Malden High School has four classes involved in computer science: Introduction to Computer Science, Introductory Software Engineering in Computer Science, AP Computer Science: Advanced Software Engineering, and Intermediate Software Engineering in Computer Science, which are all taught by Paul Marques.
“Computer sciences is the study of algorithms,” Marques described. Students should expect a, “genuine amount of studying and self-learning on the pre-college and college level. In the class there is a lot of Algorithms solving rather than just sitting down and learning to program,” said Marques.
Marques understands that students have lives and other classes they have to manage. Marques said, “students should not try to stress themselves about taking higher level courses, they should focus their time on a certain subject that they feel motivated and certain about.”
Students use the compiler BlueJ to build their programs. For students ahead in their work, Marques explained, “students can come and meet me personally and I can give them the work for the class with the schedule.”
Marques makes the class a very learnable and fun environment due to his unique teaching style. According to his students, “I would say Marques' class is learnable and fun simultaneously because of his teaching style. He incorporates visual learning that effectively portrays the pattern of codes that may not be easily seen by some and doesn't use instructional methods to teach,” said senior Jessica Li.
Marques also updates his students and pushes them for success. Students should expect a very welcoming and easy-to-follow class. Most of the responsibility is on students to check the work log and calendar Marques assigns, and it is very crucial because the calendar is how Marques communicates with his students.
“For example, if any quizzes or tests are coming up or any work is due, Marques will announce it and update the calendar after every class and put any future events on there, such as upcoming due dates and quizzes/tests,” said sophomore Matthew Ren. This shows what type of a teacher he is and how he wants his students to have a successful year during everything he possibly can to get them prepared for tests and AP exams.
Current students do not believe the class to be overly stressful, “because most of the work outside of class is mainly self-check problems or practice problems of what we covered in class or relating to the current chapter,” said Ren. So when picking classes, Ren urges students to consider this one because it will be a new learning experience and Marques is willing to help all his students throughout the year.
