MS. MILLER'S COMPUTER & ENGINEERING LAB
  • Chamblee High School
    • AP CSA
    • AP CSP
    • CSP
    • PGAS
    • ​Engineering Apps >
      • STEAM Letters
    • 4th Sci Math Rigor Hope
    • Tech Fair Competition Club
    • Industry Certification CHS
  • About
  • Blog

Blog

Ideas, Thoughts, Things, & Awesome Things to Look Into - from the Computer Lab

AP Courses & Project-Based Learning

7/12/2021

1 Comment

 
AP courses are hard because they are college classes taught to high school students. For students, they can earn college credit which means they save money. The stakes are very high.  AP Computer Science Principles and AP Computer Science A are both heavy on the project based learning because both courses are in the CTAE pathways.  

This is a nice Edutopia video discussing the value of project based learning in AP courses.
Picture
Reinventing AP Courses With Rigorous Project-Based Learning
​www.edutopia.org/video/reinventing-ap-courses-rigorous-project-based-learning
1 Comment

Reflections on teaching

6/21/2021

 
For several years now, my district office has been expressing an interest in having me move to the high school level to teach computers. I have had an overall, really good experience at my elementary school because of my principal and my awesome team of fellow specialists. So why would I rock the boat, so to speak, and make such a move after the crazy COVID-19 school year?  It is time. I have taught logins and passwords and keyboarding for long enough. 

When I was teaching at a middle school, an 8th grader and I had this dialogue.
Student - Why do you care so much about me?
Me - Why would I not care about you? 
Student - You don't know me?
Me - I don't need to know about someone to care about them.
Student - That's stupid.
Me - Maybe so, but I'd rather live in a world were people care about each other, even strangers.
Student - That's stupid too. 
Me - Maybe, but I still care.

High School is the other extreme. Now I have big kids with big problems, attitudes, and bigger abilities. I have taught this age before and I am looking forward to the change. I was once a high school student, but times have definitely changed. I am teaching six classes in a field that was not taught until college in my high school days. We had one computer lab with 30 or so computers that were reserved for drill-and-kill or typing exercises. The business ed classes still had typewriters that dinged at the end of each line.  I am teaching two Advanced Placement courses. This makes me slightly less nervous because I have actually taught real college programming courses back in the day. So, I know what was expected then at the college level. Now they have moved that content to the high school level. Does that mean all high school students will be ready to take it and pass it? I am about to find out. 

    Heather M. Miller

    This is a space where I post my thoughts on things and ideas in the Computer Lab. I am a K-12 certified Computer Science, Business Education, and Engineering and Technology teacher with ESOL and Gifted Endorsements.

    I'm writing this for myself
    and my colleagues as part of my own teaching practice day-to-day, and for my own self reflection.

    I'm NOT doing this blog for compensation or free products.  If I ever change that personal policy, I'll make that apparent.

    ​Any opinions stated herein are mine and not my school district employer's. 

    Enjoy!

    Archives

    July 2021
    June 2021
    July 2018

    Categories

    All
    10th Grade
    11th Grade
    12th Grade
    1st Grade
    2nd Grade
    3D
    3rd Grade
    4th Grade
    5th Grade
    9th Grade
    Adobe
    AP
    Assessment
    Asynchronous Learning
    Collaboration
    Computers
    Computing
    Design
    Elementary
    ELL
    Graphics
    Hands On
    High School
    Insomnia
    Kindergarten
    Layout
    Offline
    Post Assessment
    Products
    Question Of The Week
    SCRAWL And DO
    Spark
    STEM
    Sticky Notes
    Strategies
    SWIRL
    Teacher
    Thingiverse
    Video
    Word Art

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Chamblee High School
    • AP CSA
    • AP CSP
    • CSP
    • PGAS
    • ​Engineering Apps >
      • STEAM Letters
    • 4th Sci Math Rigor Hope
    • Tech Fair Competition Club
    • Industry Certification CHS
  • About
  • Blog