- What are your goals for your classroom? My goals may be a little different as I am a learning coach that works with staff on incorporating and integrating technology into the classroom. My goal is to help teachers become more confident to teach their students about computer science and the field of coding.
How will CS or code.org resources help you meet those goals?CS Fundamentals will be an outstanding resource for staff to learn right along side students. - What are you most excited about when it comes to implementing some of these resources?I am excited about how well-prepared lessons are and how simply they are to follow. Everything a teacher needs to run the lesson with his/her class, with little to no experience necessary. I love the depth of each lesson, video components and the ability to have some lessons be unplugged.
- What challenges do you foresee in trying to meet your goals?I know I will have some teachers who see this as just one more thing they need to squeeze into their already crammed packed day. There could be some push back with I donāt have time to do this with my students or I donāt have time to learn something new right now; maybe later. Apart of my position is teaming with teachers and even co-teaching, so I see this as an opportunity to overcome some of those challenges.
- What questions do you have that this community might help you answer? My question is about timing. Many curriculums out there will say 45 min for a lesson. For those that have taught CS Fundamentals, is the timing relatively spot on? Or does it depend on the class and the skill being taught.
What are your goals for your classroom? I am Title 1 Reading teacher so my emphasis in my classroom is on reading. Recently, my district has changed the look of what I do from pull out to more of a push in form of instruction. Students have been working on coding while I have been working with other students in the room. My goal will be to better able to assist students when they have questions, use the correct vocabulary to help them with their independent work, and learn more about coding for myself.
What are you most excited about when it comes to implementing some of these resources? I am excited to try the unplugged lessons and building the background for student understanding of what the lesson will be teaching. I will enjoy learning along with the students.
What challenges do you foresee in trying to meet your goals? When we hit a challenge with debugging a program, I foresee that I may not have all of the tools in my toolbox to be the most helpful but I am willing to learn, too. Our classroom teachers really see the value of this time spent in their classroom and I will enjoy becoming a part of the coding community.
What questions do you have that this community might help you answer? My question involves pacing. I am wondering how long each lesson should take and how long students should work on the lessons each day. With the recent changes in our lesson delivery and students working on lessons at home, I am wondering what kind of time frame parents should allow students to work on these lessons each day and where they could go for support if they reach a problem they cannot solve.
Iām doing the initial evaluation of code.orgās curriculum (with which Iāve been quite impressed). Iām currently developing a computer science course for an Upward Bound program which consists of high school students. This course would not be a typical for-credit course but rather more of an extra-curricular activity. Our in-person meetings would occur only once or twice a month (after COVID19 has been addressed).
I view the course evolving in stages:
First, an introduction to fundamentals. Code.orgās materials appear well suited for this.
Second, a coding project (of the studentsā choosing) that students work individually though simultaneously.
Third, a group coding project.
Fourth, individual/group projects.
I view my role initially as a teacher and then a facilitator. Due to our limited in-person meeting times, much of my interaction with the students will be online. The group is meant to encourage self- and intra-group instruction. The group is meant to be project driven (ie, build a website, an app, etc.) largely to motivate students. I welcome any feedback on accomplishing these goals.
I am moving into a K-2 STEAM/CS position next school year. I am planning on using the code.org Fundamentals curriculum for my K-2 instruction. In the event that we do not begin next school year in our buildings, we are developing an online learning platform for our students. I plan to use the pre-reader express curriculum for online instruction.
My goals are to introduce and build a foundation for my K-2 students in computer science. I am excited about the lessons that are provided. The activities are very engaging and allow for the students to work in a collaborative environment.
The biggest challenge we face will be the studentsā access to technology if we do not begin next school year in our buildings. Not all of our students have access to technology, and this will be a major hurdle to overcome.
Overall, I am looking forward to teaching CS and working with code.org to meet the needs of my students.
- What are your goals for your classroom? How will CS or code.org resources help you meet those goals? I would like every student in my school to be able to code starting with Kindergarten through 5th grade. The resources available through code.org are easy to follow and very doable. Each student will be assigned a grade level appropriate course to work through.
- What are you most excited about when it comes to implementing some of these resources? Seeing the excitement on the studentsā faces as they accomplish each task.
- What challenges do you foresee in trying to meet your goals? Getting the teachers to give up the time because of curriculum and benchmarking timelines.
- What questions do you have that this community might help you answer? How can I convince teachers that this is very important for our students to learn?
- Classroom goals: continue to use Code.org courses with my K-5 students to learn, strengthen, and employ 21st century learning skills; and help provide a deeper foundation to understand crucial elements found within Science Fair Projects for my older students
- Most excited about: the connection between key elements in Science Experiments and CS / Coding
- Challenges: restructuring my curriculum units to allow me to teach older students their courses prior to their Science Fair unit
My goals for my classroom are to help students to work to solve problems, and begin to think like coders. The lessons here, both unplugged and plugged encourage critical thinking, problem solving, and creative solutions, which is something all students will need in their academic careers.
Iām most excited about my students learning to work on the computer in pairs. First graders sometimes have a hard time sharing responsibilities when partner learning. With itās defined roles of driver and navigator, and the entertaining nature of the modules, I think these lessons will be a great way to build team skills while learning computer coding.
The main challenge may be computer literacy. Many of my students donāt have regular access to computers at home, so they are lacking computer literacy. I think Iāll likely need to spend time teaching basic computer literacy and digital citizenship before beginning the lessons in the code.org lessons.
Iām a media specialist and have not thought about coding until after I took this course. Hopefully I could use some of the lessons from CODE.org to my lessons next school year. Iām excited to try the lessons and see my students work in pairs. It would be a challenge especially for the younger students, like understanding the codes. But as mentioned, it is not something you could master in one day. It takes a lot of practice.
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What are your goals for your classroom? How will CS or code.org resources help you meet those goals?
My goals for my classroom is to create learners who are able to learn things that are applicable to the world around them and that challenge and excite them. The resources at code.org are right up my studentās ally. Students are able to be excited about learning and understand the technology in the world around them. This promotes curiosity and lifelong learners. -
What are you most excited about when it comes to implementing some of these resources?
I am most excited about my studentsā creations. I am able to see students take charge of their learning and build collaboration, especially with the peer pairing when coding. I am also excited to find ways to align this to standards we are learning, especially math (angles, shapes, etc). -
What challenges do you foresee in trying to meet your goals?
I think the biggest challenge is finding time to isolate this curriculum or lessons, so finding ways to align this to curriculum is huge. I also think we remote learning (if it continues), this will be more challenging for students and teachers. -
What questions do you have that this community might help you answer?
How would you plan to implement teaching these skills if remote learning is to continue?
In the past, I have used code.org during the Hour of Code and then allowed it as an optional activity once work was finished fro those that were inspired by it. My goals for the future are to follow the Course for my grade level so that students are given a more thorough education on coding. I am excited that lesson plans and courses are already created for me and I just need to familiarize myself with them and tweak to fit the needs of my learners. That is much more manageable than having to recreate the wheel! As always, time restraints will be a challenge. I will need to spend some time looking at my schedule to see how and where I can fit this into my instruction. I would be interested in hearing how other gen ed elementary teachers have been successful at working a full course into their already very busy days!
I am most excited that more teachers are getting on board at our school. I think it will benefit students most if we are all committed and they are able to work through all of the courses. In the past, I have always tried to get my class through most of Course B. I think by having a full school ābuy-in,ā students will gain more experience and confidence with coding!
The goal for my kids is to give them the skills and/or tools that they need to be successful in school and our society. Technology is what drives the future. The old way of thinking about computers was to just learn to Turn on/off the computer, to learn to type, and to be able to print a page. That was technology success in the past. So, Iām excited about teaching the kids NEW skills that are necessary TODAY. We are using technology as a tool to solve problems. We are using it as a way of expression. And we are using it as a way to store information. Technology continues to evolve and we need to continue to change our curriculum on how we teach technology and we need to make technology accessible to all. Using this program, makes me feel capable to be able to teach them the kids something more meaningful besides, booting the computer, type, and print a page.
I am a kindergarten teacher who is fortunate to work in a school with one-to-one chromebooks and a full time STEM lab teacher. A goal for the upcoming year is to, in addition to my studentsā weekly time in the STEM lab, integrate coding into other subject areas, such as using Bee Bots to identify beginning, ending, or medial sounds as a literacy task. Iām excited that these resources are available to me. I believe that I can teach social studies and science materials Monday-Thursday and designate Friday as a day to intentionally incorporate computer science into interdisciplinary teaching. A challenge that I can foresee is the effects of Covid19 on the traditional school week.
I am a K-5 media specialist, I see students for 50 minutes once a week. This year was my first year in the position and I focused mostly on enhancing a love of books for my students. Next year I would like to shift my focus to include quite a bit more technology. Code.org will definitely make this possible. I forsee trying to become familiar with all of the courses for each of the levels as a challenge, but I know that I will have to take it slowly. I will probably begin with one grade level at a time. I donāt know that I have any questions at this time.
My special area content is spread across grades K-5. My goals for my students as a whole is to give them a solid foundation for understanding what computer science is. I have used Code.org to introduce the concept of coding to all of my students. However, this course has given me much more insight and resources with which to better interact and instruct my students.The most exciting aspects of Code.org are the leveled activities that can be built upon as my students progress through each grade level and that they are somewhat self-paced for independent work or they can be done working with a partner. The most difficult aspect will be preparing these lessons within the amount of time that is allocated and the frequency of attendance. My school has a large student body (1200+) and our specials rotations are 7 days between classes and only about 40 minutes per class. One way to tackle this issue would be to meet with each grade level and plan together to incorporate the lessons so that they can be extended into the regular classroom. Another way that we have done this is to partner up with another specials team member to continue the lessons. I also donāt give grades but I do assess how my students are progressing.
I would like to incorporate the lessons to coordinate with math problem solving skills and introducing students to computer science through coding. I am excited that I can explore the possibilities of this program with my students, experiencing the learning as a learner. I also am excited to open a discussion of careers in science to minority students. The only challenge I see is getting my students to see that science can be for them too, that they are more than capable of having careers not only in science but a variety of other fields. I donāt have questions right now, I am sure as I go through the learning process, I will certainly rely on the support of the community!
I want to prepare my students to be 21st century learners. Along with them, I want to incorporate coding into other subjects to make it more relevant to all learners. It is an exciting way to keep students engaged and provide another outlet to demonstrate their coding abilities.
I am excited to see the level of engagement students will have in these activities. They already enjoy being on the Chromebooks and giving them another activity to add to their toolbox will help students expand on the skills coding provides to improve their abilities overall. Through various coding trainings, I know I can gain more knowledge as students experience hurdles in their learning.
I plan to implement computer science into my classroom more this upcoming year. I will have weekly scheduled lessons. This way the students can plan and prepare along with looking forward to the lessons.
My goals for my classroom are to have my students come up with games and add to them weekly. I am excited about teaching the students about coding at such a young age and having lesson plans and videos from this group available to use. Challenges will be not having access to computers and not having time allotted in our schedule for computer science.
I teach both 4th and 5th grade. My school has a STEM lab. So after all of this awesome learning Iām left with questions that I need to collaborate with my team to answer. Questions Iām pondering:
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Should we separate 4th and 5th graders to teach the CS curriculum? Or should we teach Course E this year and Course F the next and create a rotation?
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Are these ideas that are supplemented and applied during student STEM lab time or are students learning these ideas during STEM lab? In other words do we need an additional time outside of STEM to teach CS curriculum?
- What are your goals for your classroom? How will CS or code.org resources help you meet those goals?
As a Media Specialist, I plan to introduce coding to all six grades (K-5) this year. - What are you most excited about when it comes to implementing some of these resources?
I think the students will be super engaged with these lessons, as they love an opportunity to get on their ChromeBooks. - What challenges do you foresee in trying to meet your goals?
It will be challenging to schedule all the lessons for all the grades, as well as doing the Common Sense Media lessons and reading the nominated Black Eyed Susan books. - What questions do you have that this community might help you answer?
I am certain I will need support with moving through the range of lessons for all the grades while attending to other Library Media business.