everyone Can fInd an hour
Secondary Schools It is easy to see how elementary schools were able to incorporate the Hour of Code ™ through the library or media center, but this strategy proved highly impactful in this space in middle schools, junior high schools and high schools. Middle School and Junior High School settings can present some challenges, but none that cannot be overcome. Unlike in elementary schools, most secondary teachers are not generalists who are trained across the content area. Asking everyone to participate definitely moved many secondary teachers out of their comfort zones. But by providing resources, teachers knew where to go to learn about coding and why it is so important. At Wilkinson Junior High School, Christina Cornwell, school principal, sent out "How To"" documents and videos to the teachers so that they felt comfortable with their students doing Hour of Code ™ in their classes. This gave teachers flexibility for when to introduce the lesson. “ To help teachers see connections, we provided teachers with several examples that could relate to their specific subject area, so that students could come away from the week with more than an just one hour of coding under their belt, ” Cornwell reported. In many cases, students at this school had coding experiences in all six of their classes, giving the potential for six or more hours of Coding experiences. Since the junior high schools in the district are offering computer science classes, including Computer Science Discoveries, a Code.org course, students studying computer science were permitted to visit classrooms and team with a teacher as a “ Guest Student Coder ” to help and support students and teachers who were coding for the first time. These arrangements for the students in the computer science classes helped to empower the teachers to implement the Hour of Code ™ lessons. Just as in elementary school, secondary students enjoyed receiving recognition for participating in the Hour of Code ™ through the presentation of a certificate. With so many activities, courses, and demands in the day, how could it be possible for all students in a high school to have a chance to code? Various strategies were implemented in the high schools to reach as many learners as possible. High school was the area that faced the greatest challenges, but lessons learned from this experience has empowered Superintendent Davis to set the goal even higher for this upcoming year. “ We will learn from our experiences and use what we learned to tweak our approach with a goal of reaching every student, ” Davis stated. 11
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