At Avondale Elementary School District, I designed and facilitated coding classes mandated for all grades K-8. Because the district requires everyone to participate in roughly 48 coding classes each year, I adopted an approach which centered on creating and remixing interest-driven coding projects to create a space for a variety of interests to drive deep learning. Young coders engaged with projects using a variety of programming languages to create music, art, animation, games, stories, or even iPad apps using professional software such as Xcode.
Last school year, the Park City School District began exploring the mostly uncharted waters of teaching coding classes to elementary students. More than a year and a half later, the district is now reaping the rewards of implementing a program almost no other school system in the country offers.
Kingsport City Schools began their “Computer Science (CS) for All” implementation program in 2016 when they were the recipient of a BootUp coding implementation grant funded by Emerald Data Solutions, the makers of BoardDocs.
Congratulations to our district partners, Avondale Elementary School District, Park City School District, and Kingsport City Schools for signing the CS for All Consortium District Pledge and committing to support the expansion of Computer Science to every K–12 student in the United States.
Last summer, it was announced that a local technology company, BoardDocs would finance a pilot coding program for the Park City School district’s first grade students. Now, nearly a year later, some 400 first graders have taken the first steps and the program will eventually be expanded from kindergarten through 5th grades.