Exciting News!

[Xaos]

I've got some pretty exciting news! Last semester, I emailed one of our teachers about getting programming as a class at our school. The teacher (head of computing classes at our school) said no, it wouldn't be possible, etc. so then I layed out a full plan, how it's possible, why its good, etc. She never responded. So today, I figured out, there will be beginners and intermediate programming next year While no one in the department will say it, I'm 100% taking credit for this. A bunch of the students know it as well. I'm super excited for not only me and people I know, but for future people taking these classes.

[hallsofvallhalla]

awesome! Good for you for bringing what should be taught to young adults to them. I can go on a long rant about how backwards schools are and how we teach the wrong things in school. Good to see some changes no matter how small they are.

[Xaos]

awesome! Good for you for bringing what should be taught to young adults to them. I can go on a long rant about how backwards schools are and how we teach the wrong things in school. Good to see some changes no matter how small they are.

Oh yeah, me too. I was ready to go straight to the principal, come in with a laptop and a PowerPoint and forcibly present to him, but I figured it'd be the same result.

[Jackolantern]

Great job!

But as Halls mentioned, it is ridiculous it had to come to this. I thought my high school was insane for not having programming classes in the 90's lol.

[Xaos]

If anyone is interested, Included is the email exchange.

My first email, to the head of the CTAE department.

Mrs.Brown,

I am very interested in getting a programming class for our school. Because this counts as a CTAE class, I was wondering if I have to go through you, or should I go straight to administration. I have a good pitch and solid ideas, realistic as well. I just need someone top itch the ideas to and to listen to my plea. I am confident in my ability to get the class offered, but like I said, I just need to know who to talk to.

Thanks,
Brian

Her response:

Thanks for your interest in a programming class. Yes it is a CTAE class and it is apart of the Business & comptuer science pathways. We are currently offering 3 pathways in business & computer science that we feel that is best suited and beneficial for our students. Adding programming would mean adding another pathway or cutting a current pathway. With the decrease in business teachers in our department in the recent years it would really be hard to add an additional pathway in the area. Are there any possible dual enrollment options where this could meet your needs. I will look into your request further.

Thank you!

And my response to her BS response. Please, pay close attention to my snarkiness and slight sarcasm. I was angry at her response, lol.

Mrs.Brown,

Is it a requirement to have a full pathway to have one course? I was thinking of it replacing one or two sections of Computer Applications I per year and being offered as more or less an advanced CTAE class, similar to the way Multicultural and British Lit are set up. That way honors/AP students could take a more challenging course for their CTAE credit (though this is not my only reasoning). As far as dual-enrollment, I wasn't specifically speaking for me, I would like there to be the class for people later. I likely would not even have the opportunity to take the class, but I feel strongly about getting more programming courses into schools. I understand fully the difficulties of having shortages of teachers, but even, say, removing one Computer Applications I section per year and one Computer Applications II per year where admission to the class was based on GPA, OR offering both basic and intermediate programming (AP Computer Science is but a pipe dream at this point) on a per-interest basis where admission into the class was based on GPA (both by GPA to be able to keep one section and allow deserving students in) would eliminate some of the understaffing issues we have. Because we already have Computing in the Modern World, these two classes in place of two other classes a year would allow another pathway, but also keep the pathways we have. However, if pathways are not required to add one course, a Beginners a Programming course itself would be great. Again, these are not all of my ideas, nor all of my reasons. This is just preliminary stuff to get more of my ideas heard and possibly get the ball rolling and at least pitch my full idea. I have a lot of the glaring holes covered at least in terms of ideas. I fully understand the handicaps we have as a school, but I also believe strongly enough in this I think I can start something here. Thank you for listening and looking into my request further, and I hope you can set me up with either you or the administration to get my full pitch in and I hope to get feedback from you for the ideas I just presented, even reasons why they wouldn't work.

Thank you,
Brian

[Jackolantern]

That sounds good! It sounded almost more like a staff member's email than a student lol.

But...how are they offering a Computer Science path without a single programming course? That makes no sense to me. What do they teach in it? I know programming isn't the whole of CS (not even close), but it is like the heart of a body. There are few career choices in CS that don't require a foundation in programming at the very least.

[Xaos]

That sounds good! It sounded almost more like a staff member's email than a student lol.

But...how are they offering a Computer Science path without a single programming course? That makes no sense to me. What do they teach in it? I know programming isn't the whole of CS (not even close), but it is like the heart of a body. There are few career choices in CS that don't require a foundation in programming at the very least.

These are the computing classes we have:


Computer Apps I
Computer Apps II
Broadcasting Tech (No idea how this is related to Comp Apps I/II, but it is)

Computing in the Modern World
Web Design
Advanced Web Design
//The listed above use HTML in Dreamweaver to "make websites"

so IDK what she was talking about, honestly. Computer Apps taught Microsoft Office. Comp Apps I taught Word and Excel, Comp Apps II taught Powerpoint, Access and Publisher.

And thanks for the kind words