The end has come. The week has been a long, arduous at times, and completely filled with fun. I know, some of you are probably wondering how those descriptions can go together. Well, with TeacherCon, they go together perfectly.

If you’ve been reading about the first four days of TeacherCon, you have an idea of what I am talking about. If not, go ahead and click back to those first posts now and take a look at what actually happens at TeacherCon.

This being a Friday, you expect folks to be a bit worn out. But here, things are a bit different. People don’t want to leave early. They want to stay until the end… hoping to glean one last tidbit out of Code.org. Well, we all piled into the ballroom for our final launch from Josh Caldwell and Dani McAvoy. Some of us looking a bit tired, but we are all ready for this final day of learning.

See that guy in blue up front? That’s Kevin, our facilitator. Great job Kevin!

There were so many people sticking it out until the end, Code.org and the Sheraton hotel had to stage the luggage for people in the lobby. Kudos to the system, as it worked quite well.

The Sea of Luggage

Josh Caldwell showed off the ADAFruit Circuit Playground hardware that is a part of the program. In fact, being that there were about 140 attendees from Mississippi, he programmed it to make a cowbell sound. Not quite the sound of bells sounding for the Bulldogs, but the effort was appreciated, Josh!

After the launch, we headed to our TLO rooms. Here, we worked through some logistics and worked together to brainstorm possible issues that might arise, and how to deal with them should they occur.

We had four teachers from our school come to Atlanta for this great learning experience. We will take Computer Science Discoveries back to our school, giving it to as many students as possible.

So, now… the banquet hall is empty, the selfie screen has been taken down. The Code.org team is taking all of their materials back home.

One would think, as with most educational technology conferences, that the learning is over. You see, most conferences are sort of a ‘one and done’ experience. You show up, see some sessions. Hopefully find a couple good things to take back home, and head home until next year. Code.org doesn’t work this way. They truly are partners with schools and teachers to give computer science to as many children as possible. They have training facilitators around the country (I will be applying to be one as soon as possible) who will hold conferences around the country to help teachers teach computer science.

So, after all the hoopla, what are my thoughts about this experience? Code.org is legit. Many companies and non-profits have mission statements that sound nice. Code.org doesn’t just believe in their mission, they live it. Every code.org staff member I encountered was exceedingly friendly and helpful. They brought all of these teachers to Atlanta, and didn’t charge them dime. Yeah, you read that correctly. They paid for travel, food, and other expenses just to bring us to Atlanta to train us to take computer science to my kids. That is literally putting their money where their mouth is.

Often, we struggle with what to say when someone does something exceedingly kind. We grapple with words to try to come up with that perfect thing to say. I think I can sum it up quite simply.

To all of the code.org team, and the donors who support them and their mission…. Thank You.