Coding Archives - THOM GIBSON

21 Feb 2020

No Planning Time, Low Test Scores, & Correcting Students | Q&A Show

What do you do if you don't have a planning period? How do you help students master a skill after they've failed a test? How do you correct students when they're wrong? Any advice for a first time long-term sub? We explore these questions into today's Q&A show. EPISODE NOTES In this Q&A show, we discuss: How do you support students & help them master content after they've scored low on a test?How do you find time to prep, grade, plan without using all of your free time outside of school if you don't have a prep period?How do you…

23 May 2019

Day in the Life of a Teacher | LAST DAY VLOG

I haven't done a 'day in the life' video in some time! This was the last day of classes right before finals week (so not the true LAST day but no more actual teaching). https://youtu.be/qJPoZo5ymsU 🎥Videos/resources referenced: How To Create & Manage A Classroom Economy - https://thomgibson.com/classroomeconomy/ 2015 'Day in the Life' - https://youtu.be/RpUe7LsmqeQ "10k Calorie Cheat Day Challenge" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNYGlTXDClA Mandarin progress (after 1 year) - https://youtu.be/eLeqmBvQ2EY Reflections on teaching YouTube Video Production - https://youtu.be/OQOTGmYXWVA "Mindfulness in the Classroom" (podcast) - https://wp.me/p3LdGY-QV "How to Debrief A Class" - https://youtu.be/0Ax9aZCpHxs Our big esports project - https://youtu.be/uIDAVzgexAE Another robotics project from…

19 Feb 2019

Building COLLISION AVOIDANCE Robots in Middle School Robotics

I vlogged our big competition day for our collision avoidance robots in middle school robotics. If students had a head on collision or fell off the table, they were out. https://youtu.be/PtE-7p1rUZw Self-driving cars video I introduce the project with ▷Task: Create a bot that avoids other bots & obstacles in the field. Must utilize at least 3 sensors (touch, color, gyro, ultrasonic) Must incorporate screen text, sound, and lights. Must be autonomous. ▷Rules: If your bot hits another bot or obstacle, you’re out. If your bot is bumped, you’re still in unless it’s a head on collision Starting placement can…

08 Jun 2017

Entry 33 – School Has Come To An End

Today is the first official day of summer for me! Started out with breakfast for some friends, the first swim in a long while at the lap pool (taking a break for a week from the weight lifting as I've had some shoulder pain), and some good time to get a lot of little tasks done that have been on the back burner for a few weeks. My summer plans include doing some possible videography work (sent out a ton of inquiries this morning) and a trip at the end of summer to China! Sara and I found a Groupon…

02 Mar 2016

Middle School Robotics – Episode 5 : Students Debate Over Ways To Program ‘Gold Digging’ Robot

This is episode 5 of a short series entitled 'Middle School Robotics.' This week, students finished up their second project and I introduced a project where they have to find 3 pieces of paper on a table using the color sensor, without falling off the table. It was originally called 'gold digger' and the paper was yellow but we didn't have the right shade of yellow and the color sensor wasn't reading it. So we're using red...but it's still called gold digger...red gold digger. Filmed at The Khabele School in Austin, TX Most of my project resources were taken from…

10 Jan 2016

Week 18 – Fractions, Why Are You So Difficult!?

It's the end of the first week back. I got my new group of Robotics students, we began with some divisibility and exponents in 6th Grade Math, and we're exploring multiplying rational numbers in Pre-Algebra. Robotics Robotics is just a semester course so I have a new group this semester. Last semester was nine 7th-8th grade boys. This semester is eleven 6th grade boys, a 7th grade girl, and and a 7th grade boy. Really different dynamic, but almost all of them I've had in math class before. The semester feels like it's running a bit on autopilot since not…

05 Dec 2015

Week 15 – Hooked Them On A Tuesday, Lost Them On A Thursday

It was our first week back from Thanksgiving break. After this week, we have one more week of class left and a week of mid-terms. Had some pretty significant high points this week as well as some points of pretty stark disengagement on the students parts, which was partially my fault. (more…)

19 Sep 2015

Week 4 – Student Blogging & Creating Video Games

We've come to the end of week 4. It felt like the first full week of actual school with last weeks 4-day-week and the week before still doing beginning of the year stuff. We really got into student blogging this week. MATH REFLECTION BLOGS Last year I did math reflection journals in Google Slides that I had kids share with me. This year, they're blogging their journals. I'm hoping a wider audience will lead to high quality in writing. I had them blog about our first math lessons. I provided a few guiding questions to get them going, used a math reflection…

24 Jul 2013

Exploring the Learn-To-Code Options

I've helped lead the Technology Club for the past two years at my school. The twenty 4th and 5th graders would meet once a week after school for about an hour to work through various tech projects. This past year, we spent time learning how to screencast as well completing a few movie-making projects. Near the end of the school year last year I saw the now famous Code.org video (above) pushing for computer programming education and I thought that our Tech Club would be an awesome avenue to try this out! I began to explore my options. I have…