[CLUE-Talk] Can someone teach a Linux Class

Fri Oct 31 06:10:29 MST 2003

>
> Could you tell us a little more:
>
>     -- how many students and what would their background be;
>     -- how many computers for them;
>     -- any specific course objectives, are they mandated by any
> curriculum or are we free to make our own;
>     -- does the teacher need any special qualifications, such as
> certification by the state;
>     -- where is the class to take place;
>     -- I am assuming a 16 week semester.
>
> Can we get a POC phone number?
>

The elective would be on Mondays from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Additionally, the
principal mentioned wanting to put together an after school
computer/technology program that is a continuation of this that would be
paid (through the student fees). The school calendar says that the last day
of school is the 10th of June, but I'm not sure how long the elective would
last. It MAY end up to two weeks prior to the end of school because the kids
do portfolios and the end of school is really intense with kids working on
finalizing the pieces that go in their portfolios. Last year we set up an
extra lab just to alleviate the crush for computers.

There is no requirement for a teaching certificate, but a knowledge of the
content and I would say probably a kind of passion for bringing technology
to kids. There is a process for a background check by the state for anyone
who works with students, I think this even includes folks who volunteer with
kids.

There is no curriculum  -- that would have to be developed by the person
teaching. There are 24 computers in the lab and we are running K12LTSP on
two servers on our network, one that serves only the lab, and one that
serves the rest of the building (the version we are currently using is based
on Redhat9). (See, www.ltsp.org and www.k12ltsp.org ) Some of the machines
in our lab are capable of running Knoppix and sometimes we use that for
certain things. Hopefully by next semester, all of them will be capable of
running Knoppix.

There are some limitations due to the ltsp set up in the lab-- i.e., when 24
kids are playing games, things can get pretty slow, and some kids lock up.
So I'm sure there are other types of programs that would place similar
demands on the server (and network traffic) that might bog things down.
Hence the Knoppix solution.

Anything open source is fair game as far as ideas. If the program is not
currently on the server, I'm sure we can install it as long as it is open
source. Programming, graphics, hardware and networking, web design -- how
about robotics? If this ended up with a hardware component, we have enough
decent equipment that could be taken apart and put back together for maybe
15 kids. I suggested that we limit the enrollment to 10-15, but that is
certainly something we could talk about. The kids have this block of time on
Mondays and I think everyone is doing electives at this time.

What should the topic be? Ideas run rampant -- but I always first ask, what
are the possibilities? Programming, linux fundamentals, graphics -- movies?
The kids are fascinated with digital cameras and the movie camera.

Capabilities of the kids? I don't really know what to say about that. Since
this is an elective, only kids who were interested would take it, but the
school director did say he hoped some of the girls would get interested.
Anyone seriously interested I could put in touch with Mike (former Sun
employee who taught the summer linux installfest I mentioned in the first
post) for a little further discussion in this area. He spent a year student
teaching math in our school last year in a program that brings folks to
teaching from other professions. He is teaching math somewhere this year in
a school in another district.

As far as RMSEL goes, it is an Expeditionary Learning, Outward Bound School.

http://www.outwardbound.com/explearning.html

http://www.elob.org/

The entire school is about 300 kids, K-12. (You haven't lived until you see
an entire classroom of kindergartners heading off to the bus stop with their
camping backpacks and tents heading to the RTD stop heading to set up camp
at Cherry Creek Reservoir!) I'm not sure of the exact numbers of the school
(demographics, etc.), but I bet you could find them on the Colo. Dept. of
Education site in the school accountability report section -- I think they
score very well on the CSAP in comparison with other schools -- this school
is a collaboration that occurred prior to charter schools among Denver,
Douglas, Littleton, and Cherry Creek School Districts. Kids come from all
over attend this school, there is no transportation provided, so the
families have to drive and carpool to get there. I have heard it described
as a "break the mold" school. I think there is a waiting list to get in.

The point of contact for this would be Jon Mann, Director, jmann at rmsel.org,
phone: (303) 759-2076 (follow the prompts to be transferred to this
extension.)Our school is located at 1700 S. Holly in Denver, not far from
Evans and I -25. Just tell him you are CLUE member and heard about the
elective from the email list. The fax number is on the "web site" if you
want to fax a letter and resume. (www.rmsel.org -- not much of a website,
but we have our own web and mail server and it basically serves as a place
to get email, the real website will be up soon.)

Hope this wasn't too much information!

Rita Gibson

----- Original Message -----
From: "BOF" <bof at pcisys.net>
To: <clue-talk at clue.denver.co.us>
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2003 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: [CLUE-Talk] Can someone teach a Linux Class

> Rita Gibson wrote:
>
> >The principal of the school where I work/volunteer as network
administrator
> >is wondering if there is anyone in the LUG willing to teach a middle
> >school/high school elective next semester on Mondays from 8:30 to 10:00
a.m
> >
>
> Could you tell us a little more:
>
>     -- how many students and what would their background be;
>     -- how many computers for them;
>     -- any specific course objectives, are they mandated by any
> curriculum or are we free to make our own;
>     -- does the teacher need any special qualifications, such as
> certification by the state;
>     -- where is the class to take place;
>     -- I am assuming a 16 week semester.
>
> Can we get a POC phone number?
>
> Thanx.
>
> BOF
>
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