Ready to jump right in and learn the basics of R?

swirlstats.com/students.html Learn R, In R!

LeaRning Path in R

codeschool.com/courses/try-r

datacamp.com/courses/free-introduction-to-r

Ready for the deep end?

Some free, some not.

lynda.com/R-tutorials/R-Statistics-Essential-Training/142447-2.html

udemy.com/courses/search/?ref=home&q=r+programming

udacity.com/courses#!/data-science

coursera.org/courses?categories=economics,stats&query=r

Bonus Links

Free R Programming Books and PDFs

The Elements of Data Analytic Style

curcle.co/course/entrepreneur101/ Not about R but check it out anyway.

Since getting my teaching degree, I haven’t had a real computer to run Photoshop and design websites like I used to. My Chromebook is quite limiting. That’s why I was thrilled when my application to beta test Adobe’s Photoshop Chrome App (it streams from the cloud) was accepted! I found my invitation link deep in the thick of my email, a week after it was sent.

You see, I have a lot of emails lately because I’ve been creating recipes (IFTTT.com) and subscribing to channels all related to data science. My inbox is full of research.

Why Research Data Science?

The terms data science, data analysis, data mining, machine learning, and “big data” are starting to trend wildly, but I’m not studying data science because it’s popular or to get a new job. Instead, I’m studying data science so I can better understand business.

My dream is to reopen my smoothie bar. I’ve learned how to make great-tasting smoothies, how to set prices, how to build websites and email newsletters, how to retain customers, how to manage and train people, how to hire and fire, how to operate a restaurant according to code, how to write business plans, and how to negotiate. When I asked myself what I still lacked in order to run the best business possible, I realized that I didn’t know how to collect and analyze massive amounts of raw data from consumer behavior in order to optimize a growing business.

If I know what data scientists do, how they think, and what tools they use, I will know what to look for when recruiting talent for my future business.

It’s possible that as my analytic skills grow and I branch into new networks and industries, I may change my mind about operating a smoothie bar chain. And I’m okay with that. For now, I’m like a sponge, and I’m absorbing as much as I can about data science and how it applies to business. Blogs, MOOCs, books, GitHub repositories, articles, conferences, hackathon meetups, Python tutorials,… I want it all!

Like, really, I’ve mined a LOT of media on data science, and I know I’ve only truly scratched the surface.

Check out my data science collection on Pinterest.

Who will you share that money with when word gets around that you are untrustworthy and deceitful?

When will your stockyards of gold be useful when no one wants to trade with you?

Where is the logic in amassing great fortune if it will cost you your integrity and peace of mind?

Will all that money keep you from being lonely when everyone important walks away?

Then what are your riches worth when you’re surrounded by serpents ready to strike?

Making friends and gaining respect will get you where you want to be faster than money every could. I am sorry for forgetting this and I hope I never forget this ever again. Having high standards of myself and others will separate the wheat from the chaff. The question is… do I have the patience and strength and grace to live this way for the rest of my life? Even if I find it boring and unfruitful in the end? Can I live by the code and die by the code for the sake of the code? Or will I unleash dirty tactics for hasty desires? Learning to be the bigger person and call every situation to a higher level is a struggle… a lifetime struggle… but is it any worse than the struggle of guilt from being lazy and not fulfilling that holy posture?

Such a great ponder!!!

So who’s Michael you might ask? And why aren’t we talking about a juice cleanse? Okay, fine, I’ll lay out my cleanse first, then talk about my love life. WARNING: THIS WHOLE POST IS PERSONAL … A day in the life of Emilie Eggleston if you will.

DAY 1: Attempted 6 bottles spaced out every 3 hours, a few slip-ups.

(The following times are all estimates. Furthermore, I took probably way more pee breaks than what is recorded here.)

06:00AM – Woke up and drank approximately 20oz of water plus a capful of apple cider vinegar mixed in.
- Eliminated, washed up, fed cats, and got ready for work
07:00AM – Began sipping on organic Pure & Simple (Bottle#1).
08:00AM – Began drinking water. Pee break!
08:30AM – Sampled a smoothie by mistake.
09:00AM – Hungry. So I grab an extra Pure & Simple from work and sip on it.
09:15AM – Pee break!
10:00AM – Began sipping on organic Balance (Bottle#2) and more water.
10:45AM – Pee break!
11:00AM – Sampled another green smoothie to ensure customer satisfaction. More water.
11:30AM – Dang, still hungry. Opened up an extra Balance from work.
12:00PM – Pee break!
01:00PM – Drank Bottle#3, Organic Lotus and more water.
01:15PM – Taste-tested a customer’s juice to ensure correct flavor.
02:00PM – Pee break!
03.00PM – Ate one walnut as I left work.
04:00PM – Eliminated again (two bowel movements in one day is unusual for me… could this become regular?).
04:10PM – Drank Bottle#4, Organic Scorpion Lemonade.
05:00PM – Pee break!
05:45PM – Still sipping on Scorpion Lemonade and water… very satisfying. I think the cayenne and lemon make the stomach feel full
06:00PM – Fed cats.
07:00PM – Accidentally skipped Bottle#5 and instead cracked open Crescent Moon (Bottle#6). It was so delicious I finished it in 5 minutes.
08:00PM – Pee break! Took a shower.
09:00PM – Crawled into bed and played on my phone.
09:40PM – Dreamland.

And then I woke up at 6AM, well rested, on my day off. So, day 1 went really well I think. My digestive system is getting a break, which is the main focus of this fast anyway. I thought about doing my first enema in combination with this juice fast, but I’ll put that off until the next cleanse (you should cleanse at the change of every season—4 times a year). I’ve done two 5-day “Master Cleanses” before as well as several 10-day colon/liver “Whole Body” cleanse pills, so juicing is right in the middle when it comes to comfort. I’m enjoying this juice fast so far… but I need to stay aware of my emotional fluctuations… if I get too elated, I know a crash is coming… so I am trying to be leveled out and stay in equilibrium without getting too infatuated with the idea of juice cleansing… if you know what I mean.

I was once completely inept at recognizing car makes and models. I could change a tire or the oil and drive like the dickens, but anything else and I became the classic damsel in distress needing a man to explain car stuff to me. The first car that was given to me when I was a teenager was a Ford Mercury, possibly from the year 1995, but I can’t be sure. The Ford had problem after problem after problem, but it was free, so I dealt with it. Then, the next car handed down to me was a 1999 Nissan Sentra, and it treated me very well. The only reason I don’t have it anymore is because I sold it in 2009 to get cash for a business I was attempting to establish–otherwise I would have held onto that car. I learned that Nissans rule and Fords drool, but that was all I knew. From that point on, I became a bicycling legend and paid no mind to anything with a motor!

My favorite comic about bicycles!

Four and a half years and 5000 bicycle miles later, the time had come to own a vehicle of my own again. Where to begin? I decided to poll everyone: friends, family, and even my clanmates in Clash of Clans. All in all, Honda and Nissan were the favorite makes. The best advice I got however was from my sister. She said to look for a used vehicle between $5000 and $7000. It was a great range for me because I knew there’s no sense in paying top dollar for something that will only lose value. I knew how much to spend, so next I had to consider the reasons why I needed a vehicle.

A vehicle for me would have a good towing capacity, plenty of cargo space, great gas mileage, and low maintenance because I travel and go camping a lot! My roommate suggested two car dealerships to check out, so the very next day, my boyfriend and I walked to the first dealership. I gave the car salesman my price range, and he led me outside to my options. A Jeep Grand Cherokee, a Chevy truck, or a Ford SUV. I immediately eliminated the Ford, and even though Chevy seems to be a good brand, I felt that it just wasn’t my style. I got the CarFax report for the Jeep Grand Cherokee and went home to research and compare.

The next day, both my boyfriend and our roommate came with me to the next dealership. To our surprise, they had no cars in my $5-7000 price range, but fortunately they highly recommend a used car lot down the road, which, unfortunately, had the opposite problem–ALL their used cars were in my price range! I saw an extended cab Nissan truck, but my boyfriend and roommate had their eyes on an Audi Quattro. I’d never been in a German car before, so we took it for a ride, unsupervised, to McDonald’s. I was fascinated by the German engineering, and my two passengers insisted that it could tow and would run well for a long time. The inside dashboard and controls showed significant wear, but it felt nice. It felt loved. I got the CarFax, we went home, and I researched some more.

I opened up to the possibility of buying a vehicle on Craigslist, and began filtering my search for Hondas, Nissans, Toyotas, and Subarus in my $5-7000 price range. I found an ad for a 2005 Honda CRV all-wheel-drive that was 21 days old and recently updated, so I gave them a call! I had to ask why such a nice vehicle was for sale on the internet… did no one in the family want to buy it? They were interested in selling, but I had to wait several days before they could schedule a time to let me test drive it. I had my heart completely set on this CRV, and I thought of nothing else while I waited to test drive it. My search was over.

Unfortunately, someone in the seller’s family offered to buy it anyway. I was too late. There were other vehicles on Craigslist that I liked, but they were outside my price range. I made low offers anyway, but no dice. I was ready to buy and didn’t want to haggle anymore with owners, so I spent a day walking by myself through more used car lots and taking pictures of anything that caught my eye, all the while thinking of that Audi Quattro. I went home yet again, no closer to owning a vehicle.

A week of researching had passed. There were three major car dealerships I had yet to visit on the south side of town. Their websites didn’t showcase many used cars, but I had to try. I went to the bank the next day, withdrew $8000 in cash, and stuck it in my pocket. In doing so, I was no longer the “tire-kicker”… I was the motivated buyer. Somehow, somewhere, someone was going to sell me a car. That’s all there was to it.

My boyfriend walked with me that day to the far end of town, but since he openly carries a firearm, he couldn’t go into the bank. While I got the wad of cash, he went to get a bite to eat. I was alone when I visited the first dealership, and I gawked at all the shiny new cars. A man with gray hair approached me, and calmly I told him my price range of $5-7000. I was led to a 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe priced at $7995. I acted like a tire-kicker and asked a ton of questions without sounding enthused. I knew nothing of Hyundai. The man showed me a newer used Hyundai SUV priced around $12 grand and we compared the small differences. He offered to let me test drive them, but I insisted that I wanted my boyfriend with me first. The gray-haired salesman gave me his card, and I went to find my boyfriend.

Less than ten minutes later, we arrived back at the dealership to look at the Santa Fe together. But as we approached, a different salesman was letting a woman get into the Santa Fe for an unsupervised test drive. Suddenly, I worried that I hadn’t been assertive enough and now someone else was going to claim a sale from right under my nose! My boyfriend and I went into the dealership lobby and waited for the woman to return with the Santa Fe.

While we waited, a group of people moved tables and chairs around and began setting up for a Chamber of Commerce gathering of sorts. Food and wine were set out, and people began to show up and mingle in the lobby. The salesman told us that this woman who was out for a joy ride had been there four times before already to test drive it. She was a teacher like me, but she was trying to trade in her old vehicle to bring down the cost. Then I recognized some managers in the crowd and we chatted up. This helped take my mind off the wait.

Over an hour had passed. My boyfriend and I remarked to ourselves that the woman was riding around for a really long time in hopes that we’d give up and leave. I took this as a sign that the Santa Fe was a great deal and worth waiting for.

The woman finally returned with the midnight blue Santa Fe that I had become attached to out of jealousy. She saw us waiting in the lobby as the boisterous Chamber of Commerce event carried on, adding to the tension and suspense. We still had to wait for her to make a decision before we could make our move. The woman debated with the salesmen and mechanics over the value of her old car, and my boyfriend grew increasingly impatient.

The dealership was closing. I refused to believe my search would have to continue, and I ignored all thoughts of doubt. My mind was quiet with anticipation.

I gazed past the heads in the crowd and out the large windows. As the sun set behind the mountains, casting violet colors across the sky, the gray-haired salesman leaned in close to my shoulder and whispered, “You’re in.”

Summer 2013! And it’s not over yet!

After graduating in December and teaching high school Geometry for the spring semester, I made my way “home” to the Annual Rainbow Gathering. This year it was in Montana, and this year I settled into the national forest with the intention of staying long after the celebration. This was my 4th gathering, and it was time to give back.

I am so happy and grateful that I stayed at Rainbow as long as I did. Out of the 16,000 who gathered, I was one of the last hundred people to leave because I wanted to clean-up and tear down abandoned camps. Not many Rainbows can say they worked their ass off to make the forest look as beautiful as it did before everyone arrived. I walked for days just picking up stray microtrash. I also hauled out several large bags of trash and recyclables. Montana is so beautiful and my part in cleaning up will help keep it beautiful. While I was there, I stayed at CALM (Center for Alternative Living Medicine) and learned so much about first aid. I am extremely grateful for being able to help the kitchens serve natural, vegetarian, and living foods to the people. It was my pleasure to reduce suffering and help keep my brothers and sisters safe. I was also blessed with the opportunity to talk with a few Federal Forest Service guys, Curtis and Dave. I didn’t spend my entire summer in Montana, however. I partnered up with a lovely soul and hitchhiked westward.

To make a really, really long story short, I met many interesting people and travelled through multiple states. I camped and couch-surfed all across the Pacific Northwest and all throughout the Rockies. I got bug bites and poison ivy, but it was so worth it! Of all the cities I visited, Missoula, Montana was my favorite—it has potential.

I came back to Texas mid-August only to decide that I wanted a surveying or forest service job in Montana. I am now on a bus headed north, and I won’t come back to Texas until I’m satisfied that I’ve done all I can to find a place to live and work in Missoula. I want a career that allows me to work outdoors and care for the land, and I hope and pray that my mathematics degree and enthusiasm for nature make me a cut above the rest. Working for the land is what I want, but I’m still planning to also find an energetic team and reopen my Raw Waves organic smoothie bar in Missoula. My career will fund my business.

Just by being in the mountains, perhaps also I’ll have a better chance of getting back into my favorite subject… geology!

And don’t think I quit teaching after one semester! Don’t count me as a statistic yet! I’ll make a comeback after I’ve gained more experience. I think it’s important to apply my mathematical thinking in multiple fields before I teach others what math is good for!

Mountains, I’m coming back!

My decorated cap:

Me at the graduation party: 

This will be me after receiving my first check as a teacher…

To celebrate this milestone, I took a road-trip to Matagorda Nature Park in a rented Chrysler 200. Isn’t the Texas coast beautiful? The below picture is where I went the night of my graduation. Well, not exactly here, but pretty close to it. It’s one of the largest (26mi) undeveloped beaches in the world where there is no light pollution.

I went to the beach at night, and saw something similar to this:

The stars reflected off the wet sand and I sang a melody trying to match the harmonics of the crashing ocean waves. It was a moonless, cloudless, warm December night. I stood barefoot in the surf and felt the power of the waves as a fog descended and enveloped my being.

The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Psalms 19:1

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Romans 1:20

In this lesson, students will demonstrate their knowledge of linear equations by working in groups to graph them on posters and answer questions about their relationships.

Grade Level

10th Grade Geometry (STAAR)

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills

111.41.G.1, G.2

Instructional Model

Direct and Interactive Instruction

Description of Strategy Implementation

Before students arrive, the teacher groups the tables together and assigns four students per table. After a warm-up on finding slope, each group of students will be given a miniature poster template, an index card with two coordinates, a large piece of Post-It graph paper, and markers.

The students will use the entire class period to draw and label the axes, plot the points, draw parallel and perpendicular lines, plot the midpoint, write the formulas and the linear equations, and answer questions.

The students will then hang their posters in the hall.

Assessment

The students will be assessed for both the accuracy and completion of their poster as well as their individual participation in the groups.

Reflection

While this was a good idea for solidifying knowledge of linear equations, in practice it failed. The groups as a whole produced good work, but individual students from each group were not held accountable for their learning and thus did not walk away with any deeper knowledge. Over the next few days, it was apparent that many students were still not getting it. On the other hand, other geometry teachers at the same school remarked that their classes were struggling with linear equations as well. Using the big posters was nice and the students got to practice using tools like draftsmen, but the implementation can be improved.

Additional Materials

graphing_poster_project_template

Examples of Student Work

Lesson Focus

In this lesson, students make and verify conjectures about tessellations as well as dilate triangles on the coordinate grid.

Grade Level

10th Grade Geometry (STAAR)

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills

G.2.A, G.2.B, G.3.B, G.3.D, G.5.C, G.7.C

Instructional Model

Direct Instruction – Lecture and Note-taking

Interactive Instruction – Debate and Laboratory Groups

Indirect Instruction – Concept Formation

Description of Strategy Implementation

First, the teacher will explain tessellations and ask students to give examples of tessellations in daily life. The teacher will also review the 3 types of isometric transformations and give an example of how translations, reflections, and rotations can be found in tessellations.

Next the teacher will dim the lights and pick a volunteer to use the Mimio stylus for a concept formation activity. The volunteer will ask the class to assist in categorizing shapes in a GeoGebra program on whether or not they will tessellate.

Then students are put in groups of 3 and one student is assigned as Secretary, who is in charge of documenting. The students are given bins of tiling blocks and asked to discover which pieces tessellate and which do not.

After all the findings have been collected by the teacher and the tiles are put away, the students go back to their desks and revisit the GeoGebra program. The teacher will then scroll down and reveal which shapes truly do tessellate. Five of the shapes in the program are not revealed and further investigation is needed.

Students are then given pieces of graph papers that have been prepared with corner dots. The teacher will sit at her desk with the projector and lecture the four square tessellation rules. As the students copy each rule and illustrate it, the teacher will show examples of the different square rules fully tiled.

After learning the four rules and the main one that “actions must match,” the teacher will direct the students back to the GeoGebra file and ask students to correctly categorize the 5 remaining shapes based on the rules learned.

Lastly, students will be given a foldable on dilations and the teacher will directly instruct how to fill in the blanks and draw a dilations with a scalar factor of 2.

For homework, the students are given a dilation worksheet that is designed to be simple and reinforce the steps involved in dilations.

Assessment

Students will receive a participation grade for the paper that the Secretary writes during the group tiling phase. Students will be observed throughout the period for their ability to find patterns and make verbal conjectures. For a homework grade, the students will practice performing dilations on the coordinate grid.

Reflection

The students were highly motivated to use the Mimio and debate which shapes tessellate. I got a lot of comments that the students enjoyed playing with the stylus and asked to do more like it. One male student is usually very antsy and gets in trouble behind my back, so I allowed him to use the stylus on the board with full instruction on how to use it. By letting him be at the head of the class, he got the attention he needed to behave for the rest of the period.

The constant transitions between activities minimized interruptions and helped keep the attention of the students. I felt thoroughly prepared.

Additional Materials

square_tess_rules_blank_grid

square_tess_rules_example

DilationWorksheet

Will it tessellate?

dilation_foldable

Lesson Focus

In this lesson, students will teach each other about:

• the definition of an angle
• naming angles
• classifying angles
• measuring angles
• adjacent angles
• angle addition postulate
• complementary angles
• supplementary angles
• vertical angles

Grade Level

10th Grade Geometry (STAAR)

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills

G.1.A, G.2.B, G.4.A, G.5.A

Instructional Model

Interactive Instruction – Jigsaw Cooperative Learning

Description of Strategy Implementation

The first five minutes of class will be a warm-up on algebraically solving a segment addition postulate problem. This will prepare the students for the angle addition postulate by relating old material to new material.

The next five to ten minutes, the teacher will explain the Jigsaw method and form groups. Students will be given a rubric detailing how they will be graded for their participation. Fifty percent of the grade is individual participation and fifty percent of the grade is a group worksheet on angles to be filled in at the end. Each student is given a number 1 through 5 and goes to the designated expert group.

Students will spend fifteen minutes in the expert groups to read the information packet and examples and plan ways to teach the concept to their home groups.

The next twenty minutes, the students will teach and learn from the other students in their home groups. Each home group also decides on a leader to make sure everyone manages time and stays on task.

Lastly, twenty-five minutes will be devoted to working on the angles worksheet in their home groups.

The teacher will continually float around the room to monitor participation, correct any misconceptions, and provide encouragement.

Assessment

50% informal, 50% formal

Each student will be graded informally on focus, contribution, working with others, and time management, as well as formally on a group worksheet all about angles.

Reflection

This appeared to be the first time any of the students had done a jigsaw activity and they were clueless how to teach each other. I originally wanted each student to individually work on the angles worksheet at the end to hold them accountable  but had to modify since students were struggling to retrieve information from each other during the teaching phase. More time needs to be spent practicing the jigsaw method and learning strategies for summarizing information in order to teach others. Students also need improve their questioning skills. All in all, the groups went well and it was a great way to start the year and encourage interaction.

Additional Materials

Vertical-Angle-Theorem

Angle-Addition-Postulate

classifying-angles

Vertical-Angle-Theorem

naming-angles

understanding.angles

ClassParticipationRubric.doc