The Stock Market Game

Opens February 9 -- this year or next year is the question!!!! Maybe this year has a better window? I'd need to get started!

Here are some workshops coming up:
http://www.nccee.org/workshops

The Stock Market game described:
http://www.stockmarketgame.org/teachers.shtml

Tools for Offering Online Classes

Something to look at for offering online classes -- especially at the homeschool level.

Started with ed2go, the company offering the Alice and XHTML courses.
Then...
Blackboard is what the schools use (but $9500 price tag and you do the work)

Then...
Drupal is, I think, the open source platform for online class options: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drupal

Moodle is a free open source program for offering online classes -- might be an interesting way to explore http://moodle.org/

MoodleRooms takes that one step further and for a monthly/class fee, they will handle the student sign up, etc. part of the class (plus moodle tutorials): http://community.moodlerooms.com/

Sloodle takes Moodle to the 3-D level -- hmmmm.... not for me!
http://www.sloodle.org/moodle/

A more expensive version than MoodleRooms but that is infinitely more accessible than Blackbord and less expensive than ed2go is DigitalChalk: http://digitalchalk.com/

All of which includes cloud computing (which I don't really get except the cloud is a metaphor for the Internet!):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

More Web Design stuff

A very cool list of web design trends for 2009 -- worth looking at and getting some good ideas!
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/01/21/current-web-design-trends-for-2009/

For some reason I had this webdesigner marked -- but it may only be obtained through hosting sites -- not sure:
http://www.dotnetnuke.com/

A site with a lot of good HTML tutorials -- also includes JAVAscript and how to include it in your menus, etc. -- definitely something to look at!!!!
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tut/lessons.html

TeachScheme -- for teaching java without the problems of syntax errors -- overall, the understanding of how programming works seems to be better than if C++, for example, is focused on and the students get mired in syntax errors.
http://www.teach-scheme.org/Overview/
http://plt-scheme.org/

Homeschool Support Topics

Homeschool support group leaders have some challenges. Here are some articles to go back and look at:

Homeschool CPA: When to become a 501c3
http://www.homeschoolcpa.com/resources/When%20to%20become%20501c3.pdf

Questions about EINs with new directors:
http://homeschoolcpa.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/new-ein-for-new-officers/

Finding a homeschool coop:
http://homeschoolcpa.wordpress.com/2009/01/10/finding-a-co-op/

And the Homeschool Group Leader Blog -- ways to earn money:
http://hgleaderblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/fridays-answer-exploring-10-creative.html

And a homeschool blog to check into further to see if there are any nuggest:
http://maridelwiller.com/blog/

Middleschool Science Options

Still wonder about doing a middleschool highschool overview science -- we've got a year and a half! I'd like to just do an overview to pull in some pieces that we might be missing -- but I'm not sure where it would fit in our day. Our focus right now seems to be technology, without much extra on any of the sciences or social sciences!

Here's a couple sources that came up recently:

Singapore Science -- Interactive Science for Inquiring Minds (Gr 7,8)
http://www.singaporemath.com/Secondary_Science_s/31.htm

And K12's Science program -- for middleschool, they have a regular and advanced version of Earth Science, Biology and Physics:
http://www.k12.com/curriculum_and_products/science_main/

Bj would really like some background on Microcontrollers and ways to put together basic robotics since FRC and FTC keep coming up. B's boys are working with the Thames & Kosmos kit for the Microcontroller which would be interesting to look at. Also there's some pretty "geeky" kits called "Nerd Kits" that look interesting:
http://www.nerdkits.com/kits/

Alice: Intro to Java

At Christmas, Bj told me he really wanted to learn Java -- with the only programming experience being NXT-G for LEGO's Mindstorm robot kit. I searched around and found an "Intro to Alice" class at Wake Tech's Online classes. It's put out by Carnegie Melon as a way to encourage more kids to take Computer Science -- geared toward highschool and college students as an intro to Java and programming. They have a PowerPoint presentation about it that gives some of the justification -- and explains some of the differences between Alice and Storytelling Alice.

We've just finished the first of 6 weeks of the class but Bj loves it! It gives the structure of programming but with 3-D animation at the same time so there's immediate feedback. My next task will be to figure out how to download his videos so they can be shared with friends on youtube!

CSS Links

These links to CSS info are from Lesson 1 of the Intermediate HTML/CSS 6-week online class I'm taking through Wake Tech.

Cascading Style Sheets, Level 2 Revision 1
http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/cover.html
This link takes you to the World Wide Web Consortium's official documentation for CSS Level 2.1. This is the resource that defines what CSS 2.1 is and how it works. We'll be using CSS 2.1 throughout this course.

W3C CSS 2.1 Index
http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/indexlist.html
This link takes you to the complete index for the W3C's CSS 2.1 documentation. CSS properties are generally shown in single quotation marks like 'background', 'background-attachment', and so forth.

Cultured Codes' CSS 2.1 Properties Reference
http://www.culturedcode.com/css/reference.html
Here's a reference to CSS properties without all the jargon and technical details. This one is very compact. Click a section in the left column, then a property in the second column, to see facts in the Details column.

guiStuff CSS 2.1 Reference
http://www.guistuff.com/css/
Here you'll find yet another handy reference to CSS 2.1 properties.

HTML Dog CSS Properties
http://www.htmldog.com/reference/cssproperties/
Here's another quick reference to CSS properties.

CSS 2 Reference
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp
You guessed it: another online reference to CSS properties. Add all these CSS 2 references to your bookmarks or favorites, and you'll never again need to guess what's available or which values work with which properties. Just pick whichever one you like best as your favorite resource.

W3C Index of Elements
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/index/elements.html
Here's a page you'll probably want to add to your bookmarks or favorites. It provides a quick index to all HTML tags. Note that items with D in the Depr (Deprecated) column, or an L or F in the DTD column are either deprecated or on their way out in XHTML. So, you should avoid using those tags in your Web pages.

W3C Index of Attributes
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/index/attributes.html
Attributes are text you put in XHTML tags, like src= in an img tag. This page provides a quick reference to all of them. Again, those with a D, L, or F in the Depr. or DTD column are deprecated and best avoided.

Conformance: Requirements and Recommendations
http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/WD-css2-19980128/conform.html
If you've ever wondered why so few Web developers seem to know about the document tree, check out this page at the W3C site. This is their official page on the matter.

12 Lessons for Those Afraid of CSS and Standards
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/12lessonsCSSandstandards
Click this link for some good advice on why making the switch from the old way of doing things to the new way is a good idea—despite the new learning curve.

Study Skills

With Bj being halfway through middle school, one of the tools I'd really like to start thinking about is how to give him the study skills or organizational skills he'll need to get through college. Putting some of that in place now, or at least being more aware of some of those skills, will hopefully make it easier down the road.

I came across this very cool website to explore further -- addressed to the kids, talks about first deciding your learning style in order to make the organization fit with who you are, then talks about different areas of organization/learning and moves on to specific topics like note-taking (Cornell format). "The Basics of Effective Learning" by Bucks County Community College.
http://www.bucks.edu/~specpop/index.htm

Robert Felder, professor emeritus at NCSU, has a lot of information on learning styles, engineering, etc. -- worth looking more at. I think he's written some articles with Linda Silverman who wrote "Upside Down Brilliance." I wonder if we could get him to speak for us?
http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/RMF.html

AND, a website that compares different systems for note-taking systems that's very good. Includes Cornell method, Outlining, Mapping, Charting and Sentence methods.
http://sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/notetaking.systems.html
(They also have other study skill online information:
http://sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl.html )

New Directions on the Website Front

I'm enjoying my own new learning directions the past few months as well... I've learned a ton about programming by creating several websites.

My parents' ranch for sale in British Columbia, Canada (website to be updated to a "new and improved" version by January 10, 2009). Though I started out with the site-designer that was available through the web host, the new and improved version is being by me on Dreamweaver:
http://nechakobendranch.ca

My first project created on Dreamweaver for someone else (non-family) -- a friend whose homeschool testing business in Wake County, NC offers a great support for local homeschoolers:
http://dallenassociates.com

My biggest and most intense learning project was to figure out how all this worked so I could teach a group of middleschoolers how to create their own website for FIRST LEGO League. Nothing like teaching to make one learn things under great time pressure!
http://water4tomorrow.org

And, the very quick website I put together for the local homeschool Science Fair... It definitely showed me how much I've learned since August!!! Took very little time once I found a template.
http://caryareasciencefair.org

I'm quite amazed by the amount I've learned -- though it only takes a few things falling apart for me to realize that I'm in an overconfident bubble right now and it doesn't take much to send me back to help menu's and google searches!!!

Hoping to take a couple online Web Design classes through Wake Tech this spring to fill in a few holes.