BootUp Professional Development to Participate in 2021 AASA National Conference on Education
February 16 2021 · By BootUp PD
Non-profit will Showcase K-5 Program Success and Expansion of Computer Science Curricula into Leading Districts, including Chicago PS, Dallas ISD, Prince George’s County PS and Shelby County SD
February 16, 2021, SALT LAKE CITY, UT. BootUp Professional Development announced today that it will be participating in the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) 2021 Virtual National Conference on Education (NCE). Founded in 1865, the AASA is one of the most recognized professional educational organizations in the United States and includes more than 14,000 district leaders. BootUp PD will also feature a customized program overview video within the “School of the Future” exhibit hall, as well as highlight the increasing adoption and success of its CS professional development program, and recent sponsorship cohort with Amazon’s primary computer science access program, Amazon Future Engineer.
“2020 was certainly not without its challenges,” said Clark Merkley, Executive Director of BootUp PD. “Fortunately, we were able to jump-start things early in the year by forming a significant relationship with Amazon Future Engineer. BootUp was not only able to carefully navigate a particularly difficult time in education, but also establish new relationships with many of the larger districts, well-known for thought leadership and advancing the pedagogy of elementary students in underrepresented and underserved communities.” Districts that have now engaged with BootUp Professional Development include Chicago PS, Dallas ISD, Prince George’s County PS, and Shelby County SD, among many others.
Amazon Future Engineer is a four-part childhood-to-career program intended to inspire, educate, and prepare children and young adults from underrepresented and underserved communities to try computer science. Through this program, Amazon is funding computer science education and teacher professional development in leading districts. This effort helps expand the number of qualified educators in each district, builds broader programming capacity, and targets additional stability and sustainability for computer science education at participating schools.
With BootUp, coding is elementary for ALL students. BootUp’s professional development and support is customized to each district’s unique needs. Teachers learn how to engage students with easy-to-use, block-based programming languages (ScratchJr and Scratch) to create interactive stories, animations, games, art, music, and more through problem solving and other fundamental computer science practices. BootUp programs require no prior coding experience and include interest-driven, no-cost curricula that continue in perpetuity after the three-year implementation is complete.
For more information on BootUp PD’s participation in AASA’s National Conference on Education, CLICK HERE.
About BootUp Professional Development
BootUp PD is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit specializing in district-wide elementary computer science initiatives that focus on creativity and problem-solving. Since 2015, BootUp has worked with over 475 elementary schools in fifteen states, directly impacting over 1,500 educators and 150,000 students. BootUp prepares teachers to facilitate open-ended coding projects that are project-based and personally meaningful in the free platforms Scratch and ScratchJr. Students are empowered with creative and interactive curricula that allow them to explore their personal interests through coding with design, music, animation, games, or stories. Please visit www.bootuppd.org for additional information.
