im taking java in 11th grade as IB elective. Its real fun. The way we started, and we still are, is of course to learn the basics. U can get free compiler such jcreator.
Or u can get a good one, thats expensive as borland jbuilder. Im still a newb in java. But itl be nice once i know how to do some stuff.
In like 2 weeks i learned how to make applets, standalone programs, and how to make text fields, input some values, and make a calculation with it. Its good stuff.