Hi Mark. It’s a small world! I teach at Newmarket High School!
The syntax is not really a problem. Students catch on pretty quickly.
As for the Androids, if your school/department has a set of Android tablets (nexus 7), you could just borrow them for a few days to give students a taste of Android development. I vastly prefer Processing-Android to doing AppInventor.
Good luck. Contact me at school through board email if you ever have questions.
Have a great rest of the semester!
Gord Payne