THE TEACHING OF COMPUTER SCIENCE CHANGED MY BRAIN.
IT GAVE ME THE ABILITY TO BE FEARLESS.
Looking for the Isthmus in this education sea.
… that land between the classroom and those who want to help teachers teach.
… People Also Ask has answers -> look beyond your horizon and remember
Knowledge is a Answers to Questions
BUILDING EDUCATION EVENT PARTY PLANNERS
Building ALFs – Applied Learning Facilitators
Building Computational Thinking Advisors – Mentors – Consultants
We need talent, we need it now, and we simply cannot find enough.
– NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio
Entrepreneurship is driven by the innate need to create, build, grow and impact. When we connect the two, education and entrepreneurship, it’s all about taking control of your journey to spend your life using your strengths and genius to make an impact. – “How to Become an Education Entrepreneur – Choose2Matter inspires individuals to act, to do, and to be brave.
So what inspires you to do? In reading the book “Start with Why“ by Simon Sinek on page 135 he shares “loyalty among employees is when they turn down more money or benefits to continue working at the same company.” I think of schools and the teacher turnover. Could the problem be the focus on grades (money in schools)? Leaders (principals) who fail to inspire action? All I know is that the system must be changed, as we just can’t afford to leave teachers behind who are the only ones who can inspire every child.
Support teachers as Program and Product managers to bridge the gap between the non-profits who want to help and the teachers who need help. I personally know too many computer science teachers who are not valued for their expertise and have to continually fight for their programs. Need a consultant from the outside who can step up for these teachers, and scale what they do. Or better yet pay them to be Product Managers so they have the needed time to bring CS to all students in their district. When they have class loads of 35+ students X 7 periods, can’t get beyond survival. We need Project Managers to coordinate grandparent volunteers, #GASS. Community in Schools could help.
Support a Personal Code Trainer for classroom teachers. They have personal trainers in gyms for those who can afford it. We are leaving too many students behind because teachers are dying. Time for prevention NOT intervention funding. Support retired teachers keep their expertise in the classroom by bringing unplugged code mini-lessons to every child. Be a Code Buddy. Need Tech Time Purpose Teams who develop projects that solve real world local problems starting in Kinder. In the past these were science projects, not they are integrated tech projects. Not happening as TMW for teachers and they need help.
CODE: Debugging the gender gap – Problem presentation great – solution not presented.
Bottom line – CS teachers need to be paid more. Businesses, but your money where your mouth is and support teacher entrepreneurs.
The demand for CS teachers cannot meet the supply. Time for “contract” entrepreneurial certified CS teachers to support multiple schools. Let the school hire a facilitator for the computer lab where the certified teacher comes in once / twice a week. Charge per section of CS or hour of K5 classroom CS lessons.
Teachers are asked to do too much. To scale CS need time to build the programs. When hired by a school, principals often overload the teacher with non-CS teaching duties, preventing time to scale CS K12. That happened to me so I had to retire to focus on CS lessons, such as Geometry Decoded with Mondrian Art.
This page started as I was trying to explain this idea to a teacher on the CSTA #CSK8 Twitter chat: Need classroom facilitators for lab time, and CS teacher twice a week with freedom to support multiple schools and flip lessons. I am hoping some young teacher like @wgrantsmith takes up this challenge, as I am retired. “I want to be invited to the party, not plan the party.” 🙂 … create the momentum that enables it … like Hadi of Code.org shared.
That and the articles that are increasingly growing on the need to teach CS: