Dear Computer Science Teachers (MS)

Computer Science
1

Middle School 5th (my middle school started at 5th) to 8th.

Based on experience:
A lot of things that the average middle schooler learns the computer criteria is about online safety, social media, graphic design, etc. Yes I did not say computer science because a lot of computer science classes do not talk about coding that much or not at all for most of middle school. A lot of students think coding is boring, too hard, not fun, and all that. Most teachers introduce coding with a few simple things then go to a bit more complex project style but these projects are good to teach them, it may give them an impression that coding is boring. I suggest some game like projects.

Something that I really think is important is you may have a student who is really into computer science. If you know that they are good at it you could give them more complex projects.

speaking the mind of a student to teachers

Thank you to all teachers.

2

You'll be pleased to know that my Berkeley colleague Dan Garcia and my EDC colleague Mary Fries, among others, are developing a BJC middle school curriculum as we speak. (Only it's not going to be called that, because there's no reason high school freshmen couldn't take it.)

3

Usually, learning your first programming language is hard. But after you learn one, learning another is a breeze.
For example, I know: Python, Bash, and JavaScript.

4

But some students think it is so hard that they will never learn it so they do not try.