Teaching Computer Science: Your Plans

All Courses: Pedagogy and Best Practices General Teaching and Learning (All Grades)
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What are your goals for your classroom? How will CS or code.org resources help you meet those goals?

My goal to help my students see how understanding the logic needed in coding is directly applicable to the logic needed to solve problems in Algebra. This will introduce them to the bigger picture in math education, which is to hone the mind’s natural reasoning abilities in order to apply them to rigorous problem solving in any topic. I like that CS in Algebra gives students an engaging way to approach and solve problems.

I also want to share with my math department the bootstrap/code.org idea of approaching the order of operations as a literacy skill; not just math literacy, but language literacy. I believe the circles of evaluation and evaluation blocks help build that literacy for students in a way that mnemonic devices like PEMDAS don’t.

What are you most excited about when it comes to implementing some of these resources?

The circles of evaluation and the design recipe will be so new, yet so relevant to my students.

What challenges do you foresee in trying to meet your goals?

I am teaching Algebra 1 to 9th graders, so these are not the students who were identified as ready for acceleration in math in middle school. To many they are viewed as being “behind” in math already. Because of this, it seems that the district, the school, the department, etc. are always finding ways to “fix” Algebra 1 instruction. Right now I have 3 other initiatives (including a new Williams approved textbook that is more or less scripted) to implement in Algebra 1 besides CS in Algebra. So something has to give. However, I think the concepts, resources, support, and tools in CS Algebra are so valuable that I will make it as much of a priority as I am allowed. I like another forum teacher’s suggestion about implementing it for the 3 weeks after Thanksgiving and before Christmas. I think giving it some concentrated time is critical, instead of trying to “sprinkle” it in like it’s magic fairy dust or something. Also, it will help engage the students at a time when that is particularly difficult (after a whole week off and just before the 3 week Christmas break.)

What questions do you have that this community might help you answer?

I’m not sure yet but I’ll post again when I think of something.

I have already created the CS Algebra class in code.org and enrolled all the students. I had them start playing the ninja game to get a feel for what we’ll be creating. Of course they all think the game is “lame” and they don’t see the big deal in creating it themselves. So it will be interesting when they see how much is involved in coding just a small portion of the game.

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I just thought of a question for Josh. Can you post your notes about how many coders it takes to create the typical games that students play? Your presentation was really eye-opening.

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The Code.org spectrum of curriculum and lesson are implemented at our school grades K-8. I specifically teach the 8th grade CS in Algebra. My goal is to work with all of my teachers that have gone through the training to scaffold the curriculum and ensure there are no gaps in the teaching and learning as students move from one grade to the next. I want to ensure every grade benefits from learning computer science. Challenges I might encounter are district/state mandated testing that may place a hold on the routine of teaching computer science weekly. I am excited about launching the new CS in Algebra platform with my eighth graders.

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Introduce circles of evaluation for Order of operations
Utilize this skill to solve pythagorean thereom problems
Use pair work on coding
Have students work on larger groups to make posters describing steps of solving more complex problems.
I will infuse this into my daily instruction.

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Share with us:

•What are your goals for your classroom? How will CS or code.org resources help you meet those goals?
-to expose students to CS
-to help students to improve critical thinking and problem solving skills
-to have students grades 5–8 complete course 2 and 3

•What are you most excited about when it comes to implementing some of these resources?
I love how the information is displayed. I love the resources available for tracking and assessment.

•What challenges do you foresee in trying to meet your goals?
Technology concerns as we try to work in a district with limited technology and funding for technology. Concerns of relating to the lesson and subject matter to urban setting.

•What questions do you have that this community might help you answer?
Does anyone have any experience in relating this curriculum in an urban setting.

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next month will be my first experience teaching CS ,moreover i just started teaching so i don’t have a lot of experience , so i still haven’t made a concrete plan :confused: :confounded: . i’m teaching Code as a club activity :smiley: so i think i will have more freedom .
i need more information about the students i’ll be teaching but i think they’re gonna be teenagers :question: :confused: .

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This year code.org is a requirement in my school district. Students must spend 50% of their time in Code.org. I am excited to build students higher level thinking and really help them learn new things. I really feel when students have that “productive struggle” is when they learn the most. It is so fun to watch the “experts” walk around and teach their peers. Students can be leaders in a different atmosphere. Some students really are blooming into great computer coders. I am really enjoying code.org and can’t wait to see what students learn this year.

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This will be my first year coding in the classroom. I have a lot of time constraints due to a set district required schedule for my ELL students. I hope to find at least 30 mins a week for structured coding and then to add it as a sponge activity for my quick finishers. I feel like code.org provides the tools to allow students to do much of the coding independently. If I find success with this plan I can fight for more time next year.

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I plan to utilize Code Studio and the curriculum provided. Although I taught ECS last year (and again this year), the rigor of the CSP curriculum brings a new level to the technology classes available in my school. My principal sees cdding as college readiness and I am so glad. When I played the Innovation video, all students watched, because they knew the names on the screen and realizing that their interests are part of the course. I see time constraints as my biggest challenge. I want to do everything in the curriculum, but with 50 minute classes that realize into about 40 minutes, I wonder how I will accomplish it, but I get ahead of myself since I have only had six days of instruction so far, yet, I also feekl successful with getting the students to understand what the course involves. With the scripts written into the lesson plans, I feel confident that I can successfully facilitate this course and that is the biggest challenge - facilitating.

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HI!

I am going to try to implement Code.org in my library lessons this year. Right now I am thinking of trying it out with Kindergarten classes, one lesson per week, possibly starting from January. I will see how it works out :slight_smile: I am very excited about the unplugged activities and linking them to online activities later on. The biggest challenge would be how to efficiently do it with 12 students in the library, but peer pairing should help.

I will probably have a lot of questions once I start :slight_smile:

Thanks for all the ideas!

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This will be my first year using Code.org in my classroom. I am a middle school math teacher, but I also teach STEM. I am going to introduce Code.org starting 2nd quarter. I am going to do the Computer Science in Algebra with my class. I am a little nervous. This first run will be interesting, but I think my students will help ME through it.

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This is my second year. Unfortunately I had to leave two classes that had completed the course 1 and the course 2.
Now I have a class of pupils of 6 years so I’ll start with the course 1.

(Sorry for my poor English: i’m italian)

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I am really looking forward to teaching Computer Science as part of my STEM classroom. We meet for 25 minutes over five periods in two weeks. (We are on a four-day schedule, and my students see me on two of the four days.) This is one of my biggest challenges…time.

My goals are to try and get through as much of the course as possible. If the kids get started right when they come in the room, the 20 hours boils down to 18 weeks of class. That’s just too much when I have other topics to cover. I will probably encourage the kids to work on the course at home, too, because my 4th-6th graders can use their Chromebooks at home. I liked the idea that someone offered about using the spiral model so that kids can keep going as they move up in grade level.

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My Goal is to be able to implement what I have learned in our PD seamlessly in my lesson in Algebra in such a way that my kids could see that value of programming and its relationship to math. I am a little apprehensive because its something new for me and my kids and I don’t know whether I could make it right. Nonetheless, whatever happened, I will surely try to implement it and learn from whatever mistake that I could make. I need more support because a lot of time a have questions that I dont know where to go to ask question that I get stuck and stop. Hopefully somebody could rescue me.:slight_smile:

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My goals are getting the kids understand what codes can do, know that it takes more than just knowing how to write lines ,but also passion and dedication. This is my first time trying to teach programming to middle school students. Hopefully they enjoy it, learn from each other, develop their communication and team work. I am very exited!

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We did the hour of code last year, and it went very well. I’d like to have more computer coding in the classroom and I’m excited to get this up and running. We only have an hour in our lab each week, and there’s a multitude of computer resources (Typing, Khan) I’d like to have my students use. We will be using Code Studio informally this year, as I try to assess how it can help students with their problem solving.

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My goal is to implement the code.org to students in K-8 and to have a way we can stay together in some of the lessons/courses and in some of the courses have students explore on their own.

It will all depend on which course I am covering.

One of the problems, I do for see is that some will be ahead of others and what they will do instead.

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I’m a classroom teacher, but my goals are to communicate with our tech-savvy teachers how we can implement activities from code.org beyond the Hour of Code.

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We are going to teach Course 1 to all of the primary classes coming into the school library learning commons. So we have a grade 2/3 split, grade 3 and a grade 1 class. It will be interesting to see how they differ. We are focusing on the math thinking processes: problem solving, math reasoning and proving, reflecting, selecting tools and computational strategies, connecting, representing and communication.

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What are your goals for your classroom?
I want to my students learn coding in fun way.
How will CS or code.org resources help you meet those goals?
I do it last year and my students love it.
What are you most excited about when it comes to implementing some of these resources?
That my student will learn quicker how to code
What challenges do you forsee in trying to meet your goals?
Last year didn’t create teachers accounts, just gave students links. I hope that I will do all steps right.
What questions do you have that this community might help you answer?
I don’t have questions