Category: Blog

We had “Meet the Teacher” night Thursday night.  I had a good turnout, about 20 parents.  I gave them all my email address and asked them to record theirs, though I haven’t done anything to contact them.

I have given a few parents links to their children’s progress reports.  In some cases it was good, and in some, the parent started nagging both me and the child.

Apparently I have been invited to go to China.  See http://www.ambassadorprograms.org/upcomingprograms/education/clarence_ellis.asp

I’m not sure if everyone gets invited to it, or why I was picked.  I looked up the person who invited me, and I do not recall ever being at a conference or workshop with him, but I could have been at the same workshop several years ago in Austin.

I’ve shown the link to my husand and he doesn’t think going to China is a good idea.  (Actually he said getting a 6 week old beagle puppy was a better idea).

My mother also doesn’t think it is something I can handle, and I’m inclined to agree.

First, it would take me away from my classroom for week.  I am very disinclined to be away from my students that long, unless there is a very substantial reason for it.

Second, I am diabetic, insulin dependent and on an insulin pump.  Traveling right now is problemic for all diabetics, since we really need to travel with liquids, not just our medications.  Plus I am on a CPAP machine, and while mine travels very well, its emergency battery can be a problem.

Third, it cots $4,195 to go from LA.  While Dallas to LA flights booked this far in advance will probably be cheap.  I really can’t afford it.

So I really doubt I will go, but it is an interesting idea.

Oh, and I have never had any desire to go to China.

This year is going better than I can remember any year going so far.

I have just under 120 students.  Last year I had 180.  Makes a huge difference.

I’ve got my A* CS I kids programming.  I’m having a bit of a problem getting my A* CS II kid going but he has always been that way.  He’ll go days without working and then turn in EVREYTHING.  Drives me nuts, but that’s the way he is.

A* stands for two words that are copyrighted or some such by the college board.

I’ve decided that I have to let my PreAP kids fly and let my Webmastering kids plod.  I don’t have many webmastering kids, but 2 of them can’t speak English, much less type it, or read it.

At any rate, I’m really glad I waited out last year, and I have things the way I want them now.

I even have a printer!

All four of my online students showed up for our kickoff — face to face meeting.  The main reason we met in person, was to give the kiddos their laptops.  That makes things very nice.  I have set up — and need to publish, a movie on how to download and install Java, but it is much nicer that we gave it to the kiddos done.

Two of my students have completed their first assignment — email me.  One sort of has, but is having issues installing his ISP.  I haven’t heard from the fourth yet.

I’m really excited about this.  Each student is from a different high school which means we’ll get good word of mouth.

I’m actually hoping to teach AP CS online next year.

I did something new this year (and remember, I didn’t teach CS at the beginning of the year last year).

The District Acceptable Use Policy form I gave to students had a place for parents to put their email address.  So as I got each of the permission slips back, I emailed each parent that included that the form.

I got nothing but positive responses, and I have placed all the responses in a seperate folder in my email account, so if I do need to contact a parent, I can check for them in that folder.

Basically I just put each child’s name in the subject heading.  In the body of the message, I introduced myself and  told the parent that they should contact me if they had quetions or concerns.

I did get several questions, all easily answered.

I can’t remember if I posted this — but I got my AP results, though I didn’t get ALL of them.  My alternate tested passed too!

So I had two AP Computer Science A students pass and one AP Computer Science AB students pass.  Unfortunately my alternate passer misproved my theory — she did not have me before, but one of the students I taught, taught her.  So that is almost as good.

To Change a School – Change the Principal (Education Blog On 10)

This is very true, and the change can be both for the good and the bad. I’ve had 5 different principals and the school climate definately changes. Not always for the good.

Here is a test post from my Treo

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Local News

I get a $4100 approximate raise.

We lose our hall monitors. I love our hall monitors. Nothing I hate worse as a teacher than sitting in a hall and yelling at people.

The hall monitors come and get back kids out of our classes. (That says it all!)