The Holiday Season is a time for selflessness and gift giving to let those in our lives know how much we care about them. As our focus has always been on education, however, we sometimes tend to go a little overboard in recommending that parents get their kids gifts that combine fun and learning—and there’s nothing wrong with that!
The annual Computer Science Education Week put on by Code.org serves as a yearly reminder of the importance of coding and Computer Science education in contemporary K-12 schools. Expected to be the literacy of future generations, coding has become an extremely important skill to have and creative Hour of Code projects are very helpful.
Its potential is enormous and the learning opportunities it helps create are astounding. Some teachers, however, shy away from trying it because they assume that it’s too complicated or too expensive. The truth is that it’s outrageously easy to use and extremely affordable—even for educators. So, does VR have a future in K-12 classrooms?
Even with technology available, you might be wondering how on Earth teachers could provide each student with a meaningful personalized experience. Personalized education has become more than just a trend in our education systems, however. When teachers provide students with content and approaches that suit them best, students often find success.
Okay, it isn’t exactly the same as it always has been, but is today’s teacher PD keeping up with the times, especially when it comes to technology? We expect educators today to be willing to use tech tools to reach and engage each of their students, but how can they do that if they don’t know how to use the tools, themselves? So, finding time for PD is often really important.
If you think you’ve seen kids get excited about learning, you probably haven’t seen the full extent of excitement until you’ve seen robots make their way into the classroom. Teachers can discuss the ideas of learning with robotics with their students, but when it comes to unleashing their potential in the classroom, students won’t be able to contain themselves.
Have you ever heard the phrase “bucking the trend?” It’s usually used when something in particular has been the status quo for a number of years and a group of dedicated individuals decides that they want to be a part of it instead of watching from the sidelines. When it comes to the number of girls who pursue CS careers, there’s always more we can do.
Proponents of STEM education generally believe that hands-on, practical and in-depth learning should really begin taking place during a student’s high school years. We believe, however, that it can start earlier than that—like, much earlier. Who’s to say that young children cannot be exposed to the same kinds of experiential learning as older students?
Alarmingly, just one in 10 American schools offer regular computer science classes in their curricula. If I could pick just one word to describe that trend, it might have to be ‘disconnect.’ It doesn’t make any sense, you see, because jobs involving computer science skills are being created four or five times as fast as qualified graduates can fill them.
What can we say about principals? Tell everyone how awesome they are and how much they care about their students and their school and their community? You probably already know that. Principals, of course, play a crucial role in the success of their students based on who they bring in as teachers and the variety of afterschool programs they can offer.
