Python for Teachers

Portland is at the cutting edge when it comes to pioneering a world class 21st century education for its students. "The Silicon Forest":http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2009/03/pps-has-friends-in-silicon-forest.html is stepping up to the plate. Python plays a role in the action.

Starting with West Precinct, Hillsboro Police Department, "Saturday Academy":http://www.saturda... has been teaching FOSS concepts (free and open source software), later morphing into a more mainstream form of "Pythonic Math". Winterhaven (Portland Public, a "geek hogwarts") has also gotten in on the "pilot studies":http://www.4dsolutions.net/ocn/winterhaven/

Kirby Urner, former math teacher and consultant to McGraw-Hill, veteran of OSCON, EuroPython and Pycon circuits, will give you the inside story on all of the above, having been an active player in helping Portland remain a "FOSS capital" ("Christian Science Monitor, 2005":http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1128/p03s02-ussc.html). Kirby is a curriculum writer for "4D Solutions":http://www.4dsol..., also CMO for a FOSS project involving "coffee shops":http://coffeeshopsne.... He is also "an IEEE member":http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2008/11/ieee-presentation.html and past web wrangler for the Buckminster Fuller Institute ("BFI.org":http://www.bfi.org).

Bring your laptop with Python installed and follow along as we go through examples from a 21st century high school mathematics curriculum, such as we're currently prototyping and implementing in niche markets.