Blog

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.

Should I be worried:

  Your unit has been assigned to a technician for diagnose.

Of course, I just saw an non-profit organization whose director won a
Presitgious

Now I can’t spell and am not good at grammer, but I know both of the above are wrong.

Next week is our first week to officially report (yes, I’ve been here every day and done campus stuff for the past two weeks, but that’s okay.

• Saturday and Sunday, I’ve got both dogs entered in an agility trial in Fort Worth
• Monday day, we’re learning new procedures
• Monday night is dog agility practice
• Tuesday day we’re at a hotel in Garland
• Tuesday night is support group and I am going because we have a clothing swap
• Wednesday day we’re at a hotel in Garland
• Wednesday night is the Paul McCartney Concert
• Thursday and Friday are cool – teacher workdays and not much in the evening.
• Saturday and Sunday back in Fort Worth.

The dog shows are their own different stress, and I will start getting ready for them this afternoon.

I was freaking out because I thought my to be repaired tablet notebook would be coming back then but it’s at Micro Medics (who didn’t bother to send me a shipping box in time),  They have had it since the 6th without even diagnosing it, much less repairing it.  It has a broken latch and a major crack in the battery, so it is just a matter of touching it, replace parts and sending it back.  Bet they don’t have the parts.

So I don’t have to worry about picking it up – I bet it won’t be back next week at all.

Schools Need Teachers Like Me. I Just Can’t Stay.

By Sarah Fine — Why I Left Teaching Behind – washingtonpost.com

Frankly, I’m sure any school needs a teacher like her.  Granted I haven’t taught English but I have never had a student treat me that way, and I’ve taught all kinds of students through the year, including remedial math.  I truly believe if your students are treating you with respect, you are not doing something right.  I can’t figure it out without being there, but….

I will admit I had a couple of students “chunk” things at me when I taught remedial math but they had other issues (just lost everything in Katrina for the most part), and it stopped pretty quick when they realized they were not getting their way.

I also don’t think you need to justify yourself and your profession to people.  Again, it’s probably her fault – and I left computer programming to teach high school and took a 50% pay cut so you would think I would.  But everyone can see that I passionately love what I do, and they do profess admiration at least to my face. 

Now I will admit that I’ve enjoyed the summer camps this summer more than I teach during the year, but I got to teach exactly what I wanted, and didn’t have to grade papers.  Was a nice relaxing break.

My digital pen arrived today in a huge box

And it works now. 

Very nice since I am teaching math and science this year and I think it will come in handy.  Took 4 days to accomplish and most of that was travel time.

I’ve been fighting a problem with my Wireless Slate since I came back to the lab (over a week).

I finally bit the bullet and filled out a customer service form and shocker of all shock, I got a response the same day!  About two hours later.

After troubleshooting all morning (I’m out of here at 1:30) tech support is sending me a new pen.

I actually think that will fix it because I finally turned my old one on at the house, and it is working both there and here.

Someone on tweeter keeps asking for ideas for a motivational speech for the first day or week of school. Sorry, but please don’t waste my time.

I’ve felt that way since day 1.  The first week of school is hard — I’m usually in tears at least once that week.  The worst year is the year we got a new principal, dog’s eye popped out of her head the weekend before we reported, and I was just stressed out.  Someone said something nice to me about my dogs and I just melted down in the office.

Another year, same principal, they kept telling me my teaching schedule and I melted down when I found I out I was getting kids for math who didn’t speak English.  That actually turned out to be cool.

I’m sure I’m not the only teacher who has personal problems going on the first week and who is stressed out over their schedule and who they want to deal with it.

So here’s what I DO want.  I want you to tell me my schedule as soon as possible and room assignments.  I want you to spell out any procedures that have changed or are important (we’re getting a new computerized attendance system which will probably end up being a major stressor since I’m campus technologist.

Then get out of my way so I can get my room ready, get my lesson plans ready and my first couple of week, handouts and ready.

AND LET ME TEACH!

I like teaching.  Don’t like sitting in meetings.