I usually hate this but it turned out to be a fun day.
My district gets ALL the AP kids together for Super Saturday tutoring for AP subjects. They have different days — and Computer Science is lumped into Math usually.
So we have kids from every high school — busses bring them in. And we've had some real behavior problems — at lunch one year one kid hit another kid hard enough we had to call 911.
We usually host it at Townview — which is a center which houses a bunch of our Magnet schools including SEM (Science and Engineering Magnet) and TAG (Talented and Gifted Magnet).
In the past, it is been a huge chore as the kids were REALLY hard to get along with. The first group was a bit tough but I just sat there (like I do with my 6th period class), and quietly said “you won't get credit for this if I don't present, and I won't present if you are not quiet".
Did the trick.
I also think my Geek toys helped. I demonstrated my “Think Geek” Personal Area Network shirt and they really loved it and one kid wondered outloud if I was getting a cut, but I don't — I just like the shirts — would it be too Geekie if I wore them every day? FYI: http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/unisex/generic/af26 and I'm even mentioned in the product review!!!!!
I also was on the internet with my phone and had my IGo charger plugged into it so I wouldn't lose power. They thought it was cool that it was "3G". iPhone and ATT have done a good job.
I covered the 2006 Design Question and it went well. I was WAY over prepared and that helped too,
The fun part — one kid from the first session asked if I would please come teach at SEM, and the second group all asked if they could come to my school for tutoring.
It got better!!!! At the end of the day, lots of them thanked me!
Oh and they did learn something new — this. For the non-CS person — this is a noun in Java and other programming languages.
Leave a Reply