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Posts by Mike Zamansky

Send Lawyers, VCs, and Money - C’est la Z So, one of the things I've been doing since retirement is working for and with my alumni community. We've held focussed events like an AI panel and a blockchain talk and have had meetups in New York a...

We had a great event for budding tech entrepreneurs for Stuy alums and students last week.

Had a great panel and we learned all about negotiating term sheets and funding.

Here's a writeup:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/safe-t...

1 month ago 0 0 0 0
More on why teaching CS matters - C’est la Z I wanted to follow up on my earlier post on why teaching CS still matters. In that post, I cited a couple of former students. Not only former students but particularly high achieving ones. One friend ...

Additional thoughts on why teaching CS still matters in this age of AI:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/more-w...

1 month ago 1 1 0 0

Thanks for the comment and the proofread - I had my notes at the end and forgot to delete the headings :-)

1 month ago 1 0 0 0
SIGCSE 2026 part 3 - Sessons and BOFs - C’est la Z Still in St. Louis but we're now up to sessions and BOFs. On Thursday, I attended two sponsor sessions on AI. One by GitHub and the other Google. In retrospect, they were both really the same session ...

Closing thoughts on #SIGCSE2026 - sessions and BOFS:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/sigcse...

1 month ago 2 0 1 0
Why CS Still Matters - C’est la Z Still stuck in St. Louis and still haven't finished my SIGCSE series but there have been a few threads in the various CS Education groups about the big changes in code.org and how AI might be making l...

If you're concerned as to if learning CS is still relevant in the age of AI, please read:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/why-cs...

1 month ago 0 0 0 0
Unerasable - an effort to prevent the erasure of history - C’est la Z History is a funny thing. They say it's written by the victors but even when the "good guys" win, the history taught is often, let's say, incomplete. Back in school we'd learn about all sorts of feel ...

The history we're taught has always been subjective and in the USA, there are efforts to rewrite and erase parts of our history.
A friend of mine is working on a tech project to ensure that Black history is not erased.
cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/uneras...

2 months ago 3 2 0 0
Teachers Observing Teachers - C’est la Z Finally we get to teachers observing teachers - what Mark was writing about to begin with. These observations could be a one off, for a few days, or even through a full course. This could also be a te...

Final part of my series on teacher observations - teachers observing teachers:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/observ...

2 months ago 0 0 0 0
Being Observed - C’est la Z following up on my last post, let's dive in to being oberved as a model for teacher improvement and teacher evaluation. Next time we'll look at the flip side - teachers observing for improvement. As I...

Diving into the observation model for teacher improvement and evaluation:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/being-...

2 months ago 0 0 0 0
Improving Instruction - College and K12 - C’est la Z Back in for the evening. Not in Barcelona anymore - spending a few days now in Madrid. Sadly, I got a message from a fellow CS Educator who lives in Barcelona the day we left so if any reader out ther...

The other day Mark Guzdial wrote an interesting post on observing other instructors. It got me thinking about a number of things.

Here's my first post on those thoughts just laying out how observations have been used in my career in K12 and College:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/improv...

2 months ago 0 1 0 0
Ray Kurzweil, AI, Intelligence, and Education - C’est la Z Over a month since my last post. Wow. Anyway, last week was full of Artificial Intelligence events. On Wednesday, I attended a talk by Ray Kurzweil, hosted by Trinity High School - a posh private scho...

I attended at talk by Ray Kurzweil last week. Not many answers but some very interesting questions raised about intelligence, education, and AI:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/kurzwe...

5 months ago 4 1 0 0
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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...

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...

6 months ago 3 1 0 0
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...

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...

7 months ago 2 1 0 0
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...

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...

7 months ago 0 0 0 0
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....

A couple of things I want to keep an eye on over the upcoming school year:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/school...

7 months ago 1 0 0 0
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...

My final post on #CSTA2025 - what was good, what was bad, some suggestions and a bit on Cleveland.

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/csta-2...

8 months ago 0 0 0 0

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.

8 months ago 0 0 0 0
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...

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...

9 months ago 0 0 0 0
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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...

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...

9 months ago 0 0 0 0
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 ...

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...

9 months ago 0 0 0 0
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 ...

#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...

9 months ago 2 0 0 0
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...

#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...

9 months ago 0 0 0 0

I tried to reach out to the bookstore vie email and messages (Instagram) but never heard back. The actual store is IFFY Books in Philly, I might stop in to speak to someone next time I'm in town.

9 months ago 0 0 1 0
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 ...

Start of my recap series for #CSTA2025 - keynotes and overview:

cestlaz.zamansky.net/posts/csta-2...

9 months ago 0 0 0 0

Haven't read so can't say. Adding it to the list.

9 months ago 0 0 0 0
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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.

Teaching Computer Science in the Age of Artificial Intelligence blog.acthompson.net/2025/06/teac... #CSed #AI

9 months ago 3 1 0 0
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...

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...

9 months ago 0 0 1 0
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...

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...

10 months ago 1 1 1 0
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....

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...

11 months ago 1 1 0 0
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...

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...

1 year ago 5 1 1 0

Kind of you to say. Thanks!

1 year ago 0 0 0 0