Author Archives: dougpete

About dougpete

The content of this blog is created by me at the keyboard or as a result of an aggregator of my daily reading under the title OTR Links. On Fridays, look for my signature post "This Week in Ontario Edublogs" where I try to share some great writing from Ontario Educators. The other regular post appears Sunday mornings as I try to start a conversation about things that have gone missing from our daily lives.

Computer Science Education Week

Posted on by
Reply

CSEdWeek is an annual call to action to inspire K-12 students to learn computer science, advocate for equity in computer science education, and celebrate the contributions of students, teachers, and partners to the field.

This is an annual “week” to help promote the study of Computer Science in education. The original goal was to inspire educators and systems to incorporate more Computer Science or at least Computational Thinking into the curriculum. It has succeeded in some classrooms, been ignored in others, and yet others do at least some computer sciencey things.

For many education resource websites, it’s a chance to throw out a pile of links to different places around the web where there are activities for students. If you follow them, they typically end up back at one or more of these sites.

CDEdWeek

The rationale for why CS Education Week exists and shares ideas for advocacy. It’s an annual read for me to revisit the history of the initiative and the ultimate goal. You’re not going to make anyone a Computer Scientist in a week as it takes a lifetime of work to continue to realize how little you know and how much we appreciate the efforts of those who have stayed the course and provided us with this discipline.

You’ve got to start them somewhere. For educators, there are learning and advocacy events for every day in the week.

Code.org

At the Code.org website, you’re going to probably want to end up on the “Introducing CS Connections” page. Here, you’ll find some great resources and activities specifically for the classroom and designed to fit into the notion of success after a little bit of work and effort.

It’s always humbling to see the activities and work my way through them. I would have written my first program in Fortran in Grade 11 and I’m sure that it’s some sort of ancient “Hello World” type of thing. After seeing where my career went, I do kind of wish that I’d held on to it!

CSTeachers

The Computer Science Teachers Association has a weeklong set of learning opportunities for educators. It’s based in Chicago so make sure that you use the UTC time to attend.

fair chance learning

In Ontario, the folks at fair chance learning have a learning opportunity that is really unique. You’ll be going virtual…

“Each experience includes a 1-hour virtual tour of an Amazon Fulfillment centre, and a 30 minute post-tour classroom visit with FCL to talk careers, technology and innovation! Students will discover how algorithms, machine learning, and more power our fulfillment process and gain workplace exposure.”

Make sure that you download the resource and student workbook.

Wherever you turn for resources, it’s a great opportunity to be onside with a good initiative and to do something new or different with your students and exposed them to new opportunities. And, hopefully, Computer Science activities end up having a permanent place in your classroom.

What’s happening in your classroom this week?

OTR Links 12/06/2021

Posted on by
Reply

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My Week Ending 2021-12-05

Posted on by
1

Here’s a summary of some of the things I learned and published this week.

Readings 

You can follow my daily readings as they happen here.  Below are a selected few, with commentary, from the past week. They’re posted to the blog daily under the title OTR Links.

Sunday

  • I love this post – why you should be using Canadian spelling no matter what you’re bombarded with
  • A thoughtful response to the question about whether you should create another new login or just login with your Facebook or Twitter credentials

Monday

  • Sadly, Frank Williams passed away
  • If you’re looking for a cheap Windows computer, go to a car manufacturer

Tuesday

  • I think the title is overkill but the whole premise should have teachers examining exactly where technology should and should not be used in the classroom – COVID lockdown was an anomoly
  • Kudos to CBSA for catching people trying to enter the country with fake COVID vaccination certificates

Wednesday

  • I don’t think that this comes as a surprise or it shouldn’t and I don’t know why people would pay to cheat but they need to be aware of blackmail
  • We know that COVID has caused many school, cohort, bus groups to stay home from school – in Essex County that number is 12 000 and counting

Thursday

  • As if things weren’t bad enough in Wheatley, another gas leak appears
  • When a date is both a palindrome and ambigram

Friday

  • The Boblo tower which gave a beautiful view of the amusement park, the Detroit River, and Amherstburg has been torn down
  • Things to consider if you’re considering buying a Tesla

Saturday

  • Actually, of these “four Windows email apps that I didn’t know about”, I knew about 1 of them but the rest were interesting to know about
  • When this upgrade hits, there will be a lot of Windows 11 users that will be so happy to have the one click and change a browser routine again

Blog Posts on
doug — off the record

My daily contributions to this blog are linked below. If you’re looking for a week in review for doug–off the record, you came to the right place.

#FollowFriday – December 3, 2021

https://wke.lt/w/s/W5lI-r

voicEd Radio

This Week in Ontario Edublogs is a show/podcast that features great writing from Ontario Edubloggers.

Featured Bloggers:

  • Jennifer Hutchison – @TESLOntario
  • Rabia Khokar – @Rabia_Khokhar1
  • Nilmini Ratwatte-Hensdridge – @NRatwatte
  • Diana Maliszewski – @MzMollyTL
  • Ann Marie Luce – @turnmeluce
  • Janice Williams – @staoapso

This week’s show:

https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/fatigue-fidgeting-and-finding-a-new-school/

Opening Song:

Closing Song:

All of the shows are archived here. The show is broadcast LIVE almost every Wednesday morning at 8:45 on voicEd Radio.

Technology Troubleshooting

I guess if I was really serious about this I would have stuck around but I didn’t.

Tonight was “Meet Santa Claus” downtown. Santa isn’t immune to COVID and, at his age, should be particularly careful. Not to worry. The town had him covered.

Santa and Mrs. Claus were put in the Amherstburg Snow Globe (yes, we own a Snow Globe) on a couple of chairs and kids got to ask their questions from outside the globe.

Video of the Week

Who doesn’t like the Beatles?

Photo of the Week

The magic of Christmas, this time in LaSalle.

Thanks for reading.

Please join me daily for something new and, hopefully, interesting for you. I honestly and truthfully appreciate your few moments reading my thoughts. Time willing, this summary appears every Sunday afternoon.

Be safe.

dp

This blog post was originally posted at:

https://dougpete.wordpress.com/

Whatever happened to …

Posted on by
7

… charm bracelets?

This was bizarre timing and as a result, ended up as a post.

Jaimie and I were walking the main street of Amherstburg recently and passed Precision Jewellers where they had a sign in the window indicating that they had Alex and Ani on sale. Not knowing what that was, I asked my wife when we got home and got the full explanation about the similarities to charm bracelets.

Later that evening, I got notified of a post on Sheila Stewart’s blog called “Life’s Charms” where she talked about her own charm bracelet. What a coincidence and an inspiration for a post.

Back home, I asked my wife why she doesn’t wear hers anymore and got the story about how the dangling charms just hang and get caught in things. She also indicated that she had her mother’s and my mother’s around here somewhere. That somewhere was at the bottom of her jewellery box. She brought out hers and I grabbed this picture as I heard the story behind each of the charms.

She wore it quite a bit, back in the day, and people had given her a charm from places that they had visited – lobster trap from Nova Scotia, sombrero from Mexico, mouse ears from Disneyland, … And, a few that I had given her. Her astrological sign, wedding day, …

In Sheila’s post, she shares a bit of the story behind the charms on her bracelet and the story behind them. There really is a purpose behind the hanging charms.

That was the opening for me to my wife at this time of the season – would you ever want another charm and the answer was no … she doesn’t wear her bracelet anymore.

For a Sunday, how about chipping in?

  • do you own a charm bracelet?
  • if so, do you still wear it?
  • do you own an Alex and Ani?
  • have you ever given a charm to someone else as a gift?
  • why don’t people wear charm bracelets these days? Or do they and you just can’t see them under winter coats?
  • what things do the charms get caught on?
  • Sheila’s and my wife’s bracelets have one charm in common. Which one?

Nobody has ever accused me of being stylish as I sit here in sweats blogging, so your thoughts may help me get up to speed.

This is part of a regular Sunday morning set of blog posts. You can find them all here and please reach out if you have an idea for a post.

OTR Links 12/05/2021

Posted on by
1

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.