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I'm testing a new service, I think it is supposed to put a Twitter update up when the blog is updated.

It will be interesting to see if it works.   And will allow me to skip a step.

The middle school came is a win-win for me.  First I get paid for writing the curriculum.  I love to get paid for stuff like that.

Second, it should attract some very serious students to our instructional technology programs.  And I feel better and better about including the other subjects, and not just Alice.

It also gives me a paying gig for the summer.  Though I already have one lined up, and have signed up for another and waiting to hear about on it.

Right now, I’m focused on reading the book we are going to use and making a list of products that I want the girls to produce.

That’s one thing that I got out of my master’s program — when you are writing curriculum start with what you want to accomplish first, then figure out how to go there.  I’m trying to come up with at least two major projects for each subject that we’re teaching, since it’s a two week camp. 

The hardest part is going to be coming up with the pacing.

Oh, and we already have a cute collection of items to give away.  By the way, I’d LOVE to get some products from companies that recruit in our fields — as long as get some speakers lined up.

One thought I had today, is that having speakers first thing in the morning might be the best time — that way the speaker’s day is less disrupted if they work in town.  I have also thought about using Skype to get some long distance speakers.

I figure a short — thirty minute talk about what the speaker likes about their field. And it means lining up 14 speakers!

Yes, I am writing curriculum for a two week summer camp for middle school girls.  The plan is to use Alice, maybe Scratch, introductory web design and introductory digital media.

Our first idea was to focus on computer science BUT our department teaches other things and it is not fair to leave them out.  Also, my mission in life is to always give my students a taste of a little bit of everything.  So incorporating web design and digital media is a win win situation for both the kids AND the department.

SO, I’m looking for things to use that are a) free and b) the whole package can be put on a 1GB thumb drive and run on it.

I’d LOVE ideas, please use the comment section!

I’ve been reading some teacher blogs, primilary http://moixland.com/ where he brags on Free, Open Source programs.  Oddly, the longer I teach and the more I do my own design work, the more I value the ability to pick up the phone, or better yet, drop an email and get tech support.

Even goes back to my migration from MovableType to TypePad.  Having constant reminders that I needed to update MovableType was causing writer block. 

Another example is Lanschool.  I love Lanschool and have used it over 16 years.  Seriously.  Hey, I’ve even met the developer/CEO of the company.  Over the years, I’ve had few problems but when I do, those problems have become enhancements to the software.  I pay for the legal upgrade every chance I get.  AND I pressure my district to buy it too. 

Why?  First, I love the fact that I can drop them an email and get an answer by the day.  I love the fact that I don’t have to figure out the problem.

And as I tell my students when they are frustrated with free software — you DO get what you pay for.  Which reminds me, I’m about to pay for a maintenance contract on SnagIt and Camestia.

Online education is going to require real teachers for the foreseeable future. Students need to ask questions. They need someone to occasionally point them in a direction for future study. They need better feedback on test/project/paper results than I think we’ll see for a great while to come. But the classroom teacher teaching face to face isn’t going to disappear for a very long time. I doubt it will happen in my life time. Probably not in my son’s lifetime either. And you know what? If online/virtual school becomes the norm for public schools I bet that the rich people will still pay for face to face education because it will be worth it.

Computer Science Teacher – Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson : Are Teachers (Becoming) Obsolete?

I’ve taught an online course.  After having done so, I snicker whenever anyone thinks that the classroom teacher is going away.

Isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

First, we’re a large urban school district and only 4 students signed up even though there was the use of a free computer. 

We were on our second year with web mastering and yet, only 12 signed up.  I don’t know how many finished that class, but only one of the four finished mine.  And I truly believe it was because he could come by my classroom and ask questions.  He’s a very self motivated student, something that is very rare.

I know him well, he took PreAP on line, and has taken AP and AP AB face to face. 

For students to be successful in an online course, especially taking high school classes all day, they are going to need adult supervision.  It’s cheaper to hire us and let us do it, rather than each family dedicating an adult for it.  Trust me, average teenager without adult supervision is not going to do any work.  Heck, there are some students I can’t get to work.

Alfred is also right about the passion thing — that’s the one compliment on get on a yearly basis — kids will tell their parents, man, I hate programming, but Ms. Weaver sure loves it.  And that’s the one thing I teach best — how to get along with a passionate programmer, as they will sure need that at some point in their life.

So yeah, classroom teaching is really going away … <snicker>

There was a story in the news not long ago about a test taker who was having problems taking a test because of her insulin pump.

Well, one thing I've wanted to do, but haven't is to get a Texas Master Technology teacher certfication.  Don't need it for the job, but have done all the preparatory work plus do the job of one on a daily basis.

Periodically I go out to see what I have to do for the test.  I have to have extra breaks and thus extra time.  Plus have to have the permission to have my pump, testing equipment, food and water all availble in the testing area, as all of that has to be left in the car.

To do so, I have to fill a slew of forms, pay for the test in advance, and can't schedule the test until it is approved.  I also have to have my doctor fill out paperwork and so I'll have to pay for that too.  And no guarantee it would be approved, but then I'd have to go find a lawyer….  Oh, and they only offer the test 3 times a year, and there is no guarantee it would be in the area.

Not worth it. 

Fortunately don't need the certification for my job.  Doubt anyone would even really care if I had it, so not doing it.  Besides having the Master's degree majoring in CECS is good enough.  Some of the CECS course work is the prep work for the certification.

Though it is a real PITA if you are diabetic and have to go through this.  Fortuantely you have to only do it once for ETS, but still. 

This is also why I pressure my special ed and 504 parents to go through the process at the beginning of the year, since they would also need the accodomations for the AP exam. 

I was reading through my twitter feed today and someone was screaming “Reform Education” .  And every time we have a new president, we want to reform education.

I’m a teacher and every teacher will tell you that every 5 or so years, someone comes up with a new “reform”.  In fact, during the 16 years I’ve been teaching we gone to block schedule, back to regular schedule, instituted principals of learning, learning walk, and many other programs.  Here’s the problem.  We never leave things alone long enough to find out if the change works! 

You are not going to change education in 5 years.  First you have to get the teachers trained, so figure in at least two years for the changes to actually take place and take hold in the class room.  Next you have to have enough time for the changes to take hold and change the kids.   Figure another two years.  You are not going to see gains in test scores, etc until year 5, and you should not even see dramatic changes. 

When I first came to Texas, it was a mess.  Some school districts did a really good job of educating their kids and put a lot of money into it.  Some didn’t.  The governor put together a committee which was chaired by Ross Perot.  They came up with a plan that was designed to take over 20 years to change education in Texas.  Guess what, it is still in place and things are only getting better.

I’m not going to say that we are the best in the country but we are up there.  But the best thing, is no matter what school system you are at in Texas, you are going to get the same basic education.  If not, TEA is soon coming to shut you down — and they have.  They shut down Wilmer Hutchings not long ago.  We’ve even shut down a high school in our district because they weren’t complying.

We started out by putting in place standards for teachers.  A lot of teachers across the state lost their jobs because they couldn’t do basic high schools skills like reading, writing and math.  And even through I had a BS in Computer Science, I still had to pass a test proving I had those basic skills.   They also instituted a certification process that was rigorous that proved you had basic knowledge in your subject area.  I was first certified in Math and Computer Science and had to pass tests in pedagogy, mathematics and computer science.  I later got certified in Technology Applications and had to take a course in that.  I could now do it by testing.  We have people who don’t pass those tests and have to leave the teaching profession.

We next started on the students, we first had the TASS, then the TAAS, and now have the TAKS.  They have gotten harder in each permutation.  Our next phase is the End of Course test.  We’ve gotten to the point that we don’t socially promote 5th or 8th grade and we haven’t graduated due to the other tests from almost the beginning.

We also instituted No Pass, No Play and that goes across the board, not just athletics, but academic competition and activities.   I’ve had kids not able to take part in UIL Computer Science because they failed another class.  This is a good thing.  I have student who work in my class only enough to keep their soccer or football eligibility.

The whole point of this, is that we’ve got a set of systemic changes in place in order to reform education.  It isn’t perfect it a huge monolithic system to move and we’ve made a major start.  And it’s been going on for over 20 years!  The only way you are going to reform education is to sit down, bite the bullet and realize you have to change the whole system, slowly from top to bottom like we did.

And there has been a lot of resistance, those fellows in BFE, Texas don’t hold with educating girls and only care about winning football on Friday night.  They resisted the change and as result lost funding, etc. and got their schools shut down — remember Wilmer Hutchings. 

We’ve even been going through reform with Special Ed and with the non-English speaking students. By the way, that’s the toughest group we have to deal with.  The powers-that-be seem to assume those babies went to school in their home country, but when we get them we have to teach them how to learn first, and that’s really hard with an 17 year old kiddo.

But the again, is that you just can’t fix part of the system and you can’t just expect it to happen over night.  It’s going to take several decades before you can get the system changed.  Look at us. 

Bad News:

New computers are not being installed next week.

Good News:

 New computers are not being installed next week.

lled next week.

I am ready except for the final day before the install but I am really glad to get the extra tine.I did not like the idea of getting the new computers just before Christmas break. I suspect we’ll get them either right after or after finals Be best to get then right after.

Why? Dell is having production problems and have not built them yet.

And while new computers are nice, we will lose time. and it will take energy to deal will them.

They never happen until it is WAY too late.  We are week 15 in the school and I have three parent conferences scheduled this week.  Each student has less than a 20 average.  Two of them are NGed, meaning they have missed too many days to get credit.

This morning, the kid MIGHT turn things around but he is so unfocused.  Sadly he's a senior, hasn't passed the TAKS (exit test), and isn't passing my class.  Oh, and he wants to be a game programmer.

Tomorrow — this little sweetie has been blaming ME.  Okay, it is my fault.  She talks insistantly, espectially when I am demonstrating something, has been caught on Urban chat and using a proxy to do so and denied until I showed her, her internet log.  I get a "call her mother" message every day to explain MY behavior:  let's see, I made her take a paper towel and clean up her desk after she had water on it (which she denied until I pointed out the condensation).  I am totally unfair.  Sigh.  Each time I tell mom she needs to come to tutoring ,ask for help etc. none of which she's done.  And when I stop and help her she treats me like dirt.  Makes me want to stay in bed each morning.

Friday — again doesn't come to school and doesn't do my work.

It's hard to remember that the majority of the kids are good.