News:  5 June 09: Wow, this school year has flown by fast. Semester Exams went well enough this past week. Every single one of my students showed up to take the exam, no one was absent. The bad news is that there were quite a few of my students that didn't pass the exam, but the good news... wait, I should say "THE GREAT NEWS" is that EVERY ONE OF MY STUDENTS PASSED THE COURSE FOR THE YEAR!!!

Each student should receive their report card in the mail some time within the next week. If you have any concerns about grades, please feel free to email me at scrudderr@cfbisd.edu and I will get back to you with any details you require.

My hope is that each of my students learned a little about the technology that is being used in our world, all around us, every day. I hope they each had fun while learning in my class. My goal for each of them is to use what they've learned in my class, to build on it, and to grow in their knowledge and use of technology, that what they've learned in my class will be a foundation for future learning.

Those of you who were 8th graders in my classes this year, my hope is that you will do well in high school in the years to come. to all my 6th and 7th graders this year, my hope is that you will come back in the fall refreshed and ready to learn even more from the teachers here at Polk. And of course, to all of you, have a wonderful summer vacation.

See you in the Fall, Mr. Scrudder.

News:  18 May 09:Today we are beginning to mark the end of the school year. Tomorrow on the 19th all of my students will be taking their last unit test for this school year, in Tech Ed at least. The sixth graders are taking the test for Hover Cars, two of my classes of mixed 7th and 8th graders, 1st and 6th periods, are taking the test for Trebuchets, and my 4th period, also mixed 7th and 8th graders, is taking the Sumo Car test. All Hover Car and Trebuchet classes should have the project completed at this time, and by the end of the day on Wednesday of this week all the Sumo cars will be completed as well.

 As soon as each class finishes their given test tomorrow, I will be handing out necessary information related to the Semester Exam Essay. The essay is due on or before the 29th of May. On Wednesday, each student will receive their own copy of the Semester Exam Review, specifically related to the rotations and subjects they have studied this semester.

There's a lot to do in the next 12 days of school. Oh, and don't forget to hit the "Refresh" button at the top of your browser window, you know, just in case.

News:  7 May 09: I imagine that you're as surprised as I am to see another entry here. I admit to being a bit surprised myself, that I'm taking the time to put this one in. In fact, I'm sitting here quietly reviewing all that has happened in the past week, and have we ever been busy.

We all got through TAKS testing (the "We" including all students AND teachers) by the end of the day on Wednesday (yesterday) all of my classes had completed Rotation #9. Since this is a couple days earlier than planned, we've gone ahead and started the new projects early. However, I will take the blame, if you will, for the projects that each class is now working on. Let me explain...

I'd mentioned last time that my 6th graders would be working on a hover car project. All three classes have begun working on it, and I expect all construction to be completed by Friday of next week (May 15th), so that the following week can be spent testing, modifying, and redesigning the vehicle if necessary. We will have a unit test, but I've not set the date for that at this time (probably during the week of May 18th).

My 7th and 8th grade classes are where I'm having to detour around the original calendar/project plan. I did not realize until too late that I did not have enough trebuchet kits for all three of my 7th/8th grade classes to work with, but rather only enough kits for two classes. This is why my fourth period class has begun work on a different project, the Sumo Wrestle Car. I have enough kits for this project for an entire class, and of course not enough of them for more than one class. My thought process was, "Okay, we can make this work." My students are making it work well.

The 7th/8th graders' projects should be completed by May 15th (same as the 6th graders) and they also will have the week of the 18th to evaluate and refine their projects. Same as the 6th graders, the 7th/8th graders will also have a unit test toward the end of the unit.

So, in a couple weeks we will be racing the Metric 500 cars, launching the model rockets, testing and working with the hover cars, the trebuchets, and the sumo cars. We will begin preparing for all that the End of Year Semester Exam holds for us as well as the exam itself.

Hold on tight, only a few weeks left.

News:  28 Apr 09: Well, at the rate I'm going, the next note I post here will be for semester exams at the end of next month. That'd be about right, though, with all we've done in the past month and more...

We had finished Rotation #7, then started the GIS unit around Spring Break. That ended the 3rd Nine Weeks.

We started the 4th Nine Weeks with Rotation #8, hoping there'd be enough time in the schedule to do one more rotation and two different projects. Unfortunately the time left in this school year is very limited, and so we only have enough time to complete one more rotation and one project. When I realized this calendar issue, we went straight into Rotation #9, and are working on it at this time.

Now, because of the TAKS testing going on this week, my classes are going to get off schedule just a bit. Allowing for this, we should be able to finish up Rotation #9 by the end of next week (May 8) and on the 11th we will be working on the last project for the school year. For my 7th and 8th grade classes, this project will be the Trebuchets, and for my 6th graders, we're currently looking at building hover cars.

Currently, the long range plans include 1) launching our model rockets on Panther Day, May 22, for all the school population to see, 2) racing our Metric 500 cars some time the following week, 3) announcing the Semester Exam Essay Question, and 4) handing out the review documentation for the Semester Exam. More details will follow on all of this, and I promise that there will be plenty of time after to deal with it all properly and successfully.

The TAKS test that we're doing today really emphasizes the fact that the end of the school year is just around the corner. Only a few more days to go, and yet the end of the school year is far enough away that we can't afford to shut down early. Keep on task, keep on track, stay focused on what needs to be done to remain successful in all your classes. Hold on just a few more weeks and we will finish this school year on a high note, and then we'll be able to enjoy the summer in all its glory.

Okay, now to get back on TAKS, I mean, on task.

News:  11 Mar 09: Okay, so I'm in trouble. My last entry here was back at the beginning of January. Well let me tell you, we have done a lot in the past two months. Let me see if I can get you caught up on what we've done...

After we finished the Semester Exams, we had a couple days off for holiday, then came back into the classroom, running at high speed. The next three weeks were spent building either towers or bridges out of balsa wood. My 6th graders built balsa bridges and my 7th and 8th graders built balsa towers. In each case, the students were grouped into teams, two students per team. From there, each team came up with an idea for their structure, designed it on paper, built it from the given materials, then tested the completed project. Afterward, each student calculated the efficiency of their project to see how well it did overall.

Once we finished the bridges and towers, each class started the next Rotational Unit. In fact, we have just completed the second rotation for this semester, and I will be posting the grades for that subject very soon.

At this time we are beginning the GIS unit of study. "Geographic Information Systems" is the process of gathering and managing acquired data in a visual format. We will be using a program called "ArcGIS 9" along with given data sets to learn how this actually works. I guess I could say that it is like looking at database information in a mapping format.

As far as our calendar goes, we are scheduled to finish the GIS unit of study some time during the second week after we're back from Spring Break. Now, with Spring Break only two days away, you can imagine that the excitement is building.

Here we go!!!...

News:  5 Jan 09: Welcome to the new year, 2009! Great expectations, great anticipations! During the past year we saw some new things, really cool ideas and concepts. This year will be no exception to that.

Really, take a moment to look back on the technological achievements of the past year. Look at our phones, our internet, our way of life. You know the changes that have taken place in our country over the past year (including, but not limited to, our Presidential Election). Now, knowing what has happened already, just take a couple minutes and think about what can happen with all this during the coming year... I can wait, go ahead and pause your reading of this to think about all of it...

Fascinating, right? Definitely exciting when you think about all the new things we're going to get to see this new year. Some of it will have a direct affect on how we live, how we do some of the things we do right now, how we work and play.

That all being said, now let's bring it all down to earth. This week we will be working on our Semester Exam Essay, which is due on Friday of this week. We will also be reviewing for the Semester Exam, which is scheduled for next week. Later today I will be passing out information related to the Essay, and on Tuesday (January the 6th) I will be putting together Exam Study Guides for each student.

The study guides have to be individualized, of course. You already know that we do different "Rotations" on the computer work stations. This becomes a challenge at this point in the semester, because each student has been in a different combination of the work stations than anyone else. This means that custom, personalized, study guides are necessary. The same is true for the Exam itself. Fortunately, that has easily been resolved.

For the study guide, I have put together a list of information for each of the given subjects we've covered this past semester. I also have a list that shows for each student which of the subjects he/she has covered. I simple take the lists that a given student needs and staple them together. this becomes the study guide for that given student. The Semester Exam will work the same way.

Some people say "Study hard." I say, "Study smart." Spend 30 to 45 minutes a day just going over the material. Picture in your mind how you use the information given while you are reading it. Do this every day, from now till the given exam time, and you will definitely do well on the exam.

News:  19 Dec 08: You can tell that there's excitement in the air here at Polk. In the halls you can see all the bright and shining faces, smiles and animated chatter amongst the students, all in anticipation for the Christmas Break.  Here in Room E130, my students are working on their unit tests for Rotation #5, and a few are still finishing up their Current Events and Time Lines (Activities #7 and #8 respectively). Even though there is excitement for the two week vacation that is about to begin, everyone knows that they have to get their work completed before we leave.

On a personal note, I hope that you all enjoy the two weeks vacation, have a relaxing time, quality time with family and friends. Be safe and have fun, get outdoors and play, take time to read a book, watch a movie, anything that you do to refresh yourself. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and we'll see you back in class on January the 5th.

News:  8 Dec 08: Wow, this semester is going fast. One more rotation unit, this time designated "Rotation #5", and we are starting it today. With the schedule we are on, we should be completing this set of activities and lessons just before we leave for Christmas break. Can you believe that's less than two weeks away?

There's the bell, time to start class for the day.

News:  1 Dec 08: Welcome back from Thanksgiving! Hope you had a wonderful time, ate a lot of turkey, and got to relax. This week we are finishing Rotation #4, completing Activities 6 through 10. Next week we will be starting Rotation #5, and we should finish it just before the Christmas break.

News:  17 Nov 08: Wow, did we ever have some awesome races! The Mag Lev Cars were fantastic this year. We had some very close races along the way. A few of my students were disappointed that their vehicles got beat out of the racing early, but I had to remind them that I was pleased with the way each of their cars performed. As a parent I've never liked the idea of my kids being compared to other students, and I reminded several of my students of this fact (again) and that the racing itself was NOT for a grade, just for classroom competition. Each project met or exceeded the minimum requirements that were given and expected, so obviously the grades will reflect that. They certainly got into the racing, cheering on their favorites.

We are starting the next Rotation Unit, and will finish it up at the end of the next school week. The lessons scheduled this week are Activities 1 through 5 (Monday to Friday respectively). Since the next week is Thanksgiving Break, we will return on the 1st of December and complete Activities 6 through 10 during that week.

News:  3 Nov 08: The next couple weeks are going to be fun. We are starting Magnetic Levitation, and will finish up the unit on the 14th. The students are going to be building vehicles that float on a magnetic field. Check out the information the students will be given by clicking here. Our goal is for the kids to design and build their cars in a week, get magnets attached either Monday or Tuesday of next week, then test and evaluate the vehicle's performance over a two day period. There will be a unit test on Thursday the 13th (bad luck maybe? I hope not) and we will race the cars on the 14th, in about two weeks. Stay tuned for the results. :)

News:  16 Oct 08: Here we are, with just over a week left in the first nine weeks of school. Grades are about to be due at the end of next week, and from what I'm seeing in my classes, I have to admit that I'm very pleased. For the most part, everyone is either right on schedule or a couple assignments ahead. There are a few people that are one or two assignments behind schedule, but they are all in a position where we can get them caught up in just a day or two. Several people were struggling with the Introduction Unit, learning how to use the educational software in the lab, but in the past week I've seen some tremendous success from my students. They are seeing how the system works, reading the given information and following the given directions, and they are seeing success on a daily basis. That's where they need to be, reaching toward the next rung on the ladder, taking that next step. At this rate, we are going to see some great things from my classes this year.

This past progress report period was a serious indication to what I mentioned above. There were a few "C" averages, though overall there were more "A" averages in my classes than anything else. What really impressed me was the high number of students that made a 100 passing grade on this last test! I was surprised, yes, and very excited about it. Very cool, indeed, to have my high expectations being met.

Over the next couple days we will be completing the second rotation of the school year, and Monday we will begin the third. The current plan is that we will complete the third rotation in two weeks, then we will shift back to a classroom project. the planned project for that time period is the Magnetic Levitation vehicles. There have already been several students asking about it, already planning and coming up with some ideas for the vehicle. More to follow soon.

Back to the rotation units... I've been working the past few days on putting together some short presentations about the different rotational work stations. For quite a while now I've had information on my teacher web site about the subjects and curriculum that I've written, or that I've acquired from other people, that include the different classroom projects that we do in the different courses. I've not included much of anything to explain what the different computer stations are that we (my students) work on when we're doing the rotations. Hopefully the video clips that can be found here can help to inform everyone about the different work stations we have in the Tech Ed Lab.

News:  3 Oct 2008: I almost have all the grades from the past two weeks recorded, but there are still a couple classes left to go. However, I needed to take a couple minutes break from it, so thought it best to spend that time here on my teacher web page. Also, I had promised earlier that I would explain what a "Rotational Unit" is. Here's what happens, in major detail:

Two students sit down at a computer work station in the Tech Ed Lab. They log into the software together as a team, then proceed to complete ten different activities on that computer. The activities are related to a given topic, or subject, called a "Unit" (note the "Units of Study" near the top of this page). The students complete one activity each day, so that at the end of two weeks the team has completed all ten activities. Now, at the end of this two week time period, the students "rotate" from this work station to another, where they will team up with a different student in the class and study a different subject.

One advantage to this system is that all the activities are relatively consistent from one computer station to the next. "Activity One" is an introduction into the given subject, where the students will go through a few multimedia presentations that give an overview of the subject. The presentations give some technical information (including terminology) as well as some historical information about the given subject. They also give some information about what the students will accomplish while working at this station. "Activity Two" has a simulated problem that the students solve. There are several choices that can work, so the student must decide which solution they think best solves the problem they are given.

Activities three through six are where the meat of the subject is at. These lessons are where the students get hands on with the given subject, whether they are using the given equipment or using the software related to the subject. Activity three will have some basic information and introduce how to use the equipment or software, and by the sixth activity the students will be getting into some detail about the given subject.

The students have some written work to complete during this process. In "Activity Seven" the students will read at least two different news articles related to their subject, and they complete what we call two "Current Event Reports". In "Activity Eight" the students will get into some of the history of their subject and complete at least three "Timeline Reports". All of these are done on the computer so that there are no papers to be graded. Instead, the students record their work in a database system, then I can go through all the different reports and grade them according to given criteria. (The main advantage to this is that there are no papers for me to misplace or lose.)

Activity Nine is, in my opinion, one of the most important activities the students need. This is where the students get to see several possible careers related to the given subject. Included in the career information is the main purpose of the given career, the education required to get into that particular career, and also the salary of that career. In most cases the salary information will include possible first year earnings as well as earnings for someone with several years of experience in that field.

Activity Nine also has the "Review", or study guide for the unit test. The review will include every possible question that can be on the unit test, and will allow any student to go through the review any number of times. I require all my students to go through the review at least three times, then more if needed. This helps to better prepare the student for the unit test in "Activity Ten". The unit test is a major grade, and is worth 60% of the nine weeks average.

Now, I did warn you earlier that this was going to be detailed. You now know how the Rotational Units in my class work. If you use Parent Connection, you may see grades listed as "R2 A1" or "R4 A8". The "R" number is the Rotation number during the school year, and the "A" number is the activity number during that rotation. This means that the term "R2 A1" means that this is the grade for Activity One of the second rotation of the year, and the term "R4 A8" is the grade for Activity Eight (the timeline) for rotation four. I keep a list of rotation stations for each student, and will be happy to share it with you if you like. Unfortunately, it's one of the few documents that I do not put on my teacher web site. Call, email, or come by and visit, and I am happy to give you the information off this document that you would need for your child.

Hope all this information helps.

News:  1 Oct 2008: Wait, where'd September go to? Can you believe we're half way through week six of the school year? I have to apologize for not keeping this up to date. Please forgive me.

First, let me catch you up on what we've covered. The first two weeks of school were spent on either Camp Panther (covering the information all students and teachers should know so that we can have a successful year) and Work Place / Lab Safety. We covered the Guidelines for the Lab and Class, and everyone turned in a signed Parent / Student / Teacher Contract. Oh, and everyone passed the Safety Test.

The next two weeks of school we spent learning about Technical Drawing, or Drafting. This is where we learned about  the different types of lines that make up the drawings, the different tools we can use to make the drawings, and we even learned about the drawings themselves. We learned about the different views of a Multi-View drawing, not only what each view shows, but also where it is placed in a given drawing. I definitely need to make the unit test more challenging, because over half of all my classes scored a 100 grade on the test!

Now here we are in week six of the school year. Last week we began our first "Rotation Unit", with the majority of my students in the "Introduction Unit". We will be finishing this unit by Friday of this week, and next week we will begin the 2nd Rotation. I will post more on this later.

I promise that later won't be held off until December , it will be later this week.

News:  14 Aug 2008: Can you believe that the new school year is almost here? Can you believe that summer is almost over? I'm actually on a lunch break here at Polk today. We are having our first campus teacher training today. We will be in training the rest of today, tomorrow, and all of next week, just to get ready for this school year.

For those of you that want to read my past blog entries (07-08 school year), click here.