On Sun, 2 Oct 2005, Beni Cherniavksy wrote: > Not OT at all.And it would be a good idea to the list's address to the > pupils and encourage them to ask.
patience, patience... we haven't started it yet - it'll start after the holidays, and it'll be a long time before they get to the level of needing to ask questions on this mailing list. > guy keren wrote: > > hi, > > > > as part of the hatzor project that's being ran recently by various > > volunteers (see http://www.vaya.org.il/schools/ for details, if you need), > > we decided to try and teach programming in the school. > > > > the language to be taught this year will by python, with an accent on > > writing ascii-art-based games. > > > Hooray!I'm so excited! Python in school, in Israel! please note that this is not any official school program - we're going to run it as an afternoon operation. if it was an official school program, i wouldn't be asking for vulanteers - instead, they'd be offering a teaching job ;) > > since am going to give the lessons, and i live in haifa (about 1.5 hours > > drive from the school there), i won't be able to get there more then once > > every 2 weeks (or even 3). thus, the idea is to have part of the lessons > > done remotely - and this is where y'all could help (if you're willing). > > since it is hard to conduct online classes with one teacher and several > > students, i was wondering if some of you would like ot participate in > > these "classes". > > I live at Qiryat Motzkin.Sun-Thu I serve in the army around Tel-Aviv, > so I can only get anywhere on Fridays.But getting there every Friday > is not out of the question.Every 2 weeks is surely possible. i'm afraid that fridays are out of the question, because most of the pupils study on fridays. perhaps when the dovrat reform finally catches on, they'll not study on friday. > About online classes - Friday is again perfect, other days are tricky. i'm afraid we're in tricky-land ;) > What is the schedule of lessons you were thinking about? it's still in the works - we'll know in a week or so. my guess is it'll be on sunday or thursday in the afternoon (i.e. leave them enough time to go home, eat lunch, rest and then come to school for this). > > note that in addition to the normal classes, we are going to hold > > "practice lessons" that will be conducted by two students from tel-hai > > college, who are doing this as a "perach" project (for those who don't > > know, "perach" gives scolarships to students that perform various types of > > community work during the semester). these two students already were > > involved when we gave an "intro to linux" course to a few pupils from ort > > hatzor during the summer. > > > > note that this is a school that doesn't have many resources, and as far as > > i understood, is not teaching programming as part of its normal teaching > > program (at least that is what the pupils told me) - which is what > > prompted the idea of teaching lessons. > > > Hmm, that's actually better than a school which does teach programming > because we are less bound by the MoE's silly ways of teaching > programming :-).What is the status of this course from the school's > point of view? it is unofficial. the whole linux project is not done as a formal project there, althought the school did buy the linux server on which the various donated workstations work in an LTS (linux terminal server) mode. > > we are going to recruite pupils during the next few weeks, and start the > > lesons after the holidays (i.e. beginning of november). > > > > if someone wants to help, please let me know. i devised a basic study > > plan, that should suffice for the first few month, and the idea is that > > afterwards each pair of pupils will choose a project for themselves to > > implement - and then the studing will become more a one-on-one issue. > > > Do you have the plan online? not yet, as it is not yet finalized. if anyone wants to help with the planning, let me know, and i'll send what we currently have. > > thanks, > > Another question: how is their English?I promised to translate the > Python tutorial but didn't start yet.Are translations of anything > desired as helper materials here? i didn't check their english level, but i want all the written material to be in hebrew. as such, i am going to write part of it myself (a mini-book about data structures and python). i am not sure how much time i'll have to also write the python classes material as well. i am not going to use the python tutorial, because i am working on a different approach, where programming is quickly turned into a tool for writing games, and we only learn new things when we need them to write more sophisticated "games" (initially, you wouldn't call them games - but i do). you should also realize that we're not teaching pupils with programming background. only a few of them, if at all, will come with some knwoledge in programming. some of the higher grades (in the electronics class) learned some programming in assembly (perhaps also C) - but it was on a rather low level. -- guy "For world domination - press 1, or dial 0, and please hold, for the creator." -- nob o. dy
