Teacher Feature: Adam Schmierer
Union & Heritage High School Vancouver, WA
Tell us about yourself
I’m teaching Intro to Computer Programming for the first time this year and teach AP Physics the rest of the day. This is my first time teaching coding and I come from a limited coding background. We lost our programming teacher but we had students asking to take the course and with my limited background I needed a progression and resources that would support my kids and not slow them down as I built out the course. After looking at different sites, CodeHS fit our needs the best with the video learning and better error scripts than other online programs.
Tell us about your students
Last semester we had 24 students taking the course here at Union and this semester we have 23 students taking the course at Heritage. I am working with them virtually as they work in a lab. This is great for the students there as there has never been a coding class and this is a way to get kids interested in coding and get a program up and running at the school. We will definitely be using CodeHS next year and are hoping to expand to AP Computer Science in the coming years as students look to a next step from this course. I also have some independent study students who are taking on the course here at Union since they want to take AP Computer Science next year but want an introduction before next year. We would not be able to do this unless it was with CodeHS.
“We would not be able to do this unless it was with CodeHS.”
How has CodeHS been an effective teaching tool for you?
It allows me to help kids where they are at and give feedback with great detail for kids online. As I have a very wide range of abilities in class, students are able to work at the speed they need.
What do your students like about CodeHS?
Students love being able to play around with the code and see what happens and to work at their pace. I heard that all the time from kids that they loved being able to work as fast as they wanted and weren’t slowed down by a kid who wasn’t paying attention or had a lot of absences.
Tell us your biggest story related to using CodeHS in your class!
A sophomore is being hired by a local online company to help debug their website with the JavaScript and HTML abilities he has right now. Seven kids are now taking AP Computer Science who did not even dream of taking it before.
What is the most creative way you have used CodeHS?
Out students created projects on their own in the sandbox and then challenged other group at the same spot in the course to complete the task. Very rewarding and lots of fun for kids to create the project for each other. Some were complex and some were simple but either way the kids really enjoyed it.
“Seven kids are now taking AP Computer Science who did not even dream of taking it before.”
What does a typical day in your classroom look like?
We get everybody logged in and just start in where they left off. From there we whiteboard pseudo code to lay out what the code will do.
What strategies have you utilized to help students overcome challenges while learning to code?
We would step away from the computer screen to whiteboard pseudo code and then write what the actual code would be within it before going back to the computers. They worked together a lot and the white boarding was the most effective strategy so that kids could see the layout and not expect to hit run and see what it does immediately.
What’s the funniest thing that’s happened in your CodeHS class?
Funniest moment: when a student broke through after a long stretch and would fist pump or celebrate without realizing that the room was dead quiet. We all enjoy it when someone would have that Eureka moment!
Originally published at codehs.com.
