August 27, 2011

Education in Trouble
March 8, 2010

I received an email today from the state of Colorado CTE (career and techinical education) office regarding a new professional development opportunity. I am always looking for opportunities to learn and get graduate credits to advance on the salary schedule.

Blog Design Tweaks
March 7, 2010

This is a test posting of changes made to my blog setup. I've archived all the old blog settings, still available by clicking on the menu selections in the upper right corner. I've added a header, where in the past there had just been a date and removed the ads on the left. This gives more room for the blog entry and picture. Still having some border issues, but will get them worked out eventually. Plan to start blogging with web design classes in April. Read article in newspaper that blogging is giving way to shorter forms of communication such as facebook and twitter, but then again, print media is on its way out as well. I still like my newspaper in the morning and expect I may be one of the last newspapers readers around at some point in the not too distant future.

Seven Years of Robotics
March 3, 2010

Three years of robotics to the right, seven years overall, six weeks to build, twenty-five hours each week, $6000 to register, four mentors, twenty-five students and myself. Three days at the end of March to compete, eleven matches total, four trophies sitting in the trophy case out in the hall. If you're not doing anything March 27-28, 2010 join us at the University of Denver to watch the Shazbots compete for glory once again.

Surveys, surveys, surveys
March 2, 2010

I've been asked to fill out two surveys the past couple days. Although I did both, I have grown skeptical that either will be considered. Surveys provide a sense of participation, but I don't have any hard proof that they make any difference. In the past as a giver of surveys I can't say that was surprised by any of the responses I received and have since stopped giving them. Both the surveys I completed had to do with school, one about the upcoming contract negotions and the other about the climate at Monarch High School. Better to just pay attention to what is going on around you than to create more paper waste.

October 5, 2009

I love doing long term projects with students, long being defined as more than two days. Design Tech Students are designing urban parks with SketchUp, drafting students are assembling a trebuchet in SolidWorks, Robotics students will be working on a programming challenge that should take them a few days. Projects allow students to collaborate, have time to apply and develop skills and learn to manage time. No surprise that some students don't quite get the time management thing, but that's why they invented tutor time.

September 9, 2009

Things are starting to get away from me, not good. Two grant applications due, 55 CAD & animation projects to grade, software needs installing, a goal sheet deadline is looming, haven't picked up my pipes or practice chanter all week. The weekend is busy with the highland games in Estes. This is how it starts, get behind a little, might as well be behind a lot. It is now 7:54, check back at 3:00, will I fall further into the quagmire of unfettered clutter or pull myself out of the mess.

September 5, 2009

If it was 1969 again and you had the choice to be at Woodstock or to be in Mission Control for the moon landing which would you choose? Anybody out there at both? On one hand you have a cultural event that literally rocked the world, on the other arguably the greatest engineering achievement in history. I was at neither, but as much as I like music, Mission Control gets my vote. In retrospect Woodstock almost now seems like the death of something, the ending of an era, while the space program even though it has been asleep, remains the beginning of something far greater than any one of us? Thoughts? Leave a comment

August 29, 2009

This is the shop after the robotics class finished their Rube Goldberg project. We had our last run just as the bell was running and was mostly successful. Nearly every engineering project I do with students find us right up against deadline to get finished. This concept of time is a very difficult one to grasp, we always think we have way more of it than we actually do. That realization is part of the rationale for my no clutter pledge this year. If I can take care of things as they present themselves I can more effectively use my time. I think there is something inherent in us as human beings that like to present ourselves as overly busy, put upon by the world. Maybe if we are busy we are important?

August 23, 2009

A week of mixed success. There was one task I just didn't want to do, don't know why, not sure-it wasn't difficult or anything like that, but something kept me from doing it. The task was cut a groove lengthwise down a piece of 1.5" PVC pipe. Really 30 seconds worth of work. However it will be waiting for me on my desk when I return to work tomorrow morning. On the plus side my inbox only contains two emails that I need to actually do something about and my desk was clear when I left (or at least I think it was).

August 20, 2009

Clutter Project day three, or is it four? Starting to work on the electronic clutter. I look at my computer desktop and there is a lot of junk there. I place attachments there from emails thinking I will actually do something with it and sometimes I do, but most of the time I just may as well have sent it off to Timbuktu.

August 18, 2009

Old habits die hard, left a task undone on my desk on the first day. This list of dates of when I am scheduled to be in the learning center should have been entered into my calendar so I don't forget. I took care of that this morning.

August 17, 2009

First day back to school. This is the baseline for my desk, a computer and a phone. This how I want it to greet me each morning. Any paperwork that comes my way gets taken care of in a timely manner and before I go home for the night.

August 16, 2009

The new school year has started. I am going to work to star positive which isn't necessarily easy. There is an atmosphere of waste and fickleness prevasive, but I can't do anything about that and so will do the best I can with what I have, which is a lot.

July 31, 2009

Successfully completed my Certified SolidWorks Accociation certification today. The test was particularly gnarly, after three days of review and practice I took the three hours exam and left with a passing score. Whew!

July 14, 2009

Basil hiding among the potato plants. These plants weren't clever enough to be discovered and turned into pesto this past weekend. First harvest of at least two this summer should keep me in green well into the winter after the garden has long been covered with frost.

June 30, 2009

My first attempt at astrophotography. While nothing to write home about, it is a milestone for me. The fuzzy blur in upper right is M13, a globular cluster in Hercules. There was quite a bit of light pollution from the moon and I think I set the exposure too long (5.7 sec), I was able to darken in post processing and need to work on focusing and centering my images. It's a start.

June 20, 2009

Today is World Refugee Day. Log on and participate or donate. Witness live, real time video feed from a refugee camp.

June 15, 2009

Hiked today at Pawnee Butte in the Pawnee National Grasslands. Everything was green because of all the recent moisture and there were wild flowers everywhere. The only sounds out there were those made by nature, insects, birds. There were plenty of cows too. On the way there I had to skirt a mother cow nursing her calf in the middle of the road.

June 8, 2009

So spammers have discovered my site. By posting their URL on as many sites as possible and having it discovered and indexed by Google and other robots they can get their poor sites and products discovered. I've had to add code to my comment box to disallow the use of URL's in comments.

June 2, 2009

rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain play scrabble rain rain rain rain rain rain bake cinnamon rolls rain rain rain rain rain rain read rain rain rain rain rain rain practice bagpipes indoors rain rain rain rain organize itunes rain rain rain rain rain rain

May 30, 2009

School is out for the summer. Hasn't sunk in totally yet, but will soon. Plenty to keep myself busy with. Potatoes and garlic are growing like crazy, all the moisture we've been treated to has got the garden off to the best start ever. Hauled in a load of mulch and placed around trees, bushes, etc. Not only helps save water in the long run, but looks goods. Off to a birthday party soon (mine!).

May 17, 2009

Got a lot of gardening done today. Placed several shrubs, put in some herbs (basil & rosemary), planted some grape vines along a fence and put in a Litchfield Angel Rose. White rose will look nice next to purple clematis. Purchased some bush beans and will gt them in next week. Beautiful warm day, hoping the skies will be clear enough to get out the telescope, but at present there are some wispy clouds overhead.

May 6, 2009

We are coming to the end of the school year. This should be a positive time, but things have a way of turning negative each and every year. Teachers are being forced to leave, the school board wants to limit teacher raises to nothing or next to nothing. Graduation, prom, the end of a successful year of teaching and learning should be our focus. sigh....

April 25, 2009

We walked up to Zapata Falls yesterday, East of Alamosa. Easy hike to the falls, had to walk over the frozen stream to reach them. They were mostly frozen, but we could see water flowing behind the massive ice structures. Later that night we heard Pedro and the Pistons, Caleb's rock band at Wise Apples. Overall a pretty good day

April 16, 2009

Congratulations to Divya & Noah! They have been accepted for an eight week paid internship with NASA at the Johnson Space Center. There were only ten slots from a five state region to attend Johnson, two of those slots came from Monarch High School's FIRST Robotics Team! Congratulations!

April 11, 2009

A day in the garden, weeded and prepared flower bed. Section A has a perennial bloom mix(lupine, blanketflower, gayfeather, candytuft, coneflower, shasta daisy, verbena, wallflower, cottage pinks, basket of gold, carnation, coreopsis, penstemon, black eye susan, columbine, forget me not and Mexican hat. Section B has a wildflower mix has many of the same plus primrose, gentians, prairie aster milkweed, goldenrod and beeplant. Section C is cosmos.

April 9, 2009

We unpacked the robot this week and since returning from competition I haven't been able to get it to communicate with the control system. It runs over an 802.11n wireless network and the router and gaming adapter don't seem to want to talk to one another. We are displaying the robot next week at CU, so time to start figuring it out I guess.

April 3, 2009

We are building skyscrapers out of structural form in my design class. I did this activity with a group of engineers and college teachers at CU a couple weeks age. We did it in 1.5 hours. For high school I've stretched it out to six days. The skyscraper needs to be as tall as possible, support a .5 liter full water bottle on top and survive a simulated earthquake. (10% tilt of base). Testing day is Tuesday.

March 31, 2009

Jesse's Birthday today! Happy Birthday Jesse!

Throckmorton in action, bot worked so hard over the weekend, now sitting in a box somewhere between here and Denver, hope he finds his way home soon. Picture by Noah

March 29, 2009

Three days of robotics competition is now behind us. We missed the first day because of snow and that put us at a disadvantage. We came back and although we had trouble on the field we won the Xerox award for creativity in design :-). Photo by Toria

March 26, 2009

The snow is beautiful today, however we are supposed to be in Denver at the Colorado Regional FIRST Robotics competition. There were a lot of disappointed students when we decided not to go. As it turns out, it was a good decision as the competition was canceled for today. Hopefully things will clear up tomorrow so we can catch day two.

March 25, 2009

Baked some bread yesterday. Simple whole wheat loaf, nothing fancy, but it was nice to smell bread baking again in the house after several weeks of not having any. Made two loaves, first one is already gone, I don't expect the second one to last very long.

March 24, 2009

Compost temperature is up to 120 degrees and still moving upward after I turned the pile on Saturday. Great Progress. I should have several batches of compost to use this year.

03-22-2009

Took out the new scope last night. Easily able to view Saturn, Pleides, the Orion Nebula and the double star in the handle of the big dipper. Getting the alignment correct was problematic and couldn't get the goto features to work correctly. After reviewing the owner's manual this morning (last refuge), I see options for correction my problems.
Caleb's birthday today! Happy birthday Caleb!

03-21-2009

Germination! A spinach seedling has germinated. Also planted onions, garlic and peas today.

03-19-2009

Attended the CDIO conference at CU the past two days dedicated to engineering education. Our group built a skyscraper capable of surviving an earthquake in less than an hour and a half. Compost bin is at 110 plus degrees as of last night and rising. Go microbes go!!

03-08-2009

Compost bin without the lids yet. The left side is covered with hardware cloth. Ran out of staples to complete the right side. Need a trip to Lowes. The slats in the front remove one by one to give easy access to the compost. Next step, build top cover to keep animals out. Had a very good discussion with the Senior Young Friends this morning at Meeting about social networking and how it can be used/abused.

03-07-2009

Inside my cold frame, nothing growing yet. Built a compost bin yesterday, not quite done yet. Hope to finish this afternoon after pipe band practice.

03-06-2009

Garden season started early this year. Last weekend I built a cold frame and planted some lettuce, spinach seeds. Earliest ever. It helped that we had record high temperatures this past week (in the 70s!), but I am a bit disappointed that I haven't seen any signs of germination yet.