stacks of paper person sleeping

I've gotten e-mail from students along the lines of "I was thinking in the shower when..." - they're thinking about CS outside the classroom, and they've come up with pretty creative ways to do things. Martin Gomez told me that he was having lunch near their block and he heard them talking about CS - over lunch! Wow! They were talking about arrays, poring over source code, animatedly swapping ideas... Some are even asking how to make programs that make other programs - cool! I think I can introduce files early as an extra topic. Note to self: write tutorials over weekend.

Gosh, they're more advanced than I was when I was in first year, and enthusiasm's contagious. =) I'll do my best to help them reach their potential while still making sure they don't overlook any of the basics. I plan to give them self-review assignments and tests. Yatta!