Now that I'm not teaching CS every day, I find the desire to maybe write about some other things. I've still got a bunch of CS and education posts lined up, but for today, something different. I was out for my morning run a couple of days ago. I usually leave my apartment between 5:00 and 5:45, go to the Hudson River and run an out and back. It's still pretty quiet at that time.

Usually, when I write about a teacher get together it's either my StuyCS people or CS educators. Last week, it was another group. Each year, Devorah, along with a bunch of her former colleagues from the Manhattan Center for Science and Math (MCSM) get together for a year end celebration. They've been doing this for something like 20 years even though most of the crew is retired now and all but I think one or two have left MCSM.

It's been about a year since I taught my last class. I miss working with the kids and truth be told, I do miss working with other educators and tech professionals on programs, policy items and related but I don't miss any of the bureaucratic nonsense, policies made by people who don't know what they're doing, nor the record keeping, grading or paperwork. I spent the first few months in what I've been calling my retirement hibernation but more recently it's been time to emerge.

Time for another travel post. Figured that by posting here there's more permanence and search-ability than a Facebook or other post. So, Devorah and I are spending a few days in Philly. We started coming down here a year or so ago and this is our third trip. It's a nearby getaway from NYC and we've got friends here that we rarely get to see. Sports fans notwithstanding I'm surprised that Philly doesn't get more love from NYC people looking for relatively nearby travel.

Last week Devorah and I attended the Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association's annual fundraising gala. We were there as guests of the Alumni Association since, as retired teachers, gala tickets are generally out of our budget range. We had a great time. I spent time with a bunch of former students spanning the years, some current teachers I hadn't seen since I left Stuy, as well as new Stuy alums and current students.

It's teacher appreciation week again so I thought I'd show some appreciation. In the past, I've specifically written about some of the teachers who were particularly influential on me growing up. I've also written about how I'm not a huge fan of teacher appreciation week as a whole. Today, I wanted to talk about colleagues who deserve more appreciation from their students and schools than they might be getting. Now, this isn't to say that they're not getting the love but I wanted to add my two cents to make sure.

Should we use MongoDB in High School? That's the question. Usually when I give a post such a title, I already have an opinion - it'll be a yes or no and if it's yes, I'll have a plan. Not this time. My gut tells me there's a place for it but I'm not sure where. Besides, that's not what this post is really about. At one point during SIGCSE 2023, I stopped by the MongoDB booth.

Over the past few years, a number of states have acknowledged Computer Science as an academic area of study and have created pathways for certification. The actual requirements vary from state to state and indeed, even within a given state, there's a lot of variation. Here in New York, for instance there are some strong programs that will truly prepare a candidate to teach CS in K12 but too many others that are just "certificate mills" and the state doesn't seem to care.

Last up we have paper sessions, which include experience reports and lightening talks. Probably won't write as much on this - I'm a little SIGCSE posted out. One interesting note was a semi-recurring theme of "the hidden curriculum." I say semi-recurring because while it appeared in three sessions I attended - two experience reports and one lightening talk, each time, the speakers were referring to a different "hidden curriculum."

I generally enjoy both panels and special sessions at SIGCSE over paper sessions. Don't get me wrong, paper sessions can be great but with those you can always read the paper and all to frequently there's not a lot of value added beyond the paper itself. Panels and special sessions can't just be read in the proceedings. For one panel session I had to choose between Enduring Lessons from ‘Computer Science for All’ for AI Education in Schools