Longer Time Lapse

784 pictures is where it stopped today.  Buffer error something something couldn't write to file... oh well.  I filled up the SD card and need to learn to redirect my outputs to the USB drive ... more Python to read about.
8 second delays on pictures
1 minute at each degree.
784*8 = 6272 seconds running
6272/60 = 104.5 minutes running and degrees turned.

Here is our yard this morning.

(done on Aug 4.  Remembered to hit publish in late Sept.)

Wagah

Season 3 Ep 1 of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown... if you haven't seen it, you are missing some of the best TV.  I'm a huge fan of Bourdain, and also awesome video editors who can mold together conversation, sounds and street noise into music.  Truly some of the best produced TV I've seen.


The reason I bring this up is
1. Watch more TV.
2. Bourdain and his Indian friend/guide stood across the boarder, about 7 km away from where I am now, pointed out the issues of the people who farm in the no-mans-land and have to cross the boarder every day. Then they joke that people want to come from Pakistan into India, but "no one is foolish enough to go the other way."




They are theoretically in the background of this photo (~minus the time differential)

That is Janet with our lovely elementary principal Sue Boyer, standing in front of the fence... I'd imagine that if we had been there a few months prior, we could have spotted Tony in the background pointing in our direction saying "Yes, no one goes that way."

There were a few tourists there.

It was hot and a Friday and not very busy on our side, there were plenty of tourists on the Indian side.  We sat down in the VIP area.  There are bleachers that you can see in the video, divided up into men's and women's areas.

It is a Cricket match, Disney, and the DMZ all in one.  Ripqa, one of our teachers who is Pakistani sweet talked her way into us getting back where we did to take pictures of all the Indian's leaving and of the border area - the 0 line as it is called.  All in all, very fun.  Also unsettling when you notice the four guys, two Pakistani, two Indian, staring each other in the face right across the line while the whole ceremony is going on.  It reminds you that it isn't the mostly friendly relationship.  After a few of these ceremonies, you'd think that they would become friends, it is all choreographed very well between the two.  Happens every night and worth the trip if you are passing through Lahore, which happens sometimes.

Coetail post 3

Bedtime and GAFE

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Jeffrey Wrensen

Here in Pakistan dinner starts around 9 or 10 and if you are lucky or rich enough to set your own work schedule, you roll in around noon.  I know I’m generalizing, but this is all information I’ve been told by my Pakistani colleagues and friends.  Some of the local teachers are a bit ostracized from their community because they go to bed at a reasonable(for a teacher) hour, and are up at 5 am.  My students are from the wealthiest Pakistani families and tend to follow their parent’s schedule.

We all know that our kids need around 10 hours as they are growing, but when you tuck in at 12 and are up at 6:30, you won’t be getting the most out of school.

Google Docs’ favorite tool of mine might be the revision history (ctrl+alt+shift+g) or File –> revision history.  It logs the time that kids are doing their work.  At first I viewed it as a great way to see who was contributing to group projects.  Then I started paying more attention to when.

As teachers we become pseudo-parents as well.  We talk about bullying, eating right, recycling and can monitor all of this on campus.  Once the bell rings, the kids are off to their own lives where it seems to be a land of little supervision and lots of time spent with the nanny.  Again, I’m generalizing, but it seems like a fair generalization to make in my current and past schools.

I have been starting most of my ESL classes by pulling up the revision history and reviewing the importance of sleep.  I’m glad that the kids are working at home and on their own, but not when it is at 11:45 pm.  I encourage them to do their work earlier (I assign almost no ESL homework – we are usually previewing their other class work as a group), and if they have to, log onto their document, type that it is late and they had other homework to do and GO TO BED!  I’m lucky enough to have a small ESL group where they aren’t using this to get out of work.  However, they aren’t going to bed.

I’m fighting a losing battle though.  Their parent’s push for them to work hard and study late beats my argument for sleep and brain development everytime.

I also have enjoyed reviewing the full revision history to talk about group-work balance and I have the facts(history) to back up the students stories of who flaked out on the group or who was up till 1 A.M. typing away.

Coetail post 2

First Math Video

Posted on September 14, 2014 by Jeffrey Wrensen

Last week the first video for HS geometry went better than I expected.  I’m quite happy that the student who was sent to do the video was more adept at using the iPad than I was and had great ideas which I will be stealing for next week.  Their math teacher’s aim is to have about three videos done per week, one for each of the different levels of math she teaches.

First off, here is a bit of what I did for my fifth grader’s last year:

It was helpful for students who transitioned from the Vietnamese side of our school into my ‘international’ class.  The biggest change was that I wanted and insisted that they show their work and put down every bit of thinking on paper.  Long Division was one of their hurdles since the ‘Vietnamese’ way that they were taught, and had used up through fourth grade involved doing as much mental math as possible and writing down work on paper was a sign of weakness.  The other was just for homework help, mostly as a way to teach parents to solve problems the way we were doing them in class and not using algebra to help their kids.

My videos were a one way push of information, helpful, but just another re-hashing of what I taught in class.  Not a bad thing, but they didn’t add much to the learning process.

Here is what was produced last week:

We started off with blurry pictures of the book and the student had the idea of writing out the problem on the whiteboard tables that I’m lucky enough to have.  Most  of the process was introduced and perfected by the student, I became simply a system of moral support.  What she added to the Apps initial appeal as a record able whiteboard were:

– Photos

– Import photos from camera roll

– Screenshots

– Use the screenshot to move onto the next step/slide.

The gap between HS math teacher and a former 5th grader teacher(me) was that I thought it was important to review the algebra part, apparently it wasn’t.  I still disagree, but us teachers need to get together and focus on where her students need the review, both the student-teachers and students who need the videos as review.

ShowMe has a pause option, but not a rewind/re-do one.  One of the perks was being able to share the video file url without involving youtube (blocked in Pakistan) or Vimeo (limited space per week until  I upgrade to a pay account).  We lost that perk as we left the video recording as we discussed how to do the next slide and worked out a few algebra problems before hand so that it would make for a smooth video.  ShowMe let me download the video, edit it in kdenlive and then host it on Vimeo.

The student had gone through the problem in class and had presented it to her class and again to her math teacher.  After she produced the video she ran back to math class and said “now that I’ve really taught it, I think i actually understand the problem and understand why we are learning this.”

My role was the ESL/ICT teacher with the iPad, and now I’ve got a high school crowd of kids who can’t wait to master their work and make their own videos.  Of course enthusiasm for the newness is part of it, and that may wane.  Time for everyone is limited so we are doing going for three a week, but this will be a nice year long experiment to see how it helps in HS math classes.

We all know that teaching is a great way to cement learning, flipped class rooms are interesting, i haven’t tried it enough to write about it, but this falls somewhere between.

This is a good COETAIL blog, check out the sub-section Learning in the Modern Classroom.  Am I just doing something flashy and fun, or am I actually enhancing student learning.  I can call on my one anecdotal piece of evidence that the student felt she had gained a better understanding of the subject.  I have a lot more work to do to see the positive effects, or to just have fun making videos.  How do we assess this?  I’m not their math teacher so I don’t get to see them in class every other day, and tests still rule the roost, so I’ll just keep stacking up the anecdotes and student comments as new ones work with me each week.

I was also reading this blog – “Lesson #1 – Plagiarism” I took out the idea of identifying what plagiarism is and thought about replacing the teacher with one of the students.  Can we plagiarize (borrow) their understanding of a topic and let them teach it.  It takes away the task of introducing material at a students level, trying to remember what it was like when something was new and trying to meet them where they are.  Can we just ‘plagiarize’ them into being the teachers?  The cited source – the student has full credit on their classes moodle and if they have signed the photo release, we will be adding a quick intro to the video with their picture and in-video credit.

I love when students take over the teaching, usually as review, but I  want to do moreLearning through Teaching.

How must of our teaching load can we pass off to our students and how much will that help them learn?  I think that is part of the reason I’m here in COETAIL.

Coetail post 1

I've finally joined a COETAIL cohort.  I'm teaching ICT and doing a bit of tech integration at school.  Right time, right place, but two blogs.  Since everything I spew out is damn near pure gold, I've decided to repost all non-assignment posts here to our own lil Wrensen blog.

Hello world!

Posted on September 9, 2014 by Jeffrey Wrensen

It recommends editing/deleting the first blog and starting anew, but for a tech group, I don’t think that there is anything more appropriate than “Hello World”.  I’ve got a personal blog as well that mixes teaching, tech and traveling.  Not pushing it for any reason other than the posts on my experiences with the Raspberry Pi that may be interesting to this group.  If your interested it is at: wrensended.blogspot.com.

I’ve taught Scratch as an after-school activity for the past two years in Hanoi and just introduced it to my 4th and 5th graders here in Lahore today.

I’m also beginning to work with HS math students who will be doing short review/re-teaching videos for their classmates.  Hopefully it will be a version of the flipped classroom and a chance for those students who struggle in class to review material.  Most importantly, I’m looking forward to the students being the teachers, reaching full understanding through explaining their work.

What I considered before student produced videos:

• Easy to record (I used to do them myself with a document camera and a piece of paper)
• iPad exploration for myself – I was given one at school (I’m prone to Android and Linux)
• A way of exporting/sharing the videos that doesn’t involve the viewer downloading an app or registering for anything.
• I’m stuck at links but would like them to be embedded in a Google Site
• Free apps

Apps that I’ve tested and liked so far: Showme and Educreations.

We start creating math-help videos tomorrow with the high-schoolers and start recording video of elementary kids goals and hopes for the year (I’m the video coach/facilitator and editor).

I think I’ll have plenty to reflect on by the end of the week.

Arduino + Raspberry Pi + servo + camera

Arduinos were one of my purchases this summer. With our free time before school starts here in Pakistan, I've ripped through the whole tutorial book and started my first project.

I've got the Raspberrypi set up to take time-lapse photos, something that I wrote about a few months ago. Now I have an Arduino kit that came with servo-motors so I can add motion to my time-lapse.

I have two separate scripts running. The Arduino language looks like Java and if there are any differences, I can't spot them. I re-wrote some of the tutorial code for the servo:

#include <Servo.h> // servo library

Servo servo1; // servo control object

void setup()

{

servo1.attach(9);

}

void loop()

{

int position;

for(position = 0; position < 180; position += 1)

{

servo1.write(position); // Move to next position

delay(10000); // Short pause to allow it to move

}

}

I don't know Java very well, so the tutorials were great. The electric circuit side of the Arduino was easy thanks to Mr. Rutherford's 7^th grade class. I've only spent an hour or two with Java, but you certainly don't need to learn it too in depth for simple projects like this.

So now I have a servo that is turning 1 degree every 10 seconds.

I adjusted my Pi's camera script to snap a picture every 10 seconds too. It is written in Python:

import os

import time

i = 0

while i <= 200:

imageNum = str(i)

os.system(“raspistill -o image%s.jpg”%(imageNum))

i += 1

time.sleep(10)

I do need to adjust the code to dump the pictures onto a usb drive...it would save me one step later, but the script is simple and works as is.

Here is the set-up.

(yup, the camera is upside-down...but it is easier to fix in post)

Yes, I am running the Pi off of a portable USB quick charger. These are marketed as phone chargers, and that is why I bought it. This little experiment shows that it has the power to run the Pi and the camera, but is probably not a great long term solution. The USB charger is also being charged... it is like a lil UPS system, which is necessary in a city where the power goes off every few hours due to 'load sharing' and the generator (we are lucky to have one) kicks in 2 minutes later.

The box is just that, an empty box. I attached the pi camera with two little screws and hooked it to the servo motor arm with a stripped twist tie.

To keep it steady, my pocket knife held it down.

Not too fancy, but I didn't have to buy or fabricate anything for the set up.

After hitting the 'upload' button once, I was able to unplug the Arduino from my computer. Every time I re-attached the battery, it started the code again (back at 0 degrees, headed for 180 over 30 minutes), I just had to start the Pi code quickly thereafter. I did that through VNC and snapped pictures of our living room. Test pictures are boring, but I want to check how it looks and how the timing is between the two scripts.

I'm also not going to post a time-lapse of a panorama of the living room while Janet and I read on the couches.

I adjusted the servo to move once a minute, aimed the whole mess out our window and ran it again. In case you were curious, but didn't want to do the math:

Servo turns 1 degree every 60000 mS so 60 seconds I believe

picture every 10 seconds = 6 at each degree.

180 degrees = 180 minutes = 3 hours of camera time.

180 degrees *6 = 1080 pictures

30 frames a second in digital videos = 36 seconds of video.

That video will be added tomorrow.  You may have caught  my bug, i <= 200

so I only got 201 pictures today:

Day 1 in Lahore...First 12 hours really.

We moved to Pakistan.

We were hired to work at Lahore American School back in December and now we are here.  We have done more in the past 12 hours than we did during the first week in Hanoi.  We were picked up early this morning (3:30am)  by our head of school and Sultan, who we have learned will be taking care of things like internet access(#1 priority) and all other settling in needs.

We arrived at our house in Swedish Flats and were greeted by Danny and Francis, who will be our house-hold staff and driver. We hired them over Skype with the help of a former principal, best decision we have made so far.

We had unpacked in an hour, set a few things out and then got our first taste of Star World programming in three weeks!  Masterchef Australia!  A nap later and Francis and Danny were back at noon to take us shopping.

It is because of their help that we are so settled in already.  We didn't need to learn anything about the city on our own, we stopped by LAS to get our id badges started, changed some money and went shopping.  El Fatid, the store, had everything and much more.  There is a lot more on offer at the stores than in Hanoi, and we were not in a store that caters to expats only like some of the specialty places in Hanoi.  We had carts full of food, cooking and kitchen supplies, towels and other things we needed.  4 guys manned the check out line and had everything bagged up with precision quickness.  We had paid for dishes upstairs earlier and everything was delivered to the car.  Yes, LAS set us up with a car.  I would have been completely confused and not trusted the system that I didn't understand. Luckily I just had to follow Francis's directions and everything went smoothly.

In many other countries stores over employee people.  This was the first time I've seen over-employment work to make everything more efficient.  

The beauty of having good staff: We are exhausted and pushing to stay awake til 9ish.  Lunch was made for us, Danny ran out to get hangers and a hamper and pin adapters, dinner is being prepared right now, so all of my old chores/duties of the house,  are no longer mine.  I get to blog and start working on a computer programming course for innovativepd.com (my film course is getting credited by HOL right now!)

So I have a few first impressions/thoughts so far.

1. Lots of mustaches, seriously, everyone has one.

2. Lots of guns (mossberg 500s, AKSUs, AK47s, MP5s, FNFALs) and with bullets which were missing in Hanoi.  Security at school is heavy, at our housing complex as well and at the money changers and on the roads.  Everyone seemed very comfortable with their guns, upholstered and looking well used.

3. Lots of big birds. I'll snap some pictures, they are everywhere.

4. Nice wide streets full of motorbikes and trees, no honking or driving against traffic so far.

5. Very long stares and friendly interactions.

TV here is great, lots of different news, Pakistani, Arabic and other things that I don't understand. Religious channels next to channels showing Lollywood (Lahore's Bollywood) music videos that are not too innocent, home shopping and cooking shows that must be live, they sure could use some editing (watched some one use a mixer for almost a minute this morning).  

Power drops out about once an hour (or every other hour) for a minute or three, that will be giving my Raspberry and hard drive set up fits.  The TV signal (cable) also drops every 30 to 84 minutes for a minute.

We were welcomed by one of our vice principals this afternoon and will head into school tomorrow with her to use the internet, and get a full tour...mostly to send home an email to let everyone know that we are fine.

I hear you " Where are all the pictures, you never type this much? "

I haven't taken any yet!  (Except these:

thanks for not understanding zippers, US gov. Employees.)

I'll rectify that soon though (the pictures, not the gov.).  I'll also be updating a lot more while we encounter all of the new things in our life.

Here is our house:

Donation for the Cause

"Can you make a donation?" Asked the office manager.

"Sure," replied an expat teacher. (Not me, I'm re-telling someone else's story from April ish 2014.

A few hours later the donation was returned.  It turns out that it was a mandatory collection of cash from all the Vietnamese staff, but expats were not supposed to be involved.

We hadn't been asked because it wasn't for a charity such as hurricane victims, it was a charity called The Vietnamese Government forgot to buy enough bullets. Not something they should have left off of the annual budget, but it confirmed all of stories of the guy's AKs and TT33s being empty.  The bullets and guns were being sent to arm the islanders who are close to the disputed Chinese oil rigs.  

If they sent the navy, it could be war, if the islanders harrass the Chinese and shoot at them, then the Vietnamese government isn't responsible.  Not a bad solution.... but really?  Donate for ammo?  I guess when your yearly budget is set, it is set.

Green Lakes

Traveling at  home...is Oregon home still?...

 

With Janet's sister Judy, her boyfriend Pete, her mom Mary and the dog, we headed up to Green Lake on the back side of south Sister.

Oregon smells like fresh pine and cleanliness.

I don't think the pictures need any explanation, enjoy the scenery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finished up the day at the Cowboy Dinner Tree.