Category: Blog

Summer gigs and workshops, especially free ones are had to find this year . Wonder why?

However, TI,my favorite Dallas employer is putting on a project based learning program. Got the email fairly late and signed up after I checked my calendar.

TI brought me to Dallas, and I worked for the oil unit in the 80s. Spent over 10 years with them. I am one of the first TI teaching fellows and have benefitted from their various education programs through the years.

Will be happy to get another paycheck from them.

Sent from my Windows Phone

Four kids showed up this morning. We passed all inspections on first try.

We did pretty good in matches and even balanced with another team. 

We came in 8th after match play and got into an alliance for the elimination matches.

We lost in autonomous mode each time.

I am so proud of these kids. They have never this and neither have I.

We have had a blast and the kids want to try again in Tyler.

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I am having fun and meeting lots of students I didn't know before. I think we have been working for five weeks.

I have had to pull two kids aside and teach them better behavior nut that is a hood thing. 

One just gets carried away and his friends deal with it by ignoring him bit he drove kids he didn't know nuts, me too. He is finitely better.

The other kid honestly didn't know how to build things and after showing him he is fine.

I have not taught kids hardware before and that has been a growth experience for me and I am enjoying. I cam still dig them out of holes even with that.

The programming language we are using is robotc which very similar to Java which helps both myself and the students. We can drive the robot and are learning how to manipulate the arm.

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High school and middle school students are easily distracted, which is precisely why I do think they can benefit from online classes.

Traditional Classes Aren’t More Engaging – Room for Debate – NYTimes.com

Which is precisely WHY online classes aren’t for High School and Middle School.  I have taught online classes to high school students and I have had 1 out of 10 literally be successful.  The student that was successful wasn’t easily distracted.  The others were and got so distracted, they couldn’t keep up.

I do know that credit recovery with online courses can be effective as we do it with something called Reconnect.  The students check into a room, have supervision, and have someone who can help them when they get stuck.  BUT remember, these students have already been in a traditional classroom, but were not successful, usually due to attendance issues.  Those kids are pretty easy to teach, as they have seen the material but didn’t get it (I’ve worked with them face to face).  They do need the personal attention and someone to make them stick to it.

I do know that the most effective way to do online courses is to mix the online experience with face-to-face experiences.  I got my master’s degree in CECS from UNT that way.  I still think it takes a very mature student.

I hate TELPAS testing.  I have to send my kids to the library with a sub, with a research assignment.  Yes, those are assignments we would do anyway, BUT….

Apparently TELPAS is higher stakes this year, as administration is rabid about getting kids here and testing. 

The good news, it is going smoother than it EVER has.  No computers crashing (yet), no losing answers, and no having to waits hours to reload questions.

They gave us a specific image with a specific login for testing (which prompted our move to Windows 7)

Can’t wait until I get my kids back!

One of my favorite uses of One Note is to plan curriculum units.  When I first start planning a unit, I use One Note to keep up with everything.

I usually start with an outline of what I want to teach.  Then I start gathering resources, usually web resources, since I am usually teaching computer topics.

I’ll flesh everything out, and when I’m done, I can send the finished material to format I wish:  PDF, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint. 

My “finished” One Note notebook easily becomes a handout for participants.  And best yet, I could even send the Notebook itself to my students.

I swear, Obama quoted me, as I have been saying this for years.

NCLB (No Child left Behind) is a wonderful idea, poorly implemented and funded.

Oh, THAT’S why Japan had a earthquake.  Sorry.

Honestly, I was even saying this to my mother – fine for the state, national government etc impose standards, I’m into teaching to imposed standards, but you must fund them.

Not funding them means they can’t be implemented.

First, let me start out by saying I have an iPod Touch.  In addition to all my other toys.

Thus, I found that there wasn’t anything I wanted to do with an iPad, that I couldn’t already do on any of my devices.

I found it big and clunky, and I don’t think that the iPod2 is going to be any better.

I did find it easier to read a magazine on it, but I can do that with one of my netbooks.  Or a laptop, or a desktop.  And only ONE magazine, since I have a kindle and that magazine doesn’t come on the Kindle.

I like my netbooks much better than I like the iPad, because they have better keyboards.  If I don’t want a keyboard, I’m back to my Windows Phone 7, or my iPod.

Your mileage may vary.

There is an interesting app for dog agility for the iphone and other devices.  It is expensive, crashes, though that seems to have been fixed and extremely inflexible.

I was going to write an app for the Windows Mobile phone, but I’m finding that One Note works tons better.

Here’s what I do….

When I get any type of correspondence in relation to an upcoming trial, I send it to a One Note Notebook folder called upcoming trials.  On the day of the trial, I take a picture of each of the maps with the camera and put all of a single’s days runs information on one One Note Notebook page.  At the end of the trial, I get trial results from the secretary and again, send it to the One Notebook.

I move everything from the upcoming trial into the completed trial section and when I’m done I have all the information needed.  

Blogging about the trial become easy – I go to File – Send to Blog, make some updates, and I’m done.  Results are at http://www.kweaver.org/adventures_in_training_th/2011/03/dawg-sunday-march-13.html

If you want to see one of my One Notebooks, email and I’ll share it with you for a while.