Tuesday, September 1, 2026
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
First Few Days in the Barber Shop 💈
First Few Days in the Barber Shop 💈
Important Links are all on Schoology, like the Daily Slide and our class-shared Google Doc, called "Cool Beans." During the first few days, we go over procedures, readying our laptops and our minds for a safe, fun building environment:
- First Day Google Form (1 pt)
- Intro to the Barber Shop Slideshow
- Laptop Check '26-'27 (15 pts)
- How to Adobe Illustrator for a lasercutter (This is MY basic video how-to for a scribble. Mech XT students will use these skills to make much more advanced lasercuts after you make a BETTER how-to, for sharing with Mr. B on Google Drive and this website, ScreenPal.
- How to CAD a nametag on TinkerCad ... older version, but it leads you to making a small nametag. I suggest making SURE that your letters intersect and are BIG, BLOCK, AND CHONKIER.
- How to CAD for a Wood Shop Project
- Henley Shop/Technology/Education Class Competencies/Syllabi/Pacing Guides 2026-2027 (in English)
- Henley Media Permission/Safe Shop Rules/TinkerCad Permission Form 2026-2027 (in English) (En Español). <= I WILL NEED 3 SIGNED SHEETS AND ONE COMMUNICATION FROM YOUR GROWNUPS AT HOME.
Laptop Check 2026-2027
Students must bookmark these 11 sites in a "Barber Folder" on their toolbar. (Here's how):
- Barber Shop Website
- Barber of Cville Blog
- Henley Homepage
- Google Drive
- Schoology
- PowerSchool
- TinkerCad (Please don't log in yet ... we will log in as a class)
- maker:bit / Microsoft Make Code (Please don't log in yet ... we will log in as a class)
- Scratch
- Cool Beans (students must find this in Schoology and break it out of Schoology before bookmarking!)
- Daily Slideshow (students must find the link in Schoology that says "BOOKMARK THIS LINK" and break it out of Schoology before bookmarking!)
- We will be adding other bookmarks as the year goes on ...
II. Your charger has 2 pieces, and, therefore, needs 2 labels, one on each part. You need a flag on your removable cord affixed with clear packing tape (your first and last name!), and you need to tape over your label with clear packing tape:
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| New Way (this year)- notice the shininess of the packing tape! |
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| Old Way (past years when your charger didn't have a label) |
III. You also need to pin shortcuts on your taskbar to the 2 apps we download:
- Arduino IDE- We download this from Software Center (quick download)
- Adobe Illustrator- We download Adobe Creative Cloud from Software Center, THEN we install Adobe Illustrator from CC. These will both take a LONG TIME! Close as many apps and tabs as you can!
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| Arduino |
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| Adobe Creative Cloud |
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| Adobe Illustrator |
IV. Come show Mr. Barber when you're pretty sure you're going to get a good grade (not when you've done only a little of the Laptop Check ... I don't want to enter in a 4/15 F!!)
Tuesday, March 3, 2026
CAD Challenge- RINGS
CAD CHALLENGE- TO DESIGN A RING THAT FITS ONE OF YOUR FINGERS!!
First, make a simple one with embedded letter holes ... then we are trying to make a bigger one that still fits.
Tuesday, January 6, 2026
Monday, November 24, 2025
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Holiday Ornaments
Lasercutting a 3D Snowflake
You don't have to do a snowflake! You could do a silhouette as an RGB Red outline and then engrave words or "logos" inside in RGB Blue.
Saturday, June 14, 2025
Weather Station
I finally got a Weather Station. Those who know me or have followed me on Social Media know that I obsess about weather, especially snow prediction. Well, I quit all social media associated with Zuck or Musk and now I'm on BlueSky, Reddit, and NextDoor only. BUT, you can now follow me because of my birthday present this year!
My folks got me an Ambient Weather Station WS-2902:
I waited until after school got out to try to install it and mount it and that ended up being a GOOD call. The software set up was pretty quick and easy ... it reminded me of installing my smart thermostat at my previous house. You use its wifi to start off and connect it to your phone. Assembling it was even pretty easy. Mounting it was a little more difficult. You have to have it completely level (there's a bubble on top for you to use to judge), it has to face North, and you have to both have it a little distance from the house, but close enough for Wifi to reach it. Getting it at least 6' off the ground complicates things a little.
My future Father In Law and I got it done in about an hour. Fortunately, he had a perfect metal pole for the job and he had some pole strapping that we used to attach it to a wooden fence pole.
Now, I'm sharing with AmbientWeather.net ... check it out: Link and my station is KVAAFTON89 on WeatherUnderground.
Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Monday, March 10, 2025
Microcontroller Tutorials (Arduino and micro:bit)
Microcontroller Tutorials
micro:bit
micro:bit is a good basic way to start using microcontrollers. It even has block programming, so elementary students can "code," too! Because my students are in the 7th and 8th grade Mechatronics classes, we use actual code instead of just blocks:
Arduino on TinkerCad
When we use Arduino in the Barber Shop, we try it out on TinkerCad first. This gives a rough draft "try" without having to worry about avrdude/Serial Port errors, AND it gives the coder a good diagram to look at when they are coding IRL:
Arduino IRL
Mechatronics
Mechatronics is Programming a Computer to convert Electricity to Mechanical Energy
What are examples?
In the past,
My class has built and flown airplanes, similar to UVA’s RazorDrone
We have built a Lego MindStorm obstacle course (from ANCIENT Lego MindStorms I found left in one of my rooms)
At UVA, Mechatronics built the HooPrint AND a complete working electric guitar
What other examples can you see in a classroom or think of that are Mechatronics?
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