Day 185: Last Day of School!

Today was the last day of school. I wished my last class a great summer, finished packing my stuff in the science office, prepared the programming lab for summer renovations, and submitted my grades. Despite that, it didn’t feel like the last day. Maybe that’s because we have a Science Curriculum Team meeting all day tomorrow and I’ll be back next week to tie up loose ends.

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I’m really looking forward to this summer. While I’m putting Pedagogue Padawan 180 on hiatus, I’ll share some reflections of this year and progress on my summer projects on my main blog.

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Day 184: Final LEGO MINDSTORMS Challenge

During the scheduled final period, AP Computer Science students tackled the enhanced LEGO MINDSTORMS Challenge. This challenge was made much more difficult with the addition of a three-sided box on top of the robot. While navigating out of the box is certainly a new challenge, the presence of the box on the field makes cleaning the jars much more difficult.

Only one group cleared all six jars. The following video is of that group in an earlier run before they made a last-minute modification that improved the reliability of clearing the jars.

I’m glad that I changed the activity this year away from sumobots. Students working together to beat the challenge is much better, and engaging for all students, than trying to beat each other.

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Day 183: Escape During Finals!

Today was the first day of finals, but only my Honors Physics class will be taking a traditional final. My AP classes are mostly empty since the seniors have graduated. My Honors Physics final is tomorrow and today was filled with grading AP Computer Science capstones, packing, paperwork, and errands. I had the flexibility to leave school early due to the final exam schedule and see my daughter at her 2nd grade class poetry reading!

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It was wonderful to hear her read a few of her poems and see her interacting with her classmates. She’s had a good year and a great teacher.

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