Show Notes

News

TEALS

  • Teaching Education And Literacy in Schools
  • High School Computer science curriculum
  • Pairing Industry Volunteers with educators to get them up to speed with the material in a hands-on approach
    • Teacher has the teaching certificate but not the background on the material
    • The volunteer brings context and real world applications of principles
    • Students enjoy someone other than their teachers in front of them
    • The TEALS program can assist finding volunteers for a school that cannot identify the right kind of professionals themselves.
  • Curriculum
    • Stanford developed -- Microsoft sponsored (paid)
      • Intro to comp sci - snap
      • Intro to comp sci 2 - python
      • AP Comp Sci
      • AP Computer Science Principles
    • Snap -- Based on MIT scratch
      • Block based -- teaches CS concepts
        • Loops
        • Conditionals
        • Variables
        • etc.
    • Python
    • Java
    • More options available
      • JavaScript HTML CSS
  • Types of volunteering
    • Co-teach
      • Teachers have the teaching certificate, but the volunteer leads most of the lessons
    • Teacher Assistants - Lab support
      • Support the class less frequently 2-3 times a week
      • Work hands on with students individually more
      • Support the lesson by interjecting
      • Being a backup
    • Remote instruction
  • Goals
    • More awareness and introduction of CS into age where there typically is little to none means more people are exposed to it as a career option
    • Diversity. Most students (and adults) have incorrect preconceived notions of the field. This is a way to expose CS to groups of people to show how CS can be fun
      • TEALS looks to schools for a commitment to action in three categories:
        • Diversity in Enrollment
        • Inclusive Learning Space
        • Inclusive Instruction
    • Under staffed / budget schools can participate as equals since this program does not cost them anything and they can have excellent quality volunteers come in
    • This is ultimately a vehicle to enable training of teachers to succeed with the curriculum without volunteer help
  • Real Numbers
    • 10,000 students a year across 455 schools in the US and Canada
    • 1,500 Tech volunteers from 650 companies
      • 85% of volunteers come from outside of Microsoft
    • 35% female students
    • 1 in 5 schools are rural
    • 94% of students believe the volunteers were effective in helping vs teachers alone
    • Students in this program score 8% higher on AP Comp Sci standard test than other programs
See a mistake? Edit this post!