Week of April 15

This week may be the last "normal" week of school.  We do have a Late Start on Thursday, the last one for the month of April.  The next one will be May 2.  However, juniors will be taking the last TAKS test next week (April 22 - 25).  Everyone besides juniors is expected to continue with classes normally.  In the early weeks of May, many students will be involved in more STAAR testing and AP testing.

I don't expect to have any videos this week.  Everyone should be completed with the first state machine problem, and we will start the summative project this week.  You will create a state machine to operate a toll booth gate, so this will combine the logic of the state machine with hardware operation.  The combination will prove a difficult challenge, but one that can be conquered through the problem solving that we have practiced all year long.  I expect we will be working on this problem in to next week.  However, remember that the juniors in the class will miss all except for Friday next week with their final TAKS.

If you are attending the Dell Social Media field trip this Friday, be sure that you get the forms turned in first thing Monday and sign up on the form so that I have your contact and id information that is needed. 

Week of April 8

Now that STAAR testing is over, we can get back to some sort of normal - at least for a while.  Expect more changes in scheduling for the last week of this month for TAKS testing.  There is a Late Start this Thursday, but that is the only anomaly.  All of the other days should be regular schedules.

Now that the final six weeks is upon us, it is more important than ever to keep on top of your work.  There will be less time than ever before to make up assignments with the last day of school now on the horizon.  This six weeks is really made up of seven weeks plus the final exam week, that happens after Labor Day.

This is Mr. Peterson's last week with us.  Make sure to say good bye to him before Friday.  He has done a great job with the classes, and his future students will be very lucky to have him.

I am altering some of the format of this web page slightly.  Notice that I have added another tab at the top, called "Internships, Work, and Summer Camps".  I had been putting that on the scholarship tab, but these didn't seem to fit.  Besides, I am getting enough of them that they deserved their own page.  If you haven't yet, check out both tabs. I will post scholarship and other free money (contests) information that gets sent to me on that page.  Hopefully, you will get some free money to help with college or, in some cases, just for doing a good job on a given project!  The new tab will host all of the information about summer jobs, internships (some paid/some not), and summer camps that should appeal to high school engineering students.  On both pages, I provide links for more information as well as applications.

If you are interested in the Dell Social Media trip on Friday April 19, be sure to sign up on this form and complete these forms (completely - all teachers must sign) by this coming Friday.  We can only take 40 students, max.  You must be passing all of your classes and caught up in your work in order to attend.

This is the first week of the last six weeks.  The year will be over soon, but it is not finished yet.  We still have work to do before the EOC exam for engineering, which is required of all students.  Look for 5th six weeks report cards to come home on Wednesday or Thursday.

Finally (before I talk about class this week), I have created a new site for our newest class, Aerospace Engineering.  We will be offering that class next fall, and I am excited about every aspect of it.  There isn't much to talk about right now, but as the class starts to take shape over the summer, I will update the page with new developments.

Week of April 1

This is the last week of the six weeks, so you need to make sure that all of your work is complete.  If not, we will be here for tutorials every afternoon and morning this week.  There are no duties or meetings this week.  Only one more six weeks to go, then, after this.  Make sure that you have finished all of the other assignments and that I saw your circuit operating.

There is no late start or WOW, but that doesn't mean that the schedule is normal all week. Freshmen will be taking the STAAR test on Monday & Tuesday while sophomores will be taking it on Wednesday and Thursday.  The rest of the school will follow a normal schedule.  DE will have the Now Serving Display Project to culminate our study of synchronous counters.  There is no video for this, so I will explain how you are to create the project at the start of class on Tuesday.  I will put up a video for the next lesson that will start next week over State Machines.

From here on out, class attendance will be spotty with STAAR tests, TAKS testing (last year of it!), and AP exams.  If you are going to miss, let me know as soon as possible so that we can minimize the effect of your absence.

I will grade journals this week.  I've already graded the conclusion questions for the last 4 assignments, but you should make sure to have the pages signed, dated, and numbered, table of contents up to date, and include any notes that you made while you were designing your circuits.