As the budget woes continue in California, my thoughts are turning to recruiting. If a sufficient number of students do not sign-up for the two computer science classes that I usually teach, then I will no long be teaching them. At my high school, gone are the days of small classes. Three of my four classes have enrollments of 38 students which includes my AP Computer Science class.
So my thoughts are turning toward what can I do to recruit students for the computer science classes? I usually produce a slide show where I embed movies of Alice projects and Scratch projects that the students have completed during the year. I also try to incorporate an Animoto Slide Show highlighting the collages the students have created. Then I ask the math teachers on campus to show the slide show and hand out the personal invitations that I printed to students that have the prerequisites to take the class or were on the AP Potential list I receive from the Guidance Office.
This year I want to add asking the math teachers to show the videos that CSTA is developing for Computer Science Education week. I am also thinking about asking my CS students to teach others to program using Alice during our Open House/ 8th grader preview night.
I am always looking for recruiting ideas. What do you do to recruit students at your school?
Myra Deister
CSTA Board of Directors
Adding “Anrdoid App Inventor” to the set of demos would be helpful. People I talk to want to make their million dollar app and let Apple or Google distribute it.
I could do that! I plan to introduce App Inventor to my Fundamentals students next week. I demo their projects and have them teach a short lesson about App Inventor
Great idea!