Ditto Kirby On Feb 7, 2008 4:35 AM, Jeffrey Elkner <jeff@elkner.net> wrote:

Hi Vern and Andy,

Just name the time and place. I'm there!

jeff

On Wed, 6 Feb 2008 21:45:56 -0600, Andrew Harrington <aharrin@luc.edu> wrote:

...

Vern, Good thinking. In the past we have gotten together to talk over food and in a separate meeting time that does not conflict with talks.

thoughts: lunch. lunch Friday is 90 minutes. The next two days 45 minute talks overlap it by 15 minutes, so it is down to 75 minutes Going out to dinner was fun last year. could be Friday or Saturday. We have met in the evening. Saturday would be good.

A difference from last year is that we have Chicago easily accessible from the hotel! If people want to go out and see it in the evenings, and not meet at that time, then I suggest meeting for lunch Friday and maybe a pre-dinner time. Or we could all pile on the El and head to Greektown or ....

Andy

On Wed, Feb 6, 2008 at 7:58 PM, Vern Ceder <vceder@canterburyschool.org> wrote:

...

Hey, everyone...

I've just put a placeholder down for us on the BoF wiki page for PyCon - http://wiki.python.org/moin/Birds_of_a_Feather - I assume some of us will want to get together in Chicago. The question, as always, is where and when...

Cheers, Vern

-- This time for sure! -Bullwinkle J. Moose ----------------------------- Vern Ceder, Director of Technology Canterbury School, 3210 Smith Road, Ft Wayne, IN 46804 vceder@canterburyschool.org; 260-436-0746; FAX: 260-436-5137

...

-- Andrew N. Harrington Director of Academic Programs Computer Science Department Loyola University Chicago 512B Lewis Towers (office) Snail mail to Lewis Towers 416 820 North Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60611

http://www.cs.luc.edu/~anh Phone: 312-915-7999 Fax: 312-915-7998 gdp@cs.luc.edu for graduate administration upd@cs.luc.edu for undergrad administration aharrin@luc.edu as professor

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Provided O'Hare is a sane scene (no guarantees given weather) I should be in the hotel venue by Thursday night. I had to think long an hard about missing tutorials, but I'll have two daughters in tow (one adult, one dependent) and a limited window. But hey, Friday, BOF table, any other gathering of edu-sig types, would be a pleasure. On the Python in Portland front, my Saturday Academy class didn't fill, freeing me up to private tutor, plus we're exploring a deal with Intel (I'll let ya know). Anna Roys of TECC in Alaska (charter school on the drawing board) is continuing to incorporate more Python into her lesson plans (some of these are for credit, as she's seeking a new credential, having found out the hard way what it's like to be outside an inner circle). The funny thing about the computer training interview was the boss in charge hadn't even heard of Python. I keep forgetting how we're "news" in some circles -- which can be a *good* thing (means we still get to make that all important "first impression"). A lot of the math teachers I encounter, in my work with the schools, still have this 1970s picture of computer programs consisting of reams of paper, tall stacks of punch cards. When they see Pippy programs, or mine (even shorter), I sense some relief. ** MathCad was in a lot of ways a bridge application (still is), in that it allows users the math symbols they're used to (Riemann Sum symbols and like that), yet in the background we're talking spreadsheet-with-formulas, lots of text mixed in (a good MathCad paper is both an essay and an executable -- reminiscent of Leo in some ways). My friend David Feinstein (CalTech, studied under Feynman) will go straight from a MathCad "paper" to a patch of runnable code in some embedded device. Even when engineers get lost in their own framework, the part David contributed remains a model of clarity. Kirby ** here's an excerpt from one of my internal TECC communications: In Python, we have the four major operations you find on the cheapest of calculators, + - * /. Then we also have %, which is the "modulo" operator. Increasing student comfort level with modulo arithmetic (what some textbooks call "clock arithmetic") is another goal of this curriculum, connected to all of the above. So, for example, in some of our lessons, we use our gcd function, i.e. Euclid's Algorithm, to find what are called the "totatives" of a number: all positive integers smaller than N, with no factors in common with N, i.e. smaller positives "coprime" to N. How many totatives N has is called its totient. So in Python: """ tecc1.py: thunderbird academy """ def gcd ( a, b): "Euclid's Algorithm" while b: a, b = b, a % b return a def totatives( n ): "0 < coprimes of n < n" return [ x for x in range(1, n) if gcd(x, n) == 1 ] def totient( n ): "number of totatives" return len(totatives(n)) Example of student using the above in the interactive shell:

...

...

from tecc1 import *

...

...

gcd(12, 27) 3 totient(27) 18 totatives(27) [1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 26] totatives(12) [1, 5, 7, 11] totient(12) 4

and so on. Note how these three Python functions, indicated with the keyword 'def' are very short, easy to follow once you've learned a few basics. Note also that these functions then get accessed interactively, much like the experience of using a calculator (but probably with a bigger screen) -- no writing some menu or looping structure with prompts (very 1970s). On Feb 9, 2008 11:27 AM, Vern Ceder <vceder@canterburyschool.org> wrote:

Well, I would definitely vote for dinner - those have been too much fun in past years to pass up. I personally would be up for a trip too Greektown, but it may be more time than some others have to spare.

I also think we should grab some open space time to have a (slightly) more formal gathering - we didn't do that last year, since we wanted to go to the OLPC gathering, and I, for one, missed it.

So how does Friday evening sound? It looks like we would have the most time after the day's formal activities are over. What does everyone think?

Cheers, Vern

Jeffrey Elkner wrote:

...

Hi Vern and Andy,

Just name the time and place. I'm there!

jeff

On Wed, 6 Feb 2008 21:45:56 -0600, Andrew Harrington <aharrin@luc.edu> wrote:

...

Vern, Good thinking. In the past we have gotten together to talk over food and in a separate meeting time that does not conflict with talks.

thoughts: lunch. lunch Friday is 90 minutes. The next two days 45 minute talks overlap it by 15 minutes, so it is down to 75 minutes Going out to dinner was fun last year. could be Friday or Saturday. We have met in the evening. Saturday would be good.

A difference from last year is that we have Chicago easily accessible from the hotel! If people want to go out and see it in the evenings, and not meet at that time, then I suggest meeting for lunch Friday and maybe a pre-dinner time. Or we could all pile on the El and head to Greektown or ....

Andy

On Wed, Feb 6, 2008 at 7:58 PM, Vern Ceder <vceder@canterburyschool.org> wrote:

...

Hey, everyone...

I've just put a placeholder down for us on the BoF wiki page for PyCon - http://wiki.python.org/moin/Birds_of_a_Feather - I assume some of us will want to get together in Chicago. The question, as always, is where and when...

Cheers, Vern

-- This time for sure! -Bullwinkle J. Moose ----------------------------- Vern Ceder, Director of Technology Canterbury School, 3210 Smith Road, Ft Wayne, IN 46804 vceder@canterburyschool.org; 260-436-0746; FAX: 260-436-5137

-- Andrew N. Harrington Director of Academic Programs Computer Science Department Loyola University Chicago 512B Lewis Towers (office) Snail mail to Lewis Towers 416 820 North Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60611

http://www.cs.luc.edu/~anh Phone: 312-915-7999 Fax: 312-915-7998 gdp@cs.luc.edu for graduate administration upd@cs.luc.edu for undergrad administration aharrin@luc.edu as professor

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-- This time for sure! -Bullwinkle J. Moose ----------------------------- Vern Ceder, Director of Technology Canterbury School, 3210 Smith Road, Ft Wayne, IN 46804 vceder@canterburyschool.org; 260-436-0746; FAX: 260-436-5137

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Ah, right, sorry about being vague (that's been known to happen, I'm afraid). Yeah, you pretty much figured it out - I was thinking that we might want to grab an open space for Friday evening, and I wasn't sure which night we might want to do dinner. I've put down your suggestion (which makes sense to me) on the wiki page linked from our entry on the BoF page - the direct link is http://wiki.python.org/moin/EduPython2008 Everyone who's interested can go there and add themselves to the list and note any conflicts they know of. Of course further suggestions, either here or on the wiki, would be appreciated. Cheers, Vern Andrew Harrington wrote:

Vern, I am not sure if you are suggesting doing *something* Friday or mean to be more specific as to dinner, evening meeting, both

One idea: A more formal meeting would pretty clearly be at the conference. We could do that Friday, say 8PM. There might be discussion then of how much time to invest in heading out to dinner Saturday.

Andy

On Sat, Feb 9, 2008 at 1:27 PM, Vern Ceder <vceder@canterburyschool.org <mailto:vceder@canterburyschool.org>> wrote:

Well, I would definitely vote for dinner - those have been too much fun in past years to pass up. I personally would be up for a trip too Greektown, but it may be more time than some others have to spare.

I also think we should grab some open space time to have a (slightly) more formal gathering - we didn't do that last year, since we wanted to go to the OLPC gathering, and I, for one, missed it.

So how does Friday evening sound? It looks like we would have the most time after the day's formal activities are over. What does everyone think?

Cheers, Vern

Jeffrey Elkner wrote: > Hi Vern and Andy, > > Just name the time and place. I'm there! > > jeff > > On Wed, 6 Feb 2008 21:45:56 -0600, Andrew Harrington <aharrin@luc.edu <mailto:aharrin@luc.edu>> wrote: >> Vern, >> Good thinking. In the past we have gotten together to talk over food and >> in a separate meeting time that does not conflict with talks. >> >> thoughts: >> lunch. lunch Friday is 90 minutes. The next two days 45 minute talks >> overlap it by 15 minutes, so it is down to 75 minutes >> Going out to dinner was fun last year. could be Friday or Saturday. >> We have met in the evening. Saturday would be good. >> >> A difference from last year is that we have Chicago easily accessible from >> the hotel! If people want to go out and see it in the evenings, and not >> meet at that time, then I suggest meeting for lunch Friday and maybe a >> pre-dinner time. Or we could all pile on the El and head to Greektown or >> .... >> >> Andy >> >> On Wed, Feb 6, 2008 at 7:58 PM, Vern Ceder <vceder@canterburyschool.org <mailto:vceder@canterburyschool.org>> >> wrote: >> >>> Hey, everyone... >>> >>> I've just put a placeholder down for us on the BoF wiki page for PyCon - >>> http://wiki.python.org/moin/Birds_of_a_Feather - I assume some of us >>> will want to get together in Chicago. The question, as always, is where >>> and when... >>> >>> Cheers, >>> Vern >>> >>> -- >>> This time for sure! >>> -Bullwinkle J. Moose >>> ----------------------------- >>> Vern Ceder, Director of Technology >>> Canterbury School, 3210 Smith Road, Ft Wayne, IN 46804 >>> vceder@canterburyschool.org <mailto:vceder@canterburyschool.org>; 260-436-0746; FAX: 260-436-5137 >>> >> >> -- >> Andrew N. Harrington >> Director of Academic Programs >> Computer Science Department >> Loyola University Chicago >> 512B Lewis Towers (office) >> Snail mail to Lewis Towers 416 >> 820 North Michigan Avenue >> Chicago, Illinois 60611 >> >> http://www.cs.luc.edu/~anh <http://www.cs.luc.edu/%7Eanh> >> Phone: 312-915-7999 >> Fax: 312-915-7998 >> gdp@cs.luc.edu <mailto:gdp@cs.luc.edu> for graduate administration >> upd@cs.luc.edu <mailto:upd@cs.luc.edu> for undergrad administration >> aharrin@luc.edu <mailto:aharrin@luc.edu> as professor >> >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Edu-sig mailing list > Edu-sig@python.org <mailto:Edu-sig@python.org> > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig

-- This time for sure! -Bullwinkle J. Moose ----------------------------- Vern Ceder, Director of Technology Canterbury School, 3210 Smith Road, Ft Wayne, IN 46804 vceder@canterburyschool.org <mailto:vceder@canterburyschool.org>; 260-436-0746; FAX: 260-436-5137

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-- Andrew N. Harrington Director of Academic Programs Computer Science Department Loyola University Chicago 512B Lewis Towers (office) Snail mail to Lewis Towers 416 820 North Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60611

http://www.cs.luc.edu/~anh <http://www.cs.luc.edu/%7Eanh> Phone: 312-915-7999 Fax: 312-915-7998 gdp@cs.luc.edu <mailto:gdp@cs.luc.edu> for graduate administration upd@cs.luc.edu <mailto:upd@cs.luc.edu> for undergrad administration aharrin@luc.edu <mailto:aharrin@luc.edu> as professor

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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-- This time for sure! -Bullwinkle J. Moose ----------------------------- Vern Ceder, Director of Technology Canterbury School, 3210 Smith Road, Ft Wayne, IN 46804 vceder@canterburyschool.org; 260-436-0746; FAX: 260-436-5137