Make Your Own App

Funded Jun 4, 2018

I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to go to the Pathfinders Summer Professional Development in Bloomington Indiana to take the Beauty and Joy of Coding course. For five days straight I had the opportunity to take the course of coding using Snap!, developed at UC Berkeley, and experience exactly what my students will experience once they take the course. I had the opportunity and access to fellow instructors who took the course with me. We shared ideas in class, during meals, and at the living quarters. It was as if I was back in in college myself.

The highlight for me was most definitely being able to hear and share personal experiences from fellow instructors from across the country. I love to hear about how other teachers approach the same subject(s) I teach. I especially like to hear about the successful strategies that, highly efficient teachers are developing to work with their students. It doesn't matte where other teachers come from and or the level of socio-economic communities where they teach - we are all facing the same difficulties when it comes to teaching young folks and trying to prepare them for college and for life.

I know I have to choose one thing I learned that I will use in my classroom. There are so many things I learned, but I will choose to talk about how other AP teachers help their students prepare for the Computer Science Principles AP Examination. I learned that teachers scaffold their instruction so that students, from the beginning of the course, are writing about the work they are doing. Little by little they are expected to write with intent. Eventually the students write at the level that is expected of them on the AP Examination, when describing the program they developed and analyzing the computer science principles they applied. This is definitely a strategy I plan to use with my students.

On behalf of my students, my school, my community, and myself, I thank you for making this experience happen for me. My students and my school will benefit greatly from the information I gained, and the strategies I learned to make coding more accessible to ALL my students who wish to take my course.

Thank you!”

With gratitude,

Mr. Galan