8th Grade Homework Blog

Friday, January 16, 2026
Today, we learn the ins and outs of Google Spreadsheets today as we move further into the program. We watched the the second third of the tutorial as we moved along. Today, we also formally introduced the Shopping Spree assignment in class, and gave the students a chance to understand how they're applying the skills they've been learning to the assignment itself.

The typing lesson today is #223! 
I CAN: use spreadsheets to create real budgets to use in your everyday life.

Thursday, January 15, 2026
Now that Begin the Game is complete, we begin a new project, the Shopping Spree! Today, we watch the first third of the tutorial video that is going to teach us how to use Google Sheets, the program we'll be concentrating on with this assignment. We will be doing a bit of practice with the program.

Today's typing lesson is #220! 

I CAN: use spreadsheets to create real budgets to use in your everyday life.

Wednesday, January 14, 2026
Today, we finish the Begin the Game activity.

Today's typing lesson is #218!

I CAN: learn simple coding concepts and functions. 

Tuesday, January 13, 2026
Still moving forward with Begin the Game! I am super excited to see the results of your hard work. We'll have until Friday to work on it!

Today's typing lesson is #213!

I CAN: learn simple coding concepts and functions.

Monday, January 12, 2026
We're continuing our work on Begin the Game! If you love coding, awesome! I'm down with that. You can try to do all five of the criteria listed on the assignment page for a fun challenge! If you hate coding, that's okay! Thank you for trying it out with me. Do, at minimum, two of the criteria on the assignment page, then move on to anything else on the What Do I Do board.

Today's typing lesson is #211!

I CAN: learn simple coding concepts and functions.

Friday, January 9, 2026

It's a quick project, but Wednesday will be the the final day to work on Begin the Game! It's short and simple, and is meant to be a quick primer on coding to see if you're interested in moving on with the activity at the end of the year. We'll talk more about that soon!

Today's typing lesson is #209!

I CAN: learn simple coding concepts and functions.

Thursday, January 8, 2026

Today, we finish the basics of the Scratch activity. Now that we've learned some very rudimentary skills of programming, we'll see if we can refine them by doing an assignment that dives further into Scratch from Friday to Wednesday.

Let's start the typing lessons with #205!

I CAN: learn simple coding concepts and functions.

Wednesday, January 7, 2026

Let's start off with a fun mini-activity: coding! Today, we're doing an activity on MIT's Scratch program that teaches us how to make Pong (well, Breakout, really, but let's not split hairs) on our very own! We'll be focusing on this activity today and tomorrow.

Let's start the typing lessons with #203!

I CAN: learn simple coding concepts and functions.

Tuesday, January 6, 2026

Welcome to Computers with Mr. Alexander! Today, we simply went over the guidelines and regulations of the classroom. I handed out the syllabus and we discussed various classroom rules.

I CAN: learn about my classroom.

I CAN: familiarize myself with a webpage.