~~~ Read Me First ~~~

Dear Students and Parents,

How exciting!  Here is our class blog.  Starting next semester we will be using computers to help us learning Chinese.  Before we start, there are a few things I want to coordinate on to make sure we are all on the same page. 

We will be using this blog to practice reading, writing, verbal comprehension, and typing.  Whenever you post any of your comments or reponses, please make sure to use your assigned alias or nickname.  These will be provided during the first day of class.

Here are some links to Do's and Don'ts when using the Internet.  Please make sure to take a look at a few of them, if not all, to protect yourself.

• http://www.microsoft.com/protect/parents/childsafety/steps.aspx

• http://www.high-speed-internet-access-guide.com/articles/internet-guidelines-for-kids.html

• http://www.internetsafety4kids.net/

• http://safetynet.aap.org/

• http://www.anaheim.net/article.asp?id=138

Keyboard configuration.  For adding Chinese as one of input option, please follow the steps below.

     1.  Click Start and then Control Panel
     2.  In Control Panel, if you are in Category View, click on Switch
          to Classic View (top left corner)
     3.  Open Regional and Language Options.
     4.  Click on the Languages tab.
     5.  Under Text services and input languages, click on the Details
          button.
     6.  Under Installed services, click Add.
     7.  In the Add Input Language dialog box, choose the input
          language and keyboard layout or Input Method Editor (IME)
          you want to add.
     8.  Click OK twice. You should now see a language indicator in
          the System Tray (located at bottom right hand corner of the
          desktop by default). You can switch between different input
          languages (= keyboard languages) by pressing the Alt + Shift keys

As usual, should you have any questions or comments, please feel free to let me know.

Lǎo Shī