Monthly Archives: June 2011

Music is Magic

Posted on June 20, 2011 by | Comments Off on Music is Magic

It’s the end of the year, the final days at Roosevelt before the summer. My first year here, my first year teaching high school. You never forget the firsts in life. The seniors are gone and I miss them already. Soon everyone else will be off for the summer, too, and I will miss seeing all of their faces every morning.

Songs become inextricably linked with events in your life. They get into your head and you have to listen to them over and over and over again, as much as you can. On the bus, at home, at school, out in the world. Even if you look silly, a middle-aged guy sitting on the 48 with ear buds in and your eyes closed, playing your own private air band, you just don’t care.

Youssou N’Dour, the great Senegalese singer and musician, towering artist and humanitarian with voice of liquid gold and songs of infectious rhythms, has a new record out. Dakar — Kingston is an African Reggae crossover, a joyous blending of Caribbean-inflected rhythms and African mbalax sounds.

One song on the album, Bamba, is my current obsession. Crazy incessant auto-repeat. It doesn’t matter if anyone else likes it. It will now forever transport me back to Room 319 at Roosevelt High School at the end of  the 2010-11 school year, and remind me of all of the wonderful Rough Riders I got to know in my first year in that classroom.

There are so many memories from this year I wish I had found the time to write down or otherwise preserve. I know some of them will eventually fade. But this record will always remind me of the end of this first year, the room now sparsely populated and feeling somewhat empty (but with nice echoes of the seniors, and remembered images of their sea of green and gold in the stadium at graduation). And yet somehow things seem tranquil and reflective.

A few easy days with the music on in class, people reading and signing yearbooks, working, studying, reading, or even just relaxing with computer games. Having a chance to chat leisurely with everyone about their summer plans or courses next year or just life.

Nothing about teaching really, or maybe everything.

Music is magic.

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Senior Checkout

Posted on June 10, 2011 by | Comments Off on Senior Checkout

All Seniors : Checkout

Tuesday, June 16

You’ve got to do all of these steps in this order!

 

  1. Get each teacher in all of your classes  to check you out — books returned, final (provisional) grade, etc. (during periods 1 — 6)
  2. Get the librarian to to check you out (fines) during lunch or between classes.
  3. Get the custodian to check you out (keys, lockers) during lunch or between classes.
  4. Get the bookroom to check you out (fines, etc.) during lunch or between classes.
  5. Lastly, get your counselor to check you out in the Commons after school.

Remember, no checkout, no graduation!

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Web 2 Project Assessment

Posted on June 9, 2011 by | Comments Off on Web 2 Project Assessment

Attention all Web 2 students:::

As we discussed in class today, you (especially seniors) should now be doing four things to finish up your projects:

  1. Finish adding all the content and features you have been working on to your teacher’s site.
  2. Meet with your client to show them your site and get any final feedback from them on the project.
  3. Write up a project assessment document, summarizing your findings about the project, SchoolFusion, and the process you went through. I have made up a template for you to modify, based on our discussion today. Download this Project Assessment document and replace my instructions in each section with your answers to the questions.
  4. Assemble your portfolio of materials from the project. This should include the following items, which you should already have completed for earlier assignments. Put them in a binder or folder with tabs neatly labeled to make a professional presentation.
    • Project Proposal
    • Market Survey
    • User Research
    • Site Summary — this is new, screen shots of the site are enough.
    • Project Assessment

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CS Student Tasks

Posted on June 6, 2011 by | Comments Off on CS Student Tasks

Attention all CS students: I won’t be in class on Tuesday, but Mr. Bergquist will be there to help out. Below is a summary of what each team or person should be working on. Please check the list for your task and make some good progress.

Make sure everyone on the bike project teams gets status updates to Henry, Filmon, and Salman so they can update the project website: RHS Bike Computer Project

We’ll take stock again on Thursday.

Thanks.

.davidson

  • Salman, Filmon, Henry: Project website
    http://rhsbikecomputer.wordpress.com/: This has a good basic setup for all of the sub-teams. Henry and Filmon should talk to each team, take photos, and get status updates to Salman so he can post updates on the site.
  • Ben, Anthony: bike mounting
    Build a small board with the temp sensor, the light sensor, and the clock module on it so that it can be mounted on the bike and connected to the Arduino. Talk to Forrest and Conor about soldering; you can use one of those Radio Shack blank perf boards. Get the components from spares and find the necessary circuit stuff from each team working on those modules.
  • Jordan, TJ: magnetic sensor
    Get a small program working with a Hall Effect sensor and a magnet that can calculate RPMs. I gave Mr. B some sample code that you can look at that does this.
  • Mike, Jack: integration
    Get a test program running on the Mega and plan out the pins to use on that patch board with the shield I showed you. Be ready to have other teams plug their pieces into it. There are tons of Ethernet cables in a box in the back room on the steel shelf rack.
  • Forrest, Conor: integration
    Work with Mike and Jack on the integration, especially the hardware ends, for the Mega system. Be available for other teams needing soldering, etc.
  • Mack & TravisJ: LEDs
    Get your test program working with the LED array that Forrest and Conor made instead of your breadboard version. You should be able to replace your setup with theirs and make sure it works identically.
  • TravisS: LCD text display
    Program the display to display the time, temperature, RPMs, and MPH. Layout the 16×2 display with space for each, with text labels as necessary. Use dummy values for the four fields. Get from Jacob and Spencer the clock module and code and see if you can get the actual time of day updating on the display. o the same for the temperature from Mitchell and Ethan.
  • David: ambient light
    Figure out what the system should do with the light levels you detect. Test your program with different levels (like under a table where it might be dark) to see what the different values it detects are.
  • Mitchell, Ethan: temperature
    Get the sensor and code to TravisS so he can integrate it into  the text display.
  • Jacob, Spencer: clock module
    Get the module and code to TravisS so he can integrate it into  the text display. See if you can go one whole period without looking at anything baseball related on a computer.
  • Minnie, Kevin: turn signals, brake lights
    Work on modifying the button code to make it turn on LEDs the way you want!
  • Meron, Sydney: LED necklace
    Continue wiring the prototype and get help soldering it together from Forrest, Conor, or Jordan.
  • Zach, Kwon, Salvador: Scratch games
    Continue working on your Scratch projects. We’ll review things on Thursday.

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Daily schedules

Posted on June 5, 2011 by | Comments Off on Daily schedules

From here until the end of the year, many of our daily schedules are out of the usual patterns. This chart — RHS End of Year Schedule — summarizes everything, in case you need a visual reference.

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