Mike Zamansky
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Mike Zamansky
@zamansky.bsky.social
260 followers 260 following 72 posts
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One of the hot education topics in New York with the upcoming mayoral election is gifted education. From what I've seen, we usually talk about having or not having programs but not about how gifted programs should be run.

Here are some of my thoughts:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/gifted...
Gifted Education - Acceleration or Enrichment - C’est la Z
Last week my StuyCS family community had a discussion about Zohran Mamdani's plans for gifted education. For people outside of New York, Mamdani is the Democratic candidate for mayor and there was a r...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
October 10, 2025 at 3:35 PM
New York State just announced that it's creating a centralized policy for Dual Credit courses - college courses in Highs school - an alternative to the AP program.

My thoughts and a comparison of both approaches:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/dual-c...
Dual Credit Or AP - C’est la Z
I saw this release from NYSED the other day. New York State wants to create a standard set of policies and procedures for schools implementing Dual Credit programs. A Duel Credit class is a college cl...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
September 15, 2025 at 8:11 PM
In the latest CSEd Podcast, Kristin Stephens-Martinez talks to William Griswold about his practice of meeting with students outside of class. Great episode. My spin over on my blog relates this to high school as well: cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/csed-p...
CS Ed Podcast, connecting with students, and a little AI - C’est la Z
I listened to the latest episode of Kristen Stephen-Martinez's CS Ed Podcast. The episode focused on Professor Emeritus, William G. Griswold, of UCSD's practice of requiring students meet with him out...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
September 7, 2025 at 7:44 PM
A couple of things I want to keep an eye on over the upcoming school year:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/school...
Looking at the start of school for 2025 - C’est la Z
Today is Labor Day. That means that tomorrow NYC public school teachers return to work. I mean, not me - I'm still happily retired but still I have many friends going back. Kids come back on Thursday....
cestlaz.zamansky.net
September 2, 2025 at 12:10 AM
My final post on #CSTA2025 - what was good, what was bad, some suggestions and a bit on Cleveland.

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/csta-2...
CSTA 2025 7 - the good, the bad, and the Cleveland - C’est la Z
Lets start off with Cleveland and then we'll get to my suggestions for the CSTA. Cleveland I never had a chance to explore Cleveland before. I was actually in the city once before, for a junior nation...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
July 23, 2025 at 4:05 PM
My final post on #CSTA2025 - a little on a couple of specific good points from the conference and a couple of suggestions for improvement. That plus a bit of Cleveland.
July 23, 2025 at 2:52 PM
More on #CSTA2025 #CSED. The Exhibit hall, hallway track and receptions. Spent most of the time at the Pickcode and CodeHS booths but there was a lot more going on.

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/csta-2...
CSTA 2025 6 - Exhibit hall and receptions - C’est la Z
Exhibit Hall Let's start with the exhibit hall. First things I noticed that while Amazon, Google, and Microsoft were all listed as sponsors, none of them had booths in the exhibition space. This was a...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
July 20, 2025 at 10:13 PM
The rest of the the sessions I attended at #CSTA2025, Great panel on CS Ed in the age of AI moderated by Pat Yongpradit and BT Twarek consisting of Julie York, Maya Israel, Allen Antoine and Jacob Shulman followed by a discussion of the CSTA teacher survey
cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/csta-2...
CSTA 2025 5 - Day 3 part 2 - C’est la Z
Let's talk about the final two sessions I attended. The Future of Computer Science Education in an Age of AI This was a panel. Pat Yongpradit and BT Twarek co-moderated a panel consisting of Julie Yor...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
July 18, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Continuing my recap of #SIGCSE2025 - today two more sessions. One by @neilcbrown.bsky.social showing off a nice new Python programming environment and one by Joseph Maxwell sharing a program he built that gives students a chance to learn real SWE skills.

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/csta-2...
CSTA 2025 part 4 - day 3, part 1 - C’est la Z
Thursday, day 3. This was my last conference day since I had to leave bright and early on Friday. Four more sessions. As I started to write them up I thought things were getting a little long so this ...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
July 17, 2025 at 11:51 PM
#CSTA2025 day 3. Four talks including a great session by Chris Orban, Mahmoud Harding, Jacob Koressel, and Tiffany Davis and another fun one by Colleen Lewis and Maria Camarena:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/csta-2...
CSTA 2025 3 - day 2 - C’est la Z
Four sessions up for today. First one "Certified to Rock: Cleveland's Journey in CS Teacher Prep." Basically a discussion of the pathways for teachers to become CS certified in Cleveland. It wasn't a ...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
July 16, 2025 at 8:42 PM
#CSTA2025 - the sessions I attended on the first day. One great session on AI and one not so great:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/csta-2...
CSTA 2025 Part 2- Opening day - C’est la Z
With the keynotes out of the way, let's get to some sessions. First up, Tuesday - day 1. The morning was set for workshops. I didn't attend any of those but I did go to two afternoon sessions. One was...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
July 15, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Start of my recap series for #CSTA2025 - keynotes and overview:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/csta-2...
CSTA 2025 Part 1 - overview and keynotes - C’est la Z
Just got back from CSTA 2025. Well, not directly. Last Monday Devorah and I got in the car and drove to Cleveland for the festivities. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay for the duration - I had to miss ...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
July 14, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Reposted by Mike Zamansky
alfredtwo.bsky.social
Teaching Computer Science in the Age of Artificial Intelligence blog.acthompson.net/2025/06/teac... #CSed #AI
Teaching Computer Science in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
A blog about computer science education. Projects, resources, and ideas for teaching, learning, and using computer science. By a teacher for teachers.
blog.acthompson.net
June 30, 2025 at 8:07 PM
There was an article recently in the NYT on teaching CS in the age of AI. It discussed challenges for colleges as well industry demands.

My take:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/teachi...
Teaching CS in the Age of AI - my two cents - C’est la Z
Saw this article in the New York Times yesterday. It's been making its rounds. There was some discussion in some of the CS Ed related online groups, my friend Alfred Thompson posted his take here, and...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
July 1, 2025 at 12:29 PM
I'm seeing more and more antisemitism out there from people who should know better. I wrote this post about a really cool store I visited recently, what they had up, why it's antisemitic and why it's important to speak out against it.

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/cool-s...
Cool store that I can’t support. Maybe ignorance, maybe antisemitism. - C’est la Z
Warning: This post is political and involves my views on antisemitism and the Gaza situation. So, in my travels over the past year or so, I've been trying to hit independent book stores or otherwise c...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
June 7, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Saw an article the other day saying that CS teachers without a strong background might be better than teachers in other areas with strong backgrounds (article linked in blog post) - I disagree #CSEd :

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/better...
Better teachers - CS teachers without CS or Math teachers with math - C’est la Z
This article made its rounds this past week. It cites a couple of papers claiming that CS teachers are delivering better instruction and might be better qualified than teachers in other subject areas....
cestlaz.zamansky.net
May 2, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Recently, an article has been making it's rounds in the #CSEd community on having different intro CS classes for different purposes.

My thoughts here:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/pathwa...
How many roads for intro CS - C’est la Z
How many different intro CS courses should we have? A question that resurfaces periodically. This time due to an article in which C++ creator Bjarne Stroustrup posits that different audiences would be...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
April 22, 2025 at 11:31 PM
I've been seeing a lot on vibe coding recently. "Coding" by prompting AI repeatedly - no actual problem solving involved.

I've also seen people saying how great it is as an educational tool, something I disagree with. #CSED

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/vibe-c...
Vibe coding doesn’t jibe - C’est la Z
The truth is, I don't use those modern AI tools much. I'm not doing much coding and when I do, I've been using Clojure or Elisp - not so mainstream so as to have all sorts of AI support. For writing? ...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
April 7, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Following up on my last post: On using slide decks in teaching:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/on-sli...
On Slide Decks - C’est la Z
Based on some of the feedback I got on my last post, I thought I'd dive a little deeper on using slide decks. I had some people tell me that they too found that slide decks didn't work for them while ...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
March 31, 2025 at 7:46 PM
I read a great blog post the other day by Kristin Stephens-Martinez. Got me thinking about the practice described and differences in teacher prep in K12 vs what instructors get in college. Here I rif on it (and the original blog post is linked in mine):

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/daily-...
The Daily Aim - C’est la Z
The other day I read Kristin Stephens-Martinez's latest blog post talking about how she has started to insert a daily plan slide at the front of her class slide decks. Stephens-Martinez, you might kno...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
March 27, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by Mike Zamansky
alfredtwo.bsky.social
What really is in a cyber security course in high schools? blog.acthompson.net/2025/03/high...
High School Cybersecurity Course–What Belongs
A blog about computer science education. Projects, resources, and ideas for teaching, learning, and using computer science. By a teacher for teachers.
blog.acthompson.net
March 25, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Do we teach CS in K12 for future CS majors, for non CS majors or both? Riffing on recent posts by Mark Guzdial and Alfred Thompson #CSEd

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/cs-for...
CS For All or All for CS? - C’est la Z
Is it CS for All or is it All for CS? CS for All, to me has always meant exposing all students to CS for two reasons. First, so that every student gains some understanding of CS and also so that some ...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
March 24, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Wrapping up my #SIGCSETS2025 coverage #CSD

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/sigcse...
Sigcse 2025 part 4 - sessions and the rest - C’est la Z
To finish up, we'll look at some of the other sessions I attended but first a couple of notes. One thing I again noticed was the lack of pedagogy sessions. Maybe I missed something but other than Nift...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
March 21, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Last week was my second and final week back at Stuy teaching CS. Here's what went down #CSEd:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/back-i...
Back in the Classroom - Week 2 - C’est la Z
So last week I completed my second and final week back at Stuy teaching CS. We spent Monday finishing up the mode lesson and then spent most of the week on this topic - writing a computer program to a...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
March 18, 2025 at 8:16 PM
More thoughts on #SIGCSETS2025, this time, Birds of a Feather sessions #CSED :

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/sigcse...
SIGCSETS 2025 part 3 - BOFs - C’est la Z
Once again, there were three sets of Birds of a Feather sessions. Two at the end of the day on Thursday but before the big reception and one partly over lunch on Friday. Last year I enjoyed two but wa...
cestlaz.zamansky.net
March 13, 2025 at 3:29 PM