Start of day 3

Dr. Narayan gave his presentation this morning and it generated great interest to teachers and programmers alike. Several questions were asked about closing the loop, and if students have started marketing projects that can control the outside world. Also of great interest was how students could use the go motion probe and Squeak to match a graph. This will allow students to gain a deeper understanding of how graphs are constructed, how to interpret and use graphs properly.

My Presentation

Well I just finished my presentation and am enjoying lunch. People seemed to be interested in my presentation and were especially impressed with the student generated tutorials I showed. Several questions were asked covering a wide range of topics from how much time a week we spend on squeak to how much resistance older students give to using a program designed for much younger students. Showing the great high school student projects Matt provided me let the audience know that little or no resistance to this program was presented by students. I showed a couple of projects both Matt and my students have done. It was eye opening to see how much growth occurred between 6th and 10th graders. Now I can just sit back and enjoy the rest of the sessions. Dr. Narayan presents Wednesday morning and several people have already expressed great interest in how probes, games and projects have been extended by the Use IT grant program

Squeaking with students

We just finished our first session introducing Squeak to students and teachers. We had lots of elementary school aged kids and a few teachers brave enough to give Squeak a try. The cool thing is we were learning on the XO’s or one laptop per child laptops. I thought it was nice to see a room full of the colorful, durable, and inexpensive wonders. It was interesting to see how different it is to teach younger kids to use Squeak than middle school kids. I don’t think I was cut out to teach elementary school. Lots of action and excitement in the room and yet the kids seemed to make lots of gains in a short time with help from the squeak experts.

First sesion

Well I made it to Squeakfest 2009 after I had a whole day in the air but it has been worth it already. The group is friendly and knowledgeable. Surprisingly there are lots of students here already. The adults range from expert squeakers to people who have never seen squeak before. This should make for an interesting mix.

Getting Ready

Well I am all packed up my presentation is complete and I am ready to go to Squeakfest 2009.  I leave Sunday at 2:00 pm for Los Angeles.  I am looking forward to 3 days of presentations, workshops and sessions where students are introduced to Squeak Etoys for the first time.

More later.

Day 5

Throughout this week i think the most valuable aspect has been the time we had to work on the program. Each morning we had a challenge that we were "helped" with by the large number of experts. By the end of the week we had become the experts (kinda) helping each other de-bug and finish the challenges. I think next time some of the homework, instead of reading, should be developing programs, writing scripts and doing challenge problems.

Day 4

Problem based learning has an emphasis on teaching students to think about how to solve problems. This skill will be useful not only for the standard course of study but any problem students face in life or other classes. The science class is perfectly adapted to teaching this method and should be used for this purpose. This is why it surprises me that science is so undervalued in this state and particularly in Pender County. Students who are taught to think will soon be able to take unfamiliar situations and think their way through it. This would allow students to think their way through the EOG. Squeak in it self is a problem based learning system. Using the program makes you think your way through the problem. You must look at your goal, look at your script and ensure they match. If they match and don't work you must problem solve until you find the problem. Squeak allows you to model any situation and gives you a powerful tool to help solve your problem based learning problem.