Day 5 from Teacher Con in Philly!
Today was our final day here at Teacher Con in Philadelphia. After another fantastic breakfast, we broke into our Teacher/Learner/Observer (TLO) groups for discussions on assessments and course/unit time frames. One of the ongoing questions a lot of us had was, "My school doesn't have a schedule that matches Code.org's 5 days a week, all year long schedule. How do I get all of this in?". While there is no perfect answer, there definitely are ways to accommodate any schedule, and we spent time in groups and with facilitators going over the units and lessons. The final answer we came up with was: Start with Unit 1, adjust lessons for what works best for your classroom, get as far as you can! Even if you don't make it through all 6 units, ANY amount of Computer Science is important! We spent the remainder of the day together, exchanging information for further contact, had a great closing ceremony (where Maine won second place in the Great Tweet contest!), and got ready to head home!
TeacherCon has been a wonderful, fulfilling experience for all of us! We learned from incredible teachers, ate amazing food, explored a beautiful city, and became invigorated about bringing Computer Science to our schools! A big thank you to Code.org and their many sponsors, and Maine's 2 regional partners, Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance and Educate Maine for such an incredible experience and the opportunity to bring Computer Science to Maine!
