Robotics Training, continued

I sat through robotics training yesterday, but I can’t claim to have absorbed too much of what was going on.  I know they were working with vision sensors, and I got the gist of what was going on, but I didn’t really participate. The loss of Kiera was still too fresh, and it was enough of a struggle to hold myself together. The folks at RobotMesh got a video of the results from one of the successful teams, though. The robot has to find a green ball using the vision sensor, move it over to a bin marked with a red flag, pick up the ball and drop it in the bin.

After training yesterday, I spent some time with Seven and Dan, both of whom helped me feel better. There’s nothing like puppy energy and the company of a good friend to help with healing. By this morning, I was doing alright, as long as I had something to focus on.

Today’s session started with information about competitions. We heard more about the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation, which is the main organization for VEX competitions. We also heard about the Technology Student Association, which hosts VEX events, but has a broader mission. There was information about how tournaments are set up, and how to participate. Luckily, the other robotics teacher in my district is pretty experienced in that world.

For our last programming activity, we learned how to make the robot accept controller input, and we programmed our robots to play freeze tag. If one of the bumpers at the back of the robot are pressed, the robot has freeze for five seconds. The third time a robot is tagged, it’s out of the competition. They would have liked to have all six robots in the competition at once, but we didn’t have that many working batteries. We started out with one-on-one matches, and then had more interesting three-way matches. The team I was on actually managed to win the class tournament! There was video taken for the tournament, too, but it hasn’t been posted yet.

Tomorrow, I need to get serious about getting paperwork done. There’s a crazy amount of it to do.

8/22/18 – Kiera: In Memoriam

Sometime around the end of November of 2010, Dirk and I went to PetSmart to get dogfood for Yogi. He wasn’t doing well, and we were buying a variety of food in an effort to find something he would eat. As we walked in the building, though, Oasis was set up with their cats available for adoption. We stopped to look, not because we wanted one, but because they were cute, and hard to resist. Especially a friendly, alert, little torby. We admired her, but managed to go home with just our dogfood. Until the next week, when we needed more food, and she was still there. This time, there was no way she wasn’t going home with us. She was just too cute to resist.

We named her Kiera, after the master thief in the Vlad Taltos books by Steven Brust. The master thief who just happens to also be the most powerful enchantress around. It seemed an appropriate choice.

When we first brought her home, Marbles was terrified of her, and hid out in the garage for most of the first month. Tibby, on the other hand, had gone through a kitten before, with Marbles, and knew what it was all about this time. She and Kiera became fast friends.

Eventually, all three of them got along, more-or-less, though Kiera was always much closer with Tibby.

Kiera was very outgoing, for a cat, always wanting to see what was going on, to be a part of things. She was very friendly, greeting everyone, and you only needed to get within a few feet of her or look at her in a friendly way to elicit a loud, rumbling purr. When we started hosting house concerts, she’d be right in the thick of things, greeting guests or hanging out on her tower, watching all from above.

She loved the outdoors, especially in the summer. Although she would occasionally walk the top of the fence while I was working in the garden, she never really seemed to know (or care) there was a difference between a fence and a wall, and could be counted on to stay in the back yard, unless someone left a gate open.

If something was happening, she hated being left out. Once when I working on redoing the insulation in the crawl space, she was outside. When she realized where I was, and that she couldn’t get to me, she complained mightily at the vent.

She loved a warm spot in the sun or in front of the fireplace. Tents, boxes, and tall places always drew her. Her favorite place, though, was snuggled up with Tibby.

Last Friday, I took Kiera to the Veterinary Specialist Center in Lynnwood. They worked on finding out what was wrong with her, and what we could do about it. The conclusion was hepatic lipidosis and inflammatory bowel disease. They set her up with a treatment plan, said she was doing pretty well, and yesterday after training, I went to pick her up and take her home. I’m told that half an hour before I got there, she was still Kiera: head butting the vet, purring, friendly, happy, good. But when the tech brought her to me, she was definitely not good. The tech took her back again, and the vets decided that she’d had a stroke. They worked hard to save her, but we lost the fight. I gently scratched her chin as she slipped away.

My sweet, friendly, purry kitten is gone. She brought joy to me and so many others. She was an amazing cat. She will be terribly missed.

Robotics Training

Starting yesterday, and through Thursday, I’ve been in robotics training at RobotMesh, for the new V5 Vex robots. Our first task was to build our robots. Because the V5 hasn’t actually been released yet, we didn’t have build instructions. Instead, we had a model to look at and copy. It worked out, and was fun to build. Here’s the completed claw bot:

Once we had the robot completed, we started learning how to use RobotMesh Studio to control our robots, starting with the motors driving the wheels. We’re working mostly in Blockly, but we can also work in Python or C++. Thus far, we haven’t gotten our robots to do anything too terribly interesting, but that’s coming…

First Day Plans

Ever since Kamiak offered me the job, I’ve been thinking about what I might do on my first day. There’s the standard procedure of passing out a syllabus, doing some sort of ice breaker, establishing rules. It’s just that, though: the standard procedure. It’s not what will engage students, or get them excited about the new school year. So I was glad to see this article, posted on Education Week: Ten Non-Standard Ideas About Going Back to School. I liked what it had to say, too. So I’m still thinking about what I’m going to do, but I’ve got some perhaps more-interesting ideas.

On a side note, I also just learned about The Facility at Edmonds Community College. It’s an official FabLab Makerspace, and open to the public. They’ve got a tour on September 4th I’ve put on my calendar.

8/18/18 – Evaluations and Vet Emergency

I need to start getting in the habit of getting up early, because the school day at Kamiak starts at 6:50. Classes are 7:20-2, and I’m supposed to be there until at least 2:30. At some point I may be doing clubs, as well, but I think they’re trying not to hit me with that just yet. The good news is that it’s generally an easy commute, counter the usual traffic, so it’s only about a 20 minute drive.

Yesterday, I was aiming to meet Myola, the engineering teacher I’ll be sharing a room with, at 7. I got up early, but still wound up running late. But that was okay, because Myola was running late, as well (she had forgotten about traffic). I initially entered the wrong building, but quickly found my way (this was the first time I wasn’t following someone, and this school is not small).

Myola gave me a welcome gift of a little plant she and her daughter decorated together, and a nice pack of post-it notes.

She also gave me access to her website, so I could see the materials she had for the engineering class. I haven’t had a chance to dig into them yet, but I know I’m going to appreciate having them!

I couldn’t stay long, because I was headed to 5D training, on the teacher evaluation system. Pamela had told me I didn’t need to go, because she figured it would be too overwhelming at the start. But I’ve never been in a district school before, and had no idea what the system might look like, so it seemed like a good idea to go. Besides, Jim was going to be there, and had some more materials for me for the AP Computer Science class.

The 5D system was developed at the University of Washington. It’s very detailed, but seems pretty straight-forward, on the whole. There are a couple other systems in use in the State, so the State Framework is a little different, with 8 categories. We had both of those explained to us, along with how things are done at Mukilteo. Unfortunately, I missed that last part, because I got a call from my vet.

About two months ago, I switched my cats from kibble to canned, because current research indicates that canned is better for them. I also figured that canned gave me more control over how much they eat, and I had a couple of fat cats who needed to lose weight. This picture of Kiera is from April, before I made the switch:

When I first made the switch Kiera was pretty picky about what she was eating. I’d put out three different varieties (usually same brand, but different flavors), and let her pick first. Initially, she usually picked one, and ate. The other two cats were less picky, and would eat the other two varieties. But then she started to turn away without picking one, and I had a harder and harder time finding something she was willing to eat. When I did find something, she’d usually eat it once, and then wouldn’t eat it again.

She had started out being one of the fat cats, and she lost a lot of weight. Initially, I wasn’t too concerned, because she could afford to lose it. But as she got pickier, I got more worried, and finally, I made an appointment for her. The initial exam looked pretty good, blood work looked pretty good, but urinalysis indicated a UTI, so she was put on antibiotics. As that prescription came to a close, though, it was clear she wasn’t getting any better, so the vet scheduled an ultrasound.

It was the call with the results from the ultrasound that I got during training yesterday. Thickening of the intestine, and diffuse issues throughout the liver, potentially indicating fatty liver disease. The vet suggested getting tissue samples, and said it might be worth putting her on a feeding tube, in the meantime. She referred me to the Veterinary Specialty Center of Seattle in Lynnwood.

As soon as training got out (which was very shortly after I got off the phone), I headed home to get Kiera, and take her to Lynnwood. My friend Elena met us there, which was very nice. An hour or two later, we had a treatment plan. They’d keep Kiera, do liver support and additional diagnostic work, and figure out what was going on. As I saw the estimate, I was incredibly grateful I’d just gotten this job at Kamiak that will actually let me pay for it.

Elena was still struggling with the remnants of a cold combined with the smoke in the air, so she headed home. I swung by home to pick up Seven, and then headed downtown to listen to Dan play. I didn’t wind up getting to stay long, though, because Seven hadn’t gotten enough attention during the day (by her standards), and she wasn’t about to let me stay and listen when we could be walking.

Just as we headed toward the water front, I got a call from the vet. New bloodwork didn’t indicate worsening liver conditions, but did show indications of red blood cell destruction and anemia. I was told they were regrouping, and still providing fluids and liver support in the meantime. They’ll take good care of her, and hopefully we’ll figure out what’s going on.

 

8/16/18 – Getting Started

I went to the Mukilteo District this morning, to meet with Pam, my CTE Director and attend a new teacher orientation on benefits. Then I headed to Kamiak to meet with Jim. This school is huge, and I’ve only seen a small part of it.

I did get to see my classroom for the first time. It’s pretty big, too!

Jim showed me around, and gave me some materials for Blender and Rhino. He also gave me a VEX claw robot, which he recommend I disassemble and reassemble before classes start.

Jim was there to turn in his keys, and, conveniently enough, they were able to hand them over to me. I don’t have access to the security system, so I can only go in when the building is open, but once there, I can get into my room all on my own!

When I was done getting materials from Jim, I went back to the District Office to complete the work I needed to do with Pam. We got my conditional certification ordered, she gave me my schedule, and told me about various things I’d need to know (including letting me know I’d actually have a budget for supplies!).

By the time I was done today, I had quite the stack of paperwork and materials to go through. That’s not even counting the additional materials Pam gave me on a flash drive, and all the resources Jim gave me access to electronically.

Pam kept expecting me to shut down from being overwhelmed. Hasn’t happened yet! Oh, sure, I know there’s lots to do, and if I thought about all of it all at once, I might very well go run and hide. But if I just take it a bit at a time, I’ll get there. And I aim to have fun doing it!

Tomorrow: more!

8/15/18 – Another New Beginning!

So, not long after I wrote my last new beginning, things started changing at Yellow Wood. Or maybe continued changing; I hadn’t really been there long enough to know for sure, I guess. For various reasons, though, it started to feel like it was no longer the right place for me. I spent pretty much all summer looking for other options. I didn’t want to make that search public here, so I went silent again.

Now, however, I’m back! I have a new job, just offered to me today. I’ll be teaching AP Computer Science, Engineering Design, Game Design and Robotics at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo. I’ve got some background in all of these subjects, but haven’t done a lot of teaching in any of them. I’ve also never taught at a public high school in the US. I’ve got a lot of learning to do. I’m totally psyched about it!

Getting the job was an example of the benefits of actively pursuing learning combined with successful networking. Some time ago, I got notice that Code.org was offering free week-long summer professional development workshops for their middle school (Discoveries) and high school (Principles) curriculum. I had previously done a one day workshop for their K-5 materials and had found it worthwhile. At Yellow Wood, it seemed most likely that I would get middle schoolers, so I signed up for Discoveries. I got Yellow Wood to support the idea, and got into the training despite the fact that we couldn’t promise I’d be teaching the class.

Initially, it may have seemed like a bad idea. The training was the second week of Yellow Wood’s summer term, and going to it cost me the opportunity to teach any summer classes. I didn’t know that would be the case when I signed up, or I might not have done it. But it turned out fine in the end.

Discoveries and Principles were in the same building down in Renton, across the hall from each other. Renton’s a bit of a schlep, so I signed up on the carpool list. The two guys I drove for were both at high schools, Alec in Bothell and Jim in Mukilteo. It turned out Jim was applying for a new job closer to home, and he asked if I would be interested in the job he was leaving, at Kamiak. I was, and he recommended me for the position when he left.

The position was posted on August 2. I had my application submitted on the 3rd. I had an interview on the 10th, and was offered the job today. Tomorrow, I go to the district office to apply for my conditional certification, attend an HR orientation, meet up with Jim for a materials handoff and to get some pointers, and do whatever else I can do to get ready. This is going to be a wild ride, but I bet it’s going to be fun!