Monday, March 25, 2013

The Final Stretch

We are walking into the final days of the school year. In the next 8 or 9 weeks we will get through SBA's, field trips, field day, and fifth grade promotion. Before any of us realize what is happening, this school year will be over.

I am currently shopping for our dissection critters. As is stands, I think dissection day will occur right after SBA's. Look for the new dissection date on Friday's newsletter.

In recent 5th Grade news, I finally got the Raspberry Pi up and running. If there are any students from last year who are still determined to see this small machine, please feel free to contact me. We can certainly figure something out. If you're wondering what the Raspberry Pi is, feel free to visit http://www.raspberrypi.org/ to get more information about this amazing device. Essentially, the Raspberry Pi is an attempt at making a cheap PC. The Raspberry Pi is a working PC which costs about $30. It is a very limited machine, and I do not claim special knowledge about how or what this PC can or should be used for. I simply find it very interesting that we are now living in a world that has internet ready computers ready for $30, no matter how limited or slow they are.

I started speaking to the students about The Raspberry Pi last year. I was never able to get the Pi going before the end of the year came. However, at Spring Break I had a friend visit who works in IT, and he was very curious about this semi-famous PC. So, he got it going. I'm very glad he did. Again, any students from the past curious about the Pi need only to contact me. My new email address is adam.berkey@juneauschools.org.

I hope everyone is doing well and I'm very sorry about my prolonged absence from the blog. It's been a very busy year this year.

Take Care Out There -

Adam Berkey