Empowering Teachers: Going Beyond an Hour in Computer Science Education

As we wrap up Computer Science Education Week, we would like to send out a big “Thank you!” to all of the teachers bringing computing education to the next generation, with a special shout out to those who are jumping in with no prior experience in the subject. The growth mindset and curiosity that you model for your students is just as valuable as any lesson on loops or conditionals, and the personal relationships that you bring to the learning process cannot be replicated by even the most sophisticated technology. 

With that, here are our top five tips for those new-to-computing teachers who are ready to go beyond an hour and bring computer science to their classrooms year-round. 

Starting with any new curriculum or subject can be daunting, but the qualities that make a great computer science teacher are the same ones that make a great teacher in general: creating a positive classroom culture, building student engagement, and responsiveness to individual learning needs. While content knowledge is important, what you already know how to do is much more complex or difficult than any programming challenge you will encounter in the classroom. 

Computer science is everywhere, and that means it has connections to almost any other subject. Are you interested in storytelling? Art? Music? Geometry? History? Games? No matter where you’re coming from, there are resources out that will help you to connect your passion to computing, and many of these connections are the basis for entire courses. Many self-taught programmers say that they learned because they were interested in making things important to them, keeping them motivated when things got tough. 

TIPP & SEE? PRIMM? Parson’s Problems? The jargon of computer science pedagogy can seem as foreign as the jargon of the discipline itself, but many of the pedagogical strategies you see in computing classrooms have parallels to strategies teachers are already familiar with. The techniques you use to help students plan, draft, and edit a piece of writing can be tweaked to support them as they explore computer programs, and many of the inquiry-based methods are pulled directly from science education. In fact, you might respond to the latest research in computing pedagogies with the same comment we got from a veteran educator: “Well, that’s just good teaching!” 

You don’t have to do this alone. There are plenty of teachers excited to hear about your experiences and share their own, many with years in the computer science classroom (and many more just starting out). The Computer Science Teachers Association is an excellent place to begin, with professional development opportunities, virtual and in-person events, and local chapters that provide supportive communities. Elementary educators may also find link-minded educators at ISTE and its local affiliates, and most social media platforms have active CS education groups. 

As all teachers know, learning new things can be hard. When coding gets frustrating, or a new concept just isn’t coming together the way that you’d like it to, try to give yourself the same grace you’d give your students, step back, and remember that productive struggle is totally fine, and it doesn’t mean that anything is ‘wrong’. There’s a whole community of educators who have your back, and as professional educators, you are the best positioned people to bring computing education to our young learners. You’ve got this! 

CoderZ is the perfect computer science platform for seasoned and new-to-computer science teachers. Check out our recent webinar featuring educators from Dallas ISD who are in their first-year pilot of using CoderZ for their middle school coding and robotics courses. They love it, and we know you will too!