End of Quarter Report, Quarter 3

End of Quarter Report for Computer Applications

March 2015

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Read through your previous BLogs before completing the report.

End of  Quarter march 2015	Please answer the questions fully in the spaces below.
Name	Ruben Chocron
Module	CodingBat
Has the atmosphere in the class changed since the first half of the quarter? How has it changed?	I don't believe so. The atmosphere has always been good in the class - and everbody does what he is supposed to do. I think that the people that were new at the beginning of the semester now are more comfortable in the class.
How have your experiences been different in the second half of the quarter? Are you more or less satisfied with your progress? Are you doing more of less work out of class?	I am more and more satisfied as I go along with the class. This is because I know that I am making progress. Each time I get a problem all correct on the first or second try, I am in a state of ecstasy. It makes me so happy to know I am making progress. I am doing about the same amount of work outside of class as always. When I miss class, I simply make that up at home.
What advice can you give to students who are about to start on the module that you are just finishing? What can you say that would help them have a more effective learning experience?	I would tell them: "This is great practice to really expand your knowledge of Java. There are going to be times where you get frustrated, and very very confused about the problem you are solving. There are two solutions to this - the first one is to get a second pair of eyes on the problem (Mr. Daly is always there to help) or to erase everything and recode it from the beginning. These two things above help greatly when stuck on a problem."
What will you have achieved by the end of the module? What will you have learned? What projects will you have completed?	By the end of my module, I will hopefully have finished Level 2 of codingBat. I will have finished string and array 2, and will be at an acceptable level for the AP next year. If I finish, early, I will move on to other things like Logic.  I will have greatly expanded my knowledge of Java code, including the logic to solve problems.
What have you learned about yourself as an independent learner? Do you make goals that focus your learning? What do you do to make sure you reach those goals.	I do make goals for myself. Something that I have done this past quarter is come into class, and telling myself exactly how many problems I will do at least today. Most of the time, I achieve that goal. However sometimes, the problems turn out to be harder than expected so I don't reach the goal. I make sure to plan my time wisely, to complete however many I need to for the day.
Imagine that you want to employ a person with the kind of skills that you have acquired this quarter.  Write one paragraph describing the skills that you (as the employer) are looking for. Start the paragraph like this.. Our company is looking for someone who…..	Our company is looking for someone who has a solid base of Java coding. Somebody who has a bit of experience coding, and will be able to work on simple problems. We are looking for a person who will persevere when they come across a tough problem, and won't stop until he has figured it out.
Have you contributed in any ways to the other members of this learning community?	I've helped Preston out a few times. He is also doing CodingBat, and he is behind me, so all of the problems that he is doing, I have already done. So, I am able to help him if he asks me and have in the past.
What module would you like to take in the second quarter? Please explain your choice.	I would like to continue with CodingBat. I want to finish level 2 at least. After that, I might try to learn Objective C, because after May's presentation, it seemed interesting to me. It all depends on how much time I spend on finishing CodingBat level 2.
Your teacher will be entering a grade-in-progress in PowerSchool for end-of-quarter (mid-semester). He will be considering your performance in terms of the assessment guidelines. At this stage he will be asking about the extent to which the statements below apply to your performance in the course.	Highlight the word(s) that you think describes your performance. Look at the statements in the left column. Comment on your performance in each area. Use the questions as guidelines.
Typically this student makes effective use of class time by increasing his/her competence and confidence using software that he/she has chosen. Are you using your time effectively? Are you learning each time you come to class? Are you becoming more competent and confident?	inadequate adequate good outstanding I always use my time wisely and effectively. Whenever I come in to class, I get straight to work and always complete many problems. I learn more and more every single problem I do and am becoming very confident with Strings and Arrays.
He/she attends all class sessions, coming and leaving on time, making sure to make up missing time by working during free periods or at home. Have you missed class this quarter? How many times? What have you done to make up lost time?	inadequate adequate good outstanding I have missed class 1 time this semester. I was in Paris, and to make up the work, I did some CodingBat problems in the airport on the way back.
His/her oral communication during class is focused on the learning tasks that he/she is engaged in. Are your conversations in class focused on your learning tasks? Are you easily distracted? Do you gossip?	inadequate adequate good outstanding I rarely ever talk in class. When I do, it is to Mr. Daly to ask him how to solve this or that, or I talk to Tommy to show him something that I've just finished or vice versa.
His/her written communication (logs, e-mails, and reports) are done according to deadlines and contain enough information for the teacher to understand what he/she is doing, what kinds of problems he/she is facing and how he/she feels about his/her learning experiences. Are you consistently doing your blogs? How does your BLog keeping compare to the first half of the quarter? Are you providing more details of your learning? Do you take care to express yourself clearly and use conventional grammar and spelling? Do you use visual elements in your blogs to illustrate your work? If someone, who did not know you, read your blog, would you be satisfied that this person had a good sense of who you are as a learner/problem solver/technology user?	inadequate adequate good outstanding I do my blogs for every class. However, it does happen that I forget to do the blog the day of class. This has happened 2-3 times this semester. One of those times however, I traveled to the airport right after school and did not have time to do the blog, and then I forgot. Besides those instances, I regularly write thorough blogs that always explain what I am up to and my roadblocks. I am writing the same level as the first quarter. Yes, I always put pictures or a piece of code in my blog. If someone was to see my blog, they would see what I am working on and see the problems that I come across and solve through persevering.
During class he/she remains focused on the task at hand and generally respects the integrity of the learning environment for all students. Do you stay on task throughout the block? Do you effectively resist temptations to use the computer for unrelated activities (other homework, e-mail, facebook, youtube, sports results, music etc.)? Do you resist temptations to take unnecessary breaks, arrive late, leave early?	inadequate adequate good outstanding I am always on task throughout the block. It is hard at times to resist getting distracted - and I won't lie - at times I do. It is very hard to be seated for 80 minutes straight without taking even a little break from the work.
He/she has positive attitudes towards acquiring technology skills, and makes a conscious effort to acquire new skills and apply them in meaningful ways. Have you found ways to apply your skills beyond classroom exercises?	inadequate adequate good outstanding I am happy to learn new coding skills every day. So far, I haven't really used them in anything else besides helping others who need help with Java, but hopefully soon I will do a project.
He/she is an independent learner, who tries to solve problems by himself/herself, but finds effective ways to overcome problems using a variety of other resources. Have your become more independent as a learner? What resources are you using to learn effectively?	inadequate adequate good outstanding Whenever I stumble along a more difficult problem, I try to solve it by myself. At times, I manage to figure it out. However, other times I find myself needing to ask Mr. Daly for help. But before going to him, I try everything I can to solve that problem.
He/she is respectful of all members of this learning community and his/her behavior is in compliance with all school policies, in particular the AUP (Appropriate Use Policy) and Academic Honesty Policy. Are you respectful, appropriate, honest?	inadequate adequate good outstanding I always respect all my other classmates. I never bother them while they are working and allow for a nice environment to be in the classroom. I respect everybody in the classroom.
Your grade will take into account your performance in the above areas and also..  The amount of documented learning time that you have spent in and out of class. The amount and/or depth of material that you have covered
If full attendance, coming on time, being on-task, and leaving on time (not including any work outside class) represents 100%. Estimate what time percentage have you put into this class? (take into account any documented work that you did in school outside class time, or at home)	I would say that I have put about 95% time into this class. I work in class, and when I miss class I assume my responsibility that I need to make up that work. I spend also time on blogs and reports such as these.
To what extent will you have completed your module by the end of the quarter? How far did you get? What chapters did you cover? What projects have been completed?	I have completed what I wanted to have completed this quarter. I finished level 1, and moved on and finished Array 2 ( except 1 problem). I am pleased with my progress and by the end of next quarter will have finished level 2 completely.
Review one of the presentations from another student.	Tommy's presentation was about his website and how throughout the quarter he practiced coding HTML and CSS. He has his website, through a domain on Eytan Schulman's website. His site has information about him, his computer apps journey, a link to his facebook and what he recently added, some games. Those games were Hangman and Tic Tac Toe. I think what Tommy is doing is rather interesting and he should be happy with what he has accomplished. His website is really coming along nicely, and if he continues to code a lot he could do great things.
How effective, do you feel, was your presentation in informing and engaging your audience? What would you do next time to improve the presentation.	I feel that my presentation gave the audience an idea of CodingBat. However, I still believe that all my classmates thinks it's boring. I don't think one can know whether or not they like my module without really trying it. Next quarter, I will give everyone one problem to do so they get a more actual taste of what it is.
What was your last grade-in-progress (see PowerSchool) To what extent does this grade reflect your overall performance A - (95) - Outstanding B - (85) - Good (the descriptions above apply to me) C -(75) - Adequate D - (65) Inadequate	My last grade in progress was 88. I think that this is a bit underneath what I should get. I have worked very hard throughout the semester and done very repetitive things - which after a while makes it even harder to work with. I have achieved a lot and did many problems in the level 2, which is more complicated for me than ever before. I have worked very very hard all throughout the quarter.
This is an appropriate course for this student and the performance of the student is such that it can be said that the student is meeting the standards well. His/her work, on the whole, is good. How would you rate your overall performance during the quarter? Please explain.	inadequate adequate good outstanding This course is great for me. It allows me to set my own goals, and achieve them on my own schedule. I can freely choose what I want to work on, and there is not a load of pressure on my shoulder to motivate me to work. In this course, I work hard because I want to - and because it pleases me too. That is what I like about it. I don't need pressure to motivate me in this course - I motivate myself. I would rate myself highly for my performance this quarter. I really stepped up the level at which I was working and was introduced to countless new concepts and ways of logical Java thinking. I worked hard and achieved many things throughout the quarter - but most importantly, I learned so much.
What could you do to improve your performance in the second quarter?	I could work on getting less distracted during class and try to focus all of the 80 minutes instead of taking a five minute break.
Is there any other information that you would like to provide your teacher to help decide on your grade-in-progress for the quarter?

Tuesday, March 24th

Today was a special class. We had all of the presentations.

First of all, was Tomas. Tomas's presentation was by far the most interesting presentation that there was. In my opinion, what he is doing is the most interesting and the most different out of all of our modules. I learned that he modified games. I did not know exactly what he did until today, and I found it interesting. Although I personally don't take interest in it, I feel like he really is doing something that he enjoys and makes him happy, and uses that in class to get his work done. I was very impressed with his presentation.

Next up, we had Matan. Matan didn't do anything that was new for me. He worked on HTML and JavaScript on CodeAcademy. It was what many people had done before, including Tommy and Yesinn last semester. His choice game was quite interesting, though. But besides that, it was nothing special.

Tommy's presentation was also nice to watch. I got to see how much progress he did on his website. At the end of the second quarter, he presented to us his website. This quarter, he showed us how he had improved his website: by adding all sorts of games. He added Tic Tac Toe and Hangman. The layout of his website still looked very good, like last semester.

And finally, my presentation. I think I presented well. I believe that the class got a good idea of what CodingBat was. Even before my presentation, though, over half the class knew what CodingBat was and how to use it. It was only new to a few people that came this semester. I told the class that I highly recommended CodingBat to really get that logic down in your head, and to progress in Java/ Python coding. Mr. Daly also helped me explain to the class what CodingBat was.

It's been a fun third quarter. I definitely will finish Array 2 in the very near future. And after that, on to String 2 !

Friday, March 20th

Today was a very good class. My original aim was to finish Array 2 in that class, so that I would be able to say I finished it for my presentation on Tuesday. But, CodingBat didn't want me to finish and they made the last 6 or so problems much much harder than all of the other ones. What I mean by this is that they gave us problems in which you have to use almost everything you've learned in your answer. Flagging, boolean expressions, and loops. And so for me, it takes a while longer to complete since I still need a bit of practice to really master the logic. I should finish very quickly though, and move on to String 2 as soon as I can.

On Tuesday, I will be giving my quarter presentation. I always feel as if the presentation makes it seem like I did nothing throughout the quarter, and that also it gets repetitive for people who have been in the class since last semester.  I explain what CodingBat is, and how I use it, and relate it to the AP - but it's all been heard before by some of the people in our class. And also, it is quick to explain - and I feel like it doesn't really represent the work and the logic that needs to be used to solve these problems.
But, I will still try my best to explain it as well as possible, so that my classmates get a more thorough idea of what CodingBat is.

Here is today's rather complicated problem:

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We'll say that an element in an array is "alone" if there are values before and after it, and those values are different from it. Return a version of the given array where every instance of the given value which is alone is replaced by whichever value to its left or right is larger. 

notAlone({1, 2, 3}, 2) → {1, 3, 3}
notAlone({1, 2, 3, 2, 5, 2}, 2) → {1, 3, 3, 5, 5, 2}
notAlone({3, 4}, 3) → {3, 4}

Looking forward to presenting next class and listening to what others have been working on.

Wednesday, March 18th

Normal class in the morning today.

I don't really have anything special to say, to be honest. I got straight to work on Array problems, and worked on those the whole class. I finished enough to say that I now have finished 2/3 of Array 2. I will be presenting on Tuesday, so I hope to finish Array 2 on Friday.

The problem for today:

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Return an array that is "left shifted" by one -- so {6, 2, 5, 3} returns {2, 5, 3, 6}. You may modify and return the given array, or return a new array.  shiftLeft({6, 2, 5, 3}) → {2, 5, 3, 6} shiftLeft({1, 2}) → {2, 1} shiftLeft({1}) → {1}

Hoping to finish Array 2 next class.

Wednesday, March 11th and Monday, March 16th

Wednesday, March 11th

Today was a regular class. It was the last class before I left to Paris. I worked as usual, but towards the second half of class ( as usual), I was getting frustrated because I wasn't able to solve many problems. Nevertheless, I kept working; but something different this time. I did some String 2 problems. Very simple ones, but still problems that needed to be solved. So I worked on those problems for a bit.

But on the topic of Array 2, I do get very frustrated sometimes and lose my patience. The problems are getting harder and harder, but Mr. Daly reminded me that this is about the AP level, so I should be OK if I keep practicing. Also, I will be taking the AP Computer Science course next year.

String 2 problem for today:
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Return true if the string "cat" and "dog" appear the same number of times in the given string. 

catDog("catdog") → true
catDog("catcat") → false
catDog("1cat1cadodog") → true





public boolean catDog(String str) {
  
  int sumcat =0;
  int sumdog =0;
// create sums for each word
  
  for (int i=0;i<str.length()-2;i++)
  {
   if (str.substring(i,i+3).equals("cat"))
   {
    sumcat=sumcat+1;
// if there is the word "cat" in the string, then add 1 to the cat sum.
   }
   
   if (str.substring(i,i+3).equals("dog"))
   {
    sumdog=sumdog+1;
// if there is the word "dog" in the string, then add 1 to the dog sum.
   }

  }

  if (sumcat == sumdog)
  {
   return true;
// if there is the word "dog" as many times as the word "cat" in the string, then return true.
  }
  
  
  return false;
if there is not the same amount of "dog" and "cat", then return false.

}


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Monday, March 16th

I wasn't in school today, so I wasn't in class. I was still in Paris. However, that didn't mean I didn't work. I did an Array 2 problem. I didn't have much time, so I did what I could. 

Here it is:

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Return true if the array contains, somewhere, three increasing adjacent numbers like .... 4, 5, 6, ... or 23, 24, 25. tripleUp({1, 4, 5, 6, 2}) → true tripleUp({1, 2, 3}) → true tripleUp({1, 2, 4}) → false

public boolean tripleUp(int[] nums) {

  

  for (int i=0;i<nums.length-2;i++)

  {

   if (nums[i+1]==nums[i]+1 && nums[i+2]==nums[i+1]+1)

   {

     return true;

// if there are 3 increasing numbers that come one after the other, return true. 

   }

  

  }

  return false;

// if there are not 3 increasing numbers, or they are not all one after the other, then return false.

}

Coming back to class first thing tomorrow in the morning. Excited !

Monday, March 9th

Regular class today. It was our first class out of two this week; we won't be having class Friday as it is parent teacher conferences.

As I said last time, I advanced on a lot of problems but didn't complete that many of them. Today, what I tried to work on a lot was completing those problems. Mr. Daly helped me with three of them. For a lot of them, it was just small, simple things missing. Other times, it was the logic that I needed to rethink - I need to start sometimes to think of flagging, and solving problems with that. There was one problem however, that is called haveThree, which I was very confused about. I solved it, and all of the tests were correct, except the bottom one which says other test. This usually only happens when whoever codes writes lines of code that are created especially and only for the tests and not to solve the actual problem; but that is not what I did. So I am confused as to what I did wrong and I have no clue what I can fix now.

For good new, however, I am now more than halfway complete with Array 2.
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Here is today's problem, one that I did on my own:

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Given an array of ints, return true if the array contains either 3 even or 3 odd values all next to each other. 

modThree({2, 1, 3, 5}) → true
modThree({2, 1, 2, 5}) → false
modThree({2, 4, 2, 5}) → true

public boolean modThree(int[] nums) {

  

  for (int i=0;i<nums.length-2;i++)

// since we need to look 2 places further of each integer, stop 2 before the end so that it does 

// not become out of bounds.

  {

  

  if (!(nums[i]%2==0) && !(nums[i+1]%2==0) && !(nums[i+2]%2==0))

  {

    return true;

// an odd number will not return 0 as a remainder when divided by two. if the percent mod by 2 //of a number isn't 0 then it is an odd number. if that number and the next two numbers are //odd, then return true.

  }

  

  if ((nums[i]%2==0) && (nums[i+1]%2==0) && (nums[i+2]%2==0))

  {

    return true;

// an even number will return 0 as a remainder when it it divided by two. if a number is even, 

// and the following two digits are also even, then return true.

  }

  

  }

  

  return false;

// if none of the above conditions are true, then return false.

}

Next class, I will continue with Array 2. The problems are getting harder and harder as we approach the end, but I'm sure I can do it. I will also solve those problems that I haven't finished completely yet.

Thursday, March 5th

I went up to the Genius Bar with Tommy today. No customers.

Apart from that, it was a regular class. I felt like today I got a lot done, yet did not complete a lot of problems. Since I was in the library, I didn't want to go all the way downstairs to see Mr. Daly every single time I had a problem. So I worked a lot, but only completed about four problems. All the other problems were almost completely solved - there were just a few outcomes and few glitches in the code that I wasn't able to fix, so I couldn't finish the entire problem. But I am sure that next class I will go over these small problems with Mr. Daly.
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Here is today's problem:


Given an array of ints, return true if the array contains two 7's next to each other, or there are two 7's separated by one element, such as with {7, 1, 7}. 

has77({1, 7, 7}) → true
has77({1, 7, 1, 7}) → true
has77({1, 7, 1, 1, 7}) → false

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public boolean has77(int[] nums) {
  
  
  
  for (int i=0;i<nums.length-2;i++)
// we want the loop to check until nums.length-2, because we need check for two digits up until the last digit.
  {
   if (nums.length<2)
   {
    return false;
// if the string is less than length 2, then there can't possibly be two 7s.
   }
   
   if (nums[nums.length-2] == 7 && nums[nums.length-1]==7)
   {
     return true;
//if the last two digits are 7, then return true.
   }
   
   if (nums[i]==7 && nums[i+1]==7)
   {
     return true;
// if one number is 7, and the number next to it is 7, then return true;
   }
  
   if (nums[i]==7 && nums[i+2]==7)
   {
     return true;
// if a number is 7, and the number 2 spaces after it is also 7, then return true.
   }
   
  }
  
  return false;
// if none of the above conditions are true, then return false.

}
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Next class, moving forward with Array 2.

Tuesday, March 3rd

Regular class today. Came in and got straight to work.

Unlike last class, I didn't have a streak of easy problems - in fact, I had a streak of harder problems. CodingBat is like that - sometimes you can have 4 or 5 easy problems, and after that you can have 4 or 5 that are much harder.

I got 2 problems that were quite similar - which required me to check the values of two adjacent numbers. I didn't know how to that at first, so I couldn't solve the problem. Mr. Daly taught me that simply you say the value of [i] and then the value of [i+1]. Like this:

if (nums[i]==2 && nums[i+1]==2)

Here is one of the problems I did today, that included the two adjacent values:

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Given an array of ints, return true if the array contains a 2 next to a 2 or a 4 next to a 4, but not both. 


public boolean either24(int[] nums) {
  
  boolean two = false;
  boolean four = false;
// create two boolean values for a 2 next to a 2 and a 4 next to a 4.
  
  for (int i =0;i<nums.length-1;i++)
  {
    if (nums[i]==2 && nums[i+1]==2)
    {
      two =true;
// if there is a 2 next to a 2, then the boolean two is true.
    }
    
    if (nums[i]==4 && nums[i+1]==4)
    {
      four =true;
// if there is a 4 next to a 4, then the boolean four is true.
    }
    
  }
   if (two&&four)
  {
   return false;
// if there is a 2 next to a 2, and a 4 next to a 4, then that is not allowed so return false.
  }
  
  if (two || four)
  {
   return true;
// if there is one pair of adjacent same numbers, then return true.
  }
  
  
  
  return false;
// if none of the above conditions are true and there are no adjacent same number pairs, then return false.

}

See you next class!