What our brightest students need and schools don't teach...

"In the next ten years, there will be about 1.4 million jobs in computer science and only 400,000 qualified graduates to fill those jobs." Thus, we need to enrich the education our students receive by differentiating and providing them with more opportunities to learn how to Code. 

So...how do we take the intimidation of coding (computer programming) out of the equation? 

Please see the following video that stresses the importance of computational thinking and learning how to code (program).  It REALLY is a powerful message and includes Bill Gates and a quote from Steve Jobs.

Please consider "liking" the STRETCh facebook page: goo.gl/r5foT
STRETCh - Striving To Reach Every Talented Child is about eliminating the ability of the school system to stall our children's education. Student's can do so much more than they are "allowed" to do in a school setting when we use whole group instruction. With technology, we can personalize learning and allow ALL student to grow and discover their strength areas. 

Student "tests-out" of a science unit...creates video game!

Bailey, a fourth grader who tested out of an up-coming unit on electricity and magnetism, decided to create a video game review for her classmates. Students used her game to review for their unit test by playing, evaluating and providing Bailey feedback.

What a great way to differentiate for the needs of a student who has already demonstrated proficiency on a topic of study. Allowing Bailey to work on her computational thinking skills and apply her content knowledge at a higher level, benefited not only her learning...but the learning of others as well.

Student scores on the post-test for the unit ranged from a low of 73% to a high of 100%. Needless to say, Bailey was one of the ten students to earn a 100%. In creating her game, she found she had to know the content forward...and backwards...

Global Education Conference 2012

Computational Thinking - Global Education Conference:

Last week I presented my "Because the Cat Goes Left" webinar for the world's largest free educational conference:http://www.globaleducationconference.com/ 

Incorporating computational thinking and computer programming into our K-8 curriculum must be a priority! I heard loud and clear from the participants in the audience that we need to start providing more training for our K-8 teachers in this area, so that they can incorporate these skills within their classrooms and within their existing curriculum. 

I am a firm believer that these skills do NOT have to be a separate class for our children. It needs to become a way of thinking!

If you would like to see ways in which you can incorporate into your teaching, along with concrete examples and rubrics, feel free to view the recording of the webinar.

If you would like to review the recording of the conference, please click the following link:

https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/recording/playback/link/table/dropin?sid=2008350&suid=D.6B09C52F60690A44FF9C2812DCC0CF