Once in every 17 years … Is the time now? Is there a paradigm shift in caring?  How bad is it behind the current?  How do we scale teachers with wisdom that are put out to pasture?  How can we build wars that bring joy? Questions that are inspired on Sunday Mornings.

Answers that inspire me to keep on my pathway of public education policy. So what did I do? I signed up to be selected to be on the Texas SBOE TEKS K-8 Technology Application review work group. Why I am asked? Answer, because I can. I am the only person in the state of Texas that has the experience and history. I tried to integrate CS / CT in 2010 as a member of the TA TEKS writing team, but alas my ideas were not used. That was when my grandson was in first grade in SBISD. I now have future sixth and kindergarten grandchildren and have to step up and do my part.

Time for some data visualization …  “Inventors are always testing” – Innovation Nation.  It is not testing in schools that needs to go away, it is the way students are tested.  Take flight with a sine wave.  Mission Unstoppable … We can solve it together!!!  As together is better!!!!  We need more counselors and librarians who can build teams to solve for tomorrow.  What does it take to be part of the party? Solution – the universal language of food. Be an architect for the future. Be a builder of Housing for All.  Create a curiosity driven research and collaboration system of education for our future.   Oh, the places we will go with lessons learned.

I am so blessed to have 3 loving children and 4 grandchildren who are my inspiration. Now to stop procrastinating and get back to writing Story Worth adventures. And creating my gardens. But relaxing on a Sunday morning is my favorite thing so thinking of tap dancing, remembering Hamster Dance, and watching nature’s chicks.

“A violin contains 70 different pieces of wood.”

Adriana Lopez Cajigas

NCWIT Aspirations in Computing (AiC) Awards 2021 Mentor Circles
Please read our Houston Awardees Biographies to learn about their aspirations.

What is in your GARDEN of action?
dreams – stories – parents – inspiration

I thinkin circles.

• • Are you a linear or circular thinker?
  • Do you connect by centering or looping?
  • What is your challenge? What sparks your fire to take action?

1. 1. 1. Health
      2. Environment
      3. Education
      4. Public Policy
      5. Social
      6. Economic
      7. Cyber Security  – AI & ML
      8. Collegiate
      9. Unicef CFCI – Children Friendly City Ambassadors
         1. Promoting Education Across the Country (PEAC) Ideathon

NCWIT Aspirations in Computing AiC Mentor Expectations

AiC Award Event:

• Feedback needed as there is always a need for improvement.

This is the story of my life.  What is yours?

Do you see TedE sitting in the chair?

Efficiency …

Asked my 5 year old granddaughter what that means after telling her the story of why I was stopping to buy gas on the way home from picking her up at her pre-K class.  We broke the word into parts so she could say it.  She said Oh, it is “fish in the ocean.”

I explained it is doing things to save time safely. I said sometimes when we rush we make mistakes, and that ends up taking more time.  Ever type the wrong password? After more discussion, I think she understood the need to research and plan.  Gee … that is what I have been teaching in my computer science, math and CTE classes since 1985 – the systems model, inputs -outputs – quality control.

Efficiency signifies a peak level of performance that uses the least amount of inputs to achieve the highest amount of output. Efficiency requires reducing the number of unnecessary resources used to produce a given output.  This includes personal time and other limited resources.

• Models of E-Fish-in-Sea can be found in nature.
• Houston’s Unicef Child Friendly Cities Initiative training is an exemplary example.

• Project Based Accountability (PBA) Research
  • Incentives and Test-Based Accountability
• The Flat World and Education
  • What does World of Flat mean for Education?

Boston Dynamics: Inside the workshop where robots of the future are being built – After years of trying, 60 Minutes cameras finally get a peek inside the workshop at Boston Dynamics, where robots move in ways once only thought possible in movies – Anderson Cooper reports.

The next generation of robots – Boston Dynamics said when ask why – it is just fun.

The move of computer science to CTE is like Brexit.  CTE coordinators are making decisions impacting the successful classroom economy that teachers have built over decades.  In this age of AI and Cyber Security needs it is no time to kill the spirit of teachers.  Vicky one of our AiC Teachers of the Year and sponsor of a National AiC winner said this:  “I quit, I quit … I am retiring.”  One of the students in the Girls Who Code Digital Tech Conference asked, “How can we help our teachers keep the course they want to teach?  Seems the CTE coordinators have eliminated CSIII as a choice. To leave no child behind, you first have to leave no teacher behind!

In preparing for a Great Decision discussion on Brexit, I found this:

The questions asked for the discussion are the most important part of driving conversation.  The Girls Who Code organizers of the conference zoomed with me to go over my role.  They surveyed the conference participants and shared those questions. I was able to prepare my answer ahead of time and posted my answers on the post below to save time.

The only thing I know about Brexit is what is on the news, and what my son who lives in London shares.  I just don’t know enough to give my opinion, and so am in total listening mode.  I am relying on the expertise of the Foreign Policy Association who has been doing this for decades: www.fpa.org/great_decisions/

What is empowering is when you get your first editorial published. When you get your first law passed. But what is even more empowering is when you see the youth doing the same thing. And by youth I mean anyone without gray hair.

Questions I was asked by the DIGITAL TECH CONFERENCE organizers:

What is your favorite part about being in the position of the White House Champion of Change?

Being a WHChamps keeps me connected to my values.  I am still part of a tribe who are living up to the challenge to help win the future by out-educating, out-innovating, and out-building our competitors in the 21st century.  It keeps me blogging, as it is my websites started in the 1990s that resulted in being honored as a White House Champion of Change. The 1000’s of WHChamps are still connected on a closed Facebook page. And I can search on their interactive map for those who live in my area or who are working on similar challenges.  My challenge is to do the same thing for you girls through mentorships and internships connected to your passions:  knorth.edublogs.org/learn/ncwit-aspirations-award/2021-2/problem-areas-2021-aic-applicants

How do you think more girls can become interested in computer science?

Social groups like this who can team to solve problems. Have you been a political activist? Advocate to make CS an academic area.

• Contact the CTE coordinator in Fort Bend about their decisions for CS choices on your course selection sheets.
• Ask your school board about their long range plans for CS education.
• Include in accountability creating a digital portfolio and apps.
• Integrate into all core subjects as part of assignments.

Teach through the Arts.  Do you know about Seymour Papert, Artemis Papert, Turtle Art, coding Digital to Physical, Logo Foundation?  Have a Dance Party.

• http://teachertech.rice.edu/Participants/knorth/Scheme/webGraphicCode.html
• http://teachertech.rice.edu/Participants/knorth/Scheme/webScheme.html
• http://teachertech.rice.edu/Participants/knorth/index.htm
• https://codemathteks.edublogs.org/

Was there a specific moment in your life when you realized that you were interested in computer science? 

I enjoyed designing and sewing when I was your age. I liked creating things and became interested in AI as I was interested in how the brain worked. Majored in math, but in 1968 added a minor in 1968 in computer science. Dropped this as I became frustrated standing in lines to run my keypunch cards. Had cognitive science been a major, that is what I would study now.   My brother learned to program in “C” to write software for his construction business.  Since there was no computer store in town, he opened an Apple store. I bought an AppleIIE, which I still have, for my children in the 1970s.  That is when my interest really started, programming in Logo and Basic.  Do you know who Leo Cherne is? I felt the power that rooted my interest:  The computer is incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid … The marriage of the two is a force beyond calculation.

What is an opportunity that you wish more high school students chose to be involved in?

Political Advocacy through Writing Editorials.

Do you have any recommendations to help students to discover and focus in one area of computer science?  

Research what lights your fire.  See where the pathways on the answers take you.  If you keep coming back to one area, find out what languages they use to solve.  Have you ever programmed in “R” or Processing? Have you taken a data science course? How have you used CS to solve a local problem to help nature? To help those in your community?

In your opinion what are the best resources for help and support when first starting out in this field and navigating course selections in high school and college?

• Best resource is the questions you ask. The questions you asked to prepare for this conversation were excellent!!  Attend online webinars in and outside your area of interest as this creates questions you did not know you had.
• Making connections with mentors such as Target’s coming up Social Justice Hackathon. https://itconnect.workoutloud.com/Event/social-justice-hackathon-3-13-2021
• Read Tom Friedman’s “Thank you for being Late.” This can take you down 100’s of pathways and to his original book “The World is Flat.”

Knowledge is Answers to Questions, the more questions the more knowledge.

While working as a programmer, what was your favorite programming project? And why?

Working for Dr. Mavis Kelsey was typing his family genealogy.  He wrote everything on index cards, sorted, then added to the index. I suggested he buy an AppleIIE and use the next database software.  I was one of the first to use the Microsoft Access Database and worked with the company to improve their software. Every semicolon and period had to be right. When finally finished, I ran the data, but alas not enough memory. Contacted Computer Craft on 59 and Bissonnet where we purchased, as they promised it would work.  They said I could run the data on their computer with more memory.  I remember loading the code which had to run overnight. I taped a sign on the monitor, “do not turn off!”.  The most exciting moment was coming in the next morning and seeing the words, index complete.  And finally seeing the book published that I was part of in 1979.  A book I am part of now is “No Fear Coding, Computational Thinking Across the K-5 Curriculum.  I wrote the chapters on the Bee-Bot which are I posted online. And presented at a workshop for the City of Houston.  They are looking for ambassadors if interested in doing presentation like this with a friend who lives in Houston.

Thank you leaders for inviting me to present at your Girls Who Code workshop which gave me a deadline to getting some of my history posted.  Nice thing about coding in HTML and blogging is that all my errors can easily be fixed.  And new ideas can be added at anytime in the future. And being able to do what I love, talk to students.  Which is so much more fun than adults, who often make me feel uncomfortable.

My questions:

1. Have you ever been to the White House?
2. Have you been a political activist?
3. Do you know about Seymour Papert, Artemis Papert, and Turtle Art?
4. Have you considered cognitive science for your field of study?
5. Do you know who Leo Cherne is?
6. Have you ever programmed in Logo or Basic?
7. Have you ever sent an editorial to the Houston Chronicle?
8. Have you ever programmed in “R” or Processing?
9. Are you interested in genealogy?
10. Have you thought about publishing a book?

“Oh, the Thinks you can Think” … This cancel culture has got to stop.  March 2nd Dr. Seuss Read Across America celebration omitted.  This is so, so stupid.  We need to work on building not tearing down cultures.

Capital Siege Hearings – didn’t have the right data getting to the decision makers. EPCOT Energy failure – decision makers not prepared.
Does this mindset start in schools when decision makers are not preparing students to make decisions? When classrooms are controlled by laws. When students are not given time to reflect on their lesson. Child Friendly Cities need Dr. Seuss Creators.

CHAMPIONS CHALLENGE:

1. Find supporting data on my websites that took me to the White House as a Champion of Change for CS Education.
2. Tweet to @TedE4CS – or email as I think most of my followers know me.
3. Award will come to your heart knowing you care to take the time for our children.
   https://blog.ted.com/10-talks-from-inspiring-teachers-2/

ARE YOU READY:

• 3D printed 3D house.- The company can set up its Autonomous Robotic Construction System at a build site in six to eight hours. It then lays concrete layer by layer, creating footing, the foundation of a house and the interior and exterior walls of the structure.

“We are mostly farmers … “ Thomas Friedman Chapter 9 11:20:50 – Everyone must read “Thank You for Being Late…”  He has solutions if only we will listen:  Chicken Coups, Gardens and the Web.  What if the US built a wall of self-reliant green houses along the border?  Immigrants migrate to survive. Let’s give them to tools to do that in Mexico so they can solve their own problems.  The Arctic freeze of electricity and water gave all Texans a feel for what it is like to live without.  But that was just one week. In other countries it is years. Let’s build with kindness!

LOCAL SOLUTIONS:

• Plant-it Forward – Where I get fresh veggies. My immigrant farmer is the best!!
• Texas A&M Agriculture Extension
• CCCN-H supporting Family Nature Clubs