I heard different variations on "this is easy" this week from my Java students. The first time, I was taken aback--programming isn't that easy! :-) A few seconds later I realized that I'm finally doing something right this year: letting students play with programming in small chunks, letting them get used to the vocabulary before talking about what they're actually doing programming-wise. I can see that the handouts I'm staying up all night to make are actually going to be useful next year. Yaaaaaaaaaay!
Things that are helping:
- Captivate is saving my life. Thank you, W., for sending it last year! I finally opened it last weekend...
- The robots make Java so much more tangible. It's so much easier to explain Motor.A.forward(); when I can point to the motor connection labeled "A" on the brick.
- I am much better at making assignments and handouts this year.
- My students, for the most part, are far more engaged and excited about programming (and learning) in general, which makes them so much easier to teach. Actually, I don't think I'm teaching them--just letting them learn.
Things that are not helping:
- Being exhausted due to nighttime curriculum development and daytime classroom policework.
- Being exhausted due to nighttime unpacking of my classroom.
- Not playing the violin enough due to being exhausted.
- Not dancing tango enough due to being exhausted.
- Not doing enough physical therapy due to being exhausted.
The "things that are not helping" had me depressed at the beginning of the week. Isn't the second year supposed to be easier? Not when you have a classroom that's still mostly in boxes and a new curriculum (again). But now that I see that I'll be able to use this curriculum next year, I'm hoping the third year will be easier. If it isn't, high school teaching may have to go on the "Don't be Dumb" list of things I should not be doing post-MS. That would stink.
Meanwhile, I'll concentrate on keeping those "this is easy!" comments coming.