Inspiring Students To Build a Website for Their Own Business
How Carmen Bryson, a CS Teacher in Ohio, Inspires Students to Build Business Websites in High School
My name is Carmen Bryson. I teach at Shaw High School in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to teaching, I received a degree in math with a concentration in computer science, and worked in the private sector as a Computer Analyst. I was inspired to step into education knowing I could make a direct impact on students using my computer science and mathematics skills. I also knew many inner city students in my community were not performing well in math and they had very little (if any) exposure to computer science.
“I became an educator to help students learn these challenging subjects and connect what they learned in the classroom to the real-world.”
In 2020, I joined the CodeHS Inspire Fellowship, a program focused on increasing computer science participation among Black, Latino, and Native American students. As part of the fellowship, I launched a project where my students learned the basics of HTML and CSS so they could create websites to promote their own businesses. I used the CodeHS platform and Web Design course to teach students HTML. The platform was essential for this project and it made learning fun and interactive for my students.
I was inspired to launch this project because my students needed a real-life application to learn financial math and computer science. Many of my students love to learn visually — having them create websites for their businesses was a very practical way for them to learn math, computer science, and entrepreneurship.
As many teachers know, when starting a new project you can run into some hurdles. My school was unexpectedly short one math teacher for the school year and students are expected to fulfill 4 years of math before graduation. We did not have an extra teacher for an elective computer class, but I convinced my principal that I could do both web design and a financial math class in a single course setting.
It took a semester for my school district to see the vision of students learning both, but now they love the web design project I developed and we’re planning to make it a part of our future curriculum! Despite other setbacks throughout the year, students were able to create websites for their businesses by summer break.
There are a handful of students in my classroom who stood out this year for building websites that impacted the school or their lives outside of high school.
- Amaya Dennis created a website to provide care packages for students who may need inspiration. Check it out here.
- Santana Bugg produced a website to track individual stock portfolios. Check it out here.
- Reseana Payne and Aniesha Woods created a website for the Eye Lash Business. View the website here.
Of my 60 students, 99% are Black and live below the poverty line. They may not know the benefits of creating their own businesses to generate income. This project helped them understand those benefits, develop a vision for what they can accomplish in life, and learn how to advertise a business through a website. I am very proud of my students!
Read more stories about how CodeHS Inspire Fellows have expanded computer science education to Black, Latino, and Native American students in their community!
