C'est la Z
Recently within my alumni community there was a discussion of Founders School - a private for profit school which is a specialty school under the umbrella of Alpha School. The deal is that at Founders school, tuition is $150,000 a year which is higher than the $30,00 to $75,500 for the other Alpha Schools but they're offering a tuition back guarantee if a student hasn't started a business that has…
Crowdsourced Blanket Time to wrap up the 2026 CSTA conference. Exhibit Hall It's interesting to see how the exhibit hall has evolved over the years. It's clearly larger than when I first started attending CSTA, around 10 years ago but the exhibitors have changed radically even since the first major increase in size. Gone are the big FANG vendors. Google always used to have a HUGE booth and at…
So it turns out the third day of CSTA2026 was pretty light for me. There was a keynote and there was one session I thought might be a little interesting but that was it. Nothing else really spoke to me. Let's start with the keynote. Well, it wasn't really a keynote, it was really like a regular session but this way the conference organizers made sure a maximal number of attendees would go to it.…
Tuesday started with two more sessions. First up was 'Finding Balance with AI' led by fellow New Yorker Matt Carlberg. The session was about how Matt has worked to find the same balance many teachers are struggling with - teach the students to use generative AI effectively and safely while also keeping a handle on issues like cheating. The session was a mix of Matt sharing his practices and small…
Jaxx Yesterday the conference started at around noon. I took the open hours in the morning to buy some pralines to take home. Two sessions followed by a keynote and a reception. The first session I attended was 'Human and AI - Prompting for Critical Thinking and Exploration.' The talk was fine but to be honest, it really wasn't about CS or teaching CS. Rather it was more about using AI as a…
So I'm already down in the Big Easy. New Orleans for the CSTA conference. Devorah's here with me - she'll be running her Blanket Statement project for the first time since pre-covid through the Pickcode booth so if you knit or crochet make sure to stop by. We decided to come down a few days early to play tourist since we haven't been here since we honeymooned in New Orleans some 35 years ago. In…
Another big gap in posting. Last time well over a month ago. I do in fact have a couple of things to blog about, not the least of which is the upcoming CSTA conference but I'll hold off on that since Alfred Thompson already posted his preview [[ https://blog.acthompson.net/2026/06/previewing-csta-2026.html ][(link]]) and Doug Peterson also posted on CS Ed conferences in response ( link ). Instead,…
Giant This past Friday, I had the chance to see 'Giant,' the play written by Mark Rosenblatt. A few friends asked for my take on social media so I thought I'd write my thoughts up here. So, if you're looking for the usual CS Ed or Emacs material, feel free to skip this one. On the other hand, I'd encourage you to read on anyway. First and foremost, the play was fantastic. John Lithgow was…
THe Netlogo Center is running their first in person conference at the end of June in Chicago ( info and registration ). It's an event I'm looking forward to attending and also to be presenting at. I've been using NetLogo for over a quarter of a century. Well, that's not entirely true. I haven't actively used it for a while now, being retired, and for my last gig, at Hunter College, I used it…
This past Friday I ran a third iteration of Pitchfest. The first one was last may ( link ). I also ran Pitchfest in the Winter but that one was smaller. We had 36 students forming 17 teams from 9 CUNY campuses. We also had a bunch of tech professionals. There were more entries that we couldn't accomodate but the 17 teams along with the tech professionals basically filled the room to capacity. The…
Devorah and I are spending the week in Boston, well techincally Cambridge. We came up last year around this time and had a big StuyCS meet up hosted at Formlabs . I was talking to my friends in the Stuyvesant HS Alumni Association figuring there were probably a lot of StuyCS grads in the Boston area and we agreed that we should do a meetup there. Then a couple of grads offered the space at…
Earlier today, I was informed that Stan Teitel, former principal of Stuyvesant high school had passed away at age 77. Stan started his career as a teacher in 1971 joining Stuy in the Chem/Physics department in 1983 - my senior year, though our paths never crossed. He became the Chem/Phys AP in 1997 and then Principal in September 2000, right before 9/11. He retired in August 2012 after the DOE, in…
So, one of the things I've been doing since retirement is working for and with my alumni community. We've held focussed events like an AI panel and a blockchain talk and have had meetups in New York and beyond - specifically Boston and San Francisco. Last Thursday we focussed on entrepreneurship. The idea wasn't mine. Stuy grad, Jae Zhou, a lawyer at Morrison Forester (MOFO) approached me with the…
I wanted to follow up on my earlier post on why teaching CS still matters . In that post, I cited a couple of former students. Not only former students but particularly high achieving ones. One friend commented on that - the idea that my thesis may makes sense for those high achievers but not everyone. I maintain that CS, if taught right is still important for all students. It's about thinking and…
Still in St. Louis but we're now up to sessions and BOFs. On Thursday, I attended two sponsor sessions on AI. One by GitHub and the other Google. In retrospect, they were both really the same session - on how their developers and other professionals are using AI. The big difference? Do you want your AI co-pilot flavored or Gemini/Antigravity? The key points from the GitHub session was that when…
Still stuck in St. Louis and still haven't finished my SIGCSE series but there have been a few threads in the various CS Education groups about the big changes in code.org and how AI might be making learning CS the way we've been teaching it obsolete. Rubbish and here's a couple of stories as to why. Let's go back to the start of this century. 9/11 had just placed America into a state of shock. I…
I was going to wait to write this up until I got home. The conference ended on Saturday and it's now Monday afternoon and we're still in St. Louis due to the east coast blizzard. Right now we're booked on a flight home for Wednesday morning but I think there's more snow expected then so we'll see. As to the keynotes, well two keynotes and one panel, they were all solid and thought or maybe better,…
Time for another SIGCSE - the big Computer Science Education conference. This time in St. Louis. St. Louis Arch This is something like my 10th SIGCSE and the fourth I've attended with my daughter who's in her first year as a grad student, pursuing her PhD in CS with a focus on education. At this point, I think she knows more people here than I do. Actually, that was something I was thinking about.…
History is a funny thing. They say it's written by the victors but even when the 'good guys' win, the history taught is often, let's say, incomplete. Back in school we'd learn about all sorts of feel good American equality stuff but how many learned about Black Wall Street and the Tusla Race Massacre? I've knew about the Green Book and Sundown Towns years before the 'Green Book' movie and was…
Finally we get to teachers observing teachers - what Mark was writing about to begin with. These observations could be a one off, for a few days, or even through a full course. This could also be a team teaching situation but to be honest, I think that's a different beast. If I'm team teaching a course with someone, true, I can learn from them if and when we do joint preperation and things like…
Cervantes monument Taking time out from my observation blog posts to write up a trip report. For the past few winters, Devorah and I have been trying to spend a few days somewhere warmer. Not necessarily warm, but warmer. We've done San Diego twice then Charleston and last year Savannah. We were thinking of New Orleans this time around but we're going there for the CSTA conference in July so…
Following up on my last post, let's dive in to being oberved as a model for teacher improvement and teacher evaluation. Next time we'll look at the flip side - teachers observing for improvement. As I mentioned last time, I'm writing about New York City public schools but would be interested in hearing what things are like in other locations and other types of institutions. Evaluation and…
Back in for the evening. Not in Barcelona anymore - spending a few days now in Madrid. Sadly, I got a message from a fellow CS Educator who lives in Barcelona the day we left so if any reader out there is in Madrid - I'm here a couple more days - let me know. For the post at hand, I read this post the other day by Mark Guzdial and it got me thinking about a number of things. The difference in…
It's 10:00am and I'm sitting in my hotel room in Barcelona. For the past few years, Devorah and I have taken a trip to someplace warmer (but not necessarily warm) in late January or early February. Something we could never do before retiring and this year, we decided in Barcelona and Madrid because airfare and hotel prices were just so low - cheaper than the things we were first considering doing…
Over a month since my last post. Wow. Anyway, last week was full of Artificial Intelligence events. On Wednesday, I attended a talk by Ray Kurzweil, hosted by Trinity High School - a posh private school on the Upper West Side, The Academy for Teachers, and Teach for America. Thursday was a StuyCS event which was really about early stage startups but much of the discussion revolved around AI and…
Last week my StuyCS family community had a discussion about Zohran Mamdani's plans for gifted education. For people outside of New York, Mamdani is the Democratic candidate for mayor and there was a recent article outlining his plans or rather, his positions on gifted ed - always a hot button topic for Stuy alums. It also turns out to be a hot button topic in education in general in New York. Long…
I saw this release from NYSED the other day. New York State wants to create a standard set of policies and procedures for schools implementing Dual Credit programs. A Dual Credit class is a college class taken by high school students. The high school offering the class does so in partnership with some college or university. A student who passes the class receives both high school and college…
I listened to the latest episode of Kristen Stephen-Martinez's CS Ed Podcast. The episode focused on Professor Emeritus, William G. Griswold, of UCSD's practice of requiring students meet with him outside of class early during the semester. These meetings weren't about class material but rather to foster a better connection and to increase student engagement. Good episode. Take a listen. The class…
Today is Labor Day. That means that tomorrow NYC public school teachers return to work. I mean, not me - I'm still happily retired but still I have many friends going back. Kids come back on Thursday. Of course, I don't doubt that I'll have a 'going back to school' dream tonight. I'm not going to make any predictions here but there are a couple of big tech related elephants in the room that will…
We basically finished up our trip in Pesaro, a resort town on the Adriatic Sea. Well, there plus one final day in Rome before our flight home. Why Pesaro? Seaside resorts aren't usually our speed. Well, Pesaro is the birthplace of composer Gioachino Rossini and hosts an annual Rossini festival. Now, I like Opera but I wouldn't travel across an ocean to see some Rossini so how did we end up there?…
Next three days were in Bologna. Highlight was getting dinner with former student and friend Paul who is now living in Modena and working for the Ferrari Formula 1 racing team - how cool is that. I also realized over dinner that I've known Paul now for over 20 years - man, I'm getting old. Bologna's usually a few degrees cooler than Rome but overall the mercury kept rising so outside wasn't…
Time for a trip report. Been in Bologna for a few days now but before that, we started in Rome. Now, I was correctly informed that Italy in August isn't the smartest move - it's hot - 97 degrees out as I'm writing this post. Not pleasant outside. Still, Rome was pretty awesome even if I did fade in the afternoons. Why Italy? It was Natan's choice. Having graduated right before Covid, Natan hasn't…
Lets start off with Cleveland and then we'll get to my suggestions for the CSTA. Cleveland I never had a chance to explore Cleveland before. I was actually in the city once before, for a junior national fencing competition but never saw anything other than the competition venue and the hotel. This time, I didn't have much more of an opportunity. Normally, I like heading to a conference a day or…
Exhibit Hall Let's start with the exhibit hall. First things I noticed that while Amazon, Google, and Microsoft were all listed as sponsors, none of them had booths in the exhibition space. This was a big change from past years. I'm not sure what to make of this since all three have either products or programs relevant to K12. Maybe nothing going on here but I think this was worth noting. So, who…
Let's talk about the final two sessions I attended. The Future of Computer Science Education in an Age of AI This was a panel. Pat Yongpradit and BT Twarek co-moderated a panel consisting of Julie York, Maya Israel, Allen Antoine, and Jacob Shulman. It was a good mix. Julie York is a High School teacher, Maya Israel, a researcher, Allen Antoine is the Director of CS Ed Strategy at UT Austin's…
Thursday, day 3. This was my last conference day since I had to leave bright and early on Friday. Four more sessions. As I started to write them up I thought things were getting a little long so this post will just cover the two morning sessions and the next one, the other two. Strype First up 'Strype: Frame-Based Editing for Python.' A session run by Neil Brown, creator of Strype with Miles Berry…
Four sessions up for today. First one 'Certified to Rock: Cleveland's Journey in CS Teacher Prep.' Basically a discussion of the pathways for teachers to become CS certified in Cleveland. It wasn't a crowded session and most of the attendees were affiliated with Cleveland's certification programs in one way or another. Then there were a handful of people like me from assorted locations who wanted…
With the keynotes out of the way, let's get to some sessions. First up, Tuesday - day 1. The morning was set for workshops. I didn't attend any of those but I did go to two afternoon sessions. One was alright but, at least for me, missed the mark and the other was really strong. The first one was titled 'AI Ready: Future-Forward CS Education.' The talk was on how Gwinett County Public schools have…
Just got back from CSTA 2025. Well, not directly. Last Monday Devorah and I got in the car and drove to Cleveland for the festivities. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay for the duration - I had to miss Friday so we could drive down to Lancaster to meet the kids for our annual corn maze weekend. Drove back to NY today. That means it's time for my annual recap of the Computer Science Teachers…
Saw this article in the New York Times yesterday. It's been making its rounds. There was some discussion in some of the CS Ed related online groups, my friend Alfred Thompson posted his take here , and when my daughter, a professional SWE at Meta for close to a decade came over for dinner yesterday, she brought it up. I haven't posted in a while so I figured I'd add my two cents. The gist of the…
Warning: This post is political and involves my views on antisemitism and the Gaza situation. So, in my travels over the past year or so, I've been trying to hit independent book stores or otherwise cool local places. I mean Devorah always wants to go to the local yarn store to get something either spun or dyed in the area but I don't have a similar hobby. I figured that I could visit a local book…
Although retired, I'm trying to keep some skin in the game. An opportunity to do that came up back in mid march when my friend Aankit Patel reached out to me. I've known Aankit since he ran CSforAll for the NYC Department of Education but now he's the University Dean for Tech and Computer and Info Sciences at CUNY. Aankit told me he had some extra funds to run an event and asked if I wanted to…
This article made its rounds this past week. It cites a couple of papers claiming that CS teachers are delivering better instruction and might be better qualified than teachers in other subject areas. This is in spite of the fact that CS teachers generally have a generally weak background in CS as well as in CS related pedagogy compared to teachers of other more well established subjects. The…
How many different intro CS courses should we have? A question that resurfaces periodically. This time due to an article in which C++ creator Bjarne Stroustrup posits that different audiences would benefit from a different intro treatment for CS. Perennial CS Blogger and friend Alfred Thompson shared his thoughts on the subject here . The thought is that someone who's going into academic CS needs…
The truth is, I don't use those modern AI tools much. I'm not doing much coding and when I do, I've been using Clojure or Elisp - not so mainstream so as to have all sorts of AI support. For writing? I prefer do to it myself. Anything else? Well, to be honest, there's not too much going on in my life where I feel like AI will improve things. Maybe if I were writing important business emails or I…
Based on some of the feedback I got on my last post , I thought I'd dive a little deeper on using slide decks. I had some people tell me that they too found that slide decks didn't work for them while others shared that they use them regularly. Still others shared how they specifically used them. Now, as I said, they don't work for me. Sorry if I wasn't clear. I didn't mean that they never worked…
The other day I read Kristin Stephens-Martinez's latest blog post talking about how she has started to insert a daily plan slide at the front of her class slide decks. Stephens-Martinez, you might know, hosts the CS-Ed Podcast which I very much enjoy even if the episode lengths never quite go long enough for my morning run which is my primary podcast listening time. Here, the blog post talked…
Is it CS for All or is it All for CS? CS for All, to me has always meant exposing all students to CS for two reasons. First, so that every student gains some understanding of CS and also so that some of those students might be inspired to go on and study more CS. For that basic understanding, that should include a few things - the way a CS person thinks and problem solves, what a CS person does or…
To finish up, we'll look at some of the other sessions I attended but first a couple of notes. One thing I again noticed was the lack of pedagogy sessions. Maybe I missed something but other than Nifty Assignments, which isn't really about pedagogy and doesn't interest me much anymore I didn't see anything. This is nothing new but at least a couple of years ago we had 'It seemed a like a good idea…
So last week I completed my second and final week back at Stuy teaching CS. We spent Monday finishing up the mode lesson and then spent most of the week on this topic - writing a computer program to automatically decode something 'encrypted' with a Caesar Cipher. The post I just linked to was from when I first taught the lesson. I've refined and reworked it considerable since then but the gist is…