Teacher Ms. Nicole DiGirolamo has upped the game in Grade 4 this year with all she has learned this summer as a staff member in a new student coding venture.  Her enthusiasm is quite evident in this post!

“This summer, I had the opportunity to teach computer coding for a company called TechSmartKids. TechSmartKids provides a progression of computer science courses using a rigorous academic curriculum in both summer camp and after school settings. Their curriculum is also being adopted by many school districts in the PNW. The instructional model includes a combination of whole group instruction, teacher guided exercises and student independent projects. After teaching this summer, I knew this was something I wanted to bring into my own classroom. Today, my 4th Grade class started their first day of the coding curriculum! Each week, they will progress through the curriculum, gaining invaluable skills in computer science concepts and coding techniques. My students will begin by using the visual coding language designed by TechSmartKids, which involves drag-and-drop block-based coding. This will provide a strong foundation for students and would assist in a transition to writing line-based coding in Python, a language professional coders use. I have attached some pictures of my class.”

To learn more about TechSmart Kids and the curriculum, you can check out their website here.