Speech about Christmas and Advent

I had the opportunity to write down a speech about Advent and how we prepare for Christmas. This is a duet and students from my club performed it well. Just wanted to share in case it'll be of help to you.

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Christmas. A lovely word to hear. A season everybody is excited about!

But what does it really mean? What is its importance for us as students?

To our school president, our high school principal, school administrators, teachers, and fellow students, good morning.

Yesterday was the first Sunday of advent. But what does that signify? Well, as a member of Media Club, I researched the Internet and found some answers. And here are the following:

… Merriam-Webster defines Christmas as a Christian feast on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Christ, and Advent is the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas, observed by some Christians as a season of prayer and fasting.

Wikipedia on the other hand defined Advent, from the Latin word adventus meaning "coming", as a season observed in many Western Christian churches, a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas.

A friend of mine in Facebook defined the season as vacation, celebrating parties, having fun, getting gifts, and a time to sleep and not do anything.

But isn’t Advent and Christmas more than these?

Christmas, we must remember, is fundamentally about the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the son of God. It is more than a day or a season; it signifies our salvation, the promise of forgiveness and everlasting life. And of course a reminder of our eternal duty to love and do good unto others. And Advent is simply to prepare us for the coming of this day.

But if Advent and Christmas is this important, it is an immense task to prepare for, isn’t it? But as a student, is there anything we can do?

Yes, we can help in the preparation in our small and simple ways. I, for instance, can prepare for the season by spending more time with my family and helping in the little chores at home. Not only we can learn more practical things, we get a little exercise.

Or we can use up more time studying to get better grades rather than to surfing what is more than necessary in the Internet. With barely three weeks left in the 3rd quarter, it will be nice to get better scores in our quizzes and activities.

And of course, we can pray for others, especially those who are in great pain and need. A little time we sacrifice would do great healing.

Indeed, these may be small things, but I know, in the long run, these will greatly contribute to our progress to become better persons, not just for the sake of our family or for others but also for ourselves.

So how about you, my dear schoolmates? To end, I would like to leave you these questions for reflection. How do you plan to spend the Advent and prepare for Christmas? Even in the simplest of your ways, how do you plan to serve others? And how are you to become a better person?

May everyone have a wonderful and meaningful Advent! Thank you and good day!

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Notes in Computer IV

The following is the link to the reviewer ginven in the Computer class:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5Eku7tM-clgMThiN2QyN2MtOGM4ZC00OWJjLWEzYTYtZDUxN2RiZGU1NTFi&hl=en_US

SYLLABUS IN COMPUTER IV

ATENEO DE ILOILO
Santa Maria Catholic School
High School Department

SYLLABUS IN COMPUTER IV

I. COURSE TITLE: JAVA PROGRAMMING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECT MANAGEMENT

II. COURSE DESCRIPTION

Computer IV deals in the development of the learners’ knowledge in programming skills in terms of doing programming exercises through object-oriented programming. The course also allows them to enhance their logical and analytical skills by immersing into the different facets of computing.

The subject course has two essential and complementary parts: Java Programming, and I.T. Project Management. The first part of the course covers some programming fundamentals that will aide in learning to program using Java language and to equip the students the essential logical and analytical skills that would enable them to create simple programs. The last part of the course is a culmination of their computer subjects from first year to fourth year through an I.T. project. The I.T. Project Management is a project oriented course that will instill team support and effort as the students will undergo the same procedures of an I.T. Team.

III. GENERAL OBJECTIVES

At the end of the school year, students are expected to:
1. define common terms and basic concepts in object-oriented programming;
2. enhance programming skills by constructing java programs in solving simple or common programming problems;
3. learn the basic principles of I.T. project management;
4. simulate phases of I.T. project management through a small scale I.T. project; and
5. present IT project as a Team output.

IV. COURSE TOPICS AND PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

A. FIRST QUARTER
Java Programming

1. IT Fundamentals I
a. The Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics
b. Number Systems and Conversion
c. ASCII and the Machine Language

2. Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming
a. Basic Concepts in Object-Oriented Programming
b. Introduction to Java
c. Getting Started
d. Compiling a Java Program using an IDE
e. Executing a Java Program using an IDE
f. Common Programming Errors

3. Your First Java Program
a. Explaining Welcome.java
b. Explaining Main.java

4. Data Types, Literals, Keywords and Identifiers
a. Keywords
b. Identifiers
c. Data Types
d. Literals

5. Java Operators
a. Arithmetic Operators
b. Relational Operators
c. Logical Operators
d. Bitwise Operators
e. Operator Precedence

6. Decisions
a. if statement
b. if-else statement
c. Nested if statement
d. switch statement
e. break statement

Project:
1. Java program calculating the taxes based on different inputs
2. Proposal on final project in Java Programming

B. SECOND QUARTER

1. IT Fundamentals II
a. Flowcharting

2. Loops
a. for structure
b. while structure
c. do while structure

3. Exceptions
a. Nested Loops
b. continue
c. break

4. Classes
a. Classes
b. Constructors
c. Inheritance
d. Interface
e. Overloading Methods
f. Overriding Methods

5. Arrays
a. Single Dimensional Arrays
b. Multi-Dimensional Arrays

6. GUI
a. Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT)
b. Containers
c. Layout Managers
Project:
1. Completed proposed Java program.
2. Calculator GUI

C. THIRD QUARTER
I.T. Project Management

1. IT Fundamentals III
a. Basic logical circuits
b. Truth tables

2. Planning an Information Technology Project
a. Introduction to It Projects
b. Types of IT Projects
c. IT Project Life Cycle
d. IT Project Team Structures

3. Defining the It Project
a. IT Project Scope
b. IT Project Storyboard
c. Work Breakdown Structure

4. Planning your It Project Resource
a. IT Project Resources
b. Resource Availability and Sourcing Options, and Project Budget Plan

5. Developing an IT Project Schedule
a. Project Scheduling
b. The Gantt Chart
c. The Project’s Critical Path

Project: I.T. Project Proposal with documentation of its scope and schedule.

D. FOURTH QUARTER

1. Developing a User Interface
a. User Interfaces
b. Basic Principles of Interface Design
c. Documenting User Interface Needs
d. Acceptance Criteria in User Interface Development
e. Developing the User Interface

2. More Specifications
a. User Specifications
b. Technical Specifications Development
c. Acceptance Criteria in Technical Specifications Development
d. Technical Specifications Documentation

3. Monitoring the I.T. Project Status
a. Introduction to IT Project Status Monitoring
b. Steps in Team Member and Project Manager Reporting
c. Identifying Delay Causes and Resolving Problems
d. Monitoring Completion of Corrective Action

4. Testing and Project Quality
a. Quality
b. Project Quality Management Processes
c. Introduction to Testing
d. Types of Testing
e. Peer Review

5. IT Project Documentation
a. Introduction to IT Project Documentation
b. Types of IT Project Documentation
c. Additional Documentation Requirements

6. IT Project Retrospective
a .IT Project Evaluation, Feedback, Maintenance, and Enhancements

7. IT Fundamentals IV
a. Flash Game Making


Project: Complete documentation of the I.T. Project proposal.

V. GRADE COMPONENTS

Project ----- ----- 40%
Exam ----- ----- 30%
Quiz ----- ----- 20%
Recitation ----- ----- 10%
Total ----- 100%

Criteria for Projects:
Content ----- ----- 15 pts.
Organization ----- ----- 5 pts.
Mechanics ----- ----- 10 pts
TOTAL ----- 30 pts.

Note: Projects and its corresponding rubrics or criteria will be introduced to students during its presentation.

V. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

1. Official Computer IV Textbooks:
Abe, Lesley, Jaime D.L. Caro, et al. (2010). Java Programming. Quezon City: TechFactors, Inc.
Abe, Lesley, Jaime D.L. Caro, et al. (2010). IT Project Management. Quezon City: TechFactors, Inc.
2. Computer Notebook
3. Black Pen and Intermediate Paper

VI. REFERENCES

1. Official Computer IV Textbooks:
Abe, Lesley, Jaime D.L. Caro, et al. (2010). Java Programming. Quezon City: TechFactors, Inc.
Abe, Lesley, Jaime D.L. Caro, et al. (2010). IT Project Management. Quezon City: TechFactors, Inc.

CONSULTATION:
Academic consultations are highly encouraged by the subject teacher/s by appointment during school hours depending on their availability. Students and/or parents can contact the teacher through e-mail, and may still be accommodated after class (4:00 – 4:30 p.m. only) if deemed necessary and upon appointment set two days (or earlier) before the said consultation.

Prepared by:
Mr. Rodolfo C. Eregia, Jr.

SYLLABUS IN COMPUTER II

ATENEO DE ILOILO
Santa Maria Catholic School
High School Department

SYLLABUS IN COMPUTER II


I. COURSE TITLE: FLASH ANIMATION AND WEB DESIGN

II. COURSE DESCRIPTION

Computer II is introduction to the basics of creating animations using Macromedia Flash 5 and designing Web pages with Notepad.

The first part of the course tackles on the fundamentals of creating animations that will be used as movie and animated clips and publication to the Internet. The second part is Web Design. It includes the key procedures and principles of designing for the web and optimizing the content such as the quality of the images and the texts and the efficiency of layouts and hyperlinks. It also includes review of the interface of Windows Movie Maker and the basics of movie making.

III. GENERAL OBJECTIVES
At the end of the school year, students are expected to:
1. use Macromedia Flash 5 in creating animations;
2. create simple movie and animated clips;
3. develop awareness and practice publishing ethics and guidelines;
4. compile multimedia images and clips using Windows Movie Maker;
5. develop appreciation on the use of HTML tags and CSS properties by creating a well-formed website according to W3C standards; and
6. evaluate the efficiency of other websites.

IV. COURSE TOPICS AND PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

A. FIRST QUARTER
Animation in a Flash

1. Animation
a. Animation Defined
b. Traditional Animation Process
c. Animation Techniques

2. Flash Animation
a. What’s Up with Flash?
b. Creating a New Flash Document
c. The Flash GUI
d. Modifying Flash Document Properties

3. Drawing and Developing Objects
a. Flash Drawing Tools
b. Illustrating Characters
c. Layers
d. Grouping Objects and Breaking Them Apart
d. Library and Symbols

4. Making Things Move
a. Action and Movement
b. Timeline
c. Basic Frame-by-Frame Animation
d. Tweening

5. More Animation Techniques
a. A Tad More Tweening
b. Changing Color Properties
c. Motion Guide
d. Timeline Effects

Projects:
1. Flipbook animation
2. Flash animated clip complete with the storyboard and dialogue.

B. SECOND QUARTER

1. Character Development
a. Tips on Conveying Emotion
b. Importing Sounds
c. Synchronizing Mouth Movements
d. Importing Raster Graphics for Backgrounds

2. Masks, Text, and More
a. Masks
b. Using Text
c. More Animation Tips

3. Interactivity
a. Buttons
b. ActionScripts
c. Button States

4. Flash for the Web
a. Laying-out for the Web
b. Integrating Texts and Graphics
c. More ActionScripts

5. Publishing Your Flash Movie
a. Movie Assembly
b. Publishing Formats
c. Distribution Ethics

Windows Movie Maker
1. Introduction

Project:
1. Flash Website complete with menus and content with embedded flash objects and clips.
2. Movie clip explaining the interface of their Flash Website project.

C. THIRD QUARTER
Web Design

1. Introduction to Web Page Design
a. Your First Web Page
b. Web Tools
c. Format

2. Playing with Tags
a. Heading
b. Paragraph
c. Lists
d. Preformatted Text
e. Horizontal Rule

3. Fashioning Text Styles and Colors
a. External Style Sheet
b. Font
c. Color
d. Text
e. Special Characters
f. Comment Tags

4. Working on Images
a. Internal Style Sheet
b. Background Values
c. Image Attributes
d. Image File Types
e. Animated GIFs

5. Working with Tables
a. In-line Style Sheet
b. Tables
c. Table Tags
d. Table Attributes

Project:
1. Webpage developed only with the use of Notepad and its corresponding layout for its design.
2. Individual Full Webpage of Ateneo de Iloilo designed using notepad

D. FOURTH QUARTER

1. Opening the Box Model
a. Selected Style Sheet Topics
b. Page Layout: Layout Table vs. CSS Positioning
c. Span and Div Tags
d. The Box Model
e. Margin and Padding

2. Links
a. HTML Links
b. Link Target: New Window
c. Link to other parts of the same page
d. E-mail Address as Link
e. Image as Link
f. Multimedia

3. Going Beyond Tags
a. Meta Tags
b. Web Advertisements
c. Website Sections
d. Uploading Files
e. Submitting Your Site for Crawling
f. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

4. Web Interactive
a. Web Technologies
b. Web Tricks

5. Executing Forms
a. Online Forms
b. Content
c. Input Fields
d. Submit Query and Reset Buttons
e. Processing Forms

Projects:
1. Individual Full Website of Ateneo de Iloilo designed using notepad and with integration of Flash Animations.
2. Group Integrated Full Website of Ateneo de Iloilo designed using notepad and with integration of Flash Animations.
3. Design layouts for both websites.

Note: Projects and its corresponding rubrics or criteria will be introduced to students during its presentation.

V.GRADE COMPONENTS

Project ----- ----- 40%
Exam ----- ----- 30%
Quiz ----- ----- 20%
Recitation ----- ----- 10%
Total ----- 100%

Criteria for Projects:
Content ----- ----- ----- 15 pts.
Organization ----- ----- ----- 5 pts.
Mechanics ----- ----- ----- 10 pts
TOTAL ----- 30 pts.

VI. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

1. Official Computer II Textbooks:
Maximo, Alexander C., Jaime D.L. Caro, et al. (2010). Animation in a Flash. Quezon City: TechFactors, Inc.
Aquinde, Janice Julia E., Jaime D.L. Caro, et al. (2010). Web Design. Quezon City: TechFactors, Inc.
2. Computer Notebook
3. Black Pen and Intermediate Paper
4. Post-it (3x3)

VII. REFERENCES

1. fficial Computer II Textbooks:
Maximo, Alexander C., Jaime D.L. Caro, et al. (2010). Animation in a Flash. Quezon City: TechFactors, Inc.
Aquinde, Janice Julia E., Jaime D.L. Caro, et al. (2010). Web Design. Quezon City: TechFactors, Inc.
2. Internet Websites
http://www.w3schools.com/

CONSULTATION:
Academic consultations are highly encouraged by the subject teacher/s by appointment during school hours depending on their availability. Students and/or parents can contact the teacher through e-mail and may still be accommodated after class (4:00 – 4:30 p.m. only) if deemed necessary and upon appointment set two days (or earlier) before the said consultation.

Prepared by:
Mr. Rodolfo C. Eregia, Jr.

Book and Movie Reviews

Been a little busy, but I've decided that to frequent my posts, I'll be making reviews about the books that I read and the movies I see.

First up, next week, I'll review The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

Yadda.

Rio: Overcoming the Fear of Flight! - A Movie Review

Indeed, it has been refreshing to see a movie so unpretentious, especially in today's world where movies are all about special effects and violence. Rio has been like a blast of cold and fresh air.

The movie is about Blu, a domesticated macaw from small-town Minnesota, who, being the last of its kind, travels with Linda, his owner, to mate with his only living female counterpart. However, things go wrong the moment the two blue macaws gets abducted.

It has been a very long time that I laughed so hard during the screening in which I attended. The funny moments are intelligent, yet they are realistic in nature that anyone, kids and adults alike, really find them hilarious. This may be owing to the fact that, despite the exaggeration of speaking animals, the characters are someone we can relate to, with special mention to the main character, Blu. Throughout the movie, we share his experiences together in a very comprehensive manner. The audience feel the fear of flight just as Blu does, we fall in love with Jewel just as he does, etc. And this is what I like in a movie, the connection the main charaters to its audience.

Being a tech junkie, the animation of Rio is also commendable. The crisp and the variety of colors really fit with its characters and the setting, which is in Rio de Janeiro. How'd I love to go in there! There has been a great improvement with animation as we progress with technology. Being said, it is of great recommendation that one experience it in 3D cinemas. A little expensive, but totally worth it.

If I'd get the chance, I'll go see it again. 4 stars out of 5!

Oscar 2011 Best Achievement in Visual Effects Nominees

Indeed, there has been a great improvement with the visuals of the movie industry last year. 3D has become a fad and good special effects translate to large revenues. (Although, there are still victims of this confidence, aka, The Clash of the Titans)

And to prove this point, the nominees for the Best Achievement in Visual Effects of The Oscars this year are the cream of the crop. The following movies prove the point that visuals is not a simple business.

First off, Alice in Wonderland: Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas, Sean Phillips



Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1: Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz, Nicolas Aithadi



Hereafter: Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojansky, Joe Farrell



Inception: Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley, Pete Bebb, Paul J. Franklin



Lastly, Iron Man 2: Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright, Daniel Sudick



Well, there you have it! My bet? I'd go for Inception any day.

For the complete list of the Oscar 2011 Nominees, visit IMDB.com.