Teaching CS in Dallas

Bullying

It's funny how you learn as much as your students sometime when you teach.

We are working hard to stop bullying in the classroom and yes, most of the time bullying in the classroom occurs because students are insecure.

The part that gets me, is how much bullying I see in outside the classroom, among adults.

Also it gets to me, pretty badly, but the nice thing is I can talk about it with students and we all learn together. 

Sent from my Windows Phone

How to get things for your classroom and your students

Though I am a bit afraid to share, since there is only so much money to go around and so many things needed… and this is the basis of a talk I have proposed for an upcoming conference.

Donor’s choose at http://www.donorschoose.com is a great way to get small items for your classroom.  I started out asking for XBox Controller’s and have graduated to netbooks and XBox’s. 

Here’s how Donor’s Choose works:

• Sign up and get initial points.  Since I am doing Game Programming, I asked for XBox controllers.  It took a few months but I got donations and got them.
• Once you get a project funded, you get the item, and then you have acknowledge the award.
• They want pictures of the items being used.
• Signed permission slips from the students.
• Thank you letters.
• Once you’ve done the above, you can get more points.

Couple of hints: 

• Make your projects as small as possible. I find it easier to get Netbooks funded than it is for Notebooks. BTW, Netbooks are great for programming NXT Robots, with RobotC.
• Go back to your old projects so you don’t have to write everything from scratch.  Each project gets easier to write and to fund.
• Be creative in your writing.  Keywords are low income, minority, etc.  Also, my Game Programming and my Robots projects are hits with the techies.

I’ve also received several grants and have been on the evaluation end of a yearly reward given by my district.  To get a grant, work on it in pieces, don’t try to do it all at once.  If you need letters of recommendation, write the letter for the other person, email them and let them tweak it.  That’s makes it easier for them and lets them focus on the aspect you need for the grant or the award.

The biggest thing when filling out any form, is to give them only what they need and make it as clear and succinct as possible.  The reader will glaze over after the third sentence. 

In the past few years, I’ve gotten the following:

• TI Teaching Fellow and Innovative Teacher in STEM (first year it was awarded)
• 2 grants from the Texas Workforce Commission for Robotics
• 1 grant from the Junior League
• 11 projects from Donor’s Choose
• 1 student so far – Dallas Maverick’s Co-Captain

The biggest thing – FOLLOW AND READ DIRECTIONS!

Latest Mission

Well, it’s a series of missions, objective is to increase the number of students taking Computer Science at my school.  There is an ulterior motive.

We are planning a Dallas ISD District Open House for Computer Science, at Townview, Wednesday night, on February 22, from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm.  We will have tables set up for Dallas ISD teachers, local universities and college, and local employers.  If you would like a table, email me at kweaver at dallasisd.org

It’s been approved by the district, still finalizing the facilities.

Two of my good ideas

We had staff development and I said two things that were positivity acknowledged so I’ll mention them here.

• Always take home the positive things that happen at school and leave the bad ones behind.  If nothing else, it will help YOUR attitude.

 

• The second was about our advisory period – it would be much more effective if we kept the same subset of kids each year.  I know there will be reasons we lose kids and have to add kids to the group, but if at least 50% were the same, I think it would make a difference.

Advisory is a 1/2 class period where we are supposed to be working with kids and making a different, and I think if we could build a long term relationship it would really help. 

We’re doing a book study of “Teaching with Poverty in Mind”, and relationship building is mentioned often in that book.

Kindle Fire–iPad killer

I didn’t like the iPad as I didn’t think you get a good return on your dollar.  Yes, I took one home and used it for a day, but wasn’t happy with it.

I did see a Kindle Fire in the store and liked it.  Told husband to get it to me for birthday/Christmas and he gave it to me for my birthday.

LOVE IT!

First, it gives me a chance to see what the Android phone is all about without having to own the phone.  I have an iPod Touch for the same reason.

Second, it just reads well, especially magazines, and not just Kindle Magazines.  I am able to read my Clean Run magazines, as well as the Kindle ones.

It’s a good size, had a good interface.  I understand it sort of sucked before the update, but I got the update before I realized that.

Web works well, and I’ve even been able to load non-Amazon marketplace apps (kmEye for my surveillance cameras.

Loving the Amazon Kindle Fire

I finally have an Android device and I’m loving it.  Amazon Kindle Fire has all the pluses of a tablet without the minuses.

To start with, I like the Kindle and love electronic books.  In fact, this summer I got rid of most of my paper books.  I’ve kept the ones that are signed or have information I can’t get anywhere else.

I’ve tried an Apple Ipod and hated it.

First thing to like about the Kindle Fire is that it works when you turn it on – something that isn’t always true with other devices. 

My Kindle books were already ready to download and downloaded quickly.

Also my Amazon music, my Amazon videos, and just about everything digital I’ve purchased from Amazon (except for an OLD pdf book). 

What is really nice is that the Kindle is letting me retry my digital subscriptions, and given me at new 15 day trial.  That is very nice of them.

Interface is very easy to learn, and everything work well, even my EReader.com books and Audible.com books which DO NOT work with the Windows Phone.

And yes, I do have some Apple products, a Mac Mini which was replaced when the original Mac Mini’s power supply exploded (I think I blogged about that when it happened, talk about bad customer service and has been the last Apple product I’ve tried).  I also have an iPod Touch so I can play with apps.  And do Ereader and Audible.

Yes, I want a donation to my classroom for my birthday/Christmas or any other occasion you fill the need to do something for me.

Seriously, and there are several ways to do it.

Donor’s Choose – http://www.donorschoose.com/kweaver

Send a check to my school and make sure that you include a note to donate the money to the Robotics team.

Nothing stresses me out more than worrying about where entry fees or part money comes from.  I’ve already given quite a bit of money to the cause.

My school address: 

Hillcrest High School
9924 Hillcrest Rd.
Dallas, TX  75230

Frankly I don’t need food (got a lot of that today), don’t wear perfume (at lot of it turns on me) or much jewelry.  Anything else I want, I tend to buy when I want it.

Experiencing the best Christmas gift ever

#dfwwpdev

Seriously.

I have always said the best staff development is to allow us the freedom to sit down and work. We never get time for that.

This developers camp is precisely that.

The air has been filled with words but they have been useful words. Most of the day is spent working on code and on sharing ideas.

Oh, gee, the ideal classroom.

We need more of this!

Sent from my Windows Phone

New Motto

One of my missions now has a motto:

Make E and T as important as S and M in STEM.

Seriously, both engineering and technology are the ugly step children of STEM education.  Neither are required by many education programs in the US, neither are very well funded.

My goal is to make Computer Science required as a course in Texas again.

Donor’s Choose

I’m finding that Donor’s Choose at http://www.donorschoose.org/ is a really good resource for obtaining materials for your classroom.

My personal site is at http://www.donorschoose.org/kweaver and even if I don’t have an active project at the moment, your donations will be collected for my next project. 

So far, I’ve had six projects funded:

• Xbox controllers – 7 total, those were 3 different projects
• 2 netbooks for the Robotics team
• 1 Xbox

The Xbox materials I’m collecting for game programming – I incorporate some of the Microsoft XNA programming in my PreAP computer science, and am hoping to add some to my regular computer (Visual Basic) class.

Once you get your first couple of projects out there and going, doing the creative writing for the next projects isn’t hard.