It
has been a year. And recounting a year takes a while (much longer
than a page and the hour in which I have left to write this), so I
will attempt to do justice to the impact your class has had on me.
In Sci-Tech, Mr. Pace told us that his class would change our lives.
It didn't. I don't know if Comp Sci changed my life (that sounds too
philosophical), but I am really glad I took it and know I would miss
the experiences it gave me if I hadn't. Incidentally, on the AP
survey questions before every exam, Comp Sci was the only one that I
said had a profound impact on my decision in what to major. I do not
want to major in Comp Sci. But that's okay, because it is a very
good thing to do hard and unknown things and I am glad I pushed my
boundaries into practical education. That said, I think I'm gonna
stay on the liberal arts side from now on. Throughout the whole year
you mentioned that the farther we got along, the easier the things at
the beginning would seem. I think that is true. Sorting and
searching seems difficult and “Hello World” seems elementary. It
seems silly to think at one point I had trouble writing that simple 3
line piece of code. In any case, I have come a long way since then
and I'm happy to have made the journey. It was difficult, humbling
and educational, so I think I can safely say I learned the most from
your class out of all my classes this year (though perhaps not enough
to get a 4 on the AP).
I
don't know what you could have done better as a teacher. I am no
expert on Computer Science and can't advise you on what topics to
cover more; my only experience comes from the AP. I think we were
all very prepared for the multiple choice. Worksheets, quizzes and
tests drilled those questions into our heads. Keep up the good work,
it helps. As for free response, apparently most other people liked
it on the AP, but I didn't. I would request you do more free
response on paper throughout the year, and cut people off from their
partners earlier. Maybe let them use the powerpoints more instead.
I think that would have helped me.
You
should definitely give people more work. Because I didn't do a lot
of the work the first semester and kind of skated by. I don't know
how hard a class AP Comp Sci is supposed to be, but if it prepares
most people for the AP, then I guess it succeeds regardless of
difficulty. That said, I know if I really cared and didn't waste
time or stare blankly at the screen, I would have achieved much more.
The people who actually understand the material get it done in a
fraction of the time it takes us stragglers. I don't know if the
stragglers should be so accommodated for...I certainly feel that in
my case my inability to get work done was a lack of effort in
learning it. If someone can learn it in a second and it takes me a
day then I ought to spend the day. Of course, a lot of people will
just take the zero (including myself in practice more often than
not...) I don't actually know what I am trying to suggest exactly,
but maybe you could give weekly multiple choice packets for homework
or something, I don't know. Just make the class harder to keep
people like me from thinking it won't require effort.
On
a nicer note, I really enjoyed having you as a teacher. I enjoyed
talking to you after tutoring and I think you are a really chill guy.
And thanks for letting me borrow the X-Box controllers, I am gonna
get those (with the ethernet cord) back to you on Tuesday. Maybe I
will have already if you don't read this this weekend.
So
yeah, thank you Mr. Stephens. Thank you for being a nurturing
teacher, thank you for trying time and time again to shove Java into
my stubborn brain, and thank you for being a nice guy. When people
ask me if they should take Computer Science I tell them that if they
are good at Comp Sci they ought to take it because it will be easy.
Then I tell them that if they are bad at Comp Sci they should take it
anyway because it will make them a better person and they can't do
too badly because Mr. Stephens is really chill. I hope you get
cursed with an endless string of people like me for as long as you
teach here as your reputation of chillness permeates throughout the
congregations of liberal arts students. And I do hope you teach here
for a while longer because I do plan to come back and visit.
Thanks
for a great year. Take care, Mr. Stephens.
