These past few weeks have been full of extremes — including witnessing the best and worst of humanity related to and in response to the death of George Floyd, all during a global health pandemic….and culminating at the end of the school year.
“In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist. We must be anti-racist.” –Angela Davis
We at Code Savvy are committed to anti-racist work, which we believe begins with each of us. We are dedicating time to reflecting on the role of race and privilege in each of our lives. We are intentionally examining our programs and procedures to ensure that they align with our dedication to interrupting and counteracting racial, gender and economic biases in the world around us.
We are providing equity-focused training for all staff, board members, mentors, and volunteers over the next three months. We are creating new, accessible pathways into computer science by launching a new wrap-around service model that combines our Code Savvy programs and partners with schools/districts with high percentages of student groups historically underrepresented in STEM/CS. We are dedicated to empowering youth through computer science as change agents, problem solvers and innovators. We are honored to work with all of you as we each define our role in creating the new way forward.
Read on for resources, updates
and ways to get involved:
Resources:
Community Resources:
Twin Cities Mutual Aid Project (TCMAP) – The Twin Cities Mutual Aid Project is a collective that maintains two tools to help people find and distribute essential supplies while our communities face intense hardship and disruption. One of Code Savvy’s program directors, Eileen King, has been involved in supporting this project since its inception. Find our more and see how you can get involved by visiting their website – https://tcmap.org/
Engaging learners in CS & STEM from a young age helps to counteract stereotypes and encourage youth to feel a sense of belonging in CS classrooms.
Bytes of Inspiration:
Check out this week’s Bytes of Inspiration video on engaging young students in CS (even during distance learning):
In this video, guest speaker Whitney Determan (@WhitneyDeterman) shares 3 tips for engaging primary students in CS during distance learning. Whitney shares a workflow and examples of how to use ScratchJr and Seesaw to encourage creative computing from home.
CS to Go:
In honor of Autonomous Vehicle Day, see our AI-Inspired Week 8 CS to Go with Code Savvy creative coding challenges! You too can show something inspired by AI with code and unplugged activities – Try it! These challenges are designed for kids, but are open to anyone!
Online CS Ed Training Opportunities
Click here for more information and to register for any of our 4 online computer science education course options for K-12 and community educators.
Early bird pricing is now available!
Don’t delay – Scratch Camp for Educators, Beginner Level begins next week!
We are moving to a summer schedule for our Coffee + CS Ed Zoom Check-in calls!
We will meet this Friday, June 12th at 8:30am, CT, and then will begin our summer schedule after this week.
Click here for details and information on Coffee + CS Ed calls, including a link to our shared notes and resources.
MNCodes Virtual CS PD – Recorded Sessions
Code Savvy’s MNCodes Educator Training program hosted a virtual Computer Science Education Professional Development event on Saturday, May 16th and welcomed over 115 K-12 computer science educators from across the world!
Click here to see our sponsors and here to gain access to notes and resources from the event. Sessions were recorded and are now available to the MNCodes YouTube channel for anyone to view.
Check out the learning from the event, and stay in touch with CS educators from all over through the hashtags #mncodes and #k12codes!
Thank you for your continued support of Code Savvy programs —
We are stronger together!
mncodes.org 