This question pops up every year with my students...we have six weeks after the AP Computer Science exam, are we doing anything?

Nope, Ive decided you can just nap for six weeks of school. That sounds reasonable.

They know me well enough that there is a lot of eye rolling at this point. After fifteen years teaching high school I have learned eye rolling equals success. It is my job to annoy them occasionally.


Usually I pick something new to everyone and we work through that. Sometimes we do advanced data structures like linked lists, java graphics or a new language.

This years group is too eclectic for that to work. I have students that already know VB, C++, Python and just about anything else I could throw at them. They have done NASA summer internships, built robots and held part-time jobs doing web design.

So I tried something new, this year they got to pick their own projects.

The ground rules were:

1. Do something new to you
2. Do something non-trivial (something that will take several weeks to complete)
3. Amaze me

I had them write about what they were going to work on first. So far this has kept them much more engagged then they normally are this time of year. Plus it has been a lot less work for me.

In short, I have been amazed. Plus, anything that cuts down on the amount of nagging I have to do everyday is a total win.

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(continuation of  Redefining Teachers in the Internet Age)

Before we can redefine teaching we must examine schools themselves.

One of the core issues the Internet in education raises: does this always mean we need to visit a teacher in person? Traditionally the most efficient way for an expert to share knowledge was to collect a large number of people in a room at the same time and talk. Now, the Internet has the potential of bringing this conversation to a much larger group that do not necessarily need to be housed in the same place at the same time.

For the traditional American high school this raises some large questions. A lot of modern educational theory centers around manipulating large numbers of mostly unwilling participants into absorbing information and skills that they do not inherently care about. We train teachers in both delivery and assessment, and spend an inordinate amount of time on behavior management. (* In case youd like to see an example: http://teachlikeachampion.com/the-classroom/ . *)

So what if we took this off the table? Lets say we now face the same questions education faced at the beginning of the last century when moves towards compulsory education first began. At that point there were not large buildings meant to house 2000 or more teenagers in order to teach them. At the time it was a new model centered around the need to be physically present with a teacher.

So, does this model still work? There is a lot of discussion currently around what is wrong and why in education. Perhaps part of it is the buildings themselves. Our underlying assumption that we have to put thousands of 16 year-olds in a building in order to effectively educate them might not be true anymore.

If we were, right now, building a compulsory education system from scratch would that the solution look like? Think about it for a minute. If you had to build an educational system from scratch, right now, with no infrastructure, school districts, buildings...what would you design? Would every student have access to high quality classes? How?

There are advantages to both in person and online teaching. Neither alone holds the solution to the myriad issues of quality and access that plague our educational system.

But it is time to start investigating - Are we doing it this way because it works or because of the infrastructure we already have in place?

And ultimately, what is the best way to introduce our children to collected human knowledge?

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Have you ever found yourself wondering about the rules MS Word is using to make its grammar recommendations when you check your documents?

Ever wish you had a little peek into the madness behind it all?

Wish you could tell Word to stop checking a few things that just drive you crazy?

If any of this sounds familiar, read on to take a look into the grammar rules used to check your documents.

In older versions of Word, you need to start with the Tools menu, Spelling and Grammar choice.

At the bottom of the Spelling and Grammar window, click the Options button.

This will take you to the Spelling and Grammar tab.

In Word 2007, you can get there directly through the Office Button, Word Options button, Proofing choice.

Once there, you can select and deselect a variety of options. One to pay attention to is the Writing Style choice.

Using the drop down list, you can choose to have Word check either the "Grammar Only" or "Grammar & Style."

Interested in what the specific differences are between the two choices?

No problem!

Click the Settings button.

The Grammar Settings window will open, displaying the choices for Grammar checks.

When you select "Grammar Only," you only get the grammar portion of the list. In contrast, the "Grammar & Style" choice will have items from both parts of the list selected. (Notice that you can toggle between the two Writing Style choices at the top of the window, allowing you to easily compare the two).

Scroll through the list.

Youre free to check or uncheck items as you see fit.

When youre done, click OK and then OK again. (If youre in an older version of Word, youll also have to close the Spelling and Grammar window).

Thats it! You now know where to find Words control over the Grammar check. It looks like its time to customize and make it your own!

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