We started day 2 with a walking tour. We've been using Free Tours by Foot or similar services. No fee or a small reservation fee up front and then pay what you want at the end. We generally haven't been disappointed and also generally end up tipping voluntarily about the same amount as what we'd pay for a pay up front tour. We walked around downtown getting more local and US history and learning about the city.

Depending how you looked at things, I started my retirement this past Fall. Part of the plan was for Devorah and I to travel a bit more - something we rarely got to do when we were younger. I did have a great trip with Batya to Holland and Belgium but Devorah and I, other than a couple of weekend getaways, weren't able to go anywhere. We planned to finally have a trip in January but I broke a toe.

Saw this earlier as posted on Linkedin by Pat Yongpradit of code.org. According to the article, nine out of ten educators think that students should be taught how AI works prior to graduating from high school. How it works, not just how to use it. This is a good thing. Sure, opinions vary as to when to teach it - elementary, high school, or across the board but still, a good thing.

There was a discussion to day on a the Facebook CS Educators group about project based learning. This was initiated based on the College Board's desire to more more project work in some classes including APCS-A. Most, actually I think all of the educators on the forum agreed that students creating projects are a good idea but the bone of contention was over real world projects vs what I'll call practice projects.

Earlier today, I saw a linkedin post by Code.org's Pat Yongpradit summarizing a series of articles on AI in K12 classrooms in Ed Week. I couldn't get far into the articles due to paywall restrictions but Pat's summary and the ensuing comments and discussion let me to writing this. One thing that stuck out in the comments, and this has been a recurring theme in AI in K12 classroom discussions is that a teacher who allows students to use AI, teaches AI, etc.

I read this morning that David Bouley has passed away at age 70. Bouley was an influential chef in New York city. A huge influence on the fine dining scene that has developed in the last few decades. Why am I, a retired computer science teacher writing about a decorated chef? As fate had it, there are some connections between David Bouley and Stuyvesant High School, specifically the new building, where I spent most of my career.

One of the things I want to do now that I have some time is get my head around all the modern AI stuff. I'm starting with a review or things I've already done by going through Andrew Ng's Coursera ML class. I'll probably continue with his courses but I'm certainly open to any suggestions (specifically for a CS guy who's not so strong on the math side). This means diving back into Python even though Clojure is usually my weapon of choice.

Went back to school yesterday. Specifically, I was back at Stuy running an AI panel discussion for the Stuy HS Alumni Association. I figured it's time for me to get back in the CS / CS Ed game. Plans started a few months ago when a member of my Stuy CS family who's also in the SHSAA board asked about doing something. I was game but a little apprehensive, mostly because there have been, let's say, issues with the way the SHSAA had operated in the past.

A teacher in one of the CSEd forums I'm part of asked for thoughts on what low level language to teach. She also asked about scripting but I'm not going address that here. The question came, aparently due to state guidelines which were somewhat vague. I couldn't find the specific guidelines but I did find old guidelines that indicated that the course in question was intended to be post APCS-A.

This morning, I read Arthur Goldstein's latest blog post. Arthur, is a relatively recently retired NYC public school teacher, a UFT (United Federation of Teachers) chapter leader, and a frequent critic of Michael Mulgrew, the current and long term UFT president. I'm a union guy through and through but I also, like Arthur, believe that UFT's leadership is neither pro-teacher nor pro-student but rather pro-themselves. It's a rather sad state of affairs.