Things That Seem To Make My Students Tick and the Philosophy of One High School CS

Teacher

Josh Paley, TeacherComputer Science & MathematicsHenry M. Gunn HS (Palo Alto, CA)

SIGCSE 2011

What I Care About

• The Three Tenets1. Show the students what I love and hope some of that

rubs off on them (Brian Harvey)2. Do No Harm (Hippocratic Oath more or less)3. Help my students be the ones that other students go to

for help when they are in college• “The reason that my classes are good is because I do

what I like.” -- Michelle Friend Hutton on

teaching at her middle school

What I Am Supposed To Care About

• Expected Schoolwide Learning Results (ESLRs)1. Demonstrate knowledge of key concepts,

principles, processes, facts, and skills in the disciplines of language arts, history-social science, mathematics, science, physical education, visual and performing arts, foreign language, career-vocational education, and health/practical living skills.

2. Effective communication through listening, speaking, and writing

What I Am Supposed To Care About

3. Strong research skills4. Ability to integrate knowledge among

disciplines5. Reading with understanding6. Critical and Creative thinking to solve

problems (The Golden ESLR)7. Effective use of technology

What’s Missing

• Fun– I tend to think that Fun is kind of important.

• Aiming at Fun and the Golden ESLR (Critical and Creative thinking to solve problems) seems to take care of all the other ESLRs.

What I Am Actually Doing

• Trying to make the classroom environment friendly and happy

• When possible, let students determine their own project ideas and run with them– This often means letting students go off the

beaten curricular path• Try to make students feel like they are playing

with toys as opposed to doing rigorous work.• (But they do rigorous work!)

What I Am Actually Doing

• I teach from my strengths, so students get a very Berkeley-ish curriculum.– Simply Scheme– Subset of Structure and Interpretation of

Computer Programs• Many of the best problems ever written reside here

– Big Java (SJSU, not Berkeley)• However, I let students propose projects all

the time. (Shout out to the Nifties!)

Academic Rigor

• Animation Using Virtual Worlds (BYOB)– See UC-Berkeley’s CS10 athttp

://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/sp11/ • Programming Concepts (Scheme)– Functional programming, data abstraction, etc.

• Intro to Java– 90% of AP CS A curriculum

• AP Computer Science (Scheme, Java)– 2/3 to 3/4 of what a first-year CS major might do– AP CS A test is a byproduct, not the core focus

New And Future Stuff

• Added “Animation Using Virtual Worlds” that uses Alice and Scratch/BYOB– Students are programming without it feeling like it– Students are having fun– Loops, concurrency, conditionals, 3D-modeling– All students—not just the ones who like math a

lot–really get the “Beauty and Joy”• Moving to Berkeley’s CS10 curriculum over

time

PBJA Things Students Seem To Like

• Mobile problem from Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Abelson and Sussman

• Conway’s Game of Life• Fractal Fruit Tree (riff off the fractal tree lab in

CS10 at UC-Berkeley)• War (ought to be a Nifty—great for a data

structures take-home test or project)• Dot Racing

PBJA Things Students All Like

• Doing projects that they choose• Give them requirements that are general and let

them do their thing– Example:

• Must have at least one REPEAT UNTIL• Must have at least one IF-ELSE• Must have at least one use of recursion• Etc.

• Sometimes they cannot find a logical fit for one or two big ideas in their project; don’t punish them for this.

Suggestions

• Teach to your strengths (Zelenski)• Be enthusiastic (Harvey)• Show students that you care (Basic Human

Decency)• Let the students be playful (Fun as ESLR)• Remember Michelle’s quote about doing what

you want in the classroom– Without standards, you have a flexibility that can be

a force for passion, beauty, joy, and awe!