Here are some remarks addressing matters raised by students via twitter.

1. Twitter, Engrade, the Course Blog, and Mindmeister can be accessed from links appearing at the base of webpages appearing on the course website.
2. Do you want to make your Direct (D) messages via twitter productive? Please include your full name & period # in the message. Otherwise, I will not be able to link the message with a particular student until I get in front of a PC.
3. Everyone should now be registered with Engrade and Mindmeister. Any problems? Please let me know.
4. When you click on the “Courses” tab on the course website you’ll be able to access the Spring Term’s topic list organized by textbook chapters. Along with the chapter titles, you’ll see links to Classwork (CW), Lessons and Assignments, and a Photo Album.
5.  CW links are provided to aid students who were absent on the day the classwork was completed. If you were absent, get the textbook from me and get the classwork assignment instructions by clicking on the CW link. Complete the assignment at home, return the textbook to me, then attach the completed assignment to the appropriate lesson notes.
6. Lesson notes and assignments are similarly accessed via links. To address printing issues, use the “Plain View” link in the upper-right corner of the document. Then, click on “Print” in the upper-left of the document.
7. Notebook collection info can be found in an earlier post on this blog.
8. The Photo Album will allow you to connect an image with a topic discussed during a lesson.
9. If you have difficulty ‘seeing’ or interacting with any of the webpages we use to do our work, follow these triage steps before contacting me:

• Refresh your browser. If you don’t know how to do this, close the browser, wait a few seconds, open the browser, then go directly to the webpage in question.
• If that fails, update your browser using the method specific for that browser and/ or operating system (PC, Mac, Linux, etc.). Then, restart your PC, open your browser, then go directly to the webpage in question.
• If that fails, enable “Java” in your browser. Please visit the home webpage of your browser for instructions on enabling Java. For Firefox & Interent Explorer, you can do this via the ‘Tools’ menu.
• If that fails, the problem may be the compatibility of your browser. Here is a list of browsers, in order of preference:
• Firefox 3.6 or later
• Internet Explorer 7 or 8. [Not I.E. 6]
• Everything Else (in order of preference):
• Safari
• Opera
• Chrome
• Flock

Still have question? Leave a comment and I’ll reply.

http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/public_map_shell/31980913?width=600&height=400&zoom=1

As alluded to in my entry of 28 January, I am proud of my students from H1G, 2009. You have performed well especially at a time when fatigue and paranoia take its toll. Why am I proud:

1. 166 students took a 100 question final exam, when their teacher (ME) didn’t know that the exam was no-longer 80 questions- as it had been in the past. I, therefore, failed to inform them of it.
2. The overall average of this large group of students exceeded last year’s class, which took an 80 question exam.
3. The final exams given at the end of each World History & Geography course (there are four of them) are considered by some to be more difficult, as a whole, than the World History & Geography Regent exam.
4. There was a significant group of students that scored higher on the final exam than their test average during the course. A sign that students took the exam seriously and prepared appropriately.
5. This group of students achieved a passing rate of 98.8%. Despite the numerous disturbances that plague our school’s schedule.

There are many other things that deserve mentioning, but I’ll leave that for my forthcoming post covering the general statistics of the Fall term, 2009.

Job well done! Keep it up!

Having up to 170 students can create a volume of EMail. To speed the process of prioritization, and eliminate the chance of acquiring malware (computer virus, trojans, worms, etc.), a well-composed Subject Line is vital. Here are the steps:

1. Format: Pd#_LastName1stInitial_TopicOfMessage
2. Don’t include more than one topic in an EMail message. If you want to discuss two or more items, send two or more messages.
3. Keep the Subject Line information as ‘short’ as possible without losing meaning.

Here is an example: Mary wants to inform Mr. V that she will be absent on February 15th for a doctor’s appointment. The Subject Line should look something like this:

For former and new students, our preparation for the new term’s instruction begins today. Most remains unchanged from the Fall term, but a few changes did creep in.

1. If you have a twitter account, go to step #2. If not, visit Twitter and set up a new account.
2. Be sure your name is displayed in the sidebar of your twitter profile page. This will allow me to identify you for step #3 below.
3. If you are already ‘Following’ my twitter profile (WorldHistReview), good. If not, please ‘follow’ my profile.
4. When I see that you are ‘following’ me, I’ll ‘follow’ you in return. When we are ‘following’ each other, we have the capability to communicate directly and privately via ‘Direct’ (D) messageing. We can communicate via the ‘reply’ option (@) as well, but the conversation will be publicly visible on our respective twitter timelines.
5. Direct messages and replying will be the primary method of communication between us outside the classroom. EMail will be for parent use or if the 140 character limit on twitter is insufficient to express your thoughts.
6. Open a free Mindmeister account.

The ‘Policies’ and ‘FAQ’ tabs of the course website should be revisited and read. Within the ‘Policies’ tab you’ll see a sub-category regarding notebooks. Notebooks will be collected and evaluated for completeness as it was last term.