Women's march

I wanted to take a second to write about the women’s march this weekend.  It was the largest march to ever occur in the history of the United States of America.  Women and men who care about women gathered together to organize and be visible.  These marches were markedly different from any other larger protest in that no one was arrested, no one was raped, and no one was murdered.  These women did not break windows, turn over cars or burn down buildings.  They assembled and acted like good citizens.

After the march was over, I listened as people who were not involved attempted to label and turn the women into straw-men.  These people said:

• “The march was about the election. “ It could have been but maybe not in the way you think.  
• “This march was all about Trump.”  I know he would like for it to be.  More people turned out for it than for the inauguration.
• “This march was about Hillary. Although she won the popular vote, she worked hard to win a contest that did not matter.  Trump targeted the areas he needed to gain the electorial votes.”  This march was not about the convoluted political process.
• “The march was about abortion.” If you can get it to be about that a divide can be created but it was not. I am not saying there were not women there who may have been marching about these things but the women I know marched to end domestic violence and other violence against women.

So why did they march? The women I know marched to end domestic violence and other violence against women.  They marched to end the practice of light sentencing for violent rape. They marched to protect their disabled children by raising their visibility.  They marched to raise awareness that more than half of the country is female. In a representative country, shouldn’t their perspectives be represented?  There were many Godly women, who pray everyday to Yahweh, who were marching.  These women recognize the scripture that tells us to speak up for the voiceless and that is what they are doing.

Even though the event was unusually peaceful I noticed there were several people who attempted to shut them. Some attempted to shut them down by shaming the women or making fun of them.  One noob in the US senate said that Trump had managed to get more fat women walking than Michelle Obama ever had.  That is an example of the nonsense that has been shared.  Some people beg to be ignored.  Others attempted to stop the momentum by telling all of us ‘why these women were marching.’  I am disappointed in the people who feel the need to do this.  These people seem afraid to politely engage their neighbor and ask why she marched or why she supported the march.  These women managed to march without becoming violent.  I think engaging them would be physically safe, so why not talk and hear a different perspective?  It’s not as if there weren’t so many of them you don’t know anyone who participated. There is no reason for such a fearful reaction when a group of women assemble peacefully.

I recognize there were a million different reasons the women assembled this weekend.  I am just so glad to see them waking up.  The civilizations/times when women were treated equally tend to be marked by an explosion of arts and innovation. This is a rising tide that can raise all ships.

Credit these women.  They were able to run this march with class and dignity.  Women of all ages, sizes, attractiveness, education, height, income, shade and any other delimiter you care to choose, assembled.  Even though they greatly outnumbered the police and could have torn the cities down, they came together to build one another up.  I hope the movement continues and women take their God given place in the C-Suite, in America, and in the rest of the world.

Next on my Reading List:
https://www.amazon.com/Black-White-Bible-Blue-Wife-ebook/dp/B010R0I6DU/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=teachersandco-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=da42915cf5ed9fcbaf5abe608591ad41&creativeASIN=B010R0I6DU

No One who needs a Computer should be without a Computer....

....When we can source them for free.  There are computers which have had the Hard Drives removed that go into the land fill everyday.  If you create an OS with Linux you can make these machines usable.  I am sharing a talk on how to build these today during the Nashville Maker Faire at the Adventure Science Center.  We have the Linux Lab set up for you to play with and we will be demoing drive creation and talking about how to find free machines.

Here are some of the directions I will be referencing: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-ubuntu

and

http://teachersandcompany.blogspot.com/2016_07_01_archive.html

My son and I have published a book on the subject for kids with a gentle approach to the vocabulary and methods to avoid the pit falls we ran into when trying to find this information out in the wilds of the internet.  An update with the Ubuntu directions are coming soon.  Find this book at: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Z0TMEBY/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=teachersandco-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B00Z0TMEBY&linkId=0c044723688cdb81a0c3a23536ec3387

Many thanks to Make Nashville, the Adventure Science Center, and BencinStudios (video game creation) for making these talks possible.

How to stop bullying in your child's school part 1

My son attends a school with a diverse population.  Some of the students do not have the resources to meet their basic needs.  One day Boy came home and was complaining that a girl next to him kept insisting on borrowing his pencil and would use the eraser up.  This had been happening for a while and he told me he was not sure how to deal with it.

So we drove over to the Dollar Store and picked up a nice pack of pencils with a paper back to the packaging.  I wrote a note on the back addressed to the student.  I told her these pencils were a gift and that she is loved.  I also said if she ran out in a couple of weeks to let me know. After Tom gave her the pencils the girl stopped yelling at him and stopped asking to borrow his pencils.  She began to treat him more like a friend.

I can't imagine how lonely and stressful it must feel for a student who does not have pencils for class. Who hasn't had nightmares of being unprepared for class? This is many student's lived reality.  It was not expensive to help her and it made my son's educational environment more pleasant.

We may not be able to change the world but if there is one kid your child is complaining about ask about supplies and other needs. By reaching out we can change the timbre of our schools.

I do need to add the caveat that if your child is being threatened by a student you need to report that immediately and insist steps are taking to protect your student.  But for low level aggravations we have found sometimes the best way to be rid of a bully is to turn them into a friend or at least a friendly acquaintance.

Amazon is a nice place to stock up on school supplies.  I like these pencils because they use thicker lead that seems to be less prone to break.
https://www.amazon.com/Paper-Mate-SharpWriter-Mechanical-Pencils/dp/B00006IEE4/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=teachersandco-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=228c78b9d412702a1091deaf68411a8b&creativeASIN=B00006IEE4

Linux drive creation (temporary)

Step by step on how to create a drive:

1. Go to pendrive linux

pendrivelinux.com

-Do not click the top link -no “GETITNOW” it's click bate and will not give you what you need

Scroll down and find YUMI mid screen CLICK LINK

2. Scroll to mid page and download YUMI

3. Open a new tab

type distrowatch.com and search in the top left corner for your distro

4. Choose your website and download the mirror

- It looks overwhelming Don't Panic

5. Scroll down to the bottom

- choose the last one that ends with .iso

6. Download that .iso file to your computer.

-This may take awhile

- when you have both yumi and your .iso downloaded you will be ready to create your thumb drive

-Through School internet it took almost an hour

7. Run Yumi- will ask choose drive= Drive E, never choose C (computer) if creating a USB drive

which distro version- choose downloaded one, which is xubuntu

Browse for dot ISO file, Open and will show up in Green

Click CREATE

8. When it says installation is done CLICK NEXT

9. Choose NO- unless you plan to put more distros on your drive

10. Choose finish

Harpeth Hall Python Minecraft camp for girls

One of the challenges of increasing diversity in coding is recruiting young women to learn these skills.  This week Ellie Fitzpatrick and I ran a camp on how to program in Python. This is an all girls camp and we taught them the way we learn best, by incorporating creative coding opportunities.  We utilized both Processing 3 and webbing Minecraft to Python.

Ellie has lead a lunchtime coding club at her school, Harpeth Hall, for 3 years.  As a seasoned Python tutor she learned to use innovative coding examples that engage girl's imaginations and make them think critically.  This week we covered the basics and much more. Our curriculum included:data types, lists, dictionaries, loops, functions, objects, and attributes by creating 'fish stores', 'big fluffy dog functions', and auto building in Minecraft.

 By Friday, these young women had designed their own project.  All are solving problems with their programs and creating unique code to perform their selected tasks.  This programming class has morphed into an coding art creation event.  Our youngest coder is working on the variables so she can move the doors and windows populating into her world from Python.  She has spent the entire day on this project.  Girls who learn to code in this manner learn persistence.

Our young women who took our class told us that there were some things that helped them. These requests set them apart from mixed gender groups.  Handwriting notes was one of the things they requested to do often.  Although I would not let them entirely write because working in the IDE and getting error feed back is important, note taking was calming for them and helped them with retention. They also reported sublime text was beneficial because Bella told us that 'the colors help her see different parts of the code'.  All agreed the colors helped them know if they had saved their file as a .py  and it was pretty.

We were all so involved in the coding projects on Friday we were an hour late to lunch.  Not one person was waiting time checking email or playing video games.  They were serious about learning and making their code function.  Highly successful camp for our girls.  I learned as much about teaching girls to code as they learned about code.  Thank you to Harpeth Hall for providing the space and to WITT for sponsoring our work.

We used this reference to help build our camp:
https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Program-Minecraft-Transform-Python/dp/1593276702?ie=UTF8&creativeASIN=1593276702&linkCode=w00&linkId=9da2bb0112980892453add16ef058ffa&ref_=as_sl_pc_tf_til&tag=teachersandco-20

Ellie's favorite reference book to learn Python is:
https://www.amazon.com/Hello-World-Computer-Programming-Beginners/dp/1617290920?ie=UTF8&creativeASIN=1617290920&linkCode=w00&linkId=c9e511f0f876c9bc8405abd2503136ce&ref_=as_sl_pc_tf_til&tag=teachersandco-20

One Million New Tech Positions and Few Free Paths in Public Ed - Amy Flatt

Our economy is changing.  Many people in the recording, manufacturing, and other industries are losing their positions due to automation and new, less-expensive, technologies.  These new technologies mean you no longer need a big recording studio to produce a record or an MP3. Several recording studios in Nashville were shuttered in the last few years.

Manufacturing is not leaving the US but it's sector is shrinking.  Fortunately, there are parts of the market that are growing, like the tech industry.  Right now the United States is not positioned to take advantage of the opportunities.  Coding and other technologies are a core skill set for our age similar to Math, and Literacy.  Our teachers are constantly trained on how to teach Mathematics and Literacy and integrate them into other subjects.  However, here are few if any Professional Development opportunities for teachers to learn Coding, Info Sec, or even information about the components of the computer/how to hook it up.

Last week, I taught a class on the Unity Engine and Game Development to a group of Middle and High School students.  Half way through the week the students began talking about how to troll a teacher.  The school computers are typically slow.  The students have taken to suggesting the teachers, "Download more RAM."  Which is a little like telling someone their blinker fluid is low.  The students reported that teachers have googled "download more RAM". If the teachers had replaced RAM in a computer they would know it's a physical thing you can hold in your hands not something to download.

So our teachers are mostly unprepared to integrate tech teaching in our schools and our students are not preparing to take these jobs in the future.  Students, who are interested, are encouraged to go on line and "figure it out".  Although there are many great websites and books to teach students coding, could you imagine what it would be like if we took the same approach to Math instruction?  Granted there are many good resources online but that is not the path to have a well educated population.  Our approach to teaching tech must change.

Great Britain has instituted a plan where every child starting, at 5 years old, will learn how to code.  The US is trying to catch up.  The Whitehouse is earmarking funds but we also need a plan similar to GB to make sure that all teachers and students have the basic knowledge to take part in the 21st century.  We need to think towards the next ten years so we can continue to have a strong, vibrant economy.  Tech learning must become integrated, have a measurable plan, along with strong Professional Training Program for our teachers so they can do what they do best, teach!



Cool Tool of the Week

A Great City Needs a Great Maker Space

     A maker space is like a community center.  They have tools, technology, and various art and manufacturing equipment.  They are wonderful places where people can play, create and learn.  Maker spaces create new opportunities for the public.

     There are No actual maker spaces in Nashville today.  However, there are organizations which have some maker space elements.  There is a co-working space for makers called Fort Houston. Most of the clientele right now seem to be small businesses.  I think a similar space is being built.  Although these have maker space elements they are not complete maker spaces. There is also studio NPL run by Nashville Public Library but it is only for teens.  Because it's geared for minors the programs are very directed.  Hacker Consortium, Bon Homme Collectif and many others maker spaces have all gone defunct.  Similar to libraries, they are tricky to monetize without nonprofit funding (grants, gov support, others) 

     Maker spaces should be: 

• Accessible- reasonable price points for individuals
• Self Directed- people learn and create the things they choose 
• Welcoming- communities with egalitarian cultures
• With outreach to under-served populations

    We were able to hear from Rice University and Georgia Tech at Vanderbilt on Friday about the surprising advantages of maker spaces. 

    Some of the advantages they have found that maker spaces:

• Aid in retention
• Make the curriculum stronger
• Let people access tools and skills they would not be able to reach otherwise
• Seem to improve gender parity and increase confidence in underrepresented populations
• Matches the outline of ways students tell us they most like to learn with hands on real world experience as opposed to lecture

...And the artists they attract increase the rate of revitalization of blighted areas.

     Make Nashville is wanting to establish a maker space and they have been working on it four years.  They have gained traction by having a kick starter.  They ask individuals to give $100 to become a founding member. If they could get 40 people to give then they would receive a dollar for dollar match.  They now have 56 people, including the founder of JS Foundary. This opportunity closes December 31.

     Make Nashville has several pieces of donated lab and maker equipment and donated furniture. They have funding. They are currently seeking space.  If you would like to help support this movement you can donate at: http://www.makenashville.com/donate/

If you aren't in Nashville but want to get your geek on: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/059651428X?creativeASIN=059651428X&linkCode=w00&linkId=BB73VGC6OINSM57K&ref_=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til&tag=teachersandco-20

Cheers!