Pedagogue Padawan 180
I’m going to attempt to keep at 180 blog this year. I infrequently make time during the school year to write long blog posts; so, I hope I can share more of what we do via Pedagogue Padawan 180. I...
View ArticleSummer Reading
I have a theory that how much I enjoy the summer is directly proportional to how much I read during it. This may be because I make little time to read anything of significant length during the school...
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Introducing Growth Mindset and Deep Practice to Students
I read Mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck and The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle this summer. The three of us teaching Honors Physics this year agreed that we should share the concepts of mindset and deep...
View ArticleRecognizing True Professional Development
This fall, our school district adopted a new model for how professional development affects teacher salary. The new model provides various opportunities for educators to participate in professional...
View ArticleCSEd Week
Due to space availability, we held our Computer Science Education Week activities a week early. My colleague and I and our students shared student work over three days in the cafeteria. We highlighted...
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Monkey and the Hunter Conceptual Explanation
Back in mid-November, I posted to my 180 blog about the classic monkey and hunter demonstration. In that post I referenced a conceptual explanation as to why the hunter should aim directly at the...
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AP Computer Science End-of-Year Survey Results
I recently reviewed the end-of-year feedback from my AP Computer Science students. This year we moved to a new textbook. Last summer, I focused on selecting new practice activities from the textbook...
View Article2013-2014 in Numbers
The 2013-2014 school year by the numbers: 88 students in the fall; 86 students in the spring 71 recommendation letters for 36 different students 30 standards in AP Physics B; 80, in Honors Physics; 20...
View ArticleAP Physics 2 Syllabus, Units, Labs, and Pacing
I previously shared how I will be using the AP Physics 2 Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings as the standards for my flavor of standards-based assessment and reporting for AP Physics 2. Since then,...
View ArticleSummer Reading
A good summer of reading. I didn’t read quite as much as I had hoped, but more than I feared I would. My focus this summer was influenced by my work on my district’s Science Curriculum Team who is...
View ArticleGitHub, Canvas, and Computer Science
There are certain software development techniques or tools that are not strictly part of the AP Computer Science curriculum that I think are valuable for students to learn about and practice in my...
View ArticleReflection on This Year’s Learning Experiences
My school district has a new system for how teachers’ professional development earns them credit on the salary schedule. In addition to the traditional approaches of taking graduate courses or...
View ArticleAP Physics 2 Reflection
On the eve of the first day of school, I felt that I better capture my thoughts on AP Physics 2 last year. My perspective may be different than other’s (at least different than the vocal minority(?) on...
View Article2015 Summer Reading List
As I was preparing my stack of books for this summer, I realized that I never published my summer 2015 books read. It wasn’t a great summer of reading, but there are a several good books that I want to...
View ArticleNew Software Engineering Course
[Updated 6/7/2016, 8:08 PM: Added additional security and web app concepts based on feedback.] After a few years of effort, I’m thrilled to announce that my school district will be offering a new...
View ArticleElectronic Lab Portfolios Aligned to AP Physics Science Practices
[Updated 15/7/2016, 10:54 PM: added links to two student lab portfolios.] As I mentioned briefly in my reflection of the 2014-2015 school year, this past year, students created electronic lab...
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Twitter Mapping Lab
Background For the past four years, we’ve done a Game of Life lab as part of the Decisions and Loops unit in AP Computer Science. I love that lab for many reasons. However, after four years and not...
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Polar Bears Dice Activity in AP Computer Science
A few of years ago, computers weren’t ready for AP Computer Science the first day of school. So, on the first day of class, I resurrected an opening-day activity I had used in Physics: the Polar Bears...
View ArticlePreparing for Year 2 of GitHub Classroom
I’ve used GitHub with my AP Computer Science students for a couple of years, and last year I used GitHub Classroom for the first time. GitHub Classroom definitely made version control more accessible...
View ArticleProject-Based Learning in New Software Engineering Course
A couple years ago, I wrote about a new course that would be offered in the 2017-2018 school year, Software Engineering. Last school year, the course was a great success, although there are many...
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