Squeak Makes you Think and More

Have you ever felt so outclassed by your kids and your heart breaks because you know they deserve better?  Well that's me right now.

They go home and work on their programs...because they want to.  They IM at night while I'm on my computer to ask me questions about what they should do.  They are on fire about programming.  Not just one student but about 10%.  That's huge.  And you know this program isn't the most reliable.  It's crashes, doesn't always like our network so they lose their work and all sorts of other things that might discourage the average kid.  But it doesn't matter.  They love it when that first object moves forward, makes a noise and they are in CONTROL.  They define how the object works and they realize that if they can describe it in words, then they can probably make it happen on the screen.  That is HUGE.  Just tonight 3 kids were online asking me so many questions, I finally had to make my IM signoff so I could get my work done.  If I didn't use IM to talk to my college kids I wouldn't turn it on at all.

Squeak is this awesome programming language but  I'm hanging on my fingernails.  My kids are so great and I'm working my brain every night to learn as much as I can about ideas that I can use to ask them questions...believe me I gave up thinking I could know more about the actual programming buttons.  They discover more stuff all the time.  Which is great because then they show it to all of us and then we're all SMARTER!!!!

But I continue to facilitate this group of thinkers and I keep wondering am I doing enough? You might think this group was unique.  But they're not.  I've had gifted kids, SPED kids and plain old normal kids.  Jock kids, quiet kids, boys, girls and nerd kids.  They all can do it and end up surprising themselves.  Yet I sure don't feel like I do enough to help them move along.  I'm not a mathematician and that would really be handy right now.  Not because I could teach them math, but that I would get more.  Funny isn't it.  At 50 I wish I knew more conceptually about how math worked so I could do a better job of asking questions to guide my students.

Anyway I think it would be important because sometimes when they're trying to solve problems in the ideas they're developing, I can't help them.  They hit a wall and we run out of solutions to try.  Even after we sleep on it and work it over the next day, we can't find a solution. We print out the screenshot of the unsolveables just "in case" someone comes up with a terrific  idea in the future, but that doesn't happen very often.   It makes me sad that I can't brilliantly led them forward in discovering a way.  Maybe that's OK because in the real world they won't be able to solve all the problems they encounter.....

But I was hoping to do better for them.  Squeak lets them dream way bigger than I am capable of leading.  That's way cool and I won't stop trying and definitely won't stop encouraging them to venture out there.  My shortcomings aren't enough to turn us back.  They just make me feel like I've failed and I'll have to deal with that.  Maybe I can take more math classes or just keep experimenting or maybe just not give up.  I don't know.

Comments

[Brent Vukmer]

Hi! It's great to hear about how excited you and your kids are about working with Squeak! If you haven't already, you should join the Squeakland mailing list (http://www.squeakland.org/mailman/listinfo/squeakland) - a lot of good discussion about how to use Squeak for learning happens there.

[Darius Clarke]

Perhaps you & your students can try to link up with a mathematician at the local collage via the internet.

A local High School math teacher nearby at HTHLA suggested looking at old "Popular Science" & "Popular Mechanics" for the "do it yourself" columns to find projects to simulate.

[Darius Clarke]

Sorry, hit "post" instead of "preview".

Correcton:
Perhaps you & your students can try to link up with a mathematician at the local college or university via the internet.

A local High School math teacher nearby at HTHLA suggested looking at old "Popular Science" & "Popular Mechanics" for the "do it yourself" columns to find projects for students to simulate.

[Marsha]

Brent,
I agree that the Squeakland mailing list is terrific. Everyone is very open to helping each other. I can't say enough about the help it has provided. I haven't been brave enough to ask many questions, but when I have...the answers have come pouring in.

[Marsha]

Darius,
I think the idea of using Popular Science is a good one. Right now I am using MicroWorld projects as my source of inspiration. And I do call upon my high school colleagues for clarification when I need it.

What I guess I was referring to is more when I have gone to hear some conference and heard someone like Alan Kay speak....they just get math so much. It's second nature and the connections fall off the tip of their tongues. To be a guide like that for my kids would be terrific because you could help so many of them get so much further.

But I will check out Popular Science for additional ideas.

[Marc]

Squeak is intriguing but weird for a Unix fan like myself. I've yet to find a really good Squeak tutorial for an experienced programmer. Know of a good one? Please email me if you do.