Top products from r/CSEducation
We found 7 product mentions on r/CSEducation. We ranked the 7 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
1. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition (Informal Learning)
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
National Academies Press
2. Algorithms (4th Edition)
Sentiment score: 0
Number of reviews: 1
Addison-Wesley Professional
3. Why Don't Students Like School?: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom
Sentiment score: 0
Number of reviews: 1
Jossey-Bass
4. Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design: Connecting Content and Kids
Sentiment score: 1
Number of reviews: 1
Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design: Connecting Content and KidsPaperback – 2006 by Carol Ann Tomlinson (Author), Jay McTighe (Author)
5. Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching (What Works for Special-Needs Learners)
Sentiment score: 0
Number of reviews: 1
Guilford Publications
Sounds like you are in a similar boat to what I was a few years ago. I'm now in my 4th year of teaching high school CS, and loving it! This will be my second year teaching at a private school in Chicago, and the demand during my job search last year was very high. I know that's still true of private schools, and the same for public schools here, with the new CS for All requirement. In my experience, many private schools will hire you with just an undergrad degree and some kind of teaching related experience, without the need for any formal education certification to get started. Although public schools really have a need for CS educators right now, private schools might be worth looking into, as there are typically fewer formal requirements. I'd recommend taking any opportunities to get some teaching experience that you can get, whether more camps, tutoring, being a teaching assistant, etc, as that will help you get started either way.
So demand is high and the job is challenging but very rewarding. Salary is, perhaps understandably, less than what you'd make doing a lot of programming jobs. I'm confident that I would be making significantly more money as a software developer, but I didn't find that kind of work to be what I enjoyed.
As you start looking into this, I'd recommend getting familiar with the typical high school curriculum. The standard courses at many schools tend to be AP Computer Science Principles and AP Computer Science A. AP CS A is an object oriented Java course, similar to many first semester college courses, but AP CSP is much more broad and less about just programming. You can find the AP CSP curriculum information on its site. Some common pre-made curriculums for that include Code.org, BJC, Mobile CSP, and a few more. You might also take a look at the K12 CS Framework, which many schools are using to guide their curriculum, to see what kind of stuff is valued in high school CS programs. Other good resources are the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) Website and as someone else mentioned, SIGCSE. Both have conferences that I've been to and would highly recommend.
In terms of teaching and lesson planning, there are a ton of books I've found useful. A couple of general purpose standouts on learning science, lesson planning, classroom management, etc include How People Learn and McTighe's stuff on Understanding By Design (a lesson planning idea) like this one.
Happy to answer other questions if you have them, too! CS Teachers are seriously needed all over the place.
You can't go wrong with Sedgewick's Algorithms. I prefer its approach to Cormen's book.
http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-4th-Edition-Robert-Sedgewick/dp/032157351X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408422212&sr=8-1&keywords=algorithms
In my opinion, teaching is a profession that requires an understanding of Cognitive Science and Educational Theory before you step into a classroom. That being said, Teacher Education is often terrible so you aren't far behind.
I highly recommend that you read: