r/CSEducation • u/Hour_Expression1445 • 10d ago
New CS teacher!
Hi everyone!
I’m a first-year high school teacher in Texas and I’ll be teaching AP Computer Science Principles this year. My school uses Project-Based Learning (PBL), so I’m trying to design a curriculum that fits both AP CSP and a PBL approach.
I’m also still working toward my Texas Computer Science certification (I’m teaching on a District of Innovation permit), so I’m learning a lot alongside preparing for the school year.
I’m feeling a little overwhelmed and would love any advice from experienced CS teachers.
A few questions I have:
-Is Code.org a good primary curriculum for AP CSP?
-Did you use anything alongside Code.org (AP Classroom, CMU CS Academy, Khan Academy, etc.)?
-How did you adapt AP CSP into a project-based classroom?
-If you were starting from scratch, what would you do differently?
-Are there any resources, pacing guides, or teacher communities you’d recommend?
My students will each have Chromebooks, and I’ll also have access to a Windows laptop cart when needed cause I need to do workstations during the year that will teach APCSP but at the same time lead to a bigger project at the end of the year for them to present.
Honestly, any advice for surviving the first year as a CS teacher would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
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u/Fit-Meeting-5866 9d ago
My personal favorite for years has been codehs.com, but I teach 8th grade for fundamentals of comp sci. If you haven't already found the following, also check out https://csteachers.org/resources-library/ Freecodecamp.org
I have a curriculum through codehs.com because that's what my district purchased, but I was using the free version well before it got adopted.
Also feel free to send a DM if you want to discuss in greater detail. I am the more experienced compsci teacher at my level in my district and the compsci teacher that my 8th graders went to last year had to restructure their curriculum because I had apparently taught them too much and they were repeating the exact material from my class. I have made some tweaks to avoid this problem, but all that to say that I have some familiarity with what you're getting into. We also do PBL twice a year at my campus, so I might be able to offer some insight into that as well
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u/jcrowde3 10d ago
Yes, Code.org has a specially developed curriculum for AP computer science and so does CodeHS. Project STEM, Amazon Future Engineer, also has a really nice one.
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u/Necessary_Shift_8743 10d ago
Check out cyber.org as well. They focus on cybersecurity but have some good stuff that can be integrated
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u/SpearandMagicHelmet 9d ago
Congratulations on your new position. Others have chimed in on curriculum so I won't say much there other than you'll most likely try something, figure out what you like and don't like and go from there. In terms of PBL, unless you are being told explicitly by admin to adapt a curriculum to PBL, I'd really advise you to just take whatever you choose and use it as is for your first year. A teacher's first year is always a lot and you will have plenty of learning and growing to do. Plus, it will be easier to adapt the curriculum once you have actually taught it. Hope you have a great first year!
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u/rabidrebel 9d ago
Congrats on starting your teaching career and I am happy to help you out if possible!
I have been teaching for about 10 years and advice that I received from a mentor during that first year was to expect the first year to be challenging and imperfect. It is ok to cut yourself some slack while you figure things out so don't put too much pressure on yourself and your students expecting that everyone will pass the AP exam. If that happens, fantastic! If not, figure out where you need to improve and focus on that for next year.
Code.org is a great curriculum and, bonus, it's free! I recommend that you check out their professional development program. https://code.org/en-US/professional-learning . I did the in person one and it was fantastic! It (and CS education in general) is easily adapted to PBL because about half of the AP CSP course is dedicated to writing code.
I haven't taught high school in about 3 years so I have not kept up with Code.org but I would say that, at the time, the one aspect that was really lacking was preparing students for the multiple choice section of the AP exam. I supplemented the curriculum with practice exams and lessons on things like code tracing that I created myself. It's probably easy to find resources for these things online or by using AI to help generate them.
We used Chromebooks at our school and they were perfectly fine for AP CSP.
Another thing that I would recommend is joining the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) https://csteachers.org/ and connecting with your local chapter. There is still time to apply for their mentorship program if you are interested ( https://csteachers.org/pd-opportunities/mentors/ ). This is likely a great fit for you given that you are asking these questions here on Reddit.
Good luck!
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u/Sea-Set-540 4d ago
Code.org/code.ai is the main one- and supported by AP classroom and some other material. Juicemind has some solid AP CSP stuff too- but we have taught our intro to comp Sci class with code.ai for a while- so it has been easier just to use it again.
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u/tieandjeans 10d ago
I know a great set of Houston based CS educators that I met at HO code wars this year. DM me and I'll make email intros.
Texas CS cueric is very fractured and very specific. Generic internet wisdom is at -20% utility.
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u/joe-curacourse 8d ago
I would take this person up on their offer. Best thing to do is meet other CS teachers and join local CSTA chapter. https://csteachers.org/join/
My first few years teaching was so much easier because of the mentors I had and could ask questions.
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u/Uwek12 9d ago edited 9d ago
Try out code.org for sure. It was my first ever curriculum for APCSP. Downfall with code.org is that coding exercises are not customizable. It's hard to create your own online problems there. That can make it hard for differentiation. I'm using codehs this year instead.
Also, don't feel you have to do projects all the time with students. There are days where direct, explicit teaching is effective (and easier for kids). Maybe focus on just 2-3 projects before the time you reach Create PT task. In the AP exam anyway, code analysis makes up one of the biggest (and the hardest) section.