Sarcasm font

I am sitting at school (been here since 4:30 because we had Open House tonight) listening to our group meeting through Google Hangout. I won't be having ANY input during this meeting, especially since I am such a troublemaker...

 

I really wish I was teaching this class right now. Having to wait until January really isn't what I had envisioned for this class. I hope to have it next year during my 1A block so that I will have my students from August through May.

Oh!! Danielle has moved to Tuscaloosa and is now the principal at the Tuscaloosa City Schools Career Tech Center. So we have been without a CT Director for the past few weeks. The position was posted and they finally hired someone tonight at the board meeting.

Ashlie!! So now we have no librarian lol 

BUT we have someone who understands Career Tech AND someone that knows we aren't idiots. 

I've gotta get back to this meeting although I am pretty good at multitasking, but I definitely don't want anyone emailing me this weekend and scolding me about my behavior.

 

See?? I can multitask :)

There definitely needs to be a sarcasm font... Because I would use the heck out of it...

The worst students

So... I got in trouble for my behavior during our Google group hang out this past Thursday evening. It was the first time I had been successful in joining a hangout (Internet issues all summer at my house) and I found the draw feature while the meeting was going on. I didn't realize everyone in the meeting would be able to see what I was doing. 

I promise I meant no harm in what I was doing. I eluded to this in the post I made with the image from the Google Hangout from last week.

I am very excited to be a part of this group and I hope I have not caused any problems for anyone. I received an email from a group member (kind of like the team-leader actually -- much more seniority in the group than I have) that berated me any my actions. I was out to eat with my husband, son and father-in-law when I received the email (not exactly what I wanted to read in the middle of my meal) two days after the meeting.  I hope to be able to continue as a part of this (in my view) prestigious group. This is what I honestly believe God put me on this Earth for - to teach kids about computer science. I have never been this happy as a teacher before. 

I honestly hope they know I did not mean any harm, and I especially did not mean to hinder anyone from being able to pay attention or to receive help during the meeting (which is what I was accused of doing in the email). My personality is not that of a "normal" teacher; I have always felt more comfortable in a programming shop or in my computer lab at school than I ever have been in a normal classroom. 

This whole incident has caused me to feel anxiety whenever I see an email in my inbox about anything to do with the CS project from this summer.  It's ridiculous and I hope it goes away soon...

I guess teachers can be the worst students sometimes...

I didn't realize until I was in my twenties that I actually love to learn. I had already graduated from college and was working as a programmer and I couldn't get enough knowledge. I would read anything and everything I could on the Internet (this was in 2001 so that net was still young but not in its infancy -- kinda like a rebellious teenager -- everything looked kinda off and CSS was just coming to the forefront of web programming which was helping everything finally become more polished and professional). Up until that point learning had been my job. I was a student and had been since I was 5 in kindergarten. I learned something new every day and I took it for granted. I never looked at it as something I should be grateful for.

Now, I am absolutely grateful that I had wonderful teachers in elementary and high school, and college. Some of the teachers that taught me are the ones I currently work with now. (Some of them are teachers I never had, and I am grateful that I didn't have to sit through them lol)

I hope that both of my children are as blessed as I was in school. Having a bad teacher can change your life. If someone doesn't believe in you, or someone is mean just for the sake of being mean, that can color your judgement of learning and can change your entire life. I want to be a positive influence. I hope I have been over the past 11 years.

Create PT Grade

I finally got my grade back for my aquarium program. I ended up with an 85 overall, and I can't get too upset about it because I remember being to the point that I had to just turn the thing in and stop looking at it.

Programming is something that you can build on forever. You can always make it better; you can always make the program do more; you can always make the program look better. It never ends.

Honestly, it does bother me that I didn't put forth more effort and make a perfect score or at the least make an A...

Last week of summer

This is my last week of summer. This summer has absolutely flown by at mach speed. With all of the traveling and programming going on, it will definitely be a summer we will never forget.

I got an extension on my Create PT for my CSP class. The due date is July 31st but I asked to have until August 7th. I worked on my program for a couple of hours this morning (until Si came into the den and yelled, "PUTER!!!" and climbed into my lap. 😂😂😂

I think i have the actual program finished. I still have to put comments throughout the code to explain what is going on in the program. I also have to write a paper about it and make a video of the program running with commentary.

Oh, and I have to get Janie's uniform clothes for school. New school = New uniform = girl's shopping day at the Eastern Shore Centre :-)

CS4HS Day 1

First day of class! I'm excited and nervous as heck! Here are some examples of the posts we have had so far...

What is Computer Science?

Well here we are at the very beginning of the CS4HS MOOC.  One of the reasons for this course is to help prepare teachers to teach Computer Science in high school classrooms across the country.  It will be very interesting to see what your understanding of Computer Science is at this point in the course and your thoughts on how important you feel the subject is to our high school students.  So our question is: How would you define Computer Science and how do you feel it should it be presented in the high school curriculum?

Computer Science to me is an understanding of how computers work. Not just the binary code, not just the networking cables, but all of it. Too many people know how to use a computer but have no understanding of the terms data or application program.

 

 Why am I Here?

One of the most important things we must understand in order to be successful in any task we do is to have a grasp of why we are doing it.  We also would like to know a little bit about our students and their motivation for taking the course so let me pose a question to you.  Please answer the following question: Why I am taking this course and what is it I hope to achieve from successfully completing the course?

I have a background as a COBOL programmer and my degree is in MIS. I have been teaching Business Education for the past 10 years and just recently changed my program in Career Tech to be Information Technology. Finally after 10 years I am teaching what I love! 

I have seen that there is a need for this type of program in my high school. The interest that has been shown so far has been very high and students have sought me out to ask about the new classes. I look forward to working with these students because of their passion and love for everything IT.

coding

A couple of weeks ago I turned in an application to be able to teach a computer science course. I got the acceptance letter last night!!

I am SO excited! And worried... It has been a long time since I have written any code... Looks like I am going to have a busy summer!!

:)