Instructional Coaching through Computational Thinking

Welcome to "Ask the Tech Coach," a podcast for Instructional Coaches and Technology Integration Specialists. In this episode of “Ask the Tech Coach,” Jeff welcomes Greenville K-8 Virtual School educator Emily Strickland and Kelli Recher, from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) onto the podcast to discuss Ignite My Future in School (IMFIS) program. If you would like to be a part of future podcasts and share your thoughts, please contact the podcast.  We would love to have you join the show.

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In This Episode ...

• Welcome Emily
  • About Emily’s School
  • Leadership Council for Discovery Education
  • Learning Leader for Ignite My Future
  
  
• Welcome Kelli Recher (RECKER)
  • About Tata Consultancy Services
  
  
• Ignite My Future In Schools Program
  • Ignite My Future in School (IMFIS) was created in partnership with Discovery Education to empower educators to teach computational thinking, which are the critical skills that help students solve real-life problems and challenges by expressing them in a way that computers can solve.
  • Program Goals
  
  
• What is the Ignite My Future in School Program?
  • Created in September 2017
  • Empowering 20,000 teachers and 1 million students
  • 353 school districts
  • 50 States
    • California, Texas, New York, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey
    
    
  • The Importance of teaching students about computational thinking.
    • What is it?
    • Why is it important?
      • Makes up 67% of all project new STEM jobs
      • More than 500,000 open computing Jobs in the US
      • Unfortunately, only 45% of high schools currently teach computer science
      
      
    • What do beginning lessons look like?
    • What grades should we begin teaching computational thinking?
    • Examples of computational thinking
    • What resources are available to educators to support the curriculum?
    
    
  • Once a student is fluent in Computational Thinking … what could their next learning pathway be?
  • Why should school districts partner with the Ignite My Future In Schools Program?
    • IMFIS combines the best of digital content, lesson plans, career vignettes, and professional learning to help teachers prepare students for future careers.
    • The program offers educators instructional resources and year-round curriculum support.
    
    
  • Ignite My Future In Schools Learning Leaders Network
    • 246 Educators
    • Free Teacher-Driven community of like-minded individuals
    • Sharing Resources
    • How did the Learning Leaders Network start?
    • The importance of having this community as a teacher
    • The Global Innovations Program
    
    
  • The Pandemic
    • How to teach Computational Thinking while hybrid learning
    • Creating a community during a pandemic
    • How to keep...