APNC 2005 Testimonials
Joe Croney
AP Computer Science Teacher, Head of Computer Science
St. Croix Country Day School
AP: What prompted you to attend the AP Annual Conference?
J.C.: This was my first AP Annual Conference. I looked at some of the past years' programs for computer science, and I thought it would be interesting. I also submitted my own call for a proposal. It was accepted, and so that also prompted me to come this year.
I primarily spent my time going to computer science workshops and talks about teaching AP Computer Science and found those very valuable. I would have liked to branch out and see some of the other disciplines and see how they approached the AP curriculum, but it was just because of timing that I had to make a priority on computer science.
I also checked out some of the vendor booths for anything related to computer science. I spoke with them, and it was interesting to see all the different products out there that target the AP curriculum.
There are definitely some anecdotal tools that different presenters gave about what worked for them. I definitely wanted to take advantage of that information and also information from other teachers who were at the sessions. There was a kind of open communication during presentations, and I got useful and hands-on approaches that I'll be using. So I definitely got some valuable tools.
AP: What do you think of the plenary speakers?
J.C.: I really did enjoy Juan Williams. He was one of the keynote speakers. He's a well-recognized personality from NPR. And he just really reflected on some great stories about working with some past Supreme Court judges. He framed his presentation on what a lot of teachers do, what educators do. We participate in history even if we're not aware of it at any given moment. He was definitely an inspirational speaker.
AP: Would you attend our conference next year?
J.C.: Absolutely, it definitely added a lot of benefit. It was also nice because it brought everyone together from different disciplines. It wasn't just one different subset of the AP curriculum there.
AP: What would you bring back to your school/classroom from this conference?
J.C.: I'll be bringing back some different books from some of the different vendors. That'll be useful. I'll also be bringing back not physical things but rather the tools I spoke about earlier: how you can build hands-on exercises to communicate to students. I did actually pick up some literature from other disciplines, like the AP History curriculum, to give to some of those teachers in my school.
AP: If you could make a wish for the fiftieth anniversary of the AP Program, what would it be?
J.C.: I guess it would be to have a tenfold increase in computer science teachers. And, of course, I'd like to see a future conference in the Virgin Islands.
