Taking Educators Beyond HourOfCode
As many of you probably know, this week (Dec 7–13th) is Computer Science Education Week. Fueled by Code.org, students and teachers around the world are encouraged to participate in various HourOfCode activities.
Given our passion for empowering educators, we chose to commemorate HourOfCode by hosting a workshop for teachers and the feedback we received was inspiring.
It was fun to implement what I learned in my classroom the next day. The children enjoyed collaboratively working on the 3 x 3 grid prior to engaging in the Hour of Code (tutorials).
- 3rd grade teacher
In order to get more kids coding we must provide educators with resources and support to introduce computer science activities into their classrooms.
It would be great to see a more pedagogical approach to applying CS into the classroom. By scaffolding and integrating the subject into a unit based approach it would be a lot more effective for student learning and curriculum delivery. This currently is not really happening with anything I see out there right now.
- K8 educator
Embark Labs curriculum and workshops are designed directly in response to this feedback we hear over and over from educators. Our participants received this handout that highlights the free, web-based tools (such as Lightbot, Blockly & Scratch) that we use to reinforce math concepts.
If you know any K8 educators looking for professional development and support bringing computer science to their students, please introduce them to me.
And continue the #CSEdWeek celebrations with Embark Labs at our Adafest Family Festival at the Computer History Museum on Sun Dec 13th.
