Episode 12 - Teaching Journey, Resource Aggregation, 4 Keys to Inspiring Students, Comp Sci Education and Life Advice ft. Said El Mejdani

Hey Everyone! Welcome back to episode 12 of The Drawing Board. We are back again with another special guest. We are pleased to host another veteran of Westwood Community High School, the founder of the world-famous Westwood Computer Science program, a passionate teacher, and multiple-time national teaching award winner, Mr. Said El-Mejadani. The experiences we had in Mr. Said's classroom are ones we will cherish for the rest of our lives, from bright-eyed learning to captivating project collaborations, Mr. Said never failed to leave us fascinated and hungry to learn more, all while being some of the most memorable and enjoyable classes we attended. We began this week by exploring Mr. Said's journey to teaching, from his time in Morocco to Quebec, and finally how he landed as a computer science teacher in Fort McMurray. We dove into his teaching philosophies and what separates his classroom from the countless other computer science classrooms across the country, in which he revealed to us the 4 Principles he's developed for inspiring students and creating that desire to learn. Taking a trip down memory lane we talked about the early stages of the computer science program at Westwood and how perseverance and ingenuity turned his classroom from a couple of old computers to one of the premiere hubs of learning resources and talent in high schools across Canada. Touching on some of the problems with computer science education and how AI will impact it going forward, we heard some Hot Takes. Finally, we inquired about Mr. Said's future goals and got one little nugget of wisdom you'll definitely want to stick around for. Hope you all enjoy! If anyone has any ideas for topics to discuss or any other suggestions feel free to email us at [email protected]