Sunday, October 28, 2012



Teaching Math 4R: Finishing Chapter 4! 

preCalculus for Seniors finished Chapter 4 all about real and complex roots of polynomials with all real coefficients!

Here's our ScreenCasts and SmartNotes for this week:

Well, that's all folks!
Teaching with Technology, 

Teaching Math 4H: Finishing Chapters 6&7!






Teaching Math 4H: Finishing Chapters 6&7! 

preCalculus Honors for Juniors finished Chapters 6&7. This is a quick review of Trigonometry! My students are a bit rusty on their reference angles. So, I put the following graphic on their PC backgrounds:



Here's our ScreenCasts and SmartNotes for this week:


Well, that's all folks!
Teaching with Technology, 

Teaching Math 5HBC: Finished Unit 4!






Teaching Math 5HBC: Finished Unit 4! 

AP Calculus BC finished Unit 4 this week. This week we reviews Newton's Method, Optimization and programming the TI89. Newton's Method is a great application of differentiation and the limiting process. 

We going to have another MCQ Monday next week if we survive Hurricane Sandy! I'll give a Part IB with a Graphing Calculator. 

Here's our ScreenCasts and SmartNotes for this week:


Well, that's all folks!
Teaching with Technology, 

Teaching Computer Science Honors: Continuing Chapter 4!






Teaching Computer Science Honors: Continuing Chapter 4! 

Computer Science Honors continued Chapter 4 all about summing sequences: arithmetic, geometric, telescoping and other series!


Here's our ScreenCasts and Code for this week:






Code for Chapter 4 Section 3.

Well, that's all folks!
Teaching with Technology, 

Teaching AP Computer Science: Starting Chapter 5 Lab!





Teaching AP Computer Science: Starting Chapter 5 Lab! 

We started LAB 5 finally! Chapter 4 is about conditional statements.

We have a new Take Home Monday next week if we survive Hurricane Sandy! 

Here's our ScreenCasts and Code for this week:







Well, that's all folks!
Teaching with Technology, 

Saturday, October 27, 2012

PAEMST Timeline Continues!


OK, here's the PAEMST Timeline as I see it. The online application isn't available until November this year. As soon as it becomes available, people can start nominating! 

So, September was all about the video. 

This month, October, I finally got to scan student sample work. My HP scanner renders JPGs, so I had to use a Linux utility (sams2p) to convert everything to PDF format for uploading to http://www.slideshare.net/calcpage2011

Next month, it's November already! So, I'll have a colleague nominate me. Even though the nominations aren't due until March, I'd like to get the application process started.

Finally, I'll work on the application proper in December which isn't due until April. Everything is done online. So, I will be uploading the application with the video, my essay and student samples. Even if I finish everything by 12/31/12, I probably won't hear anything about the outcome, one way or the other, until 12/31/13! So, I hope it'll be a Merry XMass!

Here's some of the student samples. Samples 1-8 are each from different students handing in the Conics Worksheet from the video. The video was recorded the second day of school. The first day we talked about SOHCAHTOA a little. But we also did seating assignments, book cards and bio sheets. Samples A-D are some of the bio sheets. Sample A1 and A2 are from one student, B1 and B2 are from another, etc:


















































Generally Speaking,

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

CIS(theta) 2012-2013 - Ubuntu Install Fest Meeting III



Computing Independent Study
2012-2013 - Ubuntu Install Fest
Meeting III

That was a great meeting today! We burned 8 CDs of Precise Pangolin and reinstalled the whole back row of our PC LAB/Classroom. Many thanx go to Jeremy for coming to vist today and lending a hand! Here's the steps we followed for a minimal install of the Student Stations (64bit Athlons):
Step1: 
Reboot each Linux box with the current  CD. Answer some basic questions about time zone, userid, passwd, no login on bootup, etc.
Step2:
Reboot each Linux box without the CD. Make sure to configure the gigE cards and proxy server:
IP: 10.5.129.x
NetMask:255.255.0.0
GateWay: 10.5.0.254
DNS: 10.5.0.254
Proxy: 10.0.0.125
Step3:
Configure System Settings as desired (unit circle trig calculator background, no screensaver, etc).
Step4: 
We had to switch Software Sources in the Ubuntu Software Center (edit/source) to Main before this would work:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
Step5:
Now, we could use the Ubuntu Software Center to install WINE.
Step6:
I copied my VTI83 and VTI89 directories from my memory stick to the Desktop. Then, after editing preferences to have VTI open with WINE, I configured each calculator.
Step7:
I will edit my /etc/crontabs tomorrow....
Step8:
We haven't decided what else we may have to install (local SAGE server, JRE, openSSH, openMPI,etc). We'll have to think about that! Here's some info on install fests from prior years:
http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2011/05/2-so-many-hard-drives-so-little-time.html
http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2011/01/then-god-mage-midterm-week-and-saw-that.html
http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2010/06/so-many-linux-distros-so-little-time.html


Computing Independent Study
2012-2013 - Ubuntu Install Fest
Meeting II

We decided to try out the new Ubuntu Linux 64bit Desktop 12.04 nicknamed Precise Pangolin. So we surfed on over to http://www.ubuntu.com and downloaded the latest ISO. We burned the CD, rebooted a guinea pig box and reinstalled it. This should be a simple procedure as we no longer use dualboot or dualnic boxes. However, we ran into a SNAFU right away! Intranet gigE works fine, but we can't get on the Internet? OOPs, we forgot the network proxy. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

Ubuntu Release History
4.10 Warty Warthog (mammal)
5.04 Hoary Hedgehog (mammal)
5.10 Breezy Badger (mammal)
6.06 Dapper Drake (bird)
6.10 Edgy Eft (amphibian)
7.04 Feisty Faun (mammal)
7.10 Gutsy Gibbon (mammal)
8.04 Hardy Heron (bird)
8.10 Intrepid Ibex (mammal)
9.04 Jaunty Jackalope (mythical beast)
9.10 Karmic Koala (mammal)
10.04 Lucid Lynx (mammal) 
10.10 Maverick Meerkat (mammal) 
11.04 Natty Narwahl (mammal) 
11.10 Oneiric Ocelot (mammal) 
12.04 Precise Pangolin (mammal) 
12.10 Quantal Quetzal (bird) release: 10/18

Guardian, our ssh server, is running 10.04 32bit. Guardian has a dualcore 32bit intel Xeon processor with 2GB RAM and a 512GB RAID drive.

Caprica, our ftp server, is running 10.04 32bit. Caprica has a dualcore 32bit intel Xeon processor with 2GB RAM and a 512GB RAID drive.

Shadowfax, our teacher station, is running 11.10 32bit. Shadowfax has a dualcore 64bit amd Athlon processor with 2GB RAM and a 256GB hdd. We use a 32bit OS here as SmartNotebook doesn't run on 64bit....

Alpha-Omega, our student stations, are running 11.04 64bit. These Linux boxes, like Shadowfax, have dualcore 64bit amd Athlon processors with 2GB RAM and a 256GB hdd.

We are only upgrading Alpha-Omega to 12.04 (or 12.10 if it's available when we upgrade in a couple of weeks). We are also waiting for a hardware upgrade for Alpha-Omega to amd quadcore Phenoms!

Computing Independent Study
2012-2013 - Administrativa
Meeting I (updated)

We had our traditional first organizational meeting:

(1) Wreath of the Unknown Server: 
We visited our first ssh server, Colossus, which is still in the switch room though dormant. I set it up for the first time in 1995 running Slackware Linux. Colossus ran for 12 years straight, 24x7 never having to shut down, reboot or even have anything re-installed! Colossus would not die. We finally just replaced Colossus with a dual-core Intel Xeon box complete with a RAID drive running 1TB. Old Linux boxes never die, they just fade away...


(2) Display Case Unveiled: 
We took down a ton of fractal prints and ray tracings from Room 429 to the 2 cases on the 1st floor near the art wing. We decorated both cases as best we could and left before anyone saw us. Must have been gremlins.

(3) Recruiting 2012: 
We decided that we did not have a good pool of candidates to recruit more CIS(theta) members for this year's Geek Squad, so we tabled that topic.

(4) Planing 2012: 
Next meeting would have been 9/28 but that's Yum Kipur. So, we have to wait another 2 weeks after that for 10/10 at which point Ubuntu Precise Pangolin 64bit release 12.10 Desktop Edition should be available for a mini install fest. After that, we may use bootable cluster Linux CD distros to learn MPI.
==================================
What we are researching I (Sept)
(look what this school did in the 80s): 

Thomas Jefferson High courses
http://academics.tjhsst.edu/compsci/parallel/
Thomas Jefferson High paper
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~rlatimer/techlab07/BWardPaperQ3-07.pdf
Thomas Jefferson High ftp
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~rlatimer/techlab07/
Thomas Jefferson High teacher
http://www.tjhsst.edu/~rlatimer/

What we are researching II (Oct)
(clustering environments): 

Parallel Virtual Machine
http://www.csm.ornl.gov/pvm/
openMOSIX
http://openmosix.sourceforge.net/instant_openmosix_clusters.html
Message Passing Interface
http://www.open-mpi.org/


==================================
Today's Topic:
CIS(theta) 2012-2013 - Ubuntu Install Fest! - Meeting 3


Today's Attendance:
CIS(theta) 2012-2013: Kyle Seipp
CIS(theta) 2009-2010: Jeremy Agostino


Today's Reading:
Chapter 2: Building Parallel Programs (BPP) using clusters and parallelJava
==================================
Membership (alphabetic by first name):
CIS(theta) 2012-2013: 
Kyle Seipp

CIS(theta) 2011-2012: 
Graham Smith, George Abreu, Kenny Krug, LucasEager-Leavitt

CIS(theta) 2010-2011: 
David Gonzalez, Herbert Kwok, Jay Wong, Josh Granoff, Ryan Hothan

CIS(theta) 2009-2010: 
Arthur Dysart*, Devin Bramble, Jeremy Agostino, Steve Beller

CIS(theta) 2008-2009: 
Marc Aldorasi, Mitchel Wong*

CIS(theta) 2007-2008: 
Chris Rai, Frank Kotarski, Nathaniel Roman

CIS(theta) 1988-2007: 
A. Jorge Garcia, Gabriel Garcia, James McLurkin, Joe Bernstein, ... too many to mention here!

*nonFB
==================================
Well, that's all folks, enjoy!
Happy Clustering,

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Quarter I, Week 7: ScreenCasts, SmartNotes and Code oh my!


Quarter I, Week 7: ScreenCasts, SmartNotes and Code oh my! 

Math 4R: preCalculus for Seniors
Math 4H: preCalculus Honors for Juniors
Math 5H: AP Calculus BC
CSH: Computer Science Honors
APCS: AP Computer Science
CIS(theta): Computing Independent Study

Above you will find links to summaries of all my lessons for this past week!

This week Youtube Wednesday had to be Tom Lehrer's Lobachevsky!



Enjoy a little background music composed by John Williams for Star Wars:



Well, that's all folks!
Learning with Technology, 

Teaching Math 4R: Continuing Chapter 4!






Teaching Math 4R: Continuing Chapter 4! 

preCalculus for Seniors continued Chapter 4 all about real and complex roots of polynomials with all real coefficients!

Here's our ScreenCasts and SmartNotes for this week:

Well, that's all folks!
Teaching with Technology, 

Teaching Math 4H: Starting Chapters 6&7!





Teaching Math 4H: Starting Chapters 6&7! 

preCalculus Honors for Juniors started Chapters 6&7. This is a quick review of Trigonometry! My students are a bit rusty on their reference angles. So, I put the following graphic on their PC backgrounds:



Here's our ScreenCasts and SmartNotes for this week:



Well, that's all folks!
Teaching with Technology, 

Teaching Math 5HBC: Continuing Unit 4!





Teaching Math 5HBC: Continuing Unit 4! 

AP Calculus BC continued Unit 4 this week. This week we talked about Newton's Method, Optimization and programming the TI89. Newton's Method is a great application of differentiation and the limiting process. So, we decided to write a program to generate convergence tables for the non-pathological cases of Newton's Method. I introduced programming by writing a quadratic formula application.

We also had our first MCQ Monday. I gave a Part IA without a Graphing Calculator. In fact, I gave last year's AB exam which was released in the AP Community. The results were not great, so I had to use the "Disaster Curve:"


Here's our ScreenCasts and SmartNotes for this week:



Well, that's all folks!
Teaching with Technology,