Final Activity - Your Final CS Teaching Statement

Disclaimer

This activity could very easily be the final "competency demo" for this course.  

In fact, I waffled back and forth between doing it like this, as an activity, versus out on the main course webpage and treating it like a final exam/competency demo.  My fear is that by putting it here I downplay the real weight and significance of what I want you to do with this activity.  You see it much more like a speed-bump than a major activity. However, in the end I decided that it belonged here.  Primarily because I think that what I am about to ask you to do is so personal that it isn't fair to you for me to actually "grade" it. Your beliefs may not align with mine - and that's OK!  You need to feel comfortable speaking your mind about what you now believe about teaching and learning.  You need to know that this is being "graded" only based on the metric of did you turn it in and does it show evidence of effort.

But I can't emphasize enough how much I BELIEVE that being honest with yourself and reflecting on your thoughts about teaching and learning in computer science is a beneficial and potentially transformative activity.  I can't emphasize enough how much I want you to take this "last" activity seriously as you wrap up this course and, for some of you, the entire endorsement process.  Take the time to really reflect on what you think/believe about teaching and learning in computer science and how that does, and will continue, to have an impact on the classroom(s) that you run.

It is very much my hope that by writing this "manifesto" you take the time to reflect on what it means to teach computer science (and, perhaps even, teach in general) and that you can use this reflection to help you talk to schools about who you are and will be as a teacher. Why they want to have YOU and not someone else.

Instructions

To wrap up the course - heck, to wrap up your entire program! - I want you to write a final essay/manifesto that explains your personal thoughts about teaching and learning of computer science and how that is influenced by pedagogy. 

Take some time to think back over everything you have learned - not only in this course, but in the four CS courses that have come before it.  Think about what you have learned/believe/feel about teaching and learning not only based on the materials in the courses, but also as being a student/learner in those courses.  You likely (hopefully!) spent some time thinking about what I was doing as a faculty member and reflecting on what did or didn't work for you.  I hope that as part of this you were starting to reflect - either consciously or subconsciously - about what you think makes bad/good/best practice in teaching and learning of computer science.

The format of this document can take whatever format fits for YOU. But show me in this final essay that you have thought about teaching and learning and YOUR place in the world when it comes to this discipline.