After the test I have about 6 more classes with them before summer and I told them it’ll all be fun stuff. I was thinking of making stuff with AI but what do you think? I think I told you I used the Antigravity comic/easter egg with them and they were entertained. Are there some amazing Python tricks that could knock their socks off?
Oh, that could be fun. I assume you don’t mean “from scratch” — creating the TCP/IP server (although that actually is kinda fun). I think Python has support for that, depending on how involved you want to get.
Or are thinking of something like Squarespace or other website hosting platform? All the design and none of the grunt work?
Haha no - they can’t spell TCP/IP yet - that’s next unit. I’m thinking two file static site - index.html and style.css. They can put JS into index for some scripting and even do public API calls. I’d teach them the basics of web design - color theory, font pairing, widgets and the like. Then for plumbing they could test locally and upload to a service like netlify to host it. I’ll get a school adjacent domain and provision them each a subdomain off it. Once they get a basic site up I’d have them move their code to GitHub (netlify supports natively) so they can see a true dev workflow and if i get crazy (and we have the time) we could turn it into a PWA app
I confess I have no idea what would actually interest your class, but I’ll throw out some things that occurred to me…
You did the import antigravity, and I think you also mentioned you did import this (for the Python Zen). I’m not aware of any other buried Easter eggs, though.
I don’t know what aspects of standard Python might catch their attention. The random module is interesting for games and statistics. I’ve always loved “list comprehensions” in Python — never seen a language with that ability before. There is a tkinter module for making GUI applications in standard Python. A surprisingly few lines of code will create a (blank, useless) window. It takes a lot more lines to make it useful, though.
I suppose a tour of the Python standard library might provide some sense of the power lurking in Python.
Going outside standard Python, there are many possibilities. A favorite of mine is the matplotlib library, a very powerful graphing tool. (I used it to create “Hexagon City”, a possible game grid. 😎)
Tx for this! I am learning Python as I go and the ‘list comprehension’ capability sounds interesting. This week I am teaching tracing tables because the test loves questions with complex lists or loops and what is the value of x after y iterations or value of the 3rd element of a list after a bunch of manipulation
I’ll check out Hexagon City - there is a cohort that really likes making games but they do them in scratch where it’s easy. btw, did you read about what happened to Scott Shambaugh who manages submissions to matplotlib? https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/
Python is very powerful at iterating over things. List comprehensions are cool and a great way to create lists from other lists. And remember they can create dictionaries and sets as well. There’s even a tuple form that creates a generator.
If you’re not that familiar with them, I can supply some examples.
I can supply the code for Hexagon City if you like. It’s almost 500 lines because it has a number of features.
At this point I’m almost entirely ignoring the news and most of the internet. Ignorance is bliss, and I’ve lost my ability to give a rip. So, no, hadn’t heard but am not surprised by Bad Behavior on the intertubes.
I’d love to checkout hexagon city if it’s not too hard to share the code. I found the Scott story funny. I’m trying something different tomorrow - having them look at someone else’s code for troubleshooting/analysis versus writing their own so we’ll see how that goes
See who has debugging chops, nice idea. Very good skill to gain, and any who end up coding professionally will no doubt have to work with other code (I sure did).
You should have gotten an email with a link to my Hexagon City Dropbox folder which has the Python code and the images I created.
Yesterday, Monday’s sleeper zombie-child was quite chipper! Got his project done, uploaded and through the quiz on it. He didn’t do great on the quiz, but I’ll take it!
After you spend some time teaching you should segue into writing sitcoms. It’s time to bring back Welcome Back, Kotter but for copyright reasons, we’ll name it Welcome back, Sniderman.
Inspired by HS we started watching Freaks & Geeks and it’s a triple throwback. They’re constantly referring to 70’s TV like Welcome back Kotter, Dallas and Barney Miller. Shows I remember watching.
I pulled out my yearbook yesterday because I remembered this pic from when I was president of the science club tabling in the quad making Biorhythms for my fellow students for .25cents. Remember Biorhytms? Rhymed with mood rings and walkmen. Claude built me one far cooler than my quad calculations. Took 10 minutes, 40K tokens or about .25 of API use. https://wirepinestage.com/biorhythm
I keep thinking of the pizza. Maybe, the day after the test - it’s a Friday - we’ll have a pizza party. I know I’m not doing this next year and I know the prinicpal needs me so I can break all the rules. Heck I don’t even need to learn the rules
What a fun read. It appears you have their respect and vice versa. I've stayed reasonably tech savvy into my later years, but I'd be clearly challenged to handle kids the way you do. Unless it was a digital illustration class. There, I would have a fighting chance.
When i took the class over they were doing a digital media unit online. I was talking to one of the kids yesterday and they liked creating filters and such. In the play time after the test, maybe I’ll revisit that? Let me know if you know any online tricks. Now that I think about it, I could teach them a bit of color theory and font pairing and web design so they could make personal sites. That could be fun …
btw, I went to the Schulz museum last weekend and thought of you. Cool place.
Sounds like it has been a positive experience for all involved. Excellent!
After the test I have about 6 more classes with them before summer and I told them it’ll all be fun stuff. I was thinking of making stuff with AI but what do you think? I think I told you I used the Antigravity comic/easter egg with them and they were entertained. Are there some amazing Python tricks that could knock their socks off?
Some images of "Hexagon City"...
https://substack.com/profile/195807185-wyrd-smythe/note/c-235058227
My current idea - I have about 6 weeks before the test and I can get to it - is have them build out personal web sites.
Oh, that could be fun. I assume you don’t mean “from scratch” — creating the TCP/IP server (although that actually is kinda fun). I think Python has support for that, depending on how involved you want to get.
Or are thinking of something like Squarespace or other website hosting platform? All the design and none of the grunt work?
Haha no - they can’t spell TCP/IP yet - that’s next unit. I’m thinking two file static site - index.html and style.css. They can put JS into index for some scripting and even do public API calls. I’d teach them the basics of web design - color theory, font pairing, widgets and the like. Then for plumbing they could test locally and upload to a service like netlify to host it. I’ll get a school adjacent domain and provision them each a subdomain off it. Once they get a basic site up I’d have them move their code to GitHub (netlify supports natively) so they can see a true dev workflow and if i get crazy (and we have the time) we could turn it into a PWA app
Nice plan! The better students in your class will no doubt add one or two more HTML pages (I’m pretty sure I would).
I confess I have no idea what would actually interest your class, but I’ll throw out some things that occurred to me…
You did the import antigravity, and I think you also mentioned you did import this (for the Python Zen). I’m not aware of any other buried Easter eggs, though.
I don’t know what aspects of standard Python might catch their attention. The random module is interesting for games and statistics. I’ve always loved “list comprehensions” in Python — never seen a language with that ability before. There is a tkinter module for making GUI applications in standard Python. A surprisingly few lines of code will create a (blank, useless) window. It takes a lot more lines to make it useful, though.
I suppose a tour of the Python standard library might provide some sense of the power lurking in Python.
Going outside standard Python, there are many possibilities. A favorite of mine is the matplotlib library, a very powerful graphing tool. (I used it to create “Hexagon City”, a possible game grid. 😎)
Don’t know if any of this helps…
Tx for this! I am learning Python as I go and the ‘list comprehension’ capability sounds interesting. This week I am teaching tracing tables because the test loves questions with complex lists or loops and what is the value of x after y iterations or value of the 3rd element of a list after a bunch of manipulation
I’ll check out Hexagon City - there is a cohort that really likes making games but they do them in scratch where it’s easy. btw, did you read about what happened to Scott Shambaugh who manages submissions to matplotlib? https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me/
Python is very powerful at iterating over things. List comprehensions are cool and a great way to create lists from other lists. And remember they can create dictionaries and sets as well. There’s even a tuple form that creates a generator.
If you’re not that familiar with them, I can supply some examples.
I can supply the code for Hexagon City if you like. It’s almost 500 lines because it has a number of features.
At this point I’m almost entirely ignoring the news and most of the internet. Ignorance is bliss, and I’ve lost my ability to give a rip. So, no, hadn’t heard but am not surprised by Bad Behavior on the intertubes.
I’d love to checkout hexagon city if it’s not too hard to share the code. I found the Scott story funny. I’m trying something different tomorrow - having them look at someone else’s code for troubleshooting/analysis versus writing their own so we’ll see how that goes
See who has debugging chops, nice idea. Very good skill to gain, and any who end up coding professionally will no doubt have to work with other code (I sure did).
You should have gotten an email with a link to my Hexagon City Dropbox folder which has the Python code and the images I created.
Love how you love those kids and how you are rooting for them. How lucky for them to have this time with you.
Yesterday, Monday’s sleeper zombie-child was quite chipper! Got his project done, uploaded and through the quiz on it. He didn’t do great on the quiz, but I’ll take it!
After you spend some time teaching you should segue into writing sitcoms. It’s time to bring back Welcome Back, Kotter but for copyright reasons, we’ll name it Welcome back, Sniderman.
Inspired by HS we started watching Freaks & Geeks and it’s a triple throwback. They’re constantly referring to 70’s TV like Welcome back Kotter, Dallas and Barney Miller. Shows I remember watching.
I pulled out my yearbook yesterday because I remembered this pic from when I was president of the science club tabling in the quad making Biorhythms for my fellow students for .25cents. Remember Biorhytms? Rhymed with mood rings and walkmen. Claude built me one far cooler than my quad calculations. Took 10 minutes, 40K tokens or about .25 of API use. https://wirepinestage.com/biorhythm
Hershey's Kisses and Spider-Man tattoos as project completion rewards?
We would get a chocolate milk and an apple in a brown paper bag :)
Fun times, Andrew.
Happy Friday!
I keep thinking of the pizza. Maybe, the day after the test - it’s a Friday - we’ll have a pizza party. I know I’m not doing this next year and I know the prinicpal needs me so I can break all the rules. Heck I don’t even need to learn the rules
Pizza sounds great as long as there are no pineapples lol
Happy Monday, Andrew….
What a fun read. It appears you have their respect and vice versa. I've stayed reasonably tech savvy into my later years, but I'd be clearly challenged to handle kids the way you do. Unless it was a digital illustration class. There, I would have a fighting chance.
When i took the class over they were doing a digital media unit online. I was talking to one of the kids yesterday and they liked creating filters and such. In the play time after the test, maybe I’ll revisit that? Let me know if you know any online tricks. Now that I think about it, I could teach them a bit of color theory and font pairing and web design so they could make personal sites. That could be fun …
btw, I went to the Schulz museum last weekend and thought of you. Cool place.