon and I will let you know when I know how it will work.

If you joined the course later in the semester (after August), you should have done the Welcome module assignments and Modules 2-5 in order. All assignments should be complete by 1/15 and no assignments will be graded after that time. All modules will be closed on that date.

I have adjusted the grades to reflect that the daily assignments will only be 10% of your grade. If you did them and the other assignments completely, you would get a 100%. If you did everything, but did not do the daily assignments, you would get a 90%. Questions?

I will be making one last sweep through the assignments and will offer a replacement “daily” assignment that gets half credit for anyone that did not do them the first time. This will be the last time to salvage your grade. Time has run out, make the most of your opportunities.

McShea

12/26 Hope you had a nice Christmas!

jmcshea1 — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 03:50:16 +0000

wow. I am finally (fingers crossed) able to get onto all the sites I need to for the online school. I can’t tell you how frustrating it has been for me to first have a computer that could not access the internet, then have a new computer that was just doing weird stuff that was different from what I was used to and I didn’t have enough time to sit and figure out what the problem was! Even though I can get to the sites, I have to tell you there are still problems.

I can not edit the moodle information until I can reach Chai again. Most of the pictures in the moodle do not match or are not showing up in the Moodle and I am sorry for that. The CD version of the text is available for you to check out at the online school. Contact Ms. Parker for details. I am adding quizzes to the moodle, which have been missing from the earlier Modules; then had a student completing quizzes for Module 4 that I had not written yet. If you have done the quiz by hitting the link at the end of the Module, don’t do the quiz link listed after the assignment listing. If you have not completed the quiz in the module-DO NOT click on the link at the end of the module “assessment”. Go back to the course module listing and if I have opened the quiz link under the module listing, please use that. The questions are the same, it is just WAY easier to grade everything in the quia quiz area. Thanks for helping and once I get ahold of Chai, it will no longer be an issue! I will remove the quiz link and file upload off the module.

I will complete the module 4 quizzes and open Module 5 in Jan with quizzes. These will be the 5 modules on the semester exam. We are still working out the details of how that will come together; when I know, you will know.

For now, I can access all the sites; just in case things go nuts again, PLEASE use the forums for problems. I could always get to the moodle, but was stuck out of my email for nearly a month-ok, 2 and 1/2 weeks, but it felt like a month! Thanks for your patience, as always; continue to chip away at the open module assignments. When we figure out the final, I will give you a review, then after a week, I will close the modules. You all seem pretty independent, but contact me if you have any problems.

McShea

12/10 Module 4 is open

jmcshea1 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:17:25 +0000

Hello,

I am opening Module 4 completely today, but the quizzes for each module are not done. You can do the assignments and I will add the quiz for each section of the module to the bottom like I did for Module 3.

Problems with the module: for some reason, the module now has the wrong pictures with the articles. Use the forum, but the pictures may not be fixed soon. If you would like to see the “real” picture, the text is available on CD.

One and a half weeks to Christmas break!

McShea

12/1 Quizzes

jmcshea1 — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:44:27 +0000

For those that have been onto the Moodle, you know that I am now adding quizzes for the missing links on the modules. This should fix the problems with the grades. Right now, your grades are calculated as 50% homework (notes and other online submissions) and 50% tests/quizzes. Your first grades were all out of whack because there were no homework or quiz categories; then, I got your info switched into my grading program, you only had one quiz. That one quiz made up 50% of your grade! The quizzes you are getting now will fix the imbalance. Time permitting, I will go back to add quizzes for the module 2 material, but for now I will finish the module 3 quizzes and have module 4 opened with quizzes in the appropriate places.

You can access your grade via my Buchanan website < http://edu.skylinecms.com/juliemcshea/index.php?pageid=18 > and select “grade details” on the left side of the page. Or you can go directly to < http://teacherweb.com/CA/BuchananHighSchool/McShea/index.html > and use your last name to access. You need to have the randomly generated password I created to get in. Email me if you do not have it. Also, if you would like to change your password, send me an email and I will put the new password in when the grades get uploaded.

That is about it for this blog. Now that we are getting into the course material, I want you to all know that the text book used for this course is available on a disc. If you would like to have access to the material in another format, email me and cc Rob Darrow when you request a copy.

See you online!

McShea

11/17 Elluminate and grades

jmcshea1 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:52:37 +0000

I was just getting ready to post the Elluminate link when I realized that I have to take my daughter to get her cast off today. I will have to re-schedule the time and I am sorry that this is short notice, but if you can make the earlier time, I am going to set up the meeting for 11:30 am. I will turn on Messenger around 10:30 if any of you want to IM me with questions. The link for the session is

https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.82557220EB83C05ACD5AB2C14A601C

I will discuss quizzes, grades and Module 3.

Thursday is the next Summit day (12:30-5:30) and attendance is mandatory. See the school announcement board or contact Ms. Parker for details.

McShea

11/12 no session today

jmcshea1 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:01:57 +0000

sorry for the late notice, but I am home with a sick daughter and will move the elluminate session to next Tuesday. Email if you have questions,

mcshea

11/8 next Elluminate on Thurs; welcome module

jmcshea1 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:10:23 +0000

Hello innovators!

OK, I ran the 1/2 marathon today. I am more tired than I thought I would be. I will be going through your assignments tomorrow, then planning the elluminate session. I will actually have a power point now that we are moving out of the review material. I will be up Messenger if you need me Tues, but will put the Elluminate link up for a Thursday meeting.

For any new science 1 students, I will also be getting the welcome module together. Students that have already completed Module 1 need not complete the welcome module, but all new students should.

Any students not doing work and want to before being asked to leave the school can complete the welcome module for partial credit.

Any questions, shoot me an email…except on Wednesday when I, as a veteran, will be enjoying the Clovis Veteran’s Day parade. If you see a veteran, thank them because they don’t get thanked enough!

mcshea

11/5 Module 3

jmcshea1 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:41:15 +0000

Finally, we are getting into the actual Earth Science material. I am done waiting for individuals to decide to start doing the work. Module 3.01 and 3.02 are open. I am putting the open/due dates in the title of the module; if there are any problems within a module, please post it to the forum so I can fix it. Quizzes will be on the “Quia” link and will be put into your grade after the due date closes.

The daily assignments will be added to your grade, but now that I can see who is regularly checking in with the course, start working on the module assignments. If I can ever get my internet problem resolved at home, I will plan on opening 3 module assignments per week. If I can not get internet at home, the first opening will be on Monday (after noon, but I won’t hold it against you). You should still check in to see if a new assignment is up, but if not, please check back.

I have not finished grading the dailies or module 2 assignments; when I have, I will send you your password and the link to see your grades.

Again, thanks for the patience and persistence you have shown.

McShea