Book for gifted 12 year old.

[Kim Rose]

Hi, again, Chris -

Well, BJ (Conn) may kill me for announcing this, but I believe she 
may have already said so...she and I are working hard on such a book! 
(Together, with Alan, we've developed and tested over a 2 1/2 year 
period with BJ's students, a year's curriclum.)  But, the book is not 
complete yet.  We're hard at work and aiming at having it available 
next Spring -- since BJ goes "back to school" in just a couple weeks, 
our working time will minimize, but we've given ourselves a forcing 
function/deadline and plan to have the book available by early Spring.

It will be geared toward students ages 10-12 or 13 and their teachers 
and parents.  We will have over a dozen project examples and also 
show the underlying math and science concepts each amplifies.

We *know* there is a need for such a thing...AND MORE too!  We want 
our book to be the *first* (or one) of many.  We hope others using 
Squeak will be inspired to share their examples, ideas and usage -- 
that other teachers choosing to integrate Squeak into their curricula 
will share how they've done so.

Remember HyperCard?  People were very puzzled as to what it was and 
how to use it.  It wasn't until teachers and other interested 
"programmers" created and published examples of content produced in 
HyperCard that it really 'caught on' and the market grew.

So, please -- an appeal to others of you creating interesting 
Squeak-based projects - let us know who you are -- we'd be delighted 
to post your examples on the Squeakland site, or point to your 
site(s) AND market/disseminate other project books/examples. Our book 
is going to take a little more time.

Thanks for your purchase of the "Blue" Squeak Book -- I recommend 
"Back to the Future" for some history, John Maloney's chapter on 
"Morphic" and John Steinmetz's chapter on Squeak in the classroom.

cheers,
Kim


>Kim Rose wrote:
>>Hi, Christopher -
>>Is she using the 'etoy' /programming with tiles interface or other 
>>interface in Squeak?
>>Kim
>
>Oh yes, and enjoying it greatly! And since I showed her the button 
>in the square at the top of the scripting panel, she clicks in there 
>after almost operation with a tile to see what the computer has put 
>into her script!
>
>Out of the run-of-the-mill mold, this child is not!
>
>What I'm really looking for is a book / paper / www site which 
>explains how to use the various browsers, and yet is written in such 
>a way that it neither assumes that you have already had years of 
>experience with computers, nor are a rather dim 6 or 7 year old.
>
>I know that such a book is probably not available, because I spent 
>most of yesterday afternoon on Amazon.com looking for something 
>which might be appropriate, but was disappointed. It would seem that 
>there might be niche waiting to be filled.
>
>I did however order a copy of your book for myself, I look forward 
>to reading it.
>
>--
>Sincerely etc.
>Christopher Sawtell.
>
>>>Greetings List,
>>>
>>>   I need some guiding about a book title for a very talented girl 
>>>of about 12 who is getting into squeak _very_ fast.
>>>
>>>Is there anything out there - on paper or otherwise - which is 
>>>between the "How to make a halo appear" type of tutorial and the 
>>>complex utterances from the real cognoscenti?
>>>
>>>Tnx a 10^6.
>>>
>>>--
>>>Sincerely etc.,
>>>Christopher Sawtell.


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