Loving What You Teach

re: Loving What You Teach

Michelle Hutton — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 20:50:29 GMT

Ah, now I understand. I can completely get behind the idea of the occasional programming project to rediscover the joy!

Some of the CS teachers I meet are profoundly geeky. I end up feeling inferior in a "not geeky enough" kind of way. It is the difference between "Don't you think it enhances your teaching to write the occasional program?" vs. "I don't think you can be a good CS teacher if you don't spend your free time writing programs." It is good, as you did, to encourage people to do better.

re: Loving What You Teach

Vicki A Davis — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 22:57:47 GMT

At our school since I teach and maintain computers I have written everything from Excel spreadsheets to Access databases and all of the reporting that goes with them.

I also have a business on the side (that I started before I got into teaching) that creates and designs website. (More maintenance now than content creation.) They know I love the topic.

Like the small town doctor here, I am the small town computer guru. I have literally been at a funeral and had someone lean over and ask me a computer question. People also sit by me at weddings to ask questions and stop me in the grocery store.

I think that is the only drawback so I have to make sure I "get out of Dodge" in the summers. I also enjoy my edublogging so very much. I can receive feedback from people who understand the topics I teach and pus me to the very edge of learning. So many people who know so much more than me. Edublogging is so refreshing!

This is a great post!

re: Loving What You Teach

Alfred Thompson — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 21:25:06 GMT

I completely agree with the need for outside interests. I'm not suggesting that CS teachers need to spend all of their time coding or that they need to take on additional jobs developing code. Rather I think it is helpful if one is the type of person who would still write code now and again for the fun of it and not see it just as a chore.

re: Loving What You Teach

Michelle Hutton — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 08:30:04 GMT

I've been thinking about this topic a lot lately, because another teacher suggested to me that being a software developer in one's free time is an important way to be a better CS teacher.

I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I agree with you about sharing our passion for the subject with our students, which means experiencing the passion! I also think it brings something of value to the classroom when we can commiserate with students. A frustrated, bug-hunting girl is always impressed when I tell her about spending 45 minutes looking for a missing semicolon once. (A cautionary tale about the value of peers if there ever was one!) And I can empathize with students better when I've gone through the same development (and learning) process more recently rather than years ago.

That said, I think having outside interests might be even more important than continuing to practice the craft. We all have limited spare time and have to think carefully about how to allocate it. Developing interests outside of computing - and sharing those interests with students - can help them see us as well-rounded people. Especially for reluctant computer scientists, the perception that you can be a smart geek AND be a normal person is really important. Sharing non-computer pursuits with students allows me to bond with kids who aren't necessarily interested in my class - and possibly help them get interested. In my case, I hold a knitting club, but I know a very popular CS teacher who plays ultimate frisbee every Friday on the school lawn.

To strictly answer your question, my students see my love for CS because I embody it every day when I walk through the door. Who else do they know who exclaims over how cool binary is and whose second-favorite word is "algorithm"?