Welcome to Second Semester!

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone enjoyed their extended weekend after we wrapped up the first semester.  Now that you have had a little break, it's time to get back to work!  Since we are starting a new semester, everyone will be starting with a blank slate for our new grading period.  Since we have a short week, each day this week will be run as a "Monday-style" schedule.


Programming the Web 2

Since it has been a while since a few of our students have been enrolled in Web 1, we will spend this week refreshing our memories of some basic HTML and CSS techniques.  Students who have Web 1 fresh in their minds will have the opportunity to investigate some new CSS techniques that they would like to incorporate into their websites.



App Development 1

This course is an introductory course to app development.  In this course, we will develop apps for iOS devices (iPhone and iPad) using the Swift programming language.  We will be using the computer program XCode in order to complete our work.  Throughout the course of the semester, students will have the opportunity to complete several apps, including:

• Hello World (A basic intro app)
• Multiply (An app to get used to creating buttons and creating a response)
• Tip Calculator
• Word Play (A mad-lib style app)
• Tic-Tac-Toe or Rock, Paper, Scissors

We will start with the basics.  During Wednesday's class, students will start with an "unplugged" activity and discover some basic ideas behind programming.  Later in the week, we will begin to investigate our XCode programming environment and try a little bit of Swift programming.

App Development 2

This is a continuation of our App Development 1 class.  Since it has been a while since some of our students have been enrolled in App Dev 1, we will start out with a review activity to refresh our memories on some basic Swift programming items.  Once we complete the review, we will dive into our second semester curriculum and investiage dictionaries.

AP Computer Science Principles

This week we will continue with our unit on HTML and CSS.  We will spend Wednesday and Thursday using Cloud9 to create our first webpage.  Students will learn how to mark up text using HTML and to add style to it using CSS.  We will finish out the week by talking about secure protocols and how cryptography plays a part in sending and receiving messages through the internet.

AP Exam


Have you registered for the AP Exam yet?  Please be sure to register through Total Registration by January 29th to avoid the $10 late fee.  All registrations must take place by February 7th at 11pm.

What's Going On? January 15th through January 19th (EXAM WEEK)

Exam Week

It's exam week.  Please remember that we will follow a "Monday-style" schedule on Monday and Tuesday.  Our exam schedule will run Wednesday through Friday.  Please be sure to be ON TIME for all of your exams.  Students must attend exam periods for all class, including student aide classes.  Students are not required to attend the "Reviewing/Conferencing" times, but that would be a great time to get some extra help!  Additionally, students are not required to attend during the "Make-Up" exam time on Friday afternoon.

Programming the Web 1

This week, students will have Monday, Tuesday, and our exam period on Friday to work on their final projects.  This final project is a website that includes at least four web pages.  Students will upload their final site to our shared folder on Google drive and also host the page live online.



App Development 1

This week, students should be focused on investigating a new Swift Technique.  Our curriculum partners, Mobile Makers, have offered this as a "Winter Contest", so students who upload their Swift Technique project by 5pm on Friday will have a chance to win some prizes.  Let's show off what you can do!  All projects must be turned in to me by the end of our exam period for our final Summative grade for the semester



AP Computer Science Principles


This week, students will wrap up our activity 2.1.4 where we started marking up web pages using HTML and CSS.   We will spend Tuesday's class period reviewing for our semester exam.  Our semester exam will be a preview of what the written portion of our AP exam might look like in the spring.


AP Exam

Speaking of the AP exam, have you registered yet?  Please be sure to register through Total Registration by January 29th to avoid the $10 late fee.  All registrations must take place by February 7th at 11pm.

What's Going On? January 8th through January 12th

WCTC Fieldtrip

For students that signed up for the WCTC field trip, this is a reminder that this will take place on Thursday from 8-11am.  Please make arrangements will your teachers BEFORE Thursday to find out what you will miss. 

Semester Exam

Semester exams are quickly approaching.  Check out the schedule:

App Development 1

This week, students should be working on their rock-paper-scissors or tic-tac-toe app.  This is our final summative complete app project for the semester.  Students should work to complete this app by the end of the week.  Once this is complete, students should work on finding a new swift technique to investigate.  Our curriculum partner, Mobile Makers, has a contest available to our students who investigate a new swift technique and submit their project by 5pm on Friday, January 19th.  Check out details of the contest here.

Programming the Web 1

At the end of last week, students should have finished our lesson 13 web assignment.  We will wrap up lesson 13 on Monday by taking our multiple-choice review question assessment.  Once this is complete, students will have the rest of the semester, including exam time, to work on our final web assignment project.  For this project, students must design and create their own website.  I have had several students mention that they would like to create a web page for a family business.  Other students expressed interest in creating a resume site.  I would be more than happy to help students brainstorm ideas for the final project.  Additionally, we will have a final 20 question multiple-choice assessment based on the 130 questions we have seen throughout the semester.  This assessment will NOT be open-book, open-note.

AP Computer Science Principles

This week, we will continue our study of web pages.  This week, we will focus on internet protocols and then we will spend some time examining some of the languages used to create web pages: HTML and CSS

Students should be working on our practice "explore" summative assessment.  I checked in with students on their topics last week and hopefully, the research portion of the explore task is well underway.  Students should be turning in their explore summative assessments by Friday.

For our final exam, students will have a summative assessment that will be based on what they might see on the AP exam in May.  

Registering for the AP Exam

The "early registration" period for the AP test is coming to an end.  Students need to register by Tuesday, January 30 at 1am.  After that, a late fee of $10 will be added.  The final date for registration is Wednesday, February 7th at 11:00pm.  

What's Going On? December 18th through December 22nd

WCTC Field Trip

WCTC field trip open to all students interested in the School of Business 
(IT, Hospitality, Business, Culinary, etc)

In the next 10 years, 2/3 of the careers with the highest growth in the United States are projected to be requiring degrees that are found at the technical colleges.  On January 11th, North students may participate in a field trip to see Waukesha County Technical College's School of Business.  The School of Business includes careers in the fields of Information Technology, Business & Management, Finance, Hospitality/Culinary/Baking, and Marketing & Sales.   Any North students are able to join the experience, and we strongly encourage 10th and 11th graders to participate in order to help them start looking into options for the future.  Departure time will be 8am, and return will be 11am.   Cost:  $5 per student.   Permission slips can be picked up from Ms. Kabitzke, Ms. Kamenar, Mr. Burden, and Ms. Kube.   This is a rare opportunity to experience hands-on activities at WCTC, meet the professors, tour the campus, and hear about the programs available.  Deadline to register:  Friday, January 5th.  

Here is a brief description of what WCTC is planning for us on this day:

• A “Game of Life” activity to simulate some of the experiences/careers/salaries students may experience. Marketing, global, business and accounting careers will be discussed along the way. 
• Threecybercrimee scenarios will be set up and then the students will break into groups to solve the cyber crimes and then learn about the associated IT careers – such as database analyst, Cyber Security, Network, Web Development and Support.

Programming the Web 1

We will start off this week by taking the lesson 12 review questions.  Students should finish up their lesson 12 assignment before winter break.  We will also talk about our lesson 13 assignment and get started on it.  Students will have the opportunity to finish up this assignment and we will complete our lesson 13 review questions on Friday when we return from break.

App Development 1

We will start off the week by finishing up our "Loops Challenge" formative assessment.  Before we leave for break, students should expect to see a formative assessment on BlackBoard on loops.  Once we wrap up loops, we will spend some time investigating some Safari services and how to use the camera features on an iPhone or iPad.

AP Computer Science Principles

During our last week before winter break, students will be finishing up our 1.4.7 practice "Create" task.  Students can choose to work with a partner on an image technique using masks and filters.  Students will work on creating the Python code that will support their work as well as a written explanation of their work, simulating the "Create" task that will need to be submitted to the AP board in April.  Additionally, each day, students will be expected to provide entries into a digital document to show all of their thought processes and progress on their project.  This assignment should be completed and submitted to our shared folder on Google Drive before winter break.

Additionally, students should be working on a practice "Explore" task, where students investigate a piece of technology.  This is an out-of-class activity, and students should be working on this independently.  We will have a check-in on Friday, January 5th to see the progress made.  The final summative assessment will be due on Friday, January 12th.  

What's Going On? December 11th through December 15th

Programming the Web 1

This week, we will continue our study of lesson 12 where we will work with formatting images in Photoshop for our website.  Along with this week, students will need to read chapters 21 and 22 as well as complete the accompanying reading guide.  We will have one web assignment to complete throughout the week.

App Development 1

At the beginning of the week, students will work on completing their "Word Play" app reflection form to wrap up our unit.  After that, we will move into our last unit of the semester.  We will spend the rest of the week talking about algorithms and looping structures.  Students should expect to see a formative assessment before the end of the week so we can make sure we are on the right track.

AP Computer Science Principles

On Monday, students will finish up our 1.4.6 activity.  Students will need to read chapter 6 in the book "Blown to Bits" in order to answer the reflection questions about the impact of technology on society.  Additionally, students will be working on a practice "Explore" task that will need to be submitted for the AP exam in April.  After this is complete, we will move into our 1.4.7 activity where students will have another opportunity to practice the "Create" task which will also need to be submitted for the AP exam in April.







Have you registered for the AP test?

Only two students have registered so far!  Don't delay, register today!

Looking Ahead: Semester Exams

For those of you who like to plan ahead, here is our exam schedule for January.  We will talk about what our exam will look like when we get closer to this time.

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What's Going On? December 4th through December 8th

Note: I will be out of the classroom on Monday morning due to Yearbook Club Picture day and on Tuesday and Wednesday due to a conference.  I will still be available to answer questions via e-mail.

Hour of Code
December 4th through December 8th is Computer Science Education Week.  This week, students from all over the world will participate in an activity to learn a little bit more about computer science.  North will hold our own activity after school on Thursday from 3:10-4:10pm in room 300.  During this session, we will work with a Google add-on called "Story Speaker".  In this session, each student will have a chance to write a "Choose your adventure"-style story.  Once the story is written, with all of the different options, students can have Google present the story.  This program can be run via a Chrome browser and also with a Google Home device.

Programming the Web 1

This week, we will dive into lesson 11 where we will talk about how we can hide text using the "Phark Technique" as well as how to create a responsive web page.  During Monday's class we will finish going through our notes.  For our class periods Wednesday through Friday, students will be working on web assignments 11A and 11B.  Our weekly reading guide will be checked during class on Thursday and we will complete our weekly review questions during class on Friday.

App Development 1

This week, students will be working to complete our end of unit app challenge: Word Play.  I would expect that we will wrap up this app mid-week.  After this, we will move into our final project for the semester: Rock, Paper Scissors.  We will finish off the week by talking about how to design a large-scale project and sketch it out using pseudocode.  We will also talk about how we can repeat a portion of code using loops.

AP Computer Science Principles

This week, we will continue our study of images and object-oriented libraries.  We will talk about how we can modify images using an algorithm.  We will also take some time toward the end of the week to talk about our "Explore" task.  For this task, students are required to research how a specific piece of technology has impacted society.  Later in the year, students will have a minimum of 8 hours of class time to complete the research and write up their findings.









Have you registered for the AP test?

Only two students have registered so far!  Don't delay, register today!

What's Going On? November 27th through December 1st

Programming the Web 1

This week, students will be working on unit 10.  In this week's lesson, students will have a reading guide to go along with our chapter 16 reading.  Students will also have 10 multiple choice questions at the end of the week.  We will have two web assignments to work on throughout the week, utilizing margins and floating.





App Development 1

This week, students will be working on our end of unit app challenge: Word Play.  Students will apply what they have learned about creating multiple view controllers to create a multi-screen app.  For the MVP of this app, students will prompt the app user for a word in a text field. That word will then appear as part of a sentence on the following screen.






AP Computer Science Principles

This week, we will continue our study of lesson 1.4.  We will spend our time focusing on how an image can be represented as an array of information in order to specify the look of each pixel on a screen.  On Tuesday of this week, students will learn to manipulate an image programmatically by placing a picture of the Earth in the correct location of a person's eye.  On Wednesday, students will write an image algorithm to apply a filter to a folder of photos.  We will wrap up the week by talking about the "explore" task which students will be working on later in the year to submit as part of the performance tasks for the AP exam.



Have you registered for the AP test?

Interested in Computer Programming?

MSOE has invited students to a special event called "Computer Unknown" on December 8th and 9th.  This FREE event will include a coding competition, some info about MSOE, a Bucks game, Laser Tag, and pizza.  Check out the link for more info: http://www.msoe.edu/campus-life/event/computer-unknown-an-epic-event-in-computer-science/