Saturday, August 30, 2008

Internet access

This weekend I have just been forced to use an Internet cafe although I have ADSL at home. My service provider, Internet Solutions, has problems with its international bandwidth. My Gmail and the Blog are hosted by Google, which is international so no access - so annoying. I have also just bought an extra Gig of bandwidth to use this weekend and no access! Ugh!

Gr 12 CAT Practical paper

Please check the following amendments to CAT Practical marksheet.
2.2.3-Gender and Amount attached: These are Check box Form Fields, not Text Form Fields
4.7.1-Column in formula should be K, not J - they are asked for the highest percentage achieved, not the highest mark achieved
4.7.2-See 4.7.1
6.7-"Sculpture" in the criterion for the query should be "Sculpting"

Some alternative answers:

4.2-Condition in IF function could also be C2>=10
6.2-Validation test for Grade can also be Between 8 And 12
6.4-Input mask for CellNo could also be \0000000000 This forces the first number to be a '0'.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Grade 12 September Practical Paper Errata

Errata on the Gr 12 Practical English paper. SORRY.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Grade 12 September Practical exam papers

Grade 12 September CAT Practical exam papers
Read the previous post on downloading and installing.

According to the posting on 18 July:
  • Passwords for the papers will be made available by SMS 2-3 days prior to the date of the exam (not earlier than that!).
  • The passwords for the memorandums will be made available on the day of the exams.
  • The practical exam will be written on 29 August.

Saving and using files from the web site

When you wish to use exam files from the web site or blog follow the points below:
  1. Right-click on the file name and SAVE it on your hard drive.
  2. Then, in Explorer, right-click on the Zip file name and Extract all.
  3. The data files will extract to the folder DATA Arts Festival (for English) or to the folder DATA Kunstefees (for Afrikaans).
  4. Check that you can open these data files (WITHOUT ENTERING THE PASSWORD FIRST) on the computers that your learners will do their prac exam on.
  5. Make sure that you make the correct folder with data available to the learners.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Gr 12 PAT Phase 5

Here are some examples of my learners Phase 5 - Meiring and Woollgar. They did not get full marks! They should have if they had followed the rubric. This project lost one mark - Galer.
The rubric lacks something or else I missed something. I told my learners to name all files, queries, reports, etc. in a way that they answer a question or solve a problem. The rubric in future should require a word document listing the questions to be solved and where they are solved / answered so that we can mark in a meanngful way.

Friday, August 15, 2008

AIDS lessons

I would like to collect lessons on AIDS which fall into the skills taught in CAT and make a repository of them. I recently made a call for such AIDS lessons.

Congratulations to the CAT teacher, Fieroza, at Durbanville High who responded!

Gr 11 PAT

The Gr 11 PAT is now available - so nice!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Gr 11 Access

My learners have just begun with Access. We started off using the video on What is a database which helped. Have a look at the quiz which has a new section on queries, which my learners have found very useful.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Gr 12 PAT - Phase 5

These PPTs may help you help Phase 5 of the Grade 12 PAT. Thanks to Peter Davidson.

Gr 10 Activity 11

The Hoaxes activity on page 292 has caused such interest in my Grade 10 class! Nice activity. I wonder how other teachers found it.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Selection of learners for CAT

CAT is one of the most important subjects for academic and economic success when a learner leaves school. We must give as many learners as possible the opportunity to study the subject.
IF the classes are over subscribed I recommend a skills test, based on and dependent on the opportunities the learners have had for skill development at your school in grades 8 and 9. I normally give my learners a ‘test’ of creating a PPT based on rather simple instructions. If they cannot read the instructions or cannot create / save the file on the network, then they do not get in. Long beforehand they are told they have to create a PPT. I assume that they can ask someone how to make a PPT if they have not made one in grade 8 and 9 classes. I selected a PPT as it is so simple to use. I expect them to be able to save on the network, especially if they have been at the school for 2 years – if they were interested in computers they should have gravitated to the computer lab and saved on the network.
Maybe in the future CAT will have restrictions based on language and maths ability, but I hope not.
I also give them a lecture about attending school on a regular basis when they do their subject choice. They also see me which may influence their subject choice. And if they did not bother to come for the PPT test, they did not even get onto the selection list.