What do we mean by Computer Science for All?

Maya Israel recently contributed an article as a guest blogger on the Teacher Community blog of Code.org, a nonprofit organization that works to expand computer science in schools and increase participation in the field by women and underrepresented students of color. In her piece, Israel shared how students with disabilities fit into the Computer Science for All initiative by the White House.

Read the whole blog post on the Code.org Teacher Community blog: What do we mean by Computer Science for All?

CTRL-Shift collaboration brings teachers, professors, and students together to bring computing to all students

Unit 4 teachers, MSTE staff, and College of Education faculty and students are working together to bring computing to all grades and all students. Kenwood Elementary School teachers have been collaborating with MSTE staff, other University of Illinois faculty & staff, and community members for several years through CTRL-Shift. As a result of these collaborations, Kenwood adopted a school-wide coding initiative three years ago and Kenwood teachers are now writing new curriculum with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) STEM+C initiative. They are developing new learning modules that embed computer science instruction within the Everyday Mathematics curricula currently used at the school. Everyday Mathematics was developed at the University of Chicago, which is a partner on the grant.

Learn more by reading the University of Illinois News Bureau’s article Project embeds computer science lessons in math instruction for K-5 students.

Congratulations to Todd Lash

We just learned that Todd Lash has been asked to serve as the Grades K-6 Representative on the CSTA 2015 – 2016 Standards Revision Task Force.  This is, no doubt, a recognition of his incredible work these past three years in leading the Computational Thinking effort at Kenwood Elementary School. Todd has also been part of of an active social media presence for #CSK8  #KenwoodStars #kidscancode @EdCampCU among others.