It's teacher appreciation week again so I thought I'd show some appreciation. In the past, I've specifically written about some of the teachers who were particularly influential on me growing up. I've also written about how I'm not a huge fan of teacher appreciation week as a whole. Today, I wanted to talk about colleagues who deserve more appreciation from their students and schools than they might be getting. Now, this isn't to say that they're not getting the love but I wanted to add my two cents to make sure.

Should we use MongoDB in High School? That's the question. Usually when I give a post such a title, I already have an opinion - it'll be a yes or no and if it's yes, I'll have a plan. Not this time. My gut tells me there's a place for it but I'm not sure where. Besides, that's not what this post is really about. At one point during SIGCSE 2023, I stopped by the MongoDB booth.

Over the past few years, a number of states have acknowledged Computer Science as an academic area of study and have created pathways for certification. The actual requirements vary from state to state and indeed, even within a given state, there's a lot of variation. Here in New York, for instance there are some strong programs that will truly prepare a candidate to teach CS in K12 but too many others that are just "certificate mills" and the state doesn't seem to care.

Last up we have paper sessions, which include experience reports and lightening talks. Probably won't write as much on this - I'm a little SIGCSE posted out. One interesting note was a semi-recurring theme of "the hidden curriculum." I say semi-recurring because while it appeared in three sessions I attended - two experience reports and one lightening talk, each time, the speakers were referring to a different "hidden curriculum."

I generally enjoy both panels and special sessions at SIGCSE over paper sessions. Don't get me wrong, paper sessions can be great but with those you can always read the paper and all to frequently there's not a lot of value added beyond the paper itself. Panels and special sessions can't just be read in the proceedings. For one panel session I had to choose between Enduring Lessons from ‘Computer Science for All’ for AI Education in Schools

I saw three keynotes, I also went to three Birds of a Feather sessions (BOFS). Three was possible as SIGCSE added a third "flock" this year. I didn't take notes since BOFS should be pretty interactive so I won't be able to give too much in terms of content summaries bu hopefully I'll be able to convey the gist of what went on. Two of the BOFS I attended were good, the third was, if I'm to be honest, pretty awful.

I wrote about the first keynote in my day 1 post. Today I'll talk about two more. There were two additional keynotes during luncheons but I didn't attend those. First up was Jane Plane titled "Find Your Drop and Add to the River." Strong keynote but it spoke to me in a very different way than the first keynote. The first keynote was maybe the first talk I've heard by someone thought of as an education expert who actually spoke the measured truth rather than eduspeak propaganda.

We stayed an extra day in Portland to do some site seeing. I'll write about the tourist side in my final SIGCSE2024 post. Right now, we're back in the hotel resting before dinner so I thought I'd start the next part of my SIGCSE2024 report. For Day one's first session, I attended Colleen Lewis's Microteaching session. I've wrote about this session last year and also about Colleen's recent appearance on the CSEd podcast where she discussed manipulatives.

Last time I was in Portland Oregon was March 2020. Came in for SIGCSE - the big CS Education conference. Got in a couple of days early, played tourist, and then morning of, everything was canceled. Flew back to NYC on a near empty jet and Covid became very, very real. March 2024 and I'm back in Portland and SIGCSE's giving it another go. This time I came out with my daughter Batya who's developed an interest in CS education and my wife Devorah who's been playing tourist while we've been conferencing.

I saw a few days ago that Yale was reinstating the SAT. They're joining Dartmouth and Brown of the Ivies as well as MIT. I have no idea what percent of applicants, let alone percent those receiving offers, took the exam anyway for other school applications. Some of my friends thought this was great - a return to standards!!!! Others felt it was a regressive move and it will hurt diversity and equity.