Computer Science is growing in schools. Administrators are finally realizing the importance of teaching computer science and coding in the classroom. As with all new programs, there are growing pains. Here is one resource that can help ease that soreness.

As schools begin to implement their computer science programs, they are having to draft teachers from wherever they can. Some, like me, have some coding and computer background and were begging to jump in. Others, may have been ‘voluntold’ to teach this developing curriculum. Either way, it is our task, our duty, to do this subject justice for everyone.

In our school, and most of our state, we are using the code.org curriculums. I am teaching the CS Discoveries program, while my colleagues in the high schools are teaching CS Principles. I was part of a pilot program using this last year, and it went really well. You can read about that journey HERE. I am excited to get to teach the program in a full time capacity this year. The folks at code.org do a great job of working with teachers and trying to make things as user friendly and understandable as possible. 

Sometimes, teachers just need to talk to other teachers who are teaching the same thing. It can be difficult to find people to bounce ideas off or to go to for tips on how to present certain concepts. Sure, we have the occasional PD session, but let’s be real… when the year gets rolling, we get busy. One resource I found that held some promise was the code.org forums. I stumbled across these early last year when getting ramped up for the pilot project. I immediately thought this was going to be a great resource.

Then I started digging. The forums got very little use. I wondered if maybe it was simply because I was piloting a program, so I dug further. I headed over to the sub-forums for Hour of Code. Let’s be real… Hour of Code is big… huge. Surely, I thought, this would be chock full of great posts. Yet, again, there was very little there. 

Code.org went through the trouble of setting the forums up FOR teachers to use. They have staff assigned to answer questions and respond to teachers. Yet, teachers still don’t make good use of this potentially great resource. Here, a teacher can go post questions on ANYTHING to do with computer science and/or coding… yet most don’t. You hear teachers lament about the lack of support they get with this new challenge… yet these same teachers are not utilizing the tools provided to them.

So, I started thinking and asking around. I asked at TeacherCon Atlanta, and most of the people there had no clue the forums even exist. Obviously the code.org staff knew. Most of the facilitators knew. Most of the rest of the teachers there, no clue.

The problem does not lie with code.org. They put it out there, they provided a virtual spot for us to collaborate. The problem is simply a PR issue. Folks don’t use it because they don’t know about it. It is not that teachers are so resistant to this new adventure, it is more that they just need a bit more guidance on what other resources are out there.

See, here is the thing…. computer science is for EVERYONE. Everyone is entitled to be taught it. Yet, some students are more of a challenge to teach this to than others. There are groups here for this very purpose. There are groups for English Language Learners, Differentiation for other groups, Students with disabilities, etc. Yet most of these areas get little traffic on the forums.

There is a student in my school who I am passionate about being able to learn computer science. She is blind, and we have no resources to allow her to learn this subject. She is entitled to this subject as much as any other. That is what equity is all about. What are we going to do to help provide equity for every student? When you find yourself stumped, post in the forums. When you figure something out, post in the forums. Answer questions there. As time goes on, the forums will build and be a repository of great questions and answers for others to gain from.

The Code.org forums are what we, the teachers, make them. If you are teaching computer science and are not reading and posting on these forums, maybe it is time for that to change. Together, we can make things happen. Find those forums at forum.code.org