Hey everyone, you are in great shape. Most of you have earned your full 500 points! Some have rolled right past 500 and some are nearly there. Friday (Feb 10) is the last day of the six weeks. I've been out of town most of the week, but I *think* that I have graded all the assignments that have been turned in so far. 

Check your grade book and make sure I've given you the points you think you've earned. If you have a question, please ask. You'll have until tomorrow at midnight to get your 4th Six Weeks points in. Let me know if you need any assistance. 

Happy Friday!

Wanted to remind you all to complete your Week 23 Critical Analysis before you log off today. 

Also, I wanted to remind you that next week is the last week of the 4th Six Weeks. We'll be calculating your grade based on 500. That means that if you have 500 or more points by Friday, Feb. 10, you'll get a 100 on the report card. If you have less that 500 points, take that number and divide by 500 to get your percentage.

As always, if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask on the Q&A Forum, or call, email, text or Skype me. 

I came a cross a great instructional video a friend of mine made, teaching you how to take better photos with a mobile phone. We don't have any official assignments in this course about taking pics with a phone, so I'm throwing this in for FREE. You get to learn something new, just because. 

You can see the video here:  http://video.irvingisd.net/videos/iisd/ecourses/mug_shots/ 

Thanks to Jerram Froese at Irving ISD for creating and sharing this video tutorial. 

We've reached another Friday. Looking at your progress, I can tell you that you've completed the most technical part of this course. From here on, we'll be focused primarily on taking pictures. Yes, there will be some new vocabulary to learn or new concepts, but we'll learn that while we are out shooting. 

Let me remind you that Week 22 Critical Analysis is due today. I've had to ask a few of you to resubmit your past critical analysis assignments because they didn't meet the requirements. 

Hint:  2 x 2 means that you will write TWO multisentence paragraphs for TWO of your classmate's portfolios. Yes, that means you'll write a minimum of four paragraphs of critical analysis each week.

Before you submit this week's critical analysis, PLEASE take another look at the Guidelines and Examples. 

The Guthrie students don't have school on Jan 20th, so today is kinda like a Friday. But, when you are a student in an online course, learning always marches on and it isn't punctuated by a ringing bell. 

I'll take this opportunity to remind you that the  assignment is due by Friday at midnight. Week 21 Critical Analysis (30pts) DUE Jan 20, 2012 . Not that everyone have some photos posted, I'll be expecting your comments to be focusing on the photos of your classmates. I'll also be looking for comments that go beyond "they are cute," they are nice" and "you take good pictures." Let's start using some new photography vocabulary terms.

Need a list to get you thinking? aperture, shutter speed, ISO, landscape, portrait, crop, focus point, camera shake, subject, light quality and aspect ratio. 

ALSO, don't forget to turn in your  Week 21 Status Check (20pts) DUE WED, Jan 18, 2012  assignment. It was due yesterday, but I still want you to turn it it. 

Just a reminder that your first Status Check is due today. It shouldn't take too long to complete, but it will get you a quick 20 points. Let me know if you have any questions about your grades. 

Week 21 Status Check (20pts) DUE WED, Jan 18, 2012 

I see that most of you are ready to start working on 4.05 Cropping and Aspect Ratios. 

When you get a minute, you've got to check out Angela's portfolio for that lesson. She did a great job with her cropping and the explanations. Very well done: http://stevensdigitalmedia.weebly.com/405.html 

Thanks for doing a great job. Good luck everyone. Have fun with it. 

Another Friday means that another Critical Analysis is due. This is the end of Week 20. Make sure to turn in your Critical analysis soon:  http://gvs.mrooms.net/mod/assignment/view.php?id=1484  

Not many folks have submitted assignment 4.04 yet. After looking it over this morning, and after receiving a question on the Q&A forum, I decided to offer some clarification. The video below may offer some hints as to what we're looking for in Assignment 4.04. I also went in and edited the assignment rubric to make things a little easier. I hope this helps. 

We've made it the end of the first week of the course! We've learned about Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO and how they affect exposure. We've learned how to create a website on Weebly and how to get around in the course. We've also learned the names of our classmates and enjoyed getting to know one another.

Every student knows about the Friday super powers - that feeling you have on days like today, knowing that you've earned your way to another weekend. Use your Friday super powers to plan some time outside this weekend with your camera. How about 30 minutes, shooting anything you see?

This isn't an assignment for a grade, and I don't have any instructions other than 1. spend some time outside 2. shoot what you see and 3. have some fun. You don't have to share what you shoot, but it would be fun if you wanted to. 

Use your super powers for good this weekend.