"Programming is easy to learn, but hard to understand."

This was said by one of my AP students recently.  While he got a lot of laughs, he did have a valid point.

Yes, on the surface programming isn't that hard to get ... brackets here, semicolons there, make sure everything is in the right code block, got it.

But figuring out how to make an accumulator for the first time?  Or change a while loop to a for loop?  Those are tougher questions that new programmers struggle with.  These things that might seem easy on the surface are often more complicated.

As a second year teacher, I completely understand the "this is more complicated than I thought it was going to be" thing.  Being a new teacher means planning lessons, making copies, and grading assignments for 10+ hours each day.  And then maybe working on Saturday and Sunday afternoon to get ready for the next week.

Sometimes I start writing a Google Presentation on something that I think will be super easy to explain.  Two hours later, I have a complete lesson that - even though I've spent hours on it - will end up having bugs that I'll have to work out next year ... if I teach the same preps.

So yeah, it's a lot.

But all that work to teach computer science is completely worth it when you see your students refusing to stop programming when the bell rings.  When does that happen in statistics class or 8th hour?  (Never, that's when!)

When it comes to teaching programming, I definitely don't have all the answers.  But I do have some tips and tricks that have helped me not totally fail yet.  Hopefully they will help you too!