Category: Blog

Nothing is withheld from us which we have conceived to do.

Do things that have never been done.

An Unexpected Ass Kicking | Blog Of Impossible Things

Even if the story isn’t true, its an awesome story, and a good moral.

Lots of good stuff in it.  I like tablets, and I like my phone, but the guy is right, I can’t really create things with them.  However, I can create lots of things with my computer.

I spent the summer creating an awesome course, and I hope my students agree it’s awesome and learn how to create awesomeness with it.  I hope the other teachers take my vision and run with it and get their kids to create awesome with it.

In other words – I can’t wait until the new school year!

After talking with a younger teacher last night, maybe I still need to be working on fixing teachers.

I’m designing a new computer science course for the district based on the new TEKS called Computer Science Fundamentals. 

My focus on the course is to have students develop research skills to learn about computer science.  For example, the first unit is “Acceptable Use Policy”.  Rather than tell the student how to behave, I want the students to learn how to behave on the internet by researching what the repercussions of bad behavior are.  So within the whole six weeks, they have to learn how to do internet searches, evaluate web sites, and make their own web pages. 

In none of that, do I want the teacher to spend an entire class period talking to students.  Maybe having an conversation with, but I don’t want the teacher to be the main focus.

He’s not comfortable with that yet, and doesn’t know how to do that.

How do we teach that?  Well, for one thing, we stop doing that at staff development’s!

"I love what I do, and in order for me to continue to grow and do the best that I can for kids, I have to make myself carve this time out," Marten said.

Why Educators Should Spend 15 Minutes a Day on Social Media

What she said – I agree.  My biggest problem is that I am the only person in my building who teaches what I teach.  There is no other person in the district that teachers the same mix:

• AP Computer Science
• PreAP Computer Science
• Computer Science Fundamentals
• Game Programming
• Web Design

In fact, I’m piloting Game Programming so I’m the only one doing it.  So I have to have go to Social Networking to find other people who do it to share and get good ideas.

And since no one else in my building is doing it, I at least have to pick up the phone or easier yet use Messenger to talk to the other people in my building.

So yes, I’m stuck with doing any type of interaction long distance and social media is the easiest.  Especially twitter as most of the rest is blocked.

I’ve spent the summer in Staff Development or Training Sessions.  Some have been really good, and some have been really bad.

The highlights of the bad:

PowerPoint slides filled with information or the equivalent

Presenter talking too much and too fast

Before a staff development session, think about your audience and what you want them to do.  Do you want them to change their behavior?  That is the typical goal.  If so, figure what what you want them to do, give them a reason to do it, and a reward for doing it.  That’s Behavior Analysis 101.  Bludging them to death with information isn’t going to do it.

For example, I want more students to take AP Computer Science and I want them to pass the test.  The reward for that in one less prep (or more), and that I get incentive pay for each student who passes the AP Computer Science Exam. 

So show me how to get more kids in the door and how to get them to pass the exam.  Easy.

I believe pedagogy is important and that too many people ignore it.  Especially teachers.  Knowing how to teach is just as important as knowing your subject.

I have been lucky, because I took mathematics when I got my teaching certification, and the emphasis was on pedagogy.  I have even been lucky enough to even take a computer science course that focused on pedagogy.

I also have a master’s degree in Computer Education and Cognitive Studies.  My hobby even involves learning how to teach and train, so that is where I am coming from.

That being said:

I am SO tired of being in workshops where we model bad teaching practices.  45 PowerPoint Slides, completely filled with information and talking for an hour is NOT the way to teach.  Talking as fast as you can because you are trying to get too much information in, is not the way to teach.

Plan better, make your talk interactive, and lead people to your information is the best way to teach.  Give people time to reflect and think.  Never talk more than 5 minutes at a time, allow people to interact, and allow people to reflect.  That’s the best way for people to learn.  If you have good stuff, people will go out and work with it when they get home.

If you are on your feet and talking over 20% of the time, you have failed.

If you are going to do an hour long talk, with PowerPoint slides, don’t number your slides.

At 23 of 45 I am going to be tempted to leave the room no matter how dynamic a speaker you are.

Especially of every slide is full.

Sent from my Windows Phone

The drug company is studying how hypoglycemia-alert dogs sense low blood sugar in humans

via www.ibj.com

See, even Lily is trying to figure it out — probabably to make money off of it too.

After spending a week doing Android Apps with the IBM Innovation Summer Camp, I broke down and bought an Android Tablet, the Nexus 7. 

Some nice things about it – it knew me when it arrived.  I opened the box and when I touched the screen, it displayed my internet nickname.  Had to put in my password, etc. and had to connect to the internet. 

Gave me some free magazines, came with $25 dollars and credit and was easy to set up.

I still think Google is fairly evil <smile> so I haven’t gone completely to the dark side, but it is a fun, cheap way to do Android apps, just like the iPod Touch lets  you do iphone Apps, without committing to the iPhone.

Or is this what this instructor calls good teaching?

He complains his students don’t read, but he has spent one day and almost one hour reading to us.  He gives us no time to think but fills the air with words.

Yes, I have lost patience, and I have 2 days, + 7 hours of this.

I have spent the last three days playing with VmWare’s Player and I really like it for development.  I have a Ubuntu machine setup for Android development now and working on a Windows 7 machine.  Earlier this morning I blogged about setting up a Windows XP machine so I could work with my insulin pump.

I see a lot of good in having a Virtual machine for development.  You can do whatever you want and don’t have to worry about screwing up your REAL machine.  That is especially cool is you are working on anything server related.

Here’s the cool part.  You can put the virtual machine on a drive and move it from machine to machine.  That is really powerful if you need to work on a school network.  I don’t like dragging my home computers back and forth, but don’t mind dragging a drive.  In fact, that’s how one of my laptops got broke.

Cool stuff.

Week well spent.

Thanks again IBM.