[Chicago] Python for Teachers (more agit prop)

[Allan Spale]

The "Big Windy"... you's gotta work on da Chicago nicknames, my friend :)

I am interested in learning more about your ideas with Python. I am going to
be enrolling in at a university to begin earning credit toward an
instructional systems technology certificate. Also, I am in the process of
building a general purpose semantic database and web services system which
might be of some interest to your group (i.e. user-friendly web programming
system) which will also be a programming sprint at PyCon (look up
twitterbase: http://us.pycon.org/2009/sprints/projects/twitterbase/). I will
also be at the conference if you have some time to talk.


Allan



On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 12:44 PM, kirby urner <kirby.urner at gmail.com> wrote:

> Picture a K-12 pipeline, where you're provided with toyz (e.g. MIT
> Scratch, Logo robotics), scouting for boyz (girlz leading), and now
> you're finally ready for the real deal:  very lexically intensive,
> grammatically strict programming ala a real production code language
> such as Python.  Doesn't mean "no eye candy" though; we have VPython
> for that, other tools, audio too if all goes swimmingly well.
>
> Say starting in 8th grade (slow phase in) you're starting to learn
> about namespaces, why they're such a good idea.  The curriculum is
> geographically aware, as we're reconnecting pre-computer "math" to the
> "real world" (via relinking geometry to geography) there by getting a
> whole new track:  one that matters, is relevant (what a difference!).
>
> Upshot:  by the time you're in 12th grade, you know RSA cold,
> including Euler's Theorem, Miller-Rabin for probable primes, and the
> Extended Euclidean Algorithm (EEA).  Kind of like Sarah Flannery does
> (using Mathematica instead), the teen hero of 'In Code' (shades of
> 'Cryptonomicon').
>
> Picture Portland, Oregon in the process of implementing this pipeline,
> and sending one of its minions, a slick (snake-oily?) guy, to Chicago,
> to meet with an inner circle committee, disguised as a Python
> workshop, Thursday, March 26, afternoon session, maybe get some action
> going in the Big Windy?  Seriously, we're still a small group and math
> teachers wanting in-service credit and/or monetary compensation for
> getting the inside story shouldn't feel shy making a case to some
> administrator or other.  Short notice I realize.
>
> Here's a handout for the workshop which you're free to download and
> reprint (in color? -- lucky you if you have color laser) for your
> younger sister's high school geometry teacher, or your cousin's
> calculus teacher or whatever -- some brand of high school math teacher
> and/or college professor who might have a sincere interest in the
> future of K-12 education in this country, as well as in other, more
> advanced and intelligent countries (dig, dig).  Seriously, I've
> presented the same material in Sweden and Lithuania, elsewhere, and
> they're not slow on the uptake.  We should feel glad that we're not
> all alone in Portland, have friends in faraway places (like Chicago?).
>
> The handout:  http://www.4dsolutions.net/presentations/p4t_notes.pdf
>
> More details at the Pycon site.
>
> Kirby Urner
> Institute for Science, Engineering
>    and Public Policy (isepp.org)
> Portland, Oregon
>
> See: osgarden.appspot.com | MOTD for more bio...
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>
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