Joanne Lau has been teaching in NH for 24 years. She began as a math teacher and migrated over to teaching CS eight years ago. Joanne is currently teaching computer science at Inter-Lakes Middle/High School.
How long have you been a CSTANH member? 8 years
How has being involved in CSTA been beneficial to you? When I first switched over to CS, this was where I found out about a lot of professional development offerings for new and experienced CS teachers. I also found it helpful to connect with other educators of computer science to aid me with questions I had about teaching practices for this content area and available curriculum. I have found that CS teachers are very willing to help other teachers and are eager to share resources and knowledge.
What would you say is the best professional development you have attended for CS? There are just so many options out there. What I have found that is very different from being a math teacher is that a lot of options out there are free or have no cost. I have attended many PD opportunities since becoming a CS teacher and I find that I really appreciate that the facilitators work to meet teachers where they are. One of the most recent trainings I have attended was offered by Teach Cyber two summers ago. I found this training helped me to create a new Cybersecurity course at my school. My students enjoyed this new course so much that I'm pursuing other Cybersecurity training opportunities to continue to expand my content knowledge.
Many of the PD offerings that I have taken part in are very course-specific and I feel that this is helpful for a new teacher because we learn relevant information and then can apply it immediately.
What courses are you teaching this year?
Intro to CS using Code.org CS Discoveries
Smart Technologies
AP - Computer Science Principles using Code.org & CMU Academy
Cybersecurity using Teach Cyber
Website Development using CodeHS
Game Design using CodeHS
8th Grade CS Survey Course
What is your favorite course you teaching this year? AP - Computer Science Principles! I like teaching this course because there is a lot of variety in the course. It is more of a survey of computer science than some of the other classes I teach.