Category: Blog

We may be sick of each other by the end of the year, and I wouldn't mind haven't another kid (and have one in mind).

The kid I have is really awesome.  I've sent him to two classes to hook up printers this week and he came back and he was done.  I also didn't get a note about his attitude. 

I also think the two of us might be able to get the inventory until control but with 5x some new computers…..

The best part, he's playing with the Scribbler Robot I bought this summer.  Yes, another project I have too little time to do.  I've got lots of other little programming/EE projects.  And yes, he wants to major as an EE, which I'm beginning to think is a good fit for him.  He's really not the CS kind of kid.

The fun part is that he was in my room as a 9th grader and as a 10th grader.  I really want him to take AP CS, I really think he can handle it this year, and I think it will look good on his transcript.  He was pretty immature as a 10th grader, but it's too week later.  I love how he has been handling the Robot project, very EE type.

I also can't wait until I see his parents again — some of my absolute favorite people.

Had a bit of a breakthrough — one of my math/study kids handed me his homework assignment after I asked if anyone had some.

Scanned it into the computer, showed it on the white board and we worked on solving it.

Did the same with the second class — kid asked if I would help with geometry too, but they don't have homework yet — we'll get it tomorrow.

They fought a bit on word, but most of them went through the first tutorial.

It was good.  I like my classes sizes == my first period class is full!

None of my other classes is over 15.  This will change.

My AP Student has started his work — he already had a login from last year.

My coworkers have calmed down — we still have a group of people who can't take attendance on the new system but we're getting there.

Long day — got there at about 7:20 and left at 4:30.  But I shut the door at the beginning of 5th period and had lunch.

The Micromedics repair site is showing that they ordered three parts for my tablet.  Hopefully it will come back home soon, they have had it since 8/6

My CS Enrollment is down — which is crazy as it is one of the few professions not only hiring students out of college, but their starting salary is up!  Of course, the low enrollment helps.

Anyway, I'm teaching three sections of math/science study skills.  They are all doubly described, and I suspect if I look up my students on My Data portal they haven't been successful on the TAKS tests in the past.

My job – to change that.

One of my first missions, is to make these students comfortable with computers.  One thing the research shows on this type of students is that they are on the wrong side of the digital divide, so the first thing we're going to go to is to become "computer literate".  Word, Excel and Powerpoint are my goals.  I'm going to use the Baycom tutorials at http://www.baycongroup.com/index.htm, they work with my other students.

Next I'm going to teach them Alice. 

I want to use Alice to illustrate their math problems, and have the computer do the math.  I've found once a kid writes a computer program to do something, they don't forget how to do that something again.

I'll let everyone know how it goes.

I am the campus technologist for my building.  I went into this year thinking it could be nearly as bad as last year when I had to get everyone in the building fingerprinted.  WRONG!

This year, everyone has to take attendance online. 

I've got people who can power up the computers in my room without being told how.  And the new computers are exactly like mine.

I honestly believe I have been abused by about half of the people in the building.

Okay, the principal didn't want me to have my netbook or my phone on.  Sorry, but I don't use paper and pen and like to take notes.

One of the custodians stole money from my room.  At least the campus police officer believes it wasn't my fault as he knows I don't leave my room unsecured.

It has not been a good week.

And I almost forgot, my Dean called on Satuday at 4:40 looking for passwords for the registrar.

About two week ago, I got an email from TXU (our utility company) about a program called iThermostat.  For $75.00 they install a thermostat that is controlled through a web portal (or the buttons on the unit itself).  They also do an energy assessment when they come out.  There is a catch, now TXU can turn off the unit at peak load times.

I bit and they came out yesterday (Friday). They were late to the appointment but were VERY nice.  Two men came from a local HVAC company, installed the thermostat — loved the fact we had Uverse and loved the fact that I knew what I was doing.  They even offered me a job.

Told me that yes we could do zoned A/C — a question I’ve had since we bought the houe and didn’t know the answer, and that we needed to add a 2 ton unit to the attic.  That’s now on the list.

Any, I love it.  I was away from house all day, set the thermostate before I left to 85 and set it to 70 before I left for the house, with the handy dandy Acer notebook.

When I got home, we were at 76, and the house very pleasant, so I changed the thermostat to 76.

We spent $2 on electricity today as opposed to $7.00 yesterday (but i know that will be higher, we still have some hours to go).

And the house was comfortable when I got here.

Of course in some high school computer science programs this gets taken to a bit of an extreme with several levels of computer science courses being taught in the same room by the same teacher at the same time. I’m constantly amazed at how well so many teachers handle this sort of thing.

Computer Science Teacher – Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson : Beware Boring The Smart Kids

I resemble the above remark. 

There are several reasons why I do it.  If I didn’t offer AP Computer Science at the same time as I teach other classes, I wouldn’t have any students.  I do draw a line on this – they have to be in a CS class, not a planning period or a tech period.

I also am very strict about the prerequisite, so when the AP student walks into the room, they know what to expect. 

It’s funny but I was laughing at myself, I have a Georgia Tech robot, and I’m planning on taking it to school and getting my AP Kid (yes, there year I think I only have one), to write programs to make it work.  I’m also planning on using Media Computation.

And yes, I point them in the right direction and get out of the way (it’s probably a direct quote from something I said a workshop.

In fact, I said to someone today that I was going to throw a bunch of really interesting stuff at him and if his head didn’t explode he’d probably get a 5 on the test.  Unfortunately I think his head will explode.

But here’s the deal – when I teach AP CS on it’s own I get incredibly bored myself.  I had 10 max students and they stay busy working.  My enrollment is lower these days and I would lose students if my schedule wasn’t flexible. 

The good news, the kids that heads don’t explode make a 5 on the exam and usually go on to major in CS.  It must work.

I also teach regular CS (Visual Basic) and PreAP (Java) at the same time.  I use some “tricks” to do this.  First, I record my instructions.  I find that students prefer to listen to recorded instructions they can stop.  At the same time, we still do discussions, especially on the fly when someone has a problem. 

However,  I believe in teaching a project based course, and 80% of my time is spent waiting on them giving me something to grade.

It’s the last free day of summer, so I’ve scheduled several workers, including our lawn people to check the sprinklers – good thing because a Zone has been down.

As we were wandering the lawn, a pit bull comes wandering up.  The lawn ladies were a bit freaked, but he walked right up to me and wagged his tail – I took it as a “good morning, I’m lost, can you find my people” and he did have tags.  Grabbed a leash, grabbed my phone and started calling.  He had a tag for 24hour lost pets, and they were able to connect me with his people.

10 minutes later and he was back with his people.

Though I wouldn’t let him met the beagle girls.

It also pays to have good tags on your dogs!

Can I "teach" camp all year long?

I really enjoyed this camp because I got to do what I love — show people how to do something and thing get out of their way so they could experiment.

I didn’t have to grade, and didn’t have to give tests.

It was fun.  I got a product from about 1/3 of the kids.  Attendance was better than middle school girl’s camp but we lost kids to athletics and other activities.

Interestingly enough, many of the worlds were violent and I think it is because the kids get frustrated trying to do stuff with Alice.

I’ve decided to use Alice with my Math/Science kids, along with making sure they have basic computer skills.