When I started this long term assignment, the computer science classes were doing a "careers" unit. But there were only so many days I could go over how to interview and they only needed so much time to construct a resume.
Besides, I was getting bored. And if I was bored, I was sure they were bored, too.
Once I felt like I'd covered everything (well, not everything, but enough so they knew the basics), it was time to get back into the computer science of the thing. But, I don't know computer science.
The classes are built on lessons from code.org. Their assignments have been on that website.
It turned out, the lesson plans for each lesson contained a slideshow to show to the class, and a lesson plan with a script.
Of course, the assumption is that the teacher actually knows what she's talking about, so the script is more talking points to help direct where the lesson should go.
That's not how I've been using it, though.
The next unit on the agenda was about algorithms. So, gamely, I got the slides ready, and I prepared to "teach" the lesson. I read ahead and saw that they needed sticky notes, so I got them sticky notes. We got into the lesson...
I have two periods of computer science. One period gamely went through the lesson.
The other period? Half of them were completely tuned out, playing games on their computers or phones.
Sigh.
But that was half the class. The other half was attempting the lesson.
Did they learn anything? I hope so. At least it was more interesting than another lesson on how to answer "Tell me about yourself".