Pedagogy

1. JCreator
The JCreator.com site. When you get to the site, click "Downloads" and look for the "Freeware" version.
You don't need the pay-for version.
jcreator.com

2. How do I get Java up and running on my system?
There are two things you need to do...

First, go to the jcreator website and download the Sun J2SDK (second choice from bottom). The latest version as of 8/3/08 is JDK 6 Update 7. Save it to your computer (the desktop is fine), then run the installation program. Installing the SDK will give you the Java "compiler" and other useful tools

Secondly, go back to jcreator and download the "classic" version of the JCreator development environment (third choice from bottom). Download to your system and run the installation program. The first time you run Jcreator, it will run you through a wizard...just click OK along the way and you will be ready to create your first program.

Maria and Gary Litvin's have detailed instructions for this installation process.
Here's the link... Getting started with Java at skylit.com

3. Now what?
If you have JCreator up and running, then try some of the sample programs in either of the above recommended books (or any book that you may have). Here's how:

Click File | New Project. Type the name of the project. A project will keep all of your .java file(s) together for easy management.
Click File | New File. Type the name of the file (jcreator will add the required .java extension automatically).
Click OK to save the file. Now we can start typing in our Java program!
Type in the source code for you Java program.
Press F7 to compile your file(s).
Press F5 to run your program!

If all went well, then your program should run! If not, well, back to JCreator for the wonderful world of debugging!

4. The Javadoc commenting convention
Javadoc comments

5. How to create Javadocs in JCreator.
Javadoc Tutorial

1. Syllabus and Planner
Syllabus
Daily Planner 2008-2009
Homework List

2007-2008 Daily Planner (old version)

2. Teaching Methodology

First things first: What do we want to teach? Seinfeld…
Computer Science Education: the present and the future
Top Down vs. Bottom Up
Lew’s Philosophy & Lew’s Plan
“Guide on the side, not the sage on the stage”
Read “good” code (Master and apprentice)
Frequent formative assessment
Long Term Programming Project (summative assessment)
Searching / Sorting Role Plays
Inquiry Learning…Long-Term Project

3. Establish project / file naming rules

Always have "Project" at end of names of project (e.g. ArrayListProject, MyCritterProject)
Always have students use directories to organize projects for quick retrieval

4. Variable / Method / Class naming rules

Always begin with a letter
Use a-z, A-Z, 0-9 ONLY (no underscores)
Use camelNotation for variable and method names
Use "final" whenever possible
Use MEANINGFUL NAMES!!
Begin class names with a capital letter with CamelNotation
Brace spacing and indentation - ALL THE TIME with if, for, while statements
( Parenthesis spacing ) all the time!
Use spacing liberally…memory is CHEAP!

5. Commenting rules

Comment end curly brace of classes, methods, loops( while, for), and if statements
while( ... )
{
} // end while loop
Comment purpose of methods using Javadocs with @param and @return
Comment purpose of loops (while, for)
Comment purpose of if-else statements

6. Good OOP Programming Guidelines

Do NOT replicate code that is already written somewhere else (CODE REUSE!)
You are NOT coding only for yourself!! – Comment code and NO tricky stuff, please!!

1. APCentral
Here is the AP Central link at the College Board website.

2. APCS Course Description
Here is the College Board Course Description (aka Acorn book) from the AP Central College Board website. Here you will find the list of AP Computer Science subset (aka "what do I need to teach?)

3. APCS Teacher's Guide
Here is the College Board Teacher Guide from the AP Central College Board website. Here you will find teaching strategies and sample syllabi.

4. Quick References