Summer Institute 2014 High School Computers

We are finishing the 2014 Summer Institute Course for High School computers, which constituted working on the curriculum for the Game Design 2: Mobile Applications class. We were also able to look at Web Design, Computer Applications, and Game Design I just a bit.

I found quite a few tools that will work really well for the classes I'll be teaching in the fall. I'll even begin to incorporate some of these elements into my college class this summer.


One website is: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/topics
This website has topics on typing and extra practice for students using any of the Microsoft Office Applications. I have quite a few students in my college classes that come in not knowing how to keyboard. This is essential in today's world. Having extra step-by-step lessons on any of the MS Office applications is also helpful.

Photoshop Tutorials: http://entheosweb.com/photoshop/default.asp
I'm teaching Photoshop in the Fall to the Game Design I high school students, but it is not an in-depth course. These are good tutorials to help with backgrounds or sprites for the students' gaming worlds. It is also helpful for anyone who needs to know how to use some of the functionality of Photoshop, but not the whole suite.

Also see: http://tv.adobe.com/
Once again, these are easy tutorials to go through these less in-depth projects that are needed to create some of the objects for Game Design and Mobile Apps.

Mobile Applications Platforms & Tutorials:
MIT App Inventor: http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/ - MIT's App Inventor is the easiest of the three that we used to create Mobile Apps. It is similar to Scratch in that it has an interactive GUI that makes it easy to

Live Code: http://livecode.com/ - This was one that was a step above the MIT App Inventor, but it isn't all coding either. We are going to introduce this to the students and allow them to use this as an option for their final projects.

Codecademy: http://www.codecademy.com/ - Great tutorials for how to use Python

Learn Python the Hard Way: http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book - Good basic tutorials for how to use Python

There's also the resource: http://www.chromeexperiments.com/ for web-based development. This is really great to see what is new or up-and-coming!

Maybe some of these will help you in your own education! Good Luck!

19th Week: Goodbyes...

Well, this is my last week at Poudre High School. It's been so nice. I've only come in to teach my Entrepreneurship class in the afternoons. I've spent a little more time here and there trying to get caught up on my grading and making sure that Mr. Long is in the loop on the students in my class.

I had one student this week who was in danger of not graduating because she was failing my class and several others. She turned in a lot of work, and completed her final business plan and turned it in. She passed, but she is still failing some of her other classes. She's a sweet kid, but she has missed a lot of class. She was gone at least half the time. She is smart, and she does good work when she is in class. I hope that she turns things around for herself.

I have a couple of other students in my class who are failing as well. They just don't seem to care. One is sleeping in my class, and the other is playing games. This has been ongoing throughout the semester. Their attitudes have been less than stellar. I've talked with them and told them the consequences of not getting their work in to me by the end of the week, and neither of them seemed to care much. There is one more student who is failing, and the same thing is happening with her at the end of the semester as was happening throughout the semester. She is apathetic and doesn't really care about the class or about learning. Now, all this being said, I've connected with these kids in different ways throughout the semester, but now that the end of the semester is over, it seems as though they have given up. I still have one more day with them next week for finals week.

We took finals this week. Our final was at the beginning of the week with the seniors. Seniors are gone. It seems awfully quiet around here without them. I wish them the best of luck in college and beyond. Graduating high school is such a huge stepping stone, from childhood to adulthood in a matter of weeks it seems. I only hope that as a teacher, I have helped to prepare them for what awaits them in the future.

As I move into this summer and the fall, I plan on continuing this blog, but I'm going to change it a bit. I may post weekly updates, but I will mainly post "lessons learned" and "successes" and "failures" from my lessons. These are the big takeaways that I want to continue to reflect on throughout my career, and the things that I want to share with others. Education is so much about experiences. We learn from each other, and we learn from the world around us. I want to bring that into my classroom as much as possible. I look forward to Rocky Mountain High School being my home even for a little while. Saying goodbye to Poudre High School is bittersweet. I really enjoyed the people that I worked with - especially Mr. Long, but I'm also ready to move on and begin this career that I've been working for the past year.

18th Week: Whew! I made it!

It's not over yet, but I'm feeling the pressure lifted and excited to be almost finished! I have one more week at Poudre High School, and then I start teaching summer school at Front Range Community College. Then, I have Summer Institute for Poudre School District for the job at Rocky Mountain High School. Then, I get to take a break for a while and just teach summer school. I'm so excited about having my summer (life) back. I'm looking forward to spending time with my family and working out and working in the garden. I don't think I'm going to have time to do everything I want to do, but I hope to make a good dent in it all.

Focusing more on the present, though, I had really great classes this week. Everyone worked on their final business plans, and we reviewed for the Final Exam, which will happen on Monday and Tuesday of next week. The final business plans are looking good, and I'm all caught up on my grading. (Grades are turned in at FRCC, by the way.) The Jeopardy game in Entrepreneurship 5th Hour for the review went over very well. I was excited to see so many people engaged.

UPDATE: Rocky Mountain High School

INCOMING UPDATE...

So, six applications, three interviews, and one job offer later... I was offered the job at Rocky Mountain High School! I know that it is only a semester, so I hope that I'm not "shooting" myself in the foot by accepting it. I just really enjoyed the interview, liked the other business teachers there, and looking forward to a good experience. Moving forward, I plan to stay positive and see this as an opportunity for growing my teaching experience. After all, it is another challenge along this crazy journey...

I'm making the arrangements to get paperwork and schedules set up now. It looks like I'll be starting some training in June, and then I have to start back to school in August before the other teachers start.

GO LOBOS!

7th Week: Successes and Failures

My 7th Week student teaching was better than the previous. I was still sick on Monday, which was an in-service day. I went to the doctor and got some medicine, and I even made it into school on Monday for about an hour to talk to Mr. Long. Although, the medicine didn't really start to help until the end of the week, but I muddled through the week with a hoarse voice and low energy.

In the two Entrepreneurship classes, we watched a movie, Ten9Eight, on the Tuesday back, so I didn't have to talk with my hoarse voice. I did, however, teach in the Economics 4th hour class. It was miserable and challenging, but I got the job done. It felt a little awkward to be back after being gone for a week.

The next day, I was able to get in a review of the Market Research section in Entrepreneurship and gave the post-assessment for my teacher work sample. I can now complete my teacher work sample before Spring Break as I had anticipated. We also started the next unit, which was the pricing unit. Some of the students will have more work than others on this section. Those that do retail will have to price out all of their inventory and their equipment and supplies; whereas, those that are doing service businesses will only have to price out their equipment and supplies. It seems to be getting more and more difficult to get the students to be motivated and engaged in the projects. Some of the students don't need any prompting but get the work done easily; however, I have to continually prod a few students to work during class.

A success I had last week was when one of my Entrepreneurship students came up to me after class and apologized for his behavior toward me and in my class. He was respectful and said he was working on getting caught up and doing his work. Just like the Grinch, "My heart grew three sizes that day." I don't enjoy having to stay on top of students to get their work done or having to reprimand students in class. It disengages the class as a whole. This particular student has stayed true to his word for the week, and he paid attention when I was talking and he got his work completed and turned in on time. It was a happy moment for me, and I hope that he continues with this behavior change through the rest of the semester.

On the other hand, I have a student that has been doing other classes' work in my class and not getting his work in my class completed. He is behind on all of the projects, and he is disrespectful to me. He keeps his headphones in his ears when I'm talking to him and he plays with his cell phone. I moved him away from the front of the room to sit next to me where he will have less distractions, and I can keep an eye on him. When Mr. Long returns, I will talk to him about the issue and see what further steps need to be taken in order to get this resolved.

This week was also the Career & Technical Education Advisory Board meeting and breakfast. All of the departments involved including Business, PaCE (a work study program), ACE, and Family and Consumer Sciences were all present along with the advisory board members, who gave input to the programs and how we can improve our work with the students. The Poudre High School catering team made the breakfas, and introduced themselves to the meeting.

A new week is a new opportunity to work on improving. Teaching is a work in progress, and I am continually finding new ways to communicate, engage, and motivate students.