Day 33 // 5/8/2015 // Grasonville, Maryland → Washington. D.C
Today we visited the Gunston School for a great class visit!
Today, we did a great classroom visit to the Gunston School in Centreville, Maryland. The Gunston School is teaching their first computer science class this year using CodeHS, and it has been a great success. Most of the students had never done any sort of coding before, and now there is lots of excitement around the class.
The class is led by Joe Thompson, who also manages the technology at the school and has taken on the role of computer science teacher as well. He mentions how much progress the students have made and mentions, “all the success we are having with our computer science program starts with CodeHS.”
“All the success we are having with our computer science
program starts with CodeHS”
As I pull in the pink van to Gunston there are helpful directions to get us there with a few turnRight(); and turnLeft(); signs, simulating Karel commands. As we pull up lots of the students run outside for a very warm welcome.
Today they are holding an outdoor class, and I go outside and speak to the students. We talk about how their computer science classes are going, and answer questions and get feedback from them. We also talk about the different ways they are taking what they learned and applying it.
There’s been so much excitement around the class, that many students have gone above and beyond in their own projects. There are students building apps for the rowing team. There are students starting to learn Java in addition to already learning JavaScript.
Joe has done an amazing job of building interest in the program, as many of the students who aren’t in the coding class want to take this class as well. The students are able to focus on the core skills, but also build creatively on top of that.
We talked with a number of the students after as well — and focused a lot on talking about the importance of comments and programming style. Joe focuses a lot on this idea in his class as well.
Thanks to Joe and the Gunston School for hosting us!
“CodeHS is the best thing since sliced bread”
