Hello all. I have been teaching with this curriculum since its inception. My students love the activities! I currently teach in a private school but also taught in a public school. And, after 20 years of teaching CS, this is my favorite course every year in every environment. I always add in news from twitter or social media that relates to the topic as it comes up. For example, our summer assignment was to go through the Bits Book and give a 2 minute flash talk about a topic of interest. I got to learn a lot about the students’ interests and tied their presentations to our class by discussing an article that appeared in the NY Times 9/8 about antitrust laws and big tech (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, etc.) The kids always sigh when class is over…
I make a quizlet of the vocabulary for the students at the end of every unit to help put the content in a neat “school-type” package as they prepare for the tests. I give my own vocab assessments in addition to the Code.org tests and it works well to give the students the tools they need to do well on the test and have the language to handle the ap tasks…
If you need other ideas, please reach out.
Amy