Never give up, keep trying
Yesterday, 3 students and I left Avila College early in the morning to attend and speak at the annual conference of
Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria, DigiCon15. We were there
speak about our experience in the first year of VCE Algorithmics.
Our session was straight after morning
tea. We spoke to a group of teachers considering offering the subject
at their respective schools. I presented my experience as a teacher
and the students told of their own joys and struggles with the
content of this very ambitious course.
The common themes in what all four of
us said were: Great content and lack of resources. The teachers in
attendance left with a better idea of the work involved in teaching
the subject: I told them it would take over their lives in the first
year. I was not exaggerating!
The most important part of our
presentation came at the end, when the audience had 15 minutes to ask
us questions. Most of these were directed to the students and they
answered them brilliantly. One answer that stuck in my mind came in
response to the question: "What is the best advice you could
give to prospective students?" They said: "Never give up,
keep trying. The problems are hard but you get a great feeling when
you solve them." These are the very students for whom this course was designed.
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