Mr. Arndt's Computer Science Student Teaching

Overall this week was a rather interesting one as I subbed from Wednesday to Friday. Overall I think this was a good experience as the students had done their work and were open to the assignments and work we were doing in class. Our CS Principles class was busy doing Think Like a Coder activities this week while our AP JAVA students prepared for the AP exam next Wednesday by doing a practice FRQ. For the most part, students were engaged with the FRQ as it took all of our Wednesday blocks to complete and Thursday and Friday to go over, but overall they did pretty well with the FRQ and they seem appreciative of the opportunity to get some practice in. Even though my knowledge of Java is very limited I was able to walk through the scoring guidelines to show them some potential things scorers may be looking for. By having the students self-grade themselves they were able to be more conscious of things they need to work on while also reducing my workload as an educator.  I think classr...

 Overall this week went decent. Our CSP students enjoyed a cross-curricular field trip to observe the business department's Shark Pond presentation while also introducing De Morgan's Law. Our CS JAVA courses worked on CodeHS AP practice tests while reviewing the results.  This week I think utilizing data-driven instruction went well. The reason why we chose De Morgan's Law as a topic, was because the data from the AP practice exam showed that our students needed to go over this the most over any topic. The data also showed that our students were learning the material well as the exit ticket shows an average score of ~4/5. This however is. a brief data set and to see if true learning has occurred we probably will need to touch on this topic on Monday as a quick review. I also think that students were more engaged than in previous lessons, however, this is something that needs continual improvement though and will probably be an improvement area until the end of the year. Bab...

 After a long restful spring break, we are back into the walls of the classroom. This as a result led to many fatigued faces which led to us easing our students back into the learning process. The main aspect of learning that we focused on and will be focusing on in the future is preparing for the AP exam in both CSP and JAVA. This as a result has had my CT and I engaging in a PLC where we planned out the rest of the semester and gathered data through the AP Practice Tests for both courses. For the most part, students are prepared for the test but need some more help with dealing with testing fatigue as well as some aspects that they should be prepared for. For week 5 I will be walking my AP JAVA students through FRQs that week so more on that later.  For the most part, I am very positive about the transition back into the classroom after such a short break. It seems as if students needed some grace in the starting days but they were pretty good about getting back into the wor...

Overall this week was packed as it was the week before our school's spring break. This is a result of a break we take in February. Excitement was in the air and nearly every other aspect of the school this week as well as spirit week occurred as well. Students and myself could be seen dressing in pajamas, college wear, and summer clothes in preparation for a much-deserved break. While our AP Comp Sci Principle students were busy working on finishing their cybersecurity unit our AP JAVA students were busy starting and finishing a unit on recursion. Due to the break up of the schedule, our schedule was a mix of panicked rushing to finish content before spring break (which we have successfully done) and ensuring that our students remain relaxed and calm so as to create a supportive learning environment.  This week I personally taught and recorded lessons on Recursive Searching as well as privately preparing for my PLT 7-12 Praxis exam, results as of today are yet to be reported back. ...

     This week I started my Computer Science placement. I will be in two courses, each having two sections. The courses are AP Computer Science Principles and AP Computer Science JAVA. While both contain AP tests that must be taken at the end of the year the AP CSP course is done through Code.org and includes a project component while APCS JAVA is taught through codeHS. The technology software and hardware included at my school are noted below in my list noted between teacher resources and student resources.    Teacher: Personal Laptop Projectors Microsoft Office Suite Code.org CodeHS Canvas   Student: Laptop Rentals (Most students bring their own) Microsoft Office Suite Code.org CodeHS Canvas Overall this first week went well, most students were towards the end of their unit in both classes as we prepare for the start of spring break next Friday. Code.org and CodeHS are module-based learning so many students are able to pace themselves when it comes to the...