Going Beyond the Hour of Code

During CS Ed Week, countless teachers and students experienced computer science for the first time. Whether it was their first, second, or hundredth time, I hope that this taste of CS left them hungry for more. Code.org has created a great compilation of resources for how students can continue learning. In this post, I’d like to suggest some ideas for how teachers who are new(ish) to CS can go beyond the Hour of Code. 

Take an online course

There are a number of excellent online learning opportunities designed specifically for educators. Some favorites (all free!) include:

Read a book, blog, or magazine

If you prefer learning through reading, some great options are:

Connect with other teachers

Meet other teachers in person. Don’t worry if you don’t have experience! Friendly and inclusive learning communities include:

Online communities include:

  • CSforAllTeachers (a virtual community of practice, for all teachers from Pre-K through high school who are interested in teaching CS)
  • ScratchEd (online community and resource sharing for educators who use the Scratch programming language)
  • #csk8 Twitter chats (K-8 CS teachers chat about designated topics on the 1st & 3rd Wednesdays of each month at 5pm PT / 8pm ET)

Test out curriculum yourself

A great way to build your knowledge and skills is doing exactly what students would do and go through curriculum yourself. See Code.org’s comparisons of CS curricula by grade level:

 If you want to spend less time, try some different Hour of Code tutorials.

Start a club

You don’t need to know CS in order to start a club. You can simply create the time and space for students to learn before or after school, or during lunch. Plus, there are several organizations that provide curriculum, and some can even provide volunteers to teach the content! Strong options include:

Dabble in the classroom

Don’t stop at CS Ed Week. Keep going all year long! Some ways to get started with incorporating more CS in your classroom include:

Go all in!

Yay! You want to do even more. You could:

Bryan Twarek School District Representative

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By no means is this intended to be an exhaustive list; rather, it’s just a starting place. If you have a suggestion to add, tweet to @csteachersorg and @btwarek.

Bryan Twarek School District Representative

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