What's Going On? March 30th through April 3rd

Welcome Back from Spring Break!

I know that we weren't able to experience a normal spring break, but hopefully, everyone was able to take a step back and relax a little bit during our week away from school.  Like many of you, I was able to spend some extra time with my family.  I was also able to get some things done around the house, bake, and go on a few runs.  It's definitely been a change from the normal routine, but my family and I are doing our best to stay active and positive during these uncertain times.


What Is Expected from Computer Science Students?

As of today, we can expect to continue our virtual learning through April 24th, unless we hear otherwise from our governor.  This is longer than we had initially anticipated, and we must all do our best within our current changed circumstances.  At this point, I have been told that our class will continue to run according to our usual North schedule.  Each day of scheduled class, students are expected to complete the following:

• Complete the attendance form each day by 3pm.  Students who are enrolled in multiple classes with me should complete this form for each class.  
• See the agenda for the day.  At this point, I plan on creating an announcement on BlackBoard / Google Classroom and sending an e-mail through Infinite Campus with the daily tasks for the day.  
• View the notes video and/or attend a live lesson session.  The time for the live lesson session will be listed within the daily agenda.  
• Complete the assigned daily homework.
• Ask questions!  I am here to help.  At this point, my official office hours are from 9-11am, but I am available at other points throughout the day by appointment.  Just ask!  Questions can be asked through WebEx teams or via email.
• Be flexible and ask for what you need!  We are all navigating a new virtual learning system and we are all trying to figure this out.  Please let me know what you need!  I am here to support you and your learning through this time.

Monday's Agenda for all Computer Science Courses: Monday, March 30, 2020

To allow us a little time to reflect on our current circumstances, I have designed the same lesson plan for all of my computer science courses.  (No worries! Students who are enrolled in multiple computer science courses will only need to complete this assignment once.). First of all, all students should complete the attendance form each day.  Then, I would like students to find an article or social media post that talks about a positive impact that technology is having on our current situation.  For this assignment, find any current article related to how technology is being used during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.  I recently came across an article talking about how 3D printers have been used to print N95 masks for health care workers.  Once students find an article of interest, they will create a short "one pager", summarizing the technology, the need for technology, a positive impact the tech is having on the COVID-19 pandemic, and a link to the resource.  Students will be provided with a one-pager template and will submit it either through Google Classroom (AP Computer Science Principles), or Blackboard (Web 1, Web 2, App Dev 2).  I will be available through WebEx teams at 9am on Monday to answer any questions.  Here is my sample:

Programming the Web 1

After our Monday's class assignment, we will try to dive back into lesson 8 on using the "Box Model" for creating web pages.  Each day we have class, students should complete our daily attendance form.  Here is our day-by-day agenda:

• Monday: See lesson plan above
• Tuesday: Students can attend a live session at 9am on Tuesday or view our video lesson.  
• Thursday: Students should complete our reading guide that accompanies chapter 14
• Friday: Complete web assignment 8A and lesson 8 review questions  

Students are considered "on pace" for the week if all of the daily agenda items are completed by Friday.


Programming the Web 2

After our Monday's class assignment, we will try to dive back into working with Date objects in JavaScript.  Each day we have class, students should complete our daily attendance form.  Here is our day-by-day agenda:

• Monday: See lesson plan above
• Tuesday: Students can attend a live session at 10am on Tuesday or view our video lesson on creating a website using JavaScript and Date objects.  
• Thursday: Students should complete the assignment on using JavaScript and Date objects through the repl.it website and submit the link via Blackboard.
• Friday: Students should complete the assignment on using return statements in JavaScript through the repl.it website and submit the link via Blackboard.

App Development 2

After our Monday's class assignment, we will try to dive back into working with Swift.  Each day we have class, students should complete our daily attendance form.  Here is our day-by-day agenda:

• Monday: See lesson plan above
• Tuesday: Students can attend a live session at 11am on Tuesday.  We will be working with the Swift Playgrounds app and working through the activity "Learn to Code 1"
• Wednesday: We will be working with the Swift Playgrounds app and continue working through the activity "Learn to Code 1"
• Thursday: We will be working with the Swift Playgrounds app and continue working through the activity "Learn to Code 1"

AP Computer Science Principles

After our Monday's class assignment, we will try to dive back into completing our AP Performance Tasks.  Each day we have class, students should complete our daily attendance form.  Due to the changes to the AP Exam, we will need to adjust our next course of action.  If students haven't done so already, please complete the survey on Google Classroom to voice your option on what will come next in our class.  Here is our day-by-day agenda:

• Monday: See lesson plan above and complete Google Classroom survey on next course of action.
• Tuesday: Students should continue work on the AP Performance Tasks
• Wednesday: Students should continue work on the AP Performance Tasks
• Friday: Students should continue work on the AP Performance Tasks

Virtual Learning

Due to the Covid-19 virus, we will be moving our learning to the virtual space.  Parents, teachers, students, and the community are all doing their best to navigate this change together.  I would ask for your patience as we work through this adjustment period.  I will be doing my best to support students as we continue learning in this new environment.

Web 1, Web 2, App Dev 2
For this week, students are expected to work within their core classes.  This would mean that App Dev 2, Web 1, and Web 2 will continue work after our scheduled spring break.

AP Computer Science Principles
Students in the AP Computer Science Principles class can take this opportunity to continue our in-class work on our AP Performance Tasks.  Our "Explore" and "Create" tasks account for 40% of the overall AP score.  Currently, the due date for the tasks is April 30th.  Hopefully everyone still has access to all of their materials while away from school.  Please let me know if you have encountered any issues with access to your projects.  The AP board is aware of the many schools that have had to transition to a virtual learning environment.  I have heard that more information will come from the AP board regarding their plan in the future.

Please don't hesitate to reach out as we work through this change together!
~Mrs. Kamenar

What's Going On? March 9th through March 13th

App Development 2

This week, students will explore Composition and the Tab Bar Controller.  With Composition,
students will learn about how one object be a property of another object.  For example, we might write a class to define a "Job" object.  A "Job" might have properties such as a job title and a salary associated with it.  We might also write a class to define a "Person".  A person might have properties such as a name and a job.  To explore this, students will complete a reading, an introductory hackwich, and a code challenge.  Students will also complete a BlackBoard formative assessment on this concept.  Later in the week, students will explore the Tab Bar Controller which allows us to navigate between different screens via buttons on the bottom of our screen.

Programming the Web 1

This week, students will take on lesson 7 where we will explore colors and backgrounds.  For this lesson, students will need to read chapter 13 in our textbook and complete the accompanying reading guide by Thursday.  Students will also complete our traditional 10 question multiple-choice assessment during class on Friday.  Throughout the week, students will have 3 web assignments to complete to explore the different background and color properties that can be used via CSS.  Students are considered "on pace" for the class if lesson 7 web assignments are turned in by the end of class on Friday.  Students who need additional time to complete their work should come into the lab before school.  The lab is open on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 7-8am.  

Programming the Web 2

This week, students will continue to explore the idea of JavaScript variables and functions.  Students will complete a couple of check-ins via some short worksheets, quizzes, and short web pages.  We will continue to explore how we can add interactive features into our webpages via JavaScript.

AP Computer Science Principles

This week, students will continue to work on their "Create" performance task.  Students will be given a total of 12 hours to complete an app and a written reflection.  This task is due to the AP board via our digital portfolio and will account for 24% of the overall AP score.  

What's Going On? March 2nd through March 6th

Modified Schedule: ACT Tuesday, March 3rd

On Tuesday, March 3, 2020 North will host an ACT test.  All sophomores and juniors will report to school at 7:30am on Tuesday for the ACT.  The sophomores will complete a practice ACT test while the juniors will complete the official test.  All other students (freshmen and seniors) will have the day off of school on Tuesday.

Due to the ACT on Tuesday, we will have a modification for our schedule at the beginning of the week.  Monday will be a "Tuesday"-style schedule.  This means that the school day will begin at 7:35am for students in CCR/JIT and at 8:10 for all other students.


Mobile Makers Winter Contest Screen Cast Winners

As you may know, earlier this year our App Development 1 students had a chance to participate in the Mobile Makers Winter Screen Cast Contest.  For this contest, students were challenged to learn about a new programming feature in Swift, create a small demo app to show off the feature, and then make a video explaining how to use the feature.  The contest winners have been announced, and I am so excited to share the results.  Our very own Emily G won first place in the contest for her drawing app!  This is the second year in a row that a North team has won this contest.  We had several other teams, including Maelyn B & Gary J (Drum Set), Matt C (Scroll View), Lucas D (Progress View), Sam M & Amelia W (Pinch Gesture Recognizer), Stopwatch (Zachary P), and Jose & Jon (MapKit).  Way to go Northstars!

Check out the entire contest news release here:
https://www.unchartedlearning.org/blog/mobilemakersedu-winter-contest-2019/2020-winners-announced

Programming the Web 1


This week, students will dive into lesson 6.  Along with this week, students will read chapters 11 and 12 from our textbook and complete the accompanying reading guide.  We will have our 10-question weekly multiple-choice test on Friday.  During this week, we will dive into the world of CSS.  That means we will talk about how to modify the look of our pages by changing colors and adding other styles.  Students are considered "on-pace" for the class if web assignments 6a, 6b, and 6c are uploaded by the end of class on Friday.




Programming the Web 2

At the beginning of the week, students will work on wrapping up their image gallery website for their Web 2 portfolio.  Once this is complete, we will dive into the world of JavaScript.  The use of JavaScript within our pages will help to make them more interactive.  We will start off by exploring how to create and use variables within our pages.  We will also start to discover the use of functions.





App Development 2

This week, we will continue our study of implementing maps within our apps using MapKit.  In order to help our study and make a robust app, students will practice using 'guard' and 'if let' statements in order to prevent our app from crashing when we don't have some information we are expecting within our app.  After this, students will explore "Modal Segues".  This will allow a new window to appear without disrupting the normal flow of the app.



AP Computer Science Principles

This week, students will continue to work on their AP "Create" Performance task.  Students will be
given a total of 20 hours of class time to create an app and write responses to the reflection prompts. All work is due to the AP board by April 30th.

Please also remember to bring in permission slips this week for our computing competition at Marquette University on April 15th.

What's Going On? February 24th through February 28th

Early Release: February 28th

On Friday, students will have an early release day. We will meet with our usual Friday classes, but for a shortened period of time. Our last class ends at 12:05. After that, students are welcome to stay at school for lunch or leave the building. The busses will leave school at 1:12.

Programming the Web 1

This week, we will dive into lesson 5.  For this lesson, we will focus on adding images with the appropriate attributes and how to create an image map for our pages.  Along with this week, students will need to read chapters 7 and 10 and complete the accompanying reading guide.  The reading guide will be due on Thursday.  Students will have two website assignments to complete for the week and we will complete our ten multiple-choice questions during our shortened class period on Friday.  Part of our discussion this week is on "Image Maps".  This is a concept that is not covered in the textbook reading so it is very important that students take notes and complete our sample demo in class.  This lesson also marks the point where we will transition to using the Adobe DreamWeaver software to create our webpages.  

Programming the Web 2

This week, we will turn our focus to learning some different techniques to display an "Image Gallery".  For the first two class days of the week, we will investigate some different tools together.  For the last two days of the week, students will work on creating their own Image Gallery to include on their portfolio site.

App Dev 2

This week, we will spend Monday's class wrapping up our "Assignment Notebook" summative app.  Then we will move into investigating MapKit.  We will start with a formative hackwich called "Mobile Mapper" that will give us an overview of the unit.  We will then move into studying "Optionals" which refers t whether or not a variable has data in it.   

AP Computer Science Principles

This week, students will begin work on their AP "Create" performance task.  This task makes up 24% of the overall AP score and must be submitted to the College Board by April 30th.  Per College Board guidelines, I will be giving students 12 hours of class time to work on this task.  Students will be responsible to writing code for a program and writing an analysis of the design process and the algorithms involved within the app.  Students may work in pairs or individually on the project.  If a student is working as part of a team, each team member must be able to identify the parts of the code completed individually.  Students may not collaborate on the responses to the writing prompts.  Students may not consult with each other on their code and cannot get specific feedback from outside sources on their work.  However, students may use resources and would be allowed to include a portion of code written by someone else, provided that the code is cited.  Complete instructions and helpful resources can be found on our Google Classroom site.

What's Going On? February 17th through February 21st

Programming the Web 1

This week, we will start our fourth lesson of the semester.  Students will investigate how to create links between pages and within our pages.  Along with this week, students will read chapter 6 and complete the accompanying reading guide.  Students will also have two web assignments, 6A and 6B, to complete throughout the week, highlighting the use of links within our web pages.  We will end the week with our ten multiple-choice questions.  Students are considered "on-pace" for the class will have completed lesson 6 by the end of the class by Friday.  Students who are not on pace should come in during the JIT time this week on Wednesday and Thursday from 7-8am in room 300.

Programming the Web 2

Now that students have investigated form fields and tables, it is time to put the knowledge to the test.  Students will complete a "St. Mary's Form" that highlights the use of proper formatting and form fields.  This assignment will serve as the basis of a later assignment where we will use JavaScript for form validation.  Students will also create a form for their portfolio site.





App Development 2

This week, students will work on our first summative end of unit app challenge for the semester.  Students will be creating an "Assignment Notebook" app which allows users to enter an assignment, save it, and delete it.  Students have the option to add more detailed information about the assignment and can even add date information to it using the Date Picker function embedded into XCode. 

AP Computer Science Principles

This week, we will continue investigating Cybersecurity.  Students will break up into pairs/small groups to research some major viruses and attacks that have been deployed.  Students will report their findings and we will have a class discussion about the types of attacks and some ways that can be used to protect ourselves from online threats.  Later in the week, we will talk about different types of encryption and some ethics related to online behavior.  Once we have wrapped up our discussion on cybersecurity, students will begin their 12 hours of class time devoted to our APCPS " Create" Performance Task.  For this task, students will write their own program (or may work in pairs) that meets a list of requirements.  Once the program is complete, students will write their responses to the writing prompts.  All performance tasks, including the "Explore" and "Create" tasks are due by April 30th to the AP board.  Students should have submitted their finalized "Explore" task by Friday, February 14th. 

What's Going On? February 10th through February 14th

Programming the Web 1

This week, students will start our third lesson of the semester.  For this lesson, students will learn how
to create lists using HTML tags.  Our list types include an ordered list (numbered), an unordered list (with a bullet point), and a description list (hanging indent).  We will also spend some time learning about div tags, which allow us to set up a foundational structure that will extremely helpful when we start our more focused study of design with CSS.  Along with this week, students will read chapter 5 from our textbook and complete the accompanying reading guide.  During the week, students will have class time to complete two summative web assignments, 3A and 3B, where students can demonstrate their ability to create lists and add structural tags to an HTML document.  We will end the week with our summative ten multiple-choice questions.

Programming the Web 2

This week, students will continue their work on their first summative assignment, creating a home page for their semester portfolios.  For this assignment, students will pay close attention to the choice of colors and fonts in order to create an aesthetically-pleasing design.  Students will be incorporating a variety of web design techniques in order to craft this portfolio home page, including implementing responsive design.  Once our home pages are complete, we will dive into discovering the use of tables and forms within a webpage.



App Development 2

We will start off this week by investigating "Persistence", or permanent data storage within our app.  So far, every app we have created does not have the ability to save changes in between app openings.  This will allow us to preserve data and enhance our app's capability.  We will complete an in-class demo and then students will have a chance to test their knowledge with the "Persistence Code Challenge".  Once this study is complete, students will apply their knowledge to the end of the unit summative app, Assignment Notebook.



AP Computer Science Principles

This week, we will take a look at a couple of concepts.  First, we will look at how to create a simple web page using HTML and CSS.  Next, we will look at some of the ways information can be sent securely over the internet.  During this investigation, we will look at Caesar Ciphers and Public Key Encryption to talk about how messages can be encoded and decoded.  Also, students are expected to turn in their final version of the "Explore" Performance task by Friday, February 14th.  This task accounts for 16% of the AP score.