Teaching Python

[Mediocre Person]

Well, after years of teaching grade 12 students c++, I've decided to 
make a switch to Python.

Why?

    * interactive mode for learning
    * less fussing with edit - compile - link - run - debug - edit - 
compile - link - run -.....
    * lots of modules
    * I was getting tired of teaching c++! Bored teacher = bad instruction.
    * thought about tcl/tk but it's just too different syntactically 
(for me, not my students!) after so much time with languages like 
c++/ada95/pascal/BASIC/Fortran, etc.
    * it appears to be FREE (which in a high school environment is 
mightily important) from both python.org or activestate.com. I think I 
like activestate's ide (under Win98) a bit better than idle, but your 
comments/suggestions?

I've decided to give John Zelle's new book a try as a student 
textbook--it's as good an introductory CS book in any language I've 
seen. I've done a couple of small projects with tkinter, like what I 
see, and would like to introduct my students to it, although Zelle 
doesn't make use of it in his text.

So, what pitfalls should I look out for in introducing Python to 
students who have had a year of Visual BASIC?

Regards,

chackowsky dot nick at portal dot brandonsd dot mb dot ca <-- have the 
spambots figured this one out yet?