Yesterday we started on a 12 day adventure. From Niagara Falls, Ont to Albany, mostly along the Erie Canal Tow path all by bike. A little more ambitious than our four day excursion outside of Pittsburgh last year. Bright and early we set out -- at Penn Station by 6:00am. That's where we had our first scare -- the Amtrak agent said we couldn't bring out bikes. Amtrak policy say's otherwise (folding bikes that fold to within a certain size are allowed at any time according to their on line regulations.

 Been a while since my last post but summer's coming so I think I'll have more time and energy. For today, a break from CS and Education issues and something on one of my other passions, bicycling. Having not gone on a substantial ride for a while, yesterday, we decided to do a modified circumnavigation of NYC. Starting from home, we rode east over to first avenue. From there North.

I made chapati the other day. Based on a couple of recipe requests and the fact that this blog has been dormant for a while, I thought I'd post the recipe here.  To start -- Chapati is an Indian flatbread. I guess what I made is technically Pulka but it's really easy to make and quite tasty. Ingredients: 2 cups whole wheat flour1 cup water1 tsp saltMix all the ingredients together to form a dough.

Sorting from the top and from the bottom I've been meaning to write this post for a couple of weeks, but some times life just gets in the way. I've always thought it important to arm students with as many different tools with which to attack problems as possible. As such, the courses I teach use a number of different languages, each highlighting a different paradigm and thought process.

Just a short follow up on the last post. In thinking about how I frequently programs, once I have a plan, I work on one part of the project, and then ask myself "what's next?" That is, what is the next step towards completion. It reminded me about a guest speaker we had a about a year and a half ago at one of our "professional development" days. For the past two years, our school has had "

One evening, many years ago, when I was in college, I had an epiphany. Maybe not as enlightening as the epiphany I had while watching "The Mummy Returns"  many years later, but that's a story for another day. While working on some class project, I realized that soon, within a couple of  years, I'd be working for a real company and I'd actually have to write code that REALLY works.

Starting the new semester tomorrow and I've got a whole bunch of interesting topics to blog about. Some about pedagogy, some technical, and some that I can't really catagorize. For now, though, just a brief follow up on using Subversion for homework collection. The basic model used in New York City for teacher improvement and evaluation is the official "observation." Either your supervisor or the principal sits in on one of your classes.

Ok, not subversion, rather subversion, the version control system. I've used subversion as a way for students to hand in their projects for years. I haven't used it with my intro classes as I think the learning curve is a little steep and the benefits few, but for A.P. and beyond (juniors and seniors) it's worked very well as a method of collection and I think it's good to get the kids in the habit of using versioning systems.

That's me with my trusty Bike Friday New World Tourist. Love the bike. Love riding. It's the fastest, most pleasant way to get around the city. My commute by bike, door to door is 12 minutes. Subway is 20 - 25. Walking about 45. One certainly can't let winter weather get in the way. I've got the body covered with my Assos Fugu jacket. With just a cheap long sleeve duofold shirt it's great to about 16 degrees.

Closed out last week teaching the Towers of Hanoi. It's a wonderful topic. Not because it's so interesting in and of itself, but as a platform from which you can explore any number of interesting topics. Many books appropriate for the AP (AB) curriculum mention the towers, but to my knowledge most only scratch the surface. I randomly grabbed two books that I consider good from the shelf before writing this.