<p>My daughter’s CS teacher is in the same boat as you - real world CS and engineering experience and decided she wanted to be a teacher. CS is only offered if enough students sign up and the teacher is not good with Java and really doesn’t like teaching the class but does it because she knows the students want it. She is a spectacular AP Calc AB and AP Calc BC teacher but not good with CS. Here is advice from my daughter:</p>
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<li><p>Get comfortable with Java so that you can explain the concepts well instead of letting your students try to figure it out for themselves.</p></li>
<li><p>Lecture before you assign a new programming concept so the students can learn the concept and then give a lab so they can practice what they learned. Her teacher just turns them loose on the lab and they have to teach themselves.</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t make your students take the AP test if they don’t feel they can do well. My daughter’s teacher makes them take the AP test and my daughter is interested in CS so she would need to take it again in college anyway to actually learn Java correctly so the test is a waste of money and time (and my husband is currently unemployed so the wasted $89 is a hard pill to swallow). My daughter’s teacher said if the students don’t take the test they will be given a similar test that will be counted in their grade. Since the teacher hasn’t taught much about Java, the in-class test could be brutal and would negatively impact the student’s grade.</p></li>
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