Author Archives: kchodorow

This weekend, Andrew and I made our own wedding rings. We’ve been married for several years, but we never got around to getting rings. We found out about a guy in NYC who does ring-making workshops: you come to his studio and spend a day making personalized, custom rings. It was fun, and now weContinue reading “Making wedding rings”

As a “thank you” for hosting an intern this summer, Google gave me a little Android figurine. When I took it out of its box, a little backpack fell out, too. The backpack actually zipped and unzipped, but it didn’t have anything in it. So I decided to make a Macbook Air for it. First,Continue reading “Laptops are getting smaller all the time”

I taught my first AP CS class on Thursday. I was wearing a Google teeshirt (it was a “nice” one, have to dress up for the first day of school) so the first thing the students asked me was, “Do you work for Google?” Then: “Can we visit Google?” And: “Will this help us getContinue reading “Teaching CS”

I’m going to be volunteer teaching AP computer science this fall at a NYC high school! Aside from actually prepping them for the AP exam, I’ve been thinking about how to share the programming culture I love with the students. Off the top of my head, I’d like to tell them about: Stuff you canContinue reading “Sharing Programming”

When I started at Google last year, I was really impressed by their testing. Every C++ class had three files: a <classsname>.h file, a <classsname>.cc, and a <classname>_test.cc. Every time something new is implemented, it has to be tested. The code review tool even warns you if you add a new .h without an accompanyingContinue reading “I will gladly write a test Tuesday for a program today”

If you’re in NYC and thinking about volunteering, there is another TEALS information session tonight. After my last post on TEALS, Dan Goldin generously offered to answer some questions about his experience teaching students in Kentucky (remotely from NYC). What class are you teaching? What are they learning now? I’m currently teaching AP Computer ScienceContinue reading “TEALS – Teaching CS on your way to work, part 2”

I’ve been doing capoeira for about a year now. It’s very fun and a great martial art for geeks (singing! dancing! friendly people!). I really recommend it if you’re trying to get into shape or build strength/flexibility. Different capoeira schools use different sequences of moves, and I’ve never been able to find the ones myContinue reading “Mestre Boneco’s Training Sequences”

Last night, I went to an information session about TEALS, a volunteer program where software engineers teach CS to high school students on their way to work. Basically, the schools schedule the CS class for first period so that the engineers can make it into work by 9:30. There are four programmer volunteers per classContinue reading “TEALS – Teaching CS on your way to work”

I recently switched this blog to using Digital Ocean for hosting, so please let me know if you notice anything broken. On a side note, Digital Ocean is amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone who needs web hosting. You know how Github makes working with Git repos so pleasant? Digital Ocean does theContinue reading “Hello, Digital Ocean!”