COVA & CSLE

My journey in my DLL program started differently than most of my colleagues. In the summer of 2019 I was  part of  a cohort of Teachers in a program developed by Apple, Lamar University and Houston Community College directed at Teachers of Title I schools in Houston. It was called Teaching Coding Academy and it meant to teach us Computational Thinking  so that we could go back to school and teach our own students. As part of the program, our schools would receive 25 Ipads per Teachers attending the academy for our students.  I was thrilled to be part of this program and was very excited to participate. Right from the start, even before the Teaching Academy began we needed to create an eportfolio and should choose between available free web building sites. I had to ask my Student Teacher -who worked with me in the classroom the year before- what was an eportfolio. She showed me hers from University of Houston and explained that is how we show our work. Ok. I can do this -I told myself. I asked my husband who works in his IT small business and helps other small businesses to create their pages, which one to use and he said Wix. Very quickly I realized that I had no idea what I got myself into,  but I kept pressing forward. During this  first week in the Academy we had to create an app for a non-profit  organization that served our Community and School District. An app? What?? I went back home and looked at myself in the mirror. What did I get into?!! We had to problem solve, map out and create a solution, simple, workable and effective. We had to decide what, how, colors, functionalities, navigation based on some information about the non-profit MAM and our knowledge about the needs of our community. I have my team to thank for being able to create a mock of an app that achieved those four goals. 

 

Here is an article published in the Houston Chronicle about that remarkable week:

 

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Apple-HCC-train-teachers-how-to-teach-coding-14014469.php

 

And here, some screenshots of the app we created:

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Teacher academy reflection:

https://mrscamperos.wixsite.com/teacher/teacher-academy

 

Next up, we had to go back to our schools and plan and implement a Coding Camp for our students during one week of that summer. By now my shock capacity had been surpassed over and over again, so I was more in a what is the next challenge that I know nothing about going to be like? BRING IT ON! 

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All our adventures  during this Code Camp where uploaded to our eportfolio:

https://mrscamperos.wixsite.com/teacher/2ndgrade

 

From this first summer experience, which I like to call the swim or sink effect, we started to implement Coding in our school, but only for Second Grade. My colleagues participated in a Computational Thinking PL from our District ED Tech  as I kept working in my Teacher Academy with Lamar and Apple.

 

https://mrscamperos.wixsite.com/teacher/coding-for-this-school-year

 

So from the beginning of my journey, it was all about authentic assignments - geared to our community, school, students;  choice and voice as to what, how, when and especially ownership because even though I had a lot of help from Mrs. Hemme our EdTech facilitator, my  2nd grade team of colleagues, my principal and many others, it was my responsibility to make this happen.

 

Then of course I started to work on my Learning Manifesto, Growth mindset - which I already was a big fan of having already  worked on a PL for students about this subject- but now I was about to experience. I have to say that going through this Teaching Academy one year long Program and having to live Growth Mindset prepared me for what was to come next, a shut-down of schools due to the pandemic, which made us start a Remote Learning Model which then transformed to a full Virtual Teaching setting, that just ended this past June. It was the Bring it on - Mindset from my Teacher Coding Academy that transitioned into Digital Leadership and Learning.  It has been phenomenal growth on my part because it made me really dig in and work h-a-r-d. Reading, researching online, analyzing, trying out different online products like wix, imovies, prezi interactive presentations, screencastify, and so many more that I can’t remember. For all those new apps, websites, webtools, the most important learning was  how to use this these great tools in a Learning environment that  challenged students to drive their journey, having that ownership,  accelerating their true abilities to develop crucial skills and critical thinking, as I experienced myself through this path which has been wonderfully hard and fulfilling.

 

Growth mindset:

https://mrscamperos.wixsite.com/teacher/resources

 

Blogging with Lamar / Apple during my Teacher Academy Program - blogs:

Including:

• Digital competency wheel

• A new culture of learning

• Learning philosophy

• Impact of Growth Mindset

 

After my transition to the Digital Leadership and Learning, I could start to apply the CSLE and COVA by designing my courses on EDLD 5368 - COVA

 

https://mrscamperos.wixsite.com/teacher/cova

 

I also designed a complete course in Canvas for Coding. But already at this time I was making big changes from what we have done at the Code Camp and Teacher academy as what my Coding course was going to look like, trying to implement more choices and voice, through collaboration and discussion:

 

https://mrscamperos.wixsite.com/teacher/free-teaching-topics

 

 

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This year, 2020-2021 which was such a different school year due to the pandemic. In my virtual classroom, as I learned more about flipped classrooms and my students and I learned how to  use our technology to our advantage, I began trying to create  CSLE and give students COVA. It was hard because second grade students are not used to being the drivers of their education journey. It was hard for me to let go of the way I interacted, but I was also forced to relinquish the wheel since my students were at home all year long. 

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  At the end of the year we were playing a much different ball game than the rest of the classrooms in my school which had mostly come back to face to face instruction. We showed growth on the end of the year benchmark test, much more than expected.  To be fair,  my students were all proficient readers and had good support at home. I started out with 25 virtual students and ended up with 13, one from another school in the District, and another student that only did Math and Science with my virtual classroom. From this experience I must confess that in primary-elementary grades, not all students are fit for the virtual classrooms, with synchronous and asynchronous learning but for those students who are willing to do the work and to put in their best effort, it is possible. I’m sure the effects of their learning will show in the years to come because they had to put more effort into completing their work, show their learning, as the weight of learning was leaned on their shoulders.