Thursday, October 29, 2009



Mr. Wiemers
http://mrwiemersshop.com

Monday, October 19, 2009

Madison Wins State CC Championship


Mr. Wiemers
http://mrwiemersshop.com

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Ten Tips for Writing a Blog

These tips taken from Mr. McClung's post at this link. I found this very useful for a variety of reasons. Mr. McClung is doing this as a class project. I will use this for my own students who are blogging, but also personally and at school.

1. Make your opinion known
People like blogs, they like blogs because they are written by people and not corporations. People want to know what people think, crazy as it sounds they want to know what you think. Tell them exactly what you think using the least amount of words possible.

2. Link like crazy.
Support your post with links to other web pages that are contextual to your post.

3. Write Less
Give the maximum amount of information with the least amount of words. Time is finite and people are infinitely busy. Blast your knowledge into the reader at the speed of sound.

4. 250 is enough
A long post is easier to forget and harder to get into. A short post is the opposite.

5. Make Headlines snappy
Contain your whole argument in your headline. Check out National newspapers to see how they do it.

6. Include bullet point lists
We all love lists, it structures the info in an easily digestible format.

7. Make your posts easy to scan
Every few paragraphs insert a sub heading. Make sentences and headlines short and to the point.

8. Be consistent with your style
People like to know what to expect, once you have settled on a style for your audience stick to it.

9. Litter the post with Keywords.
Think about what keywords people would use to search for your post and include them in the body text and headers. make sure the keyword placement is natural and does not seem out of place.

10. Edit your post
Good writing is in the editing. Before you hit the submit button, re-read your post and cut out the stuff that you don’t need.


Mr. Wiemers
http://mrwiemersshop.com

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Mr. Wiemers' Mad BB Skills



Mr. Wiemers
http://mrwiemersshop.com

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Luke's Half-Pipe



When Luke came into the shop as a sixth grader he asked several times if he could ever build a small half-pipe for his tech-decks. Today Luke and I put one together quick for him before his seventh grade year comes to a close this week.


Mr. Wiemers
http://mrwiemersshop.com

7th Grade Shop Video

These are some of the twenty modules we have set up for the seventh graders. In this video you will see them working and producing projects in the DCG MS shop.



Mr. Wiemers
http://mrwiemersshop.com

Monday, October 12, 2009

First Quarter of Seventh Grade Shop

During the first quarter the seventh grade middle school students had the opportunity to work on twenty various modules, or stations, in the middle school shop. Mr. Wiemers has set up these three-day modules over the last few years. Each module includes the production of a project and involves skills that have connections to a career field. The modules include assembly of a lawn mower engine, assembly of an electric motor, project design and cutting on a CNC mill, forming acrylic plastic, residential wiring, design and production of a wooden race car, bending and riveting metal to form a hook, soldering copper pipe, cutting and threading galvanized pipe, soldering components on a functioning circuit board, plastic injection molding, vacuum forming plastic, assembly of a small model residential wall, house design with CAD, video production and upload, podcast production and upload, design and cut an acrylic chess piece with CNC lathe, measuring with a variety of instruments, writing and uploading a blog and small wooden projects. These areas of introduction to technology and industry are followed up in the high school shop program. Each year the class size grows and more projects, modules and opportunities are added. The students develop skills that can be incorporated into other class projects and have an opportunity to apply their reading, writing and math skills in a shop environment. Students are also being introduced to principles of science and math that will be developed in other classes.

We are putting together a video of these modules and will post it later.

Mr. Wiemers
http://mrwiemersshop.com

Friday, October 9, 2009

"Pop-the-Balloon-on-the-Pin-in-the-Hat" Game

Yesterday in Advisory we played the pop the balloon game. It was fun, it built teamwork, and we made a lot of noise. The balloon is popped on a straight pin taped onto the bill of a baseball hat. Watch and enjoy this video:


Mr. Wiemers
http://mrwiemersshop.com

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Links to 1st Qt. 7th Grade Shop

Here are some links to some of the seventh grader's videos, blogs and podcasts from the first quarter. Some of these links provide an insight into the 20 seventh grade modules that we have set up for them.

Seventh Grade Student Videos processed and uploaded to schooltube from the first quarter:
http://www.schooltube.com/videosearch.php?q=dcgms7

Seventh Grade Student Blogs from the first quarter:
http://7thshop.blogspot.com/

Seventh Grade Student Podcasts from the first quarter:
http://web.mac.com/wiemers/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html

Here are some videos that I have posted on schooltube:
http://www.schooltube.com/videosearch.php?q=wiemers

Mrs. Phillips' Principal Blog "Life in the Middle":
http://lphillipsdcg.blogspot.com/



Mr. Wiemers
http://mrwiemersshop.com