• It is about the problem. Not the solution.
• It is about the design. Not the implementation.
• It about the approach.  Not the fail-safe version.
• It is about the enthusiasm.  Not the grade in the course.
• It is about a flag.  Not a clever conditional.
• It is about how much fun the students have in the moment.  It is not about their teacher being an amateur programmer. (If that is how I am defined)

What is my point?

The point is that I have now been teaching AP Computer Science A for a total of 3 1/2 years and I can tell within about five weeks whether a student will be successful on the AP examination just by their general problem solving skills, design capabilities, approach to a problem, enthusiasm, ability to have fun, and use of flags. 

I am not obsessed with flags; however, not everyone out there could create a finite state machine.  I have always approached programming from that standpoint.

I teach AP Computer from an old school approach.  I stand at the marker board nearly every time we are designing a program.  It is a fun thought exercise for me to develop a scheme (along with the students) with nothing in front of me.  That type of abstract thinking really keeps me ticking in this type of class.  Naturally, the pace is then the burden of the students based on how fast they type and setup their programming statements.

Tug of War with the following factors:

1. Time is of the essence – There are only X weeks to get through a boat load of material for teacher like me, that have students in their FIRST programming class.
2. Topics, Topics, Topics – No matter how long I have, there is a list of topics and concepts that must be accomplished.  I take that as a challenge.
3. CS1, NOT AP ONLY – I love to cover topics that are not on the AP Exam; however, I obviously have the AP topics throughout the mainstream discussion.

I feel that I set a pace during the first month that leaves me enough time to get through all AP topics + a great deal of CS1/CS2 type topics.

As previously mentioned in a blog post, I teach the entire class from a standpoint of large scale programs which act as the backbone to the entire course.  Any of my past students knows about the TicTacToe game, Battleship game, Deal or No Deal game, Audioactive Sequence, Gorilla program, Pig game, Card & Deck simulation,

For the record: I am still not a fan of the Case Study; however, I DO UNDERSTAND the value of evaluating a large scale program from someone else…

Have a Great Thanksgiving!!!

Anyone out there that reads this blog have Google Wave?  I am still waiting for a Google Wave Light Bulb to go off in my head.

After the meeting, I started thinking about all of the Web 2.0 topics and projects that I have used in my three years of teaching. 

Here is the list I came up with of Web 2.0 interaction with the classroom:

• Advanced Web Development PowerPoint, Wiki, & Podcast Project – Kept Private
• Lefty Grove Baseball League Website (leftygrovebaseball.org)
• Scribe Hall of Fame
• Student Math Commercials/Videos for Honors Algebra II and Pre-Calculus on YouTube
• Mr. Higgins’ Tie Project (Students Seemed to Really Like this a lot)
• Tech Boot Camp 2009
• 2007 – 2008 Honors Algebra II Class Blog
• 2008 – 2009 AP Computer Science Class Blog
• 2008 – 2009 Algebra I Class Blog
• 2008 – 2009 Honors Algebra II Class Blog
• 2008 – 2009 Pre-Calculus Class Blog
• I’m sure there are a few more that I can’t remember…or find a link in my collection.

For me, the mathematics videos were most rewarding and the students really enjoyed them a great deal.  However, I am looking forward to interacting with each student holding a tablet PC.  Moodle is going to be a HUGE piece of this puzzle.

Great One-to-One Article from Twitter:

Link: http://beta.aalf.org/articles/view.php?ArticleID=79

Course Size: 9 Students Surveyed

Part 3 of the Course Evaluation

1. Course difficulty, compared to other high school courses:

2. How would you rate the ease of use of the eBook?

3. Hours per week required outside of class:

4. Expected score on the AP exam:

Part 4: Please provide specific feedback.

1. What was your best learning experience in this course?

• Making all of the programs
• The course as a whole
• I enjoyed learning the java language and being able to logically deal with problems
• Programming Battleship…it was interesting, fun, and taught me a lot as I had to solve a lot of problems (2)
• Tic-Tac-Toe program
• Learning about the coding world behind the programs I use everyday
• Programming the Lego Mindstorms
• GridWorld Case Study

2. What was your worst learning experience in this course?

• Inheritance / Polymorphism was difficult (2)
• The few days that I was lost"
• None
• Audioactive Sequence
• Mathematics on the computer
• Having use the new tablets (Fujitsu)
• Studying for the AP Test
• Battleship program

3. What changes would you suggest to improve the way this course is taught?

• More Free Response AP Questions (2)
• None (5)
• More Board Work or Group Projects
• Don’t Know

4. What advice do you have for students taking this course next year?

• “Work hard, do all the programs and don’t worry much about the AP Test”
• “Try to come up with your own solutions for in class projects”
• “Pay attention!”
• “The course was rather challenging, so prepared to work hard.  Don’t worry if your grade is not a perfect A+, for you will learn a lot”
• “You get out what you put in.  It’s not about code, it’s about using spatial reasoning to understand how objects interact”
• “Learn the concepts early”
• “Program neatly and easy for others to understand”
• “Understand Arrays!”
• “Do your best and don’t change things that work”

My interpretation of AP Computer

The students seemed to like the methods and pace that I kept up until the AP examination.  I was expecting a couple of comments pertaining to how fast I go at the beginning of the course.  I was quite surprised about the mention of more AP Test Free Response questions because I felt I used too many this year; however, they obviously felt like they were still a little weak in that area compared to the multiple choice.  I hammered them on the multiple choice type questions in hopes that the AP Test would feel “easier”. 

Inheritance and Polymorphism are difficult to figure out in your head until you receive a few good examples.  I choose to teach the students about the code FIRST, and then get into Objects, Classes, and their relationships later.  Perhaps I need to introduce Objects and Classes a little earlier.  I am still struggling internally when it comes to the Blue Pelican Java book; however, my students like the book.  There were many times that I wanted a reference book and there were many times where I wanted a text-based book.  Overall, I have to be happy with the student responses.  I hope the AP scores are a little higher than they predicted!

Future Math Classes Happenings

I have been informed I will be teaching AP Calculus AB beginning with the 2009 – 2010 school year.  I am very excited at the prospects of my Web 2.0 style in AP Calculus and look forward to stabilizing the math department at the top.  This course will be a 1-1 tablet class where each student will have a tablet pc.  I am already working on our Moodle installation for next year as I attempt to organize some AP examination material and provide the students with various links.  It is going to be a fun and challenging year.  I really would have never imagined that my fourth year schedule would give me such a great opportunity to teach the best and brightest students we have to offer in two disciplines.

My courses for next year are as follows:

• Honors Algebra II – 2 Classes
• Pre-Calculus – 2 Classes
• AP Computer Science – 1 Class
• AP Calculus AB – 1 Class

AP Computer Science Happenings

There are numerous post-AP examination activities in all of the AP courses; however, I found a great match this year in my AP Computer Science A course.  We are “playing” with Lego Mindstorms and have flashed the NXT module to include the possiblity of Java.  We are using a Lejos, which has a Java backbone and will allow the students to program the motors and sensors using our native programming language.  Thus far, they have made the following robots before beginning a full exploration of the Lejos Java syntax.

All images and instructions provided via NxtPrograms.com

Top Spinner & Spin Art

Guitar

Car with Game Controller

Claw Car with Game Controller

I can’t wait to see what my students come up with for their java programs.  I am making it their Final Exam Project!!!

Here is a more professional shot: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1281.html

Cool Fact: The door to seal off this chamber weights 5 million pounds.

We spent a couple of hours taking a tour of the facility and another couple of hours discussing how we can impact education in the area with other educational folk and engineers.  Here are some of the conclusions we reached to get students involved.

1. We need to have some sort of local competition where the students are given a challenge “handed down to them by NASA” to get them involved in creation, teamwork, analysis, and all of the other concepts involved in engineering.
2. There needs to be some day long or week long camps during the summer.  Many of the camps offered at other facilities within hours are longer terms like eight or ten weeks long.
3. More teacher specialty days where Plum Brook Station employees show off some experiments and perhaps explain the mathematics, science, and technology into a little further depth to help teachers bring some information to the classroom.  As a mathematics and computer science teacher, I would love to see some equations and programming code.  If students were able to analyze data, wouldn’t that be awesome?
4. Utilize the many other endeavors of this facility, especially the ecological projects as potential projects or specialty student days.

Many people who live in the area have no idea of how large this facility really is…

Like any other year, the trend is to look back on the year with a view on biggest positive and biggest negative moments.  In the world of sports, being a Cleveland fan can be lonely; however, there is one moment I have not been able to forget about which involves Michael Phelps.  Actually, it is not even Phelps, it is his USA swimming teammate Jason Lezak.  I can still hear the words of the announcers.

From Wikipedia

The United States trying to hang on to second, they should get the silver medal, Australia is in Bronze territory right now, but Lezak is closing a little bit on Bernard, can the veteran chase him down and pull off a shocker here? There’s no doubt that he’s tightening up. Bernard is losing some ground, here comes Lezak… UNBELIEVABLE AT THE END, HE’S DONE IT! THE U.S. HAS DONE IT! HE DID IT! HE DID IT! Phelps’s hopes [are] alive!
”

-Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines calling the final lap of the 4x100m relay.

Here is the YouTube video showing the race I am speaking of…

Wild about Fun! and Math! and Puzzles! and Life!

Recently, I have discovered a neat math related website called Wild About Math! Maybe it was just timing; however, in the middle of reading a book about prime numbers and have my mind twisted by my constant thoughts of number theory I ran into this post.  The post asks how many divisors there are for 10!.  Being a computer science teacher, I couldn’t help myself from writing a program to check it out.  I never actually joined the contest; however, I started to investigate many of the past posts.  For those that are reading my blog from a math teacher standpoint, take a look for yourself.  This is definitely going to take a spot in my blogroll.

NECC 2009 in Washington, D.C.

I submitted my paperwork to my district and only time will tell if I am going to NECC 2009.  I have wanted to go for the last couple of summers and am finally deciding that the 7 hour drive is close enough for me to make the trip.  Any of my readers going this year?

1 to 1 Tablet PC Project

I am one of the teachers who is part of the first ever 1 to 1 Tablet PC in my district.  Around 30 of our students will be carrying around a Gateway E-155 Tablet PC for an advanced educational experience.  There are specific classes in the school which were assigned to the 1 to 1 Project, and it turns out that my AP Computer Science A course is one of them.  I am so exciting for the 1 to 1 educational experience to start.  I feel like a kid again!  Here are some thoughts I have on the 1 to 1 Tablet PC Project:

• The ability of the students to create dynamic notes and find information quickly will be very exciting
• The organizational skills (or lack there of) will come into play.  Having taught introductory computer courses, sometime it takes 10 minutes to make sure students save their files correctly.  Never the less, these are bright students overall.
• Using the wireless projector and specialized monitoring software, I will be able to have the teacher project information, have the students project information, lock the machines down at anytime for any reason, monitor each students progress via a thumbnail view, and take over the students computers.

AP Computer Science A

Going along the lines of the Tablet PC Project, I have decided to adopt Blue Pelican Java by Charles Cook for my classroom text.  Why am I using this textbook?  It is because I’m transitioning to an eBook.  My students will each have a copy of this free eBook on their tablets and will be able to browse the material at their leisure.  My students will need to make the transition of a paperfull book to a paperless book.  This is going to be tough on the teacher too; however, I am motivated enough at this point to give anything a try as I try to improve my teaching.  I chose this textbook because I really like the way it is organized section by section and it gets right to the point of the material.  My style in AP Computer Science A is to use the book as a reference.  There are many times I teach a topic completely and then we reference the textbook to pick up on some vocabulary or syntax I may have ignored.

Do I know how well the 1 to 1 computing will go in this course?

No.  However, I feel with my technological background and pension for Web 2.0 will be molded together to create a fun and enjoyable class at a faster pace than previous years.

Do I know how well the transition to  exclusive eBook instruction will go?

No. Therefore, I chose an eBook that I was confident contained the material in an organized fashion and had the best chance for success.

Do I have confidence in the Gridworld Case Study yet?

No.  I would really like to get some feedback from fellow bloggers and AP teachers because this is the first year I have not attended an AP Computer Science Summer Institute.

Web 2.0 Plans for AP Computer Science A

I plan on having all presentations and long term projects integrated into our classroom blog.  Our History of Computing Project at the very beginning of the year will consist of a blog post.  I am concerned about brining java code and syntax into the Web 2.0 world because it is the student’s own though processing that creates the code; therefore, I will create opportunities throughout the year for the students to comment on issues in Computer Science on our classroom blog.  There are several experts out there that make informational posts about Computer Science, including Alfred Thompson (My favorite and it is an easy read).  I am going to be looking for professions in the computing arena to comment on my students’ posts.  Since this will be my first year of Web 2.0 integration in this class, I hope the force is strong in this class. (Don’t think too hard about that last line)

Algebra I

This will be my first time as a full time teacher with a course below the level of Algebra II; however, I am up for the challenge and thoroughly enjoy the topic of algebra.  Due to many reasons, include the brain development of students this age, their math has been slowly building over several years.  Once they hit high school, that is really when it starts to pick up speed and then all of the sudden they are at graduation. it goes quickly.  Here are some thoughts I have on teaching Algebra I.

• It is important that these develop the fundamental skill set needed to successfully navigate geometry and other all topics of algebra eventually.
• You could agree that I have an advantage because I know exactly what the students need to know; however, I am hoping that I do not cut any corners.
• I hope to integrate many more small video segments, logic puzzles, and intense problem solving than some of the other classes.  My job is to teach them the algebra skill set and get to a point where the concepts can be developed more in depth later.

Web 2.0 Plans for Algebra I

I hope to integrate assignments at least twice a month on the classroom blog, I call each of these assignments a Student Focus.  I have NO IDEA if I will get a chance at a large Web 2.0 project; however, I will give it a try.  I will not use the full Scribe Process in this class.

Honors Algebra II

I have went on record several times and described this class as the “greatest class on the planet to teach for a math teacher like myself.”  Keep in mind, I have never taught AP Calculus AB/BC.  I had the time of my life teaching this class last year and really got to know all of the students on a personal level.  The reason it is the “greatest class on the planet” is because this is the point where mathematics really starts to take a giant step forward and I get to lead them into the edge of the giant forest.  I quickly earned their trust and challenged them unlike they have in their previous mathematics course history.

Once we began the scribe process, the learning of the course was simply AWESOME.  Visit the 2007 – 2008 Honors Algebra II Blog when you get a chance.

Web 2.0 Plans for Honors Algebra II

I am hoping for some collaboration with Darren Kuropatwa with my Honors Algebra II course.  I am definitely going to continue the Scribe Process in this course.  Last year, we only use it in the second half of the year; however, this year we are going to utilize it throughout the entire school year.  I will be able to assign many more web assignments than I have ever even thought about in the past.  I have a challenging class size this year of 30+ so it will be interesting what I will come up with throughout the year.  I plan to use a great deal of videos as springboards for many different topics in algebra and trigonometry.  I have so many plans for this class, it is just that I don’t have any idea what they are yet!  For my fellow educators reading this blog, you know exactly what I mean.

Pre-Calculus

This is going to be my biggest challenge of the year because I really have a lot of Web 2.0 anticipation for this course.  I have two sections of this course, which will really lead toward problems with my scribe process; however, I am mentally working those out as you read.  I will just get to the point..

Web 2.0 Plans for Pre-Calculus

Last year, being my first year teaching Pre-Calculus, I played it relatively safe throughout the year.  I wanted to make sure I knew the material and did not cheat the students out of an education because of my own Web 2.0 endeavor.  I plan to several projects throughout the year posted on the classroom blog and I will use the scribe process in this class; however, I have approximately 64 students taking this course into two different sections.  I am not sure what I am going to do about this at the time of writing this blog entry; however, having some of my Honors Algebra II students sprinkled in the audience, I have no doubt that it will be accepted by the students.  Wish luck to me and I will be out getting opinions about how to handle multiple classes through the scribe process.  Feel free to provide me some feedback of any kind.

On a side note, I recently heard this song on the radio and instantly youtube’d it to see the video.  No matter your set of beliefs, this is a great song and video.  I just thought I would share this with the edublogosphere.

NICKELBACK – IF EVERYONE CARED

The world of teaching has found me doing my different things in my spare time. Here are just a few…

• Taking Graduate Courses as I attempt to build up toward my MA+ levels on the pay scale
• Taking and helping with a training on SMART Notebook software, SMART Boards, SMART Senteos, and Tablet PC
• Rearranging my office at my place. I am looking for a cheap solution for an L-shaped desk which fits in the corner of the room.
• Serving on a committee, which is going to integrate a 1-1 tablet solution for several classes at our high school? It seems that we are the only school within about 50 miles in all directions that is even attempting a 1-1 solution.

Now to the fun world of venting through the world of Web 2.0

Computer Science Discussion

1-1 Tablet Solution in AP Computer Science A

I am sure that I am not the first person on the planet to teach AP Computer Science using a 1-1 tablet classroom set. Each of my students is going to have their own tablet for classroom use. I am very excited that I will have the ability to collaborate with the students and supply them notes while dynamically editing and creating programs. I can barely contain my own excitement for the next school year. In the past, I have had a classroom of 5 students in my first year and 3 students in my second year. This next year, I have 9 students signed up for AP Computer Science. It is really a sign of the times and I hope that something exciting like this helps enrollment in the future. Eventually, the plan is that in 5 to 7 years that every student in the high school will have a tablet. Talk about a wireless nightmare!!!

There is NO DISCUSSION AT ALL concerning tablet PC use compared to SmartBoard use. Technology conferences are dominated by the use of the SmartBoard technology; therefore, it makes it awful difficult to find great information on tablet PCs in the classroom when everyone is obsessed with SmartBoards. The ap-compsci listserv barely ever makes any sort of mention about these technologies. The ap-calculus listserv is finally churning out some conversations about a Tablet PC; however, there is very little information at all which details a total 1-1 tablet PC classroom.

General Comments about 1-1 Tablet Solution

We are only allowing students enrolled in three specific AP courses to have the 1-1 tablets during the day. The committee decided that we want to be successful this first time through in hopes that all the bugs will be settled by year two as the “better and smarter” students utilize the technology. Many details will have to be worked out as the school year begins. We are requiring that parents and students attend an initial organizational meeting and a training sessions (students will have about 3 hours total in training). I am very eager, to say the least.

Mathematics Discussion

Honors Algebra II Blog

My implementation of the Honors Algebra II blog was a complete success. My students enjoyed the blogging and student focus process a great deal. There are a few changes that I will make; however, I wanted to share with all of you, my students’ comments about the process. These are snippets from their comments.

Question:

Provide some constructive criticism to our scribe process. Is there anything that needs to change? What did you like? What did you not like? How difficult/easy was it to post using WordPress?

Responses:

“WordPress was fine, although there were browser related issues….Only needing to go on this site once every 45 days or so didn’t help build enthusiam for the site. “

“ wish i had this for some of my other classes…text box starts so small but you can change it so its not a big deal. I thought posting was easy”

“As long as I can remember how to log in, make a new post, comment, etc., using WordPress is relatively easy. Correctly categorizing posts would also make it easier for the reader to benefit from the information. Also, starting sooner next year would give everybody the opportunity to post multiple times…It is a handy reference.”

“Doing the posts was a really good idea….if you were absent the day before, or just needed a little refresher of the notes, they were right there handy at your computer. Number three, and probably the best reason, NO HOMEWORK :] If you were the scribe for the day you didnt have to worry about doing your homework, you just had to go home and get on the computer which 90% of us do everyday anyway”

“The only problem with the posts is when you are the scribe, it takes almost triple the time it would take to do the normal homework.”

“It is fun to create the post. Some of the difficulties were at first it was confusing to learn how to upload pictures and graphs, but now I understand it”

“My first scribe post had a lot of graphs on it and it was easy to make them on fooplot.com”

“I think this is a good idea and wished we would have started it earlier in the year.”

“I think that the scribe posts are a good idea, and they’re alot easier than the homework sometimes.”

I was happy to see that most put time into their responses.

ASCII Convert - This program really allows the students to grasp the idea of characters vs String.  I have the students take the number 8 – 256 and print out the integer, double, base 2, base 16, and ASCII character.  It creates an easy to read conversion table.

Base Number Conversion - This program only a user to convert between any two bases.  Some prefer to wait until the students learn about Stacks; however, we go through with loops and conditionals to makes the proper conversions.  Converting 562 Base 7 to Base 16, we would go to base 10 and then use division and the remainder to find the final conversion.

UPC Code - This is explained in a previous blog entry.

Roshambo - This is Rock, Paper, & Scissors.  I love that fact that this is an easy way to utilize random numbers, conditionals, and a while loop.  The students feel this program is “easy”; therefore, I make use of the simplicity of this program to describe larger programs.  If the students understand that programming is basically like building blocks, then they are more likely to succeed.

Tic Tac Toe - I use this program throughout the year; however, not like you would think.  I often say “If you can’t program this, then you can’t handle Tic Tac Toe.”  I use this program to pressure the students, motivate the students, and assign it around Christmas time.  This year, it was the Christmas Break project.  Many teachers out there use this as a major project, but it really does show if the students understand program flow.  I remember, when taking AP Computer Science A via C++, I was really confused until I figured out how to keep the game running.  This was my lightbulb moment and allowed me to be successful from that point.

Gorilla - This is much like the original QBasic game which was called Gorilla. The object is to throw an object that hits a target. Specific details…

1. The target is 2 m wide on a 500m course. The students produce a random number from 2 to 499 which encompasses the entire course.

2. The gorilla throws the object with a user specified velocity and angle. So adjusting the angle and velocity changes how far the object will travel.

3. The distance the object travels is given by…

4. The program continues to tell the user how far away from the target they are until the target has been hit.

This program uses many code practices including user input, while loops, for loops, if-else structures, and math.

Here is a link to my full description.

Galton Board - A Galton Board is much like the famous Price is Right game titled Plinko. You drop a ball at the very top and watch it until it lands in a specific location (I will call them containers). A great animation can be seen here. Depending on the number rows in the Galton Board, the number of containers is always rows + 1 because there is always the outside of the beginning and end post that create the need for an extra container.

Here is a link to my full description.

Deal or No Deal - I have a copy of an episode where the contestant goes through the entire board.  The students get to see the full set of rules and possibilities.  This is a fun program for the students.  Once again, program control flow is a HUGE DEAL.

Audioactive Sequence - Have the students create a program which continues this pattern…

1
11
21
1211
111221
…

Sigma Value of a Number - The Sigma Value of a number is the digit sum of the number.  There are many patterns that occur during the process of going through many different well known sequences.  For example, the Sigma Value of 1927362 is 3.  Because 1+9+2+7+3+6+2 = 30 = 3 + 0 = 3.

Link to Presentation: http://compsci.exeter.edu/mbrenner/classes/secret_life.html