ACSE Gmail Chat

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The ACSE gmail group recently erupted with dozens of wonderful discussion posts on a variety of computer science curriculum, staffing and policy ideas. It has taken me a little while to read through all the many informative and thoughtful emails. But, of course I wanted to chime in with my own views!

Refreshing curriculum

As others have noted, we have had a relatively large upswing in computer science learning at elementary. This has been boosted by two years of The Learning Partnership support and this year by other additional organizations accessing CanCode funds.

On the one hand, I think we are finally getting past the questions on “How can I teach this, it is not in the curriculum,” with a strong emphasis on subject integration, and acceptance of creative coding platforms such as Scratch and the many robotics devices that bring learning to life. We also have the provincial resource, Coding in Elementary, that is housed on Edugains. It takes a strong integration approach.

In our board for example, we just concluded offering PD to all Kindergarten teams on Coding and Computational thinking using BeeBots. We also have K classes using Scratch Jr. I think we need to be planning for learning pathways for these students.

The end result is that students will come to high school with a good foundation in drag-and-drop programming. Some will have more. For example, Swift Playgrounds reveals the actual code. So does the Codesters Python environment used by Hackergals. App Inventor also offers a more sophisticated environment for elementary students.

This winter I was conducting a workshop in a borrowed classroom. It happened to be used mostly for BTT and CS courses. The poster on the wall included success criteria for using Spheros to code commands, loops, etc. These same assignments could be completed successfully in many junior classes, that is Grades 4-6.

So, when I looked at the call for writers for refreshing the Science and Technology curriculum, I wondered two things.

First, are we at the point of incorporating these skills into the actual elementary curriculum? That would be great as it would lead to broader PD opportunities and therefore more equity for our students.

As well, I couldn’t help but think back to that BTT poster. Surely it would be a good thing if the province would look at the continuum of age-appropriate computer science learning and adjust both the elementary and secondary expectations to match what is truly the reality in many schools in 2018.

Qualifications

I have been weighing my views on the level of rigor needed to qualify secondary teachers to teach CS. Naturally I have identified with the group of self-taught CS teachers, as that is the category I fall into. However, I know my limitations and if I had to teach Grade 12 tomorrow…

You know what? I would. I do not have the background today. But I could build my skills based on where I am now. I could also access a wide variety of learning platforms to gain proficiency in a given language. I could reach out online or in this ACSE group for resources and project ideas, which everyone is so willing to share. I think we are entering an age where proficiency or even mastery in a subject are freely available to those who are willing to inquire, persist and work hard. To quote my computer science teacher (from one of my two CS credits): “To get better at coding… you need to code!”

I believe that the issues identified by others about the two-year program, industry salaries, etc. are hugely important and should be addressed. But I think even more important is the vision of where Ontario will go with the curriculum. That framework would lead to an examination of needs across the province…

Looking back at our TLLP

What a great opportunity to reflect on a truly transformative experience!

I was fortunate enough to be a member of the very first TLLP cohort. I was teaching grades 7 and 8 at a rural and northern middle school. We were a large school for our district – but small compared to other locations at about 250 students.

When our principal got the email, he said we should think about applying, but that he couldn’t and wouldn’t get involved. He put some chart papers up in the staff room for us to post our ideas, and to add our names if we wanted to be involved.

With my strong competitive streak, I told my colleagues we needed something “sexy” so we would get chosen. They hooted with laughter, and not really in a good way:)

I put up the words Blogging for Literacy, and despite the fact that no one knew what a blog was, about half our staff signed up. I became the project leader because I had about five minutes experience with blogging; I had once posted a reply on another person’s. And I love doing grant applications.

Our group of seven teachers brainstormed some basic goals, submitted, and was accepted.

Our learning and leadership opportunities were pretty much endless, due to our starting point. We had enough release money for six or seven monthly half-day meetings. I now think of the T-PACK model and can see that our success was in part due to very strong pedagogical and content knowledge. From there, we learned how to use the Edublogs platform and dove into day-to-day blogging with our students. We had a great blog site, with group areas for each participating class and lots of tags. We posted what would now be called Digital Citizenship tips in our computer lab. Most of us used the blog in conjunction with our English classes. One teacher used it extensively for math thinking and communication. After a few months, two teachers who had opted not to join our team, asked if they could put their classes in. We also had a French teacher use it.

Meanwhile one of our original members had moved to another school, and we were able to have an authentic blogging communication with her students – beyond our walls. Pretty powerful stuff in a pre-Skype era.

For me the biggest learning had to do with mentoring adult learners. Because we were already friends, the initial discussion about norms was very frank. One person said don’t go too fast, don’t assume I understand what you are asking me to do. I stopped sending suggestions and tips via email and waited until we were together, so we could go through steps visually, and model the ideas and results. I would say this really brought the concept of DI home to me. Having learned this from my peers, it gave me practical knowledge when the term began to be used for classroom instruction.

The TLLP was an essential stepping stone for someone like me, with “lone wolf” tendencies, in order to achieve my career goal of being a TELT contact and program coordinator for my board. Yes, I have always been an early adopter, but the TLLP showed me a path forward as a facilitator in my school, which in turn benefited others.

With my students, I used blogs extensively for several years. Sometimes they had their own, sometimes we would contribute to a single class blog. Mastering one totally new platform made me much more confident in introducing many more in the following years.

This project had a huge impact on our whole school, moving forward. The idea that we as teachers could form a group, devise a long-range plan, implement and monitor put us in a good place when we had to start doing CIs. It really built trust between me and the other teachers, such that a few years later my principal fostered a project that permitted me to be in all English classes once a week for a tech-based CI. The co-planning, co-teaching and moderation of this project was another huge learning and leadership experience for all of us.

In addition, at the Toronto PD sessions, I met two teachers from Ottawa Catholic DSB who also had a technology project, and we are online and in-person friends to this very day.

Adventures in coding

When I set out to support a Grade 1, 2, 3 class with the Coding Trek program, I had no idea where my path would lead. It turned out to be a world with few limits, flexible spaces, cooperation and accomplishments!

This fit in nicely with the existing classroom culture of strong collaboration, celebration of success, and sharing of ideas.

I really grew to appreciate the Coding Trek program for the way it set out the steps in our learning process. Having registered as a teacher, I had access to several weeks – or months -  of activities, accompanied by explanatory slide decks and brief video tutorials. At this particular school, I was with the class from 11:15 a.m. to about 1:00 p.m. for three consecutive days.

We were all newcomers to Scratch Jr, the platform for Coding Trek, and we each had our own iPad to work on.

I was amazed at how easily the children took to Scratch Jr and were able to follow the colour-coded menus. On the first day, we explored most of the basic tools, talked about the green flag, and made a variety of personal projects. In some cases, we had to configure the camera or microphone on a device, but this all worked out. Did you know you could use the camera to place a photo inside the outline of a sprite?

We saw that many of the students were deeply engaged with simply adding sprites, drawing, taking photos etc., using the stage as a canvas instead of creating actions and interactions, so we challenged them to add some movement before the end of the class. They all decided that they had had so much fun that I should come back for Day 2.

We began the follow morning with a Coding Trek “coding unplugged” activity. The teacher was a willing demo robot! Then the students were partnered up to work on this activity for 15 minutes or so, one Robot and one Controller, and then switching roles. Given the age range of the students it was interesting to see how this spatial activity reinforced counting, directionality, and estimation.

Next, we moved through 10 Coding Trek challenges. These were designed to review the tools they had learned the previous day. We were more methodical, asking for a “thumbs up” before moving to the next activity, to ensure that all the students had the same understanding of the basics.

The day finished with some free time to work on personal projects – by request!

On both Day 1 and 2 it was great to see these young children using tech tools with ease, tools that I am often directly teaching to older students and adults. They often asked to Airplay their device to show their work or answer a question. Without asking for help, they used Siri to enter text onto their screens. They seemed to intuitively know what they could type for themselves and what they should dictate.

I was very apprehensive about Day 3 due to the fact that the next Challenges all involved implementing multiple tools in multi-step processes. The next few activities were interchangeable in terms of level of difficulty, so I consulted the teacher as to whether she would prefer a literacy or math focus. We went with math.

Day 3 we would make Mental Math Machines!

I looked over the Coding Trek materials and played the demo video in advance. It used speech bubbles to pop up and display the math question and three or four possible answers. I decided that if I were playing this game, I would want the questions and answers to stay on the screen and not just flash. So, I made a second version of the game with text boxes. The popups were still used for response messages such as “Great answer” or “Try again.”

This enabled me to show the students both versions, talk about the fact that in technology there are always multiple ways to accomplish something, and that they are all usually correct.

Before starting to make their Mental Math Games, the students were given very few instructions. The main tool that was taught on Day 3 was the red icon to add a new screen.

Much to my surprise, there were very few expressions of frustration. They all simply got busy and either succeeded on their own or asked for help as they would in any other class.

They also devised new adaptations, such as the youngster who discovered that with the keyboard on, emojis could be added into Scratch Jr. So, a new, more visual question became: how many burgers are there?

Students surprised me in many ways.

One child seemed to really take to coding and was having great success. I thought perhaps he was a grade 2 student. In conversation with the teacher I learned that a week prior he had celebrated his sixth birthday.

I approached the teacher to mention another student who was completely at ease with not only using Scratch Jr, but discovering new ways to use the tools. It turns out that that child is not usually academically successful.

As well we both were very interested and impressed with the language that the students used to communicate with each other, ask questions, offer advice and describe their projects. For example, by Day 2 they often referred to the narrative line or action screens of their game in “story” terms.

Finally, after three mornings of learning, it was time to take a break. The teacher brought up a favourite winter-themed dance video, with some animated Santas. They all hopped up and got ready to try out their best moves. First, though, one student took a good look at the screen, turned to me and said, “Wow, that’s a lot of coding to make that video.”

The teacher and I were thrilled that this connection had been made, and the student was asked to share her comment with the class – and I got to chime in that the person who made the video did it as their job.

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By this time, all the students had a very thoughtful look on their face, as they thought about the possibilities of a job in computer programming.